Come Together to Inspire, Interact, Influence, and Impact.

Join
x
Notifications

Log Out? Are you sure you want to log out?
Log Out

Category: Daily Musts

White House Bids Fond Farewell to Karoline Leavitt. Hasan Piker Loses It: Round Up Boomers. What Do Kids Learn at Great Universities Today? Is New York Now ‘Habibi City’? AOC’s Frozen Eggs. And More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

There soon will be a new face at the lectern for White House press briefings. “White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt to Leave Administration.”  From the Washington Post:

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will leave the administration at the end of August, one of the most high-profile exits of Trump’s second term, with the midterms less than three months away.

Leavitt, 28, was the youngest press secretary in history and the first to give birth while serving in the role. She has been a loyal adviser to President Donald Trump who played a highly visible role in his efforts to remake the presidency and erode trust in traditional media reporting, in part through aggressive moves to control which news outlets have access to the White House.

For once the “spend more time with my family” reason for a resignation happens to be the truth. Ms. Leavitt, who gave birth to her second child in May, really has discovered that she’d like to be with her family more. She will remain an outside adviser. Ms. Leavitt was especially refreshing coming on the heels of former President Biden’s hostile fashion plate spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre. USA Today recalls President Trump’s White House Press Secretaries from Sean Spicer to Leavitt. Who will replace Leavitt? The New York Post suggests it could be Steven Cheung, who is already serving as the White House Communications Director, but there are quite a few contenders, and the succession has not been decided yet.

There is more on the President’s plane switch in Turkey to avoid an Iranian threat. According to a Wall Street Journal report, some U.S. officials thought the plot was impractical, but the president’s security team had no room for error. CBS reports that shortly before the President’s departure from Ankara, intelligence picked up a credible plot by Iran to fire a surface-to-air missile at Air Force One. We can expect Iran to become more aggressive as the midterms draw closer, according to General Jack Keane.

From Turkey the country to our favorite holiday bird:  “Thanksgiving came early to Wisconsin this year, after Democratic primary voters on Tuesday decided to pass on radical socialism,” is how a Wall Street Journal editorial on the defeat of Francesca Hong, who was vying for the Democratic nomination for Governor. But what does it mean that the “wacky” Ms. Ms. Hong did rack up 40 percent of the vote:

Perhaps the progressive agenda of big government for everything isn’t as popular in competitive states as Democratic leaders think. On the other hand, more than 300,000 Midwestern voters cast ballots to enlist Wisconsin in the project of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a political development that would have been stunning until recently….

Ms. Hong’s narrow defeat was a setback for the socialists, but it won’t halt the Democratic Party’s leftward march. If she’d been a smoother candidate, without a public record of hating a beloved national holiday, she might today be the Democratic nominee.

Red With Rage. Oh dear, Hasan Piker has not taken Ms. Hong’s defeat well:

Mao-adoring Twitch streamer Hasan Piker erupted in fury after Wisconsin state rep. Francesca Hong’s shocking defeat in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, venting that boomers should be outlawed.

“I don’t want to read this because I will f—ing kill myself with a gun in a video game,” Piker griped after reading an article about a late-deciding voter who backed David Crowley but noted they liked Hong as well.

“I can’t. I’m in a good mood overall,” he went on. “I want to put boomers in the machine, in the contraption, and not just boomers, like anyone that says that.”

A Wall Street Journal report says that, though Piker has become “an undeniable force” in politics, he is “driving Democrats up the wall” with the stuff that comes out of his mouth. He has been a surrogate for Michigan Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed, who is quoted saying this:

“Hasan is reaching folks no one else is talking to,” El-Sayed wrote in an email before voting started. “Every event I do, I get seniors who ask how I got so many young people to come, and young people who say ‘I saw you on Hasan.’”

Golly, this makes Ms. Must wonder for about the millionth time just how well our expensive colleges and universities are serving young people. England’s Cambridge University is one of the most revered universities in the world. In “From Isaac Newton to Jason Arday,” Louise Perry looks at higher education’s deteriorating capacity for … thinking:

Modern elite universities are trying to do two things at the same time. Their primary, if unspoken, role is to act as a finishing school for the elites. The academic training may be rather lax, but it is offered alongside superb social training. An attentive student emerges from a university like Cambridge with the skills necessary to integrate into any elite profession. That includes a strong grasp of progressive ideology, and particularly an understanding of what one should not say in polite company.

It also includes exposure to more subtle signs of elite status. In “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vice President JD Vance wrote memorably of attending a formal dinner while at Yale Law School, tasting sparkling water for the first time and spitting it out in horror. A preference for gross water was, he discovered, one of those things that separated the wheat from the chaff. You learn these things at Yale.

Not being able to think can affect grades—so why not get rid of those pesky grades? In “You Should Be Able to Fail,” John Miller takes note of the University if Michigan’s plan to end letter grades for the freshman class. Miller gives the plan an F.

New York mag’s recent cover “Habibi City” celebrates Muslims and Muslim culture in the Big Apple.  The New York Post looks inside the issue, finding it more than just a look at a presumably emerging new demographic:

A tone-deaf New York Magazine “hit piece” that purportedly celebrated Arab and Muslim culture in the Big Apple – but actually fixated on a so-called Israeli “genocide” of Palestinians and referred to the Jewish state as a mere “land mass currently called Israel” – has sparked fierce backlash, prompting outraged subscribers to cancel while insiders reveal the publication’s dubious practices.

“New York Magazine’s evil ‘Habibi City’ cover sends a message: Jews aren’t welcome in Mamdani’s NYC,” is John Podhoretz’s take. “New York Is Not ‘Habibi City,’” is Liel Leivovitz’s headline at The Free Press. Here is Leivovitz’s description of the issue:

In her now-viral cover story for New York magazine, journalist Zaina Arafat—who was born and raised in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., but identifies as SWANA, an acronym that previously stood for the Solid Waste Association of North America but now apparently means Southwest Asian and North African, and represents anyone who is vaguely Middle Eastern and dislikes capitalism, America, and the Jews—kicks things into high gear by celebrating the fact that New York is now “Habibi City,” a full-on SWANA enclave.

“Nazi Sex Money Scandal” is the New York Post cover today. Featured in the art is former Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) former chief financial officer Heidi Beirich, who was arrested yesterday in Pasadena. The arrest was in connection with a federal probe of the SPLC and concerned payments to informants. Apparently, even Ku Kluxers can fall in love if the right girl comes along:

Beirich also allegedly had a romantic relationship with one informant who infiltrated a white supremacist group and stole documents for the SPLC, according to the indictment. The pair also shared a bank account, prosecutors say, which included $140,000 in funds from the SPLC’s payments.

Caitlin Flanagan of The Free Press asks: “Must Egg Freezing Be ‘Normalized’ by AOC?” Meanwhile, AOC and her squeeze have called it quits, leaving the Babylon Bee to “report:” “AOC Has Her Boyfriend Frozen in Case She Wants Him in The Future.”

Let’s End with Some Good News. “Despite What You’ve Heard, the World Isn’t on Fire,” by Bjorn Lomborg, who argues in a Wall Street op-ed: “That Canadian smoke wasn’t pretty, but it was an outlier. Less land is burning than ever before.”

Dems Send Mixed Messages. Senator Darline Graham Advances. More on President’s Plane Switch. Is Fashion Fascist? Mac Donald: Head Start Has Never Worked. More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

Socialists of the world didn’t exactly unite to sweep the board in last night’s primaries, but they claimed several important wins. So did more traditional Democrats.

In the most closely watched primary last night, Thanksgiving won (for now). Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong, who spent the tail end of her campaign insisting that she no longer hates turkey day, lost to Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley:

The left wing suffered a high-profile setback on Tuesday at the hands of the center-left establishment in their ongoing battle for the ideological future of the party.

Crowley was heavily backed by retiring Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, with both warning that a Hong primary victory could jeopardize Democratic control of the governor’s office.

The governor’s race in Wisconsin opened after Evers announced he would not seek a third term. With Evers stepping aside, the race offered Democrats their first opportunity in 16 years to choose a nominee without an incumbent governor on the ballot.

The primary was closely watched as an early test of whether Wisconsin Democrats favored the party’s progressive wing or its establishment, with the winner advancing to a high-stakes general election in one of the nation’s premier battleground states.

Hong, a former chef and single mother, was endorsed by Reps.  Ilhan Omar and the hapless Ro Khanna of California, but Bernie and AOC steered clear. Politico described Hong’s loss as the “far left” “hitting a wall.” Crowley faces Trump-backed Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany in the general. 

But Senate hopeful Peggy Flanagan “deliver[ed] another win for progressives” in Minnesota. Senate hopeful Flanagan, Minnesota’s Lieutenant Governor, defeated Rep. Angie Craig, described as a moderate, to replace Sen. Tina Smith, who is retiring. The New York Times:

Ms. Flanagan, 46, campaigned as an anti-establishment fighter, calling for universal health care and a higher federal minimum wage. She prevailed over Representative Angie Craig, a moderate Democrat from a swing district, leading by nearly 20 percentage points with more than 95 percent of votes counted.

Ms. Flanagan has said she plans to tie Ms. Tafoya to Mr. Trump, saying her Republican rival would be a “‘Yes Sir, Mr. President’ Senator.” Even before Tuesday, Ms. Tafoya, who was not endorsed by Mr. Trump, had begun to focus on Ms. Flanagan, casting her as a career politician and attacking her over a major fraud scandal in the state government’s social safety net programs.

Flanagan’s win is considered good news for Tafoya.

Senator Amy Klobuchar easily smothered the gubernatorial bid of My Pillow guy Mike Lindell, who was endorsed by President Trump, and will face Republican state House Speaker Lisa Demuth in the general. Powerline, the go to source for Minnesota politics, calls Lindell a “crank candidate” and takes a swipe at Klobuchar (“Klobuchar wants more than anything else to preside over an era of good feelings — of good feelings about Amy Klobuchar”).

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer must be feeling more isolated as longtime Democratic Rep. John Larson was defeated by Luke Bronin, a former Mayor and Navy Intelligence officer, who capitalized on calls for generational change:

Mr. Bronin, 47, centered his campaign around a call for generational change, arguing that Mr. Larson, 78, was not prepared to confront the challenges posed by the Trump administration’s efforts to aggressively push a conservative agenda through Washington.

“Donald Trump won re-election for a second time, and then we saw a Democratic Party struggle to bring enough energy and clarity to that fight in this moment,” Mr. Bronin said at a debate in Hartford last month. “We would be a stronger Democratic Party if more of our leadership recognized that part of leadership is knowing when it’s time to pass the torch.”

South Carolina voters gave Senator Darline Graham, appointed to fill her late brother Senator Sindsey’s seat, a shot at winning the seat outright: Senator Graham and Rep. Ralph Norman will advance to a runoff later this month in the South Carolina special Republican primary for Senate. Graham won the most votes Tuesday but not enough to avoid a runoff.

We’re still reeling from news of President Trump’s being spirited away from his plane in a catering cart. Because of a serious threat. In “Iran’s Trump Strategy—Dead or Alive,” an editorial in the Wall Street Journal sheds light on this escapade:

Mr. Trump flew out of Turkey secretly on a military jet and then was returned to the original Air Force One after landing. The reporters aboard never knew he was gone.

The press corps, which had been left on the decoy Presidential plane, understandably is up in arms. But the real story is the seriousness of Iran’s efforts to kill the President. These attempts are longstanding and help explain why the U.S. is fighting.

The regime doesn’t hide its intentions. It puts up billboards and murals around Tehran of Mr. Trump lying in a coffin or drowning in a sea of blood. The regime’s clerics brand Mr. Trump with labels that demand violence under Shiite Islamic jurisprudence: “one who wars against God,” “one whose blood must be spilled,” “corruptor of the earth” and “warring infidel.” At times Iran’s regime has put a bounty on his head. …

For all the talk of how this war has “helped” Iran’s regime, it’s no accident that its state media and approved experts stress the need to use the Strait of Hormuz to hurt Mr. Trump in the November elections. The regime is desperate to run out the clock on the Trump Presidency—or speed up that clock with deadly violence.

President Trump isn’t the only one faced with changes in traveling plans. Rama Duwaji, wife of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is yet another inconvenienced traveler:

A seemingly red-faced Mayor Zohran Mamdani blamed a “miscommunication” Tuesday after an awkward public clash between City Hall and NYPD officials over whether the department would provide security for his wife Rama Duwaji’s upcoming Middle East trip.

The high-profile back-and-forth appeared to end when Hizzoner asserted that Duwaji would not receive a taxpayer-funded police escort on her jaunt to Syria and Lebanon next month — despite his own senior spokesperson claiming she would the day prior.

A source familiar with the security detail said the first lady, whom the mayor has described as a “private person,” requested the escort, and Mamdani’s office had confirmed she would be accompanied by city cops.

Wonder if the Hizzoner needs a vacay, too? A a report in the Wall Street Journal is headlined “Mamdani’s Honeymoon With New York Is Over.” The report cites the “messy rollout of pied-à-terre tax and fraying relations with local politicians.”

Mamdani can’t like the latest poll for New York’s gubernatorial race either: Republican Bruce Blakeman appears in the poll to be close to unseating Gov. Kathy Hochul and turning the Empire State red than Lee Zeldin was in the home stretch of last election.

There was great gnashing of teeth when the Trump administration announced some changes to the way the Head Start program is administered. Head Start was described as the “gold standard” of public assistance programs. Nothing could be further from the truth. “Head Start Has Never Worked” is the headline of a bang-up piece by Heather Mac Donald at City Journal.

Mac Donald, who believes that the administration should have stuck with earlier plans to zero out the program, writes:

The Times’s reporting on the Trump deregulation effort ignores the most significant research ever done on Head Start. A randomized controlled trial found that any early gains in school readiness among enrollees had faded by the end of first grade and were absent by third grade. The results were published by HHS in 2010 and 2012. Academic attempts to discredit this “fadeout” effect have failed.  

So advocates have taken to touting Head Start’s alleged non-cognitive benefits, such as alleged small improvements in high school and college completion rates, workforce participation, and wages. Later studies dispute even those findings. Some research shows that Head Start produces worse outcomes in certain areas.

My Compliments to the Headline Writer: “Margaret Brennan Exists to Speak Power to Truth,” at The Federalist. Ms. Brennan is a CBS moderator. … The Free Beacon has uncovered Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s alleged loyalty to Sharia law. … And Unherd ponders whether the fashion industry is fascist.

Mamdani Ordered to Remove His Enemies List. Columnist: WNBA Asks What’s the ‘W’ For? Fauci’s Text Messages. Immigration: Global Powder Keg. Crazy Woke Leftists: We Didn’t Mean It. More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

The Judge Game is one that can be played by both sides.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani learned that the hard way yesterday. The New York Post reports:

The reign of pied-à-terror is on pause.

Big Apple homeowners fighting the controversial pied-à-terre tax notched an early victory Monday, when a judge stunningly blocked Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s tortured rollout of the new levy.

Staten Island Supreme Court Justice Wayne Ozzi issued the temporary restraining order, effectively putting the luxury second-home tax on ice until at least an Aug. 31 court hearing about the peeved property owners’ lawsuit.

The judge barred the city from taking any further action on the 17,000 notices sent by the Department of Finance to homeowners, which declared they could face a five-figure tax bill unless they requested an exemption.

Mamdani quickly vowed to fight the Judge’s ruling. Mamdani, as you may recall, published the names and addresses of the 17,000 property owners, proving potential malefactors with a searchable list of targets.

Mamdani, who has been ordered to remove his “shame the rich” list, made the feisty New York Post’s cover this morning: “Hold It Right Terre.” Alas, Hizzoner will have to do without wifely consolation next month:

Rama Duwaji [who is married to the Mayir] will be jetting to the Middle East for a trip beginning Sept. 20 to the countries on the State Department’s “Do Not Travel” list for Americans because of dangerous conditions, a source said.

But don’t worry. Ms. Duwaji will be taking along the cops assigned to the first couple’s taxpayer-funded NYPD detail. Harry Sussex, call your office. Meanwhile, the Mayor is being uninvited to the New York ceremony commemorating 9/11. Republican Senators and 82,000 petition signers tell the Mayor to stay away. “It might be appropriate if he goes while wearing a paper bag over his head,” said Republican Sen. John Kennedy.

Move over, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. As you no doubt remember, Justice Jackson was stumped when Senator Marsha Blackburn asked her if she would define what a woman is during her confirmation hearing. Now the NBA is grappling with the question.

“WNBA Asks: What Is a W?” is the headline of Bill McGurn’s Wall Street Journal column. The issue revolves around men who say they identify as “trans” women. McGurn writes:

The key to understanding this fight is recognizing that as much as progressives want men who say they are women to be allowed in women’s sports, they don’t have to get that to win. The activists will be happy enough if they can simply ruin the game for those fighting to keep women’s sports for women.

For what this movement really opposes is truth and the norms based on truth. If all they achieve is to advance the idea that norms are arbitrary expressions of personal preference, they win big.

McGurn rightly identifies Sophie Cunningham, the Indiana Fever star who has taken a commonsense approach to men in women’s competitions, as the target in the WNBA’s latest public spectacle. Kristen Fleming has the latest on this fracas, in which Chicago Sky’s DiJonai Carrington bandied about the words “white privilege.”  

Male athletes are finally “speaking up for women,” writes Jo Bartosch of Spiked OnLine, referring to Enes Kanter Freedom, who is calling the “trans” movement’s bluff by saying he is a woman and wants to play for the WNBA. Shame Corner: Ms. Must owes Mr. Freedom an apology. I somehow called him Freeman instead of Freeman yesterday.

It increasingly appears that Dr. Fauci owes an apology to the world. GOP Senators released Fauci’s texts and there are discrepancies between what Fauci told the public and what he said in private. Fauci was an avid (some might say authoritarian) advocate for the safety of the vaccine:

In one message, according to screenshots the senators released, Fauci wrote: “Since many people have significant cytokines storm and fever after the 2nd dose. this theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester.”

But as epidemiologist Vinay Prasad reported at The Free Press (“Anthony Fauci’s Vaccine Deceptions”):

A few days later, Fauci noted that pregnant women had to evaluate “the potential risks versus the benefits” of taking the vaccine. But then, in a public discussion with Howard Bauchner, the editor in chief of The Journal of the American Medical Association, Fauci said flatly that the CDC had found “no red flags” in a Covid vaccine study that included 10,000 pregnant women. His public confidence, of course, was at odds with the private hypotheses he had discussed with Murthy and Walensky.

Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, who obtained the text messages, says that Fauci’s apparent deception about vaccines is “the tip of the iceberg.” Not mincing words, Matt Margolis of PJ Media writes that the newly available texts show “what a monster” Fauci was.

Vaccines are back in the news. President Trump yesterday signed an Executive Order laying out new recommendations for childhood vaccinations.  The order called for spacing out vaccines and has drawn criticism from the American Academy of Pediatrics and Senator Bill Cassidy, who is a physician.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon is racing to buy more missiles, and the President is putting a renewed emphasis on Iran’s wretched economy. “Trump’s Blockade Keeps the Economic Pressure on Iran” is the headline of a Wall Street Journal editorial. The editors argue that this may be the best answer to the regime’s rising demands.

We’re just learning that Iranian threats caused President Trump to sneak out of Turkey in catering cart after the NATO summit:

The president was secretly transferred to a military aircraft to leave last month’s Nato summit in Ankara, with Air Force One used as a high-profile decoy, according to US intelligence sources.

“Immigration Becomes a Global Powder Keg” is the headline on Walter Russell Mead’s Wall Street Journal provocative column this morning. Mead puts for the novel idea that the modern era of mass immigration is ebbing and that countries must act or risk a backlash. Mead writes:

History suggests that opposition to immigration rises as migration becomes more common. The U.S., where immigration had largely been permitted since the Revolution, began to shift to more-restrictive immigration policies in the late 19th century as the share of foreign-born Americans passed 14%….

For Americans, the question is how to achieve a rational and humane immigration policy that is also politically sustainable. Our current legal framework likely will need to change. Total numbers (including refugees and anyone already illegally present who is legalized) would be capped, and the ceiling would drop when unemployment rates among Americans are high. …

… Reasonable action to restrict and control migration today will, one hopes, avoid the excessive crackdowns, to say nothing of mob violence, that the world has seen. But time is short.

To attract normal voters, our friends on the left are trying to pretend they never said the goofy things they said. Defund the police? Did I say that? “The tactic of AOC and her allies to giggle away the ‘craziness’ of Woke-era abuses should not be tolerated” is the headline on the invaluable Glenn Greenwald’s latest Substack piece.

“The so-called ‘Woke 1’ period is not something to laugh off. It was a repressive and destructive mob rule which unjustly destroyed careers and requires a reckoning,” Greenwald argues. He writes:

Many Democratic Party candidates emerging on what one might call the populist left are finding success in primaries across the country. But most of them have a shared liability: they were fully on board with the worst excesses and abuses of the “peak wokeness” that emerged in the wake of George Floyd’s 2020 killing, enduring and contaminating most of our institutions for several years after.

AOC, on Sunday, went on ABC’s morning news program with Jonathan Karl, where she was asked about some of Hong’s statements, including her call for “abolishing prisons” and “[defunding] the police,” policies and phrases that have proven to be deeply unpopular. AOC, who herself aggressively advocated those policies, sought to laughingly dismiss this all as just some momentary, harmless frenzy of “craziness” that never really meant much and that everyone has all just agreed to move beyond.

Byron York responds with “You Can’t Erase Woke:”

[W]oke was indeed crazy. So now, it’s entirely reasonable for voters to ask why those candidates believed it so fervently.

One for the Road. “Why the Left Won’t Leave Nuns Alone” in the WSJ’s wonderful Free Expression section. The latest progressive is the Hawthorn Dominicans, founded by Nathanial Hawthorn’s daughter.

Iran May Be Nearing New Phase. Latest Way To Signal White House Bid: Freezing Your Eggs. Columnist: Socialism Is Gateway Drug. Bigotry: Enes Kanter Freedom May Be Denied WNBA Pick. More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

President Trump is indicating a new phase of o the Iran War: semi-negotiating.

The U.S. is only “semi-negotiating” with Iran. That’s the term President Trump used in an Axios interview, in which the president also said the U.S. is “low-keying it with Iran.” Meanwhile, Iran is high-keying its demands:

But that scaled-back objective became more difficult when Iran insisted Saturday on its highest price yet for permitting the free flow of traffic in the waterway, seeking billions of dollars in U.S. payments, the removal of American troops from the region and an end of the U.S. naval blockade, among other things.

According to CNBC, President Trump is “signaling” that the U.S. will shift to economic pressure as Iran hardens its stance over the Strait of Hormuz. CNBC adds that the U.S. “has affirmed its grip on Hormuz”:

The U.S. military redirected 20 more commercial vessels away from Iranian ports last week under its naval blockade, signaling no let-up in maritime pressure as a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz stayed out of reach.

U.S. Central Command said American forces had redirected 55 commercial vessels as of Sunday, up from 35 as of Aug. 2. American forces have also disabled 2 ships and boarded 2 to endure compliance, according to the statement on Sunday.

Hormuz is not President Trump’s only headache in the Middle East. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is rejecting President Trump’s plan for Gaza. “Israel does not accept the 15-point document,” Netanyahu said.

Rich Lowry writes that Iran has made our most urgent national-security priority painfully clear: it’s our munitions supply. Defense expert Seth B. Jones also warns that America’s military is dangerously exposed:

Congress should boost the Pentagon’s facilities sustainment, restoration and modernization funds to address these gaps—and the Pentagon should spend it quickly. The U.S. has already paid a huge price for being unprepared in a world where drones and missiles are ubiquitous. Will the U.S. military learn before the price escalates? The Chinese, Iranians, North Koreans and Russians are waiting to see.

Is Iran’s Supreme Leader ready for his close-up? Iran released a picture of the Supreme Leader, long absent from the public eye, on Sunday. It is not at all certain that the Supreme Leader is still alive.

New Sign You Might Be Running for President: you’re freezing your eggs. That’s what Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is doing, as she mulls a run for the White House in 2028:

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York posted a series of video clips on social media Saturday night saying that she would freeze her eggs despite what she called a “political risk” for sharing her decision.

“There is very strangely a political risk, or a political tax, that comes with sharing this info,” she said of her decision to freeze her eggs. She added that she had shared the information “to show more depictions of women having full lives in every context and every choice.” The announcement further fueled speculation on social media that she is gearing up for a presidential run.

Francesca Hong, described in a Wall Street Journal editorial as “the socialists’ next hope,” is the frontrunner in the Democratic primary for Governor of Wisconsin. The primary is tomorrow. The editors say forget her nutty tweets (she’s the one who wants to abolish Thanksgiving) and concentrate on her agenda:

She’d offer illegal migrants state IDs, while using sanctuary policies to “protect Wisconsinites of all documentation status from secret police.” She’d raise the minimum wage to $20, legalize marijuana, and pass a “binding clean electricity standard similar to Michigan’s, which requires 60% renewable power by 2030.” And don’t worry about the power bill: She wants to cap utility costs “at 2% of income for energy-burdened households.”

Her “Tax the Rich” agenda includes “a new tax bracket for millionaires and large corporations.” How high would Ms. Hong raise rates on wealthy Wisconsinites? In a recent debate, she suggested a top rate near 8.65%, up about one percentage point. Yet she has sponsored legislation to create a top rate of over 17%. And her campaign is floating the idea that “if millionaires and corporations chip in 17 cents out of every dollar earned after that first million, it could lower all our property taxes by 44%.”

Even a fraction of this agenda would be ruinous. That’s what the GOP’s presumptive gubernatorial nominee, Rep. Tom Tiffany, will tell voters if their other option in November is Ms. Hong, and he will be correct.

In “Viva la DSA Revolution!” Wall Street Journal columnist Andy Kessler writes that abolishing the Senate and the Presidency are only a few things the Democratic Socialists want to do:

Socialism is a gateway drug. Mr. Fetterman worries Democrats are “drifting firmly into communism.” Drifting? Let’s ask the horse’s mouth: A top DSA leader, David Jenkins, said the quiet part out loud, “Our goal is liberation. Our goal is communism.” The socialist candidate for Wisconsin governor who wants to cancel Thanksgiving, Francesca Hong, raised money with “influencer” Hasan Piker, who likes to dress as Chairman Mao. That’s pretty black and white, and red all over. Where is sanity?

Since the Democratic National Committee is financially broke, the Dems have a weaker bulwark against the socialists. Rolling Stone magazine is, predictably, head over heels in love with Hasan Piker, the radical streamer, who campaigned with Michigan’s senatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed. “Why is everyone scared of a progressive streamer?” Rolling Stone asks. See above. Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich, bolstering Ms. Must’s belief that many “establishment” Dems are on the spectrum, refers to the Moronic Bullshit of the “Third Way.” The Third Way Democrats champion moderate policies.

The DSA’s poster boy, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, is testing the limits of the law to push his agenda, according to John Ketcham in the New York Post:

Mayor Zohran Mamdani may be an ideologue, but he’s also what Niccolò Machiavelli deemed “a sensible man”: One who will “will base his power on what he controls.”

And he’s using his time in office to exert greater control over city institutions — sometimes even testing the bounds of the law — to build a political machine that can persist beyond his tenure.

And now for a sad story about prejudice:

Bigotry Rears Ugly Head as WNBA Refuses to Allow This Stunning, Beautiful Woman into League

Okay, okay—the headline is from the (barely) satirical Babylon Bee. Enes Kanter Freedom declaring for the 2027 WNBA draft. Kanter’s jest shows the folly and unfairness of men playing competitive sports with women. Riley Gaines called the move “genius.” PJ Media’s Tim O’Brien praises Kanton (and another athlete who joined him): “Looks Like the WNBA’s Absurdity Is About to Sink the Entire Transgender Movement.”

Anyway, “Where Did Gender Identity Come From?” Leor Sapir highlights a new book on the development of gender identity:

A new book by UCLA sociologist Rogers Brubaker, Gender Identity: The Career of a Category, tries to make sense of how this concept became so embedded in our lives and why it has become such a cultural flashpoint. As Brubaker clarifies at the outset, he is not interested in “the philosophical question of what gender identity really is” but rather in “how the category works” in the social world. He offers a sophisticated analysis.

Something else for Your Library Shelf. “A Revealing Book by Mamdani’s Father” is discussed by the great Theodore Dalrymple in City Journal:

Mahmood Mamdani’s 1983 Imperialism and Fascism in Uganda offers insight into the worldview that has shaped his son’s thinking.

Prince William said something the other day about how we should not blame the homeless for their predicament. Sentimental and counterproductive. The New York Post reports on a story, according to which half of NYC homeless deaths are tied to drug overdoses or alcohol abuse.

** a previous version of this post incorrectly spelled Enes Kantor Freedom’s last name as Freeman. We sincerely apologize for the mistake.

The Specter Haunting the Democratic Party. Does Bernie Think DSA Thanksgiving Abolisher Francesca Hong Is a Turkey? Shocking Tales of Birth Tourism. Cheesed Off Voters. And More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

What a week!

To update Karl Marx, a specter is haunting the Democratic Party. It showed itself in the surge of socialists who won primaries this week, most notably Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed.

“Can Democrats Resist Socialism?” Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel asks. The signs aren’t good, Strassel admits:

To be, or not to be a socialist: Is that really the only question for Democrats? That binary thinking is sinking the party even further into its sea of Abdul El-Sayed troubles.

The fascinating part? Most of the Democratic world knows this socialist swerve is the dumbest political move ever, including some candidates themselves. Mr. El-Sayed’s agenda is in lockstep with that of Sen. Bernie Sanders: Government-run healthcare, an end to border enforcement, wealth confiscation, hatred for Israel, climate alarmism, structural changes aimed at influencing Supreme Court outcomes, free government everything.

The left-leaning media, sensing political hazard, earned double time this week dancing around the “socialist” label for Mr. El-Sayed, demoting him to a “progressive.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer helped direct millions to Mr. El-Sayed’s competitor in a bid to spare his party the socialist label in the Michigan race. That having failed, Schumer suggests the El-Sayed agenda is another flavor of liberal politics, proof of the Democratic Party’s “big tent-ism.”

National Review’s Daniel J. Flynn, the other hand, is more optimistic: “History suggests that at least some leftists will come around to conservatism, eventually.”

We have another opportunity to access socialist strength next week in Wisconsin’s gubernatorial primary. Francesca Hong, described by National Review’s Jeffrey Blehar as having the “Mao was too moderate” lane all to herself, has a good shot at winning. Hong probably made a mistake by admitting that she wanted to abolish Thanksgiving and then try to take it back.  This was dubbed the “1621 Project.” Hong is running without the endorsement of the grandaddy of socialism in America, Senator Bernie Sanders.

Meanwhile, the venerable George Will writes about the Democratic Socialists of America phenomenon as “Peter Pan politics for sandbox revolutionaries.” Leaders of Third Way, an old line moderate Dem organization, claim that “Democrats are calculating a left turn. The math doesn’t favor it.” The New Republic’s kamikaze editor Michael Tomasky says vote for El-Sayed, even if he won’t win. Matthew Continetti cautions Republicans not to be complacent about El-Sayed and predicts what would happen if the GOP lost the House and the Senate in the midterms in a columned headlined “Trump Should Worry About a ‘10-Year Itch’”.

If Abdul El-Sayed was the happiest man in America this week, Dr. Anthony Fauci had to be the most disgruntled. A Senate Committee chaired by Rand Paul voted to hold Dr. Fauci in contempt of Congress because of his refusal to answer question questions in a Senate hearing. It is unclear whether Fauci, who was given a sweeping pardon by former President Joe Biden, is in legal trouble. The Senate has also obtained a copy of the phone Fauci used during the pandemic. 

Why is Fauci so adamant about not discussing Covid 19? J. Peder Zane at Real Clear Politics has an idea:

There’s no mystery in why Dr. Anthony Fauci strove to silence discussion about the origins of COVID-19 – he was in full CYA mode because the agency he led had helped fund the Wuhan lab that apparently created the deadly virus.

Brendan O’Neill’s latest Spiked Online show will address “How Fauci fooled the world.”

And now: the issue that refuses to go quietly. The Supreme Court’s recent ruling on birthright citizenship is not going to make the issue go away. President Trump yesterday issued two Executive Orders aimed at restricting  birthright citizenship. The Washington Post summarizes President Trump’s EOs: They “target children born to foreign lobbyists and tourists [and] are certain to face legal challenges.”

“Tourists” is a benign way of saying “birth tourists.” You might be surprised at how widespread and sophisticated birth tourism is. Writing at The American Mind, a publication of the prestigious Claremont Institute, Emma Waters gives us a look at the industry:

If you doubt that such a marketplace exists, meet the Simpson triplets.

Nearly 20 months ago, Kyla Simpson of St. Augustine, Florida, gave birth to triplet boys as a gestational surrogate for an intended parent she had never met: a single man in China. He never came. Not during the boys’ two months in the NICU, not through the year and a half the Simpsons raised them, and not even when one of the triplets died of RSV.

Until the man from China sent two strangers in a black SUV to collect the boys, which Simpson refused. Then she moved to terminate his parental rights, and he resurfaced with a lawyer and an emergency pick-up order, which a Florida judge granted. The surviving twins, 20-month-old American citizens, now sit in state care while his attorneys obtain travel documents.

Why would a Chinese man pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for children he has never crossed an ocean to meet? Because he wasn’t buying children. He was buying American citizens.

Waters calls this “commissioned citizenship” and highlights legal ways to curb it, including a plan by the Heritage Foundation’s Roger Severino.

“To Fix Higher Education, Fund Heterodox Research.” That is the headline on an intriguing City Journal piece. Andrew Hartz and Eric Kaufman argue: “Restoring the academy requires more than budget cuts—it needs grant funding for the research that the Left has ignored.”

George Weigel has a fascinating piece in the Wall Street Journal about the ties between Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church and Russian President Vladimir Putin. It is headlined “Putin’s War and Kirill’s Blasphemy.” Weigel argues that Kirill has betrayed the Church to support the state.

Who would have thought that New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani could be “thin skinned and petty” behind the smile? The New York Post, that’s who. In an exclusive, the scrappy tab reveals that behind the scenes “Mayor Zoflake” badgers critics and harbors petty grudges.

And Mamdani has so much to make him happy. That would be the surge of socialism in the Democratic Party. Not so happy: Joen Kotkin writes in Unherd about “New York’s war on its Jews.” Kotkin says that Mamdani abets this and recounts alarming incidents.

Are you a cheesed off voter? “The GOP has wrapped itself in a silly burrito beef while ignoring cheesed-off voters,” declares a New York Post story. It started when Andrew Kolvet of Turning Point USA weighed in on the ongoing affordability crisis that’s dominated, noting that one student recently asserted that the tortilla-wrapped treat shouldn’t cost $20 a pop. Kolvet said it felt like the Biden years. The conservative blogosphere erupted, blaming young extravagant young people and liberal spin.

Jack Butler of the Wall Street Journal’s “Free Expression” segment writes in “Burrito for Your Thoughts” about what this conservative food discourse gets right and what it gets wrong. He concludes:

It can be great fun to lambaste the young for their spendthrift ways. And many of the burrito arguments amount to a vague complaint to which more government or more indulgence of the young is somehow the proper response. But “let them eat burritos” can’t be the extent of the right’s answer to problems that confront people right in their pocketbooks—and in their stomachs.

Should We Fret that Michigan Senate Hopeful Has a Thing About ‘Heads on Pikes’? World Wonders: Why Is It Difficult to Communicate with Supreme Leader? Truth about Sanctuary Cities. Typhus Rats of LA. More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

Whither the Democrats?

After Abdul El-Sayed’s nod for the Senate nomination by Michigan Democrats, the future of the Democratic Party is very much up for grabs. Ditto the nation.     

The U.K. Telegraph calls El-Sayed’s victory “the night the Democrats lost control of their own party.” In the same outlet, El-Sayed is depicted as “an Oxford-educated doctor taking on [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer.”

“The March of the El-Sayed Democrats” is the headline on a Wall Street Journal editorial. According to the editors, El-Sayed’s win “sets up the race of the year in November.” A few snippets:

Mr. El-Sayed is counting on anti-Donald Trump fury to unite Democrats despite his radical views. Look for the Democratic establishment, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, to rally behind him despite their support for Ms. Stevens. Ben Rhodes, Dan Pfeiffer and the rest of the Barack Obama apparat are already lined up for him.

The stakes here are higher than a single Senate race. Nominating a leftist could cost the party a Senate majority that is very much in reach. If Mr. Rogers wins, one lesson will be that Mr. El-Sayed was too far left to win in a swing state even in what is likely to be an excellent Democratic year. Democrats might rethink this year’s headlong rush left as they consider the 2028 presidential race….

But if Mr. El-Sayed wins, he will immediately become a media favorite bent on colonizing the Democratic Party from the socialist left. He has said one of his first tasks will be trying to defeat John Fetterman, the pro-Israel Pennsylvania Democrat who is up for re-election in 2028. “Put one ogre on a pike and then everyone else gets the message,” he told a donor, according to leaked audio.

Heads on pikes? What, no guillotine? Michigan voters have to decide how polarizing and left-wing they want American politics to become.

“‘A Turning Point for Our Nation’: How Abdul El-Sayed Won” is a Free Press headline. Olivia Reingold’s take: “In Michigan this week, I saw the future of the Democratic Party. It is angry, energized, and on the march.” The “turning point” quote comes from Amir Makled, a Dearborn lawyer who has made a career out of anti-Israel advocacy. He means turning point in a good way. Why the sudden surge of socialist candidates such as El-Sayed and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani? Writing in the WSJ’s “Free Expression” section, psychotherapist and “Therapy Nation” author Jonathan Alpert has an answer: socialism feels good. Alpert writes:

Before people decide what government should do, they decide why their lives aren’t working. … They haven’t abandoned ambition or effort. What changes is where they expect meaningful change to come from. They place more faith in government, institutions and systemic reform than in personal agency, resilience and individual responsibility. As confidence shifts outward, political solutions become more attractive than personal ones….

Elections work the same way. Economic hardship doesn’t produce democratic socialists any more than unemployment produces conservatives or libertarians. Hardship produces frustration. Political movements compete to explain that frustration.

Democratic socialism offers a compelling explanation….

New York Post columnist Miranda Devine writes:

If El-Sayed can pull off a victory in November in the Midwest, in the swingiest of swing states, what will stop a Marxist heading for the White House?

This menacing hard-left takeover is disastrous for Democrats and frightening for America, but it is also a potential golden opportunity for the GOP — if they don’t screw it up, which is nowhere near certain.

Like his comrades, he has a vast trove of deleted social media posts expressing his true hard-left beliefs …. The level of deception skills involved in this metamorphosis has pundits praising him as a “political athlete” and likening him to Bill Clinton.

But his extremism is not hard to detect, no matter how flowery the language disguising it.

Money will be key in the midterms, writes Karl Rove, who gives a rundown of the strengths and weaknesses of both parties. Byron York of the Washington Examiner looks at the big picture:

You’re likely to hear many comments to the effect that el Sayed, who was expected to win by a big margin, instead got in by the skin of his teeth. It’s true, but it’s also not hugely important. The hugely important thing is that el Sayed won. And now, he has a chance in November.

Both the U.S. and Iran say a Hormuz deal is near, but are they on the same page? The deal reportedly does not include tolls. Nuclear experts urge President Trump not to let Iran steer talks away from the regime’s atomic threat.

Meanwhile, Iran just executed at least 56 people. This provoked the United Nations to declare such executions “deeply troubling” (ya think?) and insist that the barbaric practice of impromptu public murders “has no place in our world.” But it does have a place: Iran. Next thing you know, the UN will bravely proclaim the practice is “unacceptable.”

Iran’s President is finding it hard to communicate with the Supreme Leader, who may be dead or grievously injured. And Nicole Russell of USA TODAY is finding herself disillusioned with the Iran War: I don’t regret voting for Trump, but …

“The Hard Truth About the Sanctuary Movement” is The Federalist’s Sean Davis’s contribution to Hillsdale’s Imprimis series. Germane to this is an Axios report that Trump deportations cost taxpayers $2,358 each. Sorry, Axios, but this should be a conservative talking point. That figure is so much less than what it costs not to deport illegal aliens.

Vice President JD Vance’s op-ed in the Washington Post touts the Trump administration’s war on fraud. It’s a huge scandal that should be receiving more attention. But there is a problem: The fraud is found in the country’s massive and unaccountable web of federal assistance programs—Medicare, Medicaid, and food stamps—and the Dems and the press don’t want to go near it.

City Journal explores the human wreckage of misguided government welfare policies, including AI-driven job displacement. “The Permanent Underclass Is Already Here,” by Sanjana Friedman, concludes that more government assistance is not the solution. Also at City Journal, Chris Rufo and Ryan Thorpe write that a medieval disease is spreading in Los Angeles. As with the bubonic plague, it’s rats. The vermin-ridden county is seeing a staggering rise of typhus cases and horror stories:

Another told us that he’d seen a rat eating through the bandage of an injured man while he was asleep. “The rat chewed off the bandage he had, and literally the flesh off him, eating the dead flesh off his arm,” he said….

Individually, each of these incidents might be dismissed as an isolated failure. But taken together, they paint a different picture. A county struggles to keep its streets clean, to keep garbage from piling up, to bring homelessness under control, to contain its growing rat problem, and to prevent medieval diseases from infecting its citizens—all in a state more interested in “mountain lions and other wildlife” than the health of its own people. At a certain point, like the rats that torment Angelenos, the pattern becomes too overwhelming to ignore.

Ms. Must wrote about Jason Arday, the fabulist and DEI standard bearer, yesterday. Mr. Arday resigned his position at Cambridge. Rather than dwelling on plagiarism accusations, the New York headline just linked calls Arday a “star scholar.” Spiked Online’s rather more honest headline is “The Not-So Talented Mr. Arday.” Arday survived in one of the world’s great universities as long as he did because of identitarian politics:

The identitarian capture of elite institutions, supercharged by the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020, has entailed the suspension of the values which once defined them – the displacement of truth, merit and excellence in pursuit of a mystical racial reckoning.