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Category: Resource Center

Virgin Alert: Relax! He’s Going to the Other Place. Texas Primary Making GOP Nervous. Green Jim Crow. You Really MUST Read Lionel Shriver’s New Book. More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

President Trump did it.  

President Trump launched the battle for Iran. Today is Day 3 of the joint strikes on Iran conducted by the U.S. and Israel.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead, which called for celebratory dancing in the streets in Iran.  “Khamenei Joins Saddam in Hell, but Iran 2026 Is Not Iraq 2003” is Niall Ferguson’s headline at The Free Press. Ferguson predicts that this war will not be a long drawn-out affair like Iraq. In an impromptu moment, a Sky News host in Australia addressed the late Ayatollah, urging, “You son of a b—h, shame on you, burn in hell!” 

Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia is not dancing for joy. “An unwise and unconstitutional attack on Iran,” Kaine says. George Will, who has nary a nice word for the current occupant of the White House, begs to differ. “At last, the credibility of U.S. deterrence is being restored” is the argument of Will’s latest. Will writes:

Some say that U.S. involvement in Iran constitutes a “war of choice.” That too casually bandied phrase rarely fits untidy reality. America’s Civil War was a choice: Lincoln chose not to heed those — they were not few — who agreed with the prominent publisher Horace Greeley. He said of the seceding Southern states, “Let the erring sisters go in peace.” Lincoln chose against such national suicide. Donald Trump’s administration has chosen not to wager U.S. safety on Iran’s abandoning its multi-decade pursuit of nuclear weapons, or on Iran’s acquiring them but not really meaning “Death to America.”

A Wall Street Journal editorial contends that it’s too soon for off ramps for Iran, while Elliot Kaufman highlights the Ayatollah’s fatal mistakes, and Seth Cropsey outlines the Trump doctrine for Iran and beyond. In contrast, many on the left weep for the Iranian theocracy. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani also sides with the theocratic regime.

Andrew McCarthy has a piece in National Review saying that the President doesn’t have to wait until the danger to the U.S. us immanent before striking. An alternative way of expressing this might be: We don’t have to wait until it is too late. Meanwhile, the conflict has widened. Iran has hit U.S. military installations across the Middle East. Iran, however, has also hit civilian targets. There have been three Americans killed. Sending “our immense love and eternal gratitude” to the families of those killed, President Trump acknowledged that there will likely be more. The sad number of U.S. military deaths has risen to four.

The Free Press says that the Iranians who celebrated the death of the Ayatollah have now seen a glimpse of the possibility of democracy and freedom. “Thanks to President Trump, the hour of Iran’s freedom is at hand,” writes Reza Pahlevi, the eldest son of Iran’s last Shah in the Washington Post. He concludes: “God bless America. Long live Iran.” This went over like a lead balloon with frequenters of the Post’s comments, who were notably hostile.

“For Democratic [2028] contenders, Iran war presents opportunity and risk,” Examiner Chief Political Correspondent Byron York observes. A tantalizing snippet:

Fifth in the polls at the moment, Gov. Shapiro was the only Democrat to include criticism of Iran’s leadership in his statement on the war. “Make no mistake, the Iranian regime represses its own people and is the leading state sponsor of terrorism around the world,” Shapiro wrote. 

We saw another mass shooting over the weekend. Two people were killed and at least 14 others were wounded in a bar early in the morning in Austin. The shooter, who wore a hoodie and t-shirt with “Property of Allah” on it and allegedly collected fan pix of Iranian “leaders,” was killed by police. I sure hope the authorities can discern his motive.

The Eyes Are Upon Texas. A Senate primary in Texas tomorrow is “heated” and “has Republicans worried.” GOP contenders are Senator John Cornyn, state AG Ken Paxton, and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt. Why are Republicans worried?

“Paxton puts the seat at risk,” the GOP’s main Senate campaign arm, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, wrote in a February memo. It said its internal polling showed that “Cornyn is the only Republican candidate who reliably wins a general election matchup” against either of the Democrats’ likely nominees.

Meanwhile, the Democrats’ stomach for race and gender politics is being tested in the same primary:

In the final weeks of the Senate primary race here, Rep. Jasmine Crockett has accused her Democratic opponent, James Talarico, of supporting ads that are “straight up racist” against her.

She’s called the questions about her electability in the red state a “dog whistle,” aimed at demeaning her as a Black woman and picked up the endorsement of the 2024 Senate Democratic nominee, who blasted Talarico for allegedly privately referring to him as a “mediocre Black man.”

California prides itself on being enlightened. Demographer Joel Kotlin notices an irony: the Golden State’s stringent green policies harm actual workers: 

[T]he greatest irony is that both Latinos and African Americans do worse in California than in  “unenlightened places”  like Texas and Florida.

The key difference in California has been the imposition of draconian environmental regulations, which have devastated industries like construction, manufacturing, and logistics. 

It’s what attorney Jennifer Hernandez calls “the green Jim Crow.”  

For example, Latinos constitute well over 50% of all California construction workers and the majority working in logistics, according to the American Community Survey. 

But due to regulatory constraints, construction in California has been among the weakest in the nation, making it hard to build what the market wants — namely, affordable apartments and modestly-priced single family homes. 

Latinos have been hardest hit because many are employed in the “carbon economy,” which relies on energy and has been decimated by regulatory pressures.

Ms. Must has not really kept up with Candace Owens since she accused French First Lady Brigitte Macron of being a man. Now, she is conducting a campaign against Erika Kirk, widow of slain conservative hero Charlie Kirk. USA TODAY columnist Nicole Russell has been staying abreast of Owens’s doings and is disgusted.

Axios reports that “centrist Democrats” have launched a campaign to stop AOC from being their 2028 nominee. We are reliably informed that unicorns, likely numerically superior to moderate Democrats, are also dead set against AOC.  

Alan Dershowitz’s name appeared in the Epstein files, so called. What makes him angriest is that he has not been allowed to confront his anonymous accuser, a right guaranteed by the sixth amendment.

I recently recommended Lionel Shriver’s new novel A Better Life. And lo and behold Seth Baron reviews Shriver’s “splendidly paced immigration satire” at City Journal:

In June 2023, then-mayor Eric Adams suggested a solution to the problem of tens of thousands of migrants coming to New York City to take advantage of Gotham’s absurd guarantee of shelter on demand for anyone who asked for it: private individuals could house them. In the event, the idea never came to fruition, and the city wound up leasing or buying thousands of hotel rooms instead. In the fictive world of A Better Life, Adams’s proposal is actually launched, and Gloria Bonaventura—a well-meaning, house-poor, sixty-something divorcee who lives in a rambling, restored Queen Anne with her twentysomething slacker son Nico in leafy Ditmas Park, Brooklyn—enthusiastically signs up to take in one of our “newest New Yorkers,” as just-arrived illegal aliens are routinely called (in real life, not just in the novel).

Events quickly go from bad to worse. Nico spends his days browsing anti-immigration websites and lurking around migrant welcome hubs, much to the dismay of his mother, who devotes herself to liberal good works of the “In this house, we believe” variety. Gloria lavishes attention and praise on Martine, their cheery, hardworking Honduran boarder, whose vague backstory inspires skepticism in Nico. Various insalubrious compatriots of Martine soon turn up, and eventually the menage takes on a comic/horrifying claustrophobic and surreal quality reminiscent of Buñuel (The Exterminating Angel), Polanski (The Tenant, Cul-de-Sac), Sartre (No Exit), or Beckett (Waiting for Godot, Endgame).

Combative Hillary: Who’s This Ghislaine Person? Bill Is Deposed Today. Minnesota Fraud Spigot Turned Off. Historic VMI Under Attack. Bad Samaritans. And More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

It seemed like old times: a touchy and unforthcoming Hillary Clinton being deposed.

“In Tense Deposition, Hillary Clinton Denies Knowing Epstein or His Crimes” is the New York Times headline:

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday denied ever meeting Jeffrey Epstein or knowing anything about his crimes during a more than six-hour, closed-door deposition in front of the House Oversight Committee, which briefly devolved into chaos after a Republican lawmaker leaked a photograph of the proceedings to a right-wing blogger.

Mrs. Clinton arrived to testify under oath at the Center for Performing Arts in Chappaqua, N.Y., defiant about being compelled to participate in the panel’s investigation into Mr. Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019.

The photo was furtively snapped and  leaked by Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert. Podcaster Benny Johnson was the recipient. It is against the Oversight Committee rules to do this. Angry Dems (and Ms. Must) came away wondering if maybe Rep. Boebert could use more oversight herself:

“I really admire her blue suit, so I wanted to capture that for everyone,” Boebert, a member of the House Oversight Committee, told reporters in Chappaqua, New York. When a reporter asked why she sent the picture to Johnson, Boebert responded, “Why not?”

She also told reporters that she had “just returned to my hotel room and installed the BleachBit software,” referring to a disk cleaning program for Windows, adding, “So I guess in regards to taking photos, I do not recall.”

You will be happy to learn that years of exile from political power have not turned Hillary into a sweet little old lady. She was her combative old self, demanding that President Trump be brought before the Committee to testify under oath about his relationship with late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

I don’t think the Committee laid a glove on her, but she did skedaddle when a reporter asked her why Epstein procurer Ghislaine Maxwell—with whom Hillary said she had “no relationship”—was a guest at Chelsea Clinton’s wedding. Maxwell, however, appears to have been deeply involved with the kickoff of the Clinton Global Initiative. PJ Media’s Stephen Kruiser was not favorably impressed with the Oversight Committee’s decision to call Mrs. Clinton. “A Pox on Everyone Who Keeps Hillary Clinton in the News,” says Kruiser. 

Former President Bill Clinton will testify about his relationship with Epstein before the same Committee today. He did not come willingly.

“Vance Tightens the Fraud Spigot” is Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel’s headline this morning. Washington will withhold Medicaid reimbursements from the state of Minnesota. Strassel observes:

This is unprecedented—and different from the administration’s moves to pause grant disbursements to high-fraud states. Minnesota is already on the hook for these Medicaid services. The federal check now in deferment limbo was supposed to reimburse the state for the federal government’s share of that spending. Mr. Oz made clear that “we will give them the money” after “they propose and act on a comprehensive corrective action plan to solve the problem.” Future payments are also at risk. If Minnesota dawdles, it “will rack up $1 billion of deferred payments this year,” the CMS head said.

Substantively, this is a powerful approach, since it attacks the key structural flaw in the current system. Medicaid is a joint federal-state program, but states make all the decisions and send the feds a bill. States have little interest in policing fraud—in making sure that a “nonprofit” they send money to is real, qualified or successful—since the federal government “matches” at multiples. For some Medicaid populations, every dollar a state pays brings $9 from federal taxpayers. Spend more, get more. This is how you get an estimated $9 billion in fraudulent Minnesota claims.

If Vance is trying to end fraud in Minnesota, Democrats in Virginia are trying to end VMI (Virginia Military Institute) as we know it. Two bills now under consideration by the state’s legislature could damage the country’s oldest military college. An editorial calls it what it is:

Don’t think this is about saving money. It’s about progressive hostility to VMI’s martial values. As part of its review, the new panel (made up of 11 delegates, two of whom served in the military) would “thoroughly audit” whether the school has made “substantial changes” to reduce “racist, sexist or misogynistic” actions in the student body and whether the school “possesses the capacity . . . to end celebration of the Confederacy.” Possesses the capacity? The outcome seems preordained.

Does California possess the capacity to elect a Republican Governor? “Republicans Have a Rare Shot at Winning the California Governorship” announces a Washington Examiner headline. It’s because so many Democratic candidates have emerged. All candidates run against each other, regardless of party, in the primary. It would be astonishing if Steve Hilton or Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco replaced Gavin Newsom.

Maybe “public servants” in the Golden State would then rake in more realistic salaries. Meanwhile, four-termer Senator John Cornyn of Texas is struggling for re-election, and Politico wonders if there is still a place in the GOP for traditional Republican such as Cornyn. Call Him Daddy: Also in Politico, Rep. Nancy Mace, who is running for Governor of Sooth Carolina,  talks about her personal traumas and why President Trump is a “father figure” for her.

Did President Trump’s economic message in his State of the Union address improve GOP chances for the midterms? Longtime political consultant David Winston answers:

It was the first step in a long-term case he needs to prove. The economic data of the past few months has generated more questions than answers as we wait for more reporting. People are just as confused as the economists, wondering if the glass is half empty or half full. 

What about the tariffs? AEI Research Fellow David Hebert writes that the tariffs have made the U. S. so unpredictable that other countries are trading without us. Meanwhile, Salon’s Jason Kyle Howard writes the SOTU exposed his party’s biggest problem: they don’t know how to fight Trump. This is so unfair—the anti-Trump dancing frogs brigade was magnificent.

And Now—Bad Samaritans. The Marylander Condominiums are in a precarious situation after a nearby homeless encampment allegedly vandalized the boiler, leaving residents without heat. While residents have fled or soon will be evicted, the Washington Free Beacon reports:

The encampment, though, is still going strong. And unlike the moribund condominium, it is getting plenty of help from private charities.

The Washington Free Beacon identified nearly a dozen church groups, activists, and local businesses that deliver food to the camp on a regular basis. The meals are distributed at the entrance of the encampment, in the parking lot of a nearby McDonald’s, without any pushback from the county, which runs its own on-site delivery program through the Department of Social Services.

The victims of that humanitarian free-for-all have been the condo’s law-abiding residents, many of them low-income minorities.

If you are in the market for a fun book on progressive doing good deeds, may I recommend Lionel Shriver’s A Better Life? A progressive mom takes in an illegal under the fictional “Big Apple, Big Hearts.” All the right people are angry with Shriver.

“What Would the World Look Like Without Trump?” Martin Gurri asks this question at City Journal. It’s a rather dazzling essay but too complicated to summarize. It deals particularly with global mass migration and concludes:

Trump is the decider in this war of worlds. Should he self-detonate into nihilistic chaos, the old regime will triumph by default, and the window on an era riven by revolts from below may close. But should he achieve his objectives and pass the baton to a successor, the transformation of the system will accelerate to warp speed.

The times would be defined by an immense horizon of possibilities, including, for example, a reconfiguration of government along lines shaped by the capabilities of artificial intelligence. Whether, at the end of this process, anything resembling our current dreams and ideals will remain may be the most consequential question we can ask—and one for which there is, at present, no answer.

Happy Friday!

Delusional Mullahs & the Stakes in Iran. Dancing Frogs and F-word Part of Dem Arsenal. The Dream That Will Not Die: NYT Pushes Unverified Trump Smear in Epstein Files. More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

President Trump faces a legacy defining decision: whether to strike Iran. The U.S. and the Islamic regime are engaging in indirect talks in Geneva. “We just need action,” say desperate Iranians back home.

A Wall Street Journal editorial is headlined “Trump and the Stakes in Iran.”  The editorial argues that, while there are reasons to strike Iran, the President has not made the case yet:

This failure is creating uncertainty even inside his Administration. Media reports Monday said that Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, is worried about the risks of striking Iran. Our sources say those stories are accurate, and the leaks suggest an effort by doubters inside the Administration to deter Mr. Trump more than Iran.

We’re also told that as of Tuesday the head of Central Command, Adm. Brad Cooper, hadn’t briefed Mr. Trump on the war plan he’s put together for Iran. The plan calls for an extensive attack on a host of Iranian regime and military targets, which is consistent with the armada Mr. Trump has assembled in the region.

Some inside the administration are proposing a delay. The Editors, however, caution against that idea:

Waiting would squander a rare opportunity to topple a regime that has terrorized the world, spread war across the Middle East, supplied Russia and China, and killed or maimed thousands of Americans.

Waiting would also damage Mr. Trump’s credibility. He told the Iranian public in January that “help is on its way,” and he didn’t say help would only arrive after the U.S. election. If he now settles for nuclear promises or symbolic strikes after having amassed so much force, Moscow and Beijing will notice. An honorable peace in Ukraine becomes harder.

There is heightened anxiety in Israel, where hospitals are conducting emergency drills and citizens are obtaining list of locations of bomb shelters. Quotable pro-attack Republican Senator Lindsey Graham says that Iran is facing its “Berlin Wall moment.” Daniel Pletka has a really magnificent piece on the Iran decision in National Review this morning.

Pletka writes that President Trump is baffled as to why Iran, facing regime annihilation by the U.S., doesn’t want to give up its nuclear ambitions:

Foreign leaders like Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the current supreme leader, don’t just dress differently and speak different languages. They live in a different reality. In their reality, Iran is a formidable power that killed scores of Americans with a strike on Iraq in 2020, downed Israeli F-35s, and killed hundreds of Israel Defense Forces troops in its 2025 strikes on Israel. Of course, these things didn’t happen, but Iran’s senior-most leaders nevertheless believe they did.

Liberation Delayed. Cuban nationals living in the United States were prevented from “infiltrating” the communist island in their Florida-registered speedboat. The Cuban government says that the people in the speedboat fired first. Cuban border agents killed four. The brother of one of the men killed described his brother, a truck driver, as pursuing an “obsessive and diabolical quest” for Cuba’s freedom. Call me crazy, but I don’t see how wanting to free Cuba could be termed “diabolical.”

“The State of the Union Is Belligerent” is Wall Street Journal politics columnist Karl Rove’s headline this morning. Rove writes:

Throughout his record number of guest introductions, the president was empathetic and personable. His remarks, delivered as written, were often moving, patriotic and unifying.

This was also the most partisan State of the Union in memory. In what may have been a first, Mr. Trump attacked his predecessor by name several times. He repeatedly condemned congressional Democrats, tried to force them to stand and applaud him, and lacerated them when they didn’t. He was spoiling for a fight.

Polling dials indicate that one of the most popular moments in the SOTU, even for Democrats, was when the President called for a ban on insider stock trading for members of Congress, calling renowned stock picker Nancy Pelosi by name.

Who Doesn’t Love a Green Frog? But let’s admit—the Dems were memorable too. “Dems Ditched American Heroes for Adults in Frog Suits and Tiresome De Niro — All we can do is Pity Them” is the headline on  Kirsten Fleming’s enjoyable piece.

[S]ome of our nation’s lawmakers chose to hang with wack jobs in inflatable frog costumes at a “State of the Swamp” event in DC, organized by the Anti-Trump organization Defiance.org.

“Tonight I defy Trump and his authoritarian project by standing in joyful, radical, peaceful resistance with the Portland Frog Brigade,” Rep. Maxine Dexter of Oregon said to the audience proudly sporting Kermit’s cousins on their heads.

“We answered with frog costumes, dancing, singing and joy when Trump wanted us to cower in fear,” she said crediting her amphibian army with keeping the National Guard out of their city.

I beg you: Do not under any circumstances miss the dancing frog pictures.

Miranda Devine writes that the Dems revealed their stance on illegal immigration and their true colors by refusing to stand during the SOTU. Lowered standards of civility are bipartisan, but the Democrats’ shocking embrace of the f-word takes it to a new level of vulgarity. Jonathan Turley has a worthy piece on Democrats’ obscenity-larded race to the bottom.

Another great Barton Swaim article. “Vance, Newsom and Tales of Want” argues that politicians who romanticize economic hardships of growing up (some more plausibly than others) don’t others to experience the hard knocks that shaped them:

The vice president fervently supports expanding almost any redistributionist program said to benefit the working class. Maybe if Mr. Vance’s ideas had obtained 30 years ago, the American economy would have shown more generosity to the working class, Mamaw would have enjoyed an income in keeping with her moral worth, and she would have had no trouble buying that calculator. But in that case, Mamaw would have had to make no sacrifice and there would have been no “Hillbilly Elegy” and thus no Vice President Vance.

Did Richard Nixon get done in by the deep state? It is an intriguing idea explored by Christopher Caldwell at the London Spectator. Unfortunately, behind the pay wall, so only lucky subscribers can get it. 

There are some other pieces I want to recommend: City Journal’s article saying that New Yorkers don’t know how much they spend on public education (more than any other state with abysmal results). … A Wall Street Journal editorial to the effect that vaccine skeptic Dr. Casey Means, who has been nominated for Surgeon General, is not the best person to restore credibility to the Department of Health and Human Services. … An editorial at the same esteemed publication predicting that the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security is about to bite.

It is an article of faith among TDS sufferers that someday, if they just keep pushing hard, something. Somewhere in the Epstein documents will destroy Donald Trump. The New York Times, in that spirit of hope, has a story claiming that the released DOJ files included a brief mention of a woman’s unverified accusation that Trump assaulted her in the 1980s, when she was a minor. But several memos related to her account are not in the files. 

Breitbart focuses on the unverified nature of the accusation (not that others have not been ruined by unverified material in the Epstein material). The white whale for Republicans is the Clintons. Wily Mrs. Clinton is scheduled to be deposed on the Epstein matter in behind closed doors at her Chappaqua residence. Raise your hand if you think this will be a fruitful endeavor.

State of Union Hailed as Virtuoso Performance. Gavin Newsom’s Heartrending Life Struggles. Media Narratives on “Trans” Shootings. Prince William: Please Stop Sharing. More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

Well, the midterms are officially underway.

The State of the Union address immediately before the midterms is traditionally considered the opening gun for the political season. President Trump scored big last night with the New York Post.

“Trump Wins Gold” the Post declares—with a felicitous nod to the gilded USA Olympic men’s hockey team, guests of the President. The patriotic Olympians bolstered the President’s “winning” theme. Trump embellished the celebratory mood (but only on one side of the House!) by dispending several Medals of Honor, including one to a soldier wounded in the Maduro raid.

Pollster Doug Schoen judged the SOTU “one big winner, one giant loser and one big problem” in a GOP agenda for the midterms. Schoen writes:

President Donald Trump gave a virtuoso performance Tuesday night. He achieved a number of important goals in his State of the Union address, but it is unclear whether he fundamentally changed the political dynamic in America. Still, it was a great performance — with profound messages.

The first and most important message was that the American people should associate the progress, future and success of the country with the Trump administration and the Republican Party. The president spoke of transformations, turnarounds and, most of all, “the golden age of America.” It was moving and uplifting — though not necessarily as persuasive as he may have hoped.

To be sure, Trump made his most compelling case yet that the affordability crisis, which Democrats used to win the 2025 off-year elections, was now finally under control.

Between Trump’s attacks and the Democrats’ behavior, it is hard to see how the country emerged more united after an extraordinary presentation that had to be moving to many Americans. Indeed, another strength of Trump’s speech was that he explicitly associated the country’s success with working people — especially heroes who have achieved extraordinary accomplishments for our nation, past and present. The explicit and implicit message was this: By standing with Trump and his policies, it was the only way America could achieve the success he spoke of in the context of the turnaround, the transformation, most of all, the “golden age” he said is underway.

The Wall Street Journal headline is that Trump “hailed an economic turnaround many voters don’t see.” The Trump averse New York Times calls the SOTU “a show, casting Democrats as the villains.” Ah, the loyal opposition. House Democrat leader Rep. Hakeen Jeffries certainly didn’t know his flock if he really thought Democrats in the House Chamber could give Trump the silent treatment!

Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota ad a meltdown, shouting during the SOTU that the President has “killed Americans.” So much for brotherly love. Also, at the top of her lungs, Rep. Rashida Tlaib shouted “F— ICE!” For the second year in a row, effervescent Rep. Al Green of Texas, carrying a sign that said “Black People Are Not Apes,” was escorted out of the House Chamber. Many simply skipped the SOTU for alternate programing.

Most Telling Moment. Sasha Stone got it on her Substack section:

“If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support. The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal immigrants.”

With great timing and a gift for performance and storytelling, Trump pauses and lets the applause grow. He luxuriated in the moment as the Democrats sat there, stone-faced, thinking it would play well at MS-Now. It probably will. Trump wanted all of America to see it and remember it. He set a trap. They walked right into it.

The New York Times complains that these “stand-up” moments are an unfair maneuver by the President.

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi must have wished she was still in a position to physically rip up the President’s speech. Pelosi’s own perfidious party members rose to applaud (the only time they did so) when President Trump  called upon Congress to pass an insider trading bill. He mentioned genius stock picker Pelosi by name.

Instead of tearing into the Supreme Court for its bombshell ruling against the Trump tariffs, the President merely called the ruling “unfortunate.” Not all the Justices attended. Here are the ones who did not: Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Sonia Sotomayor.

The President wisely avoided overdue attention to the tariffs last night but Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Riley addresses them in a column headlined “The GOP’s Last Chance to Shed the Tariff Albatross.” Riley writes:

The reality, whether or not the president accepts it, is that tariffs have been disruptive to the economy and are deeply unpopular. They haven’t reduced the trade deficit or boosted factory employment, as Mr. Trump claims they have. American consumers have grown accustomed to more options at lower prices for autos, clothing, electronics, food and countless other goods thanks to free trade across international borders. Higher levies on imports lead to higher costs and fewer choices.

In the latest development in the Nancy Guthrie case, Savannah Guthrie announced that the Guthrie family is offering a million dollars for information leading to the return of her mother. It was an extraordinary video in which the Today co-host acknowledged that her mother may no longer be living and appealed directly to the abductor to “do the right thing.” If the abductor had been struggling with conscience, Guthrie begged, “Let this be a sign.”

Snow Melts Warmth of Collectivism. Columnist Michael Goodwin writes:

For better and worse, the tenure of any new major public official is often defined by events in the first 100 days of the term. 

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is certainly no exception, with his awful beginning at City Hall confirmed again Tuesday. His latest big time blunder was his expression of icy indifference to police officers being attacked by snowballs in Manhattan. 

I Was Born a Poor Black Child. I always remember that line uttered by Steve Martin in “The Jerk” when I read about Gavin Newsom’s life struggles. After thinking that the way to bond with black people is by claiming he’s not very smart, Newsom now chronicles his life “from privilege to heartbreak.” As was once said of another great piece of literature, you’d have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.

“The Mass Shootings the Media Wants You to Ignore” is a headline at American Greatness. Yes, you guessed what mass murders we are enjoined to overlook: ones committed by “trans”-identifying shooters:

You could be forgiven if you hadn’t heard much about these tragedies—the media virtually ignored them. By contrast, the country was subjected to around-the-clock hyperventilating on cable news after an ICE agent shot a woman in Minneapolis after she struck him with her vehicle.

That act of self-defense by an ICE agent triggered tearful pleas for national soul-searching and draconian restrictions on law enforcement. But the two mass shootings generated nary a peep.

This contrast highlights the iron law of the corporate media when it comes to gun violence: the facts always matter less than the narrative.

Within minutes after a shooting, the press begins assembling its preferred storyline like an IKEA bookshelf—only with more missing screws and more prone to sudden collapse.

Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson offers the royal family advice on winning back the loyalty of the people after the Andrew scandal. “No ‘spares’, no climate preaching: My plan to save the monarchy” is an excellent read. Ms. Must wishes to throw in her two shillings. The royals themselves seem to be signaling that they will try to “modernize.”  Don’t! Look instead to the past with more pageantry and less sharing (such as this kind of unnecessary treacle from William).

The State of the Union. Dems Mull: Silent Resistance or Outright Protest. War in Paradise. Gavin Newsom’s SAT. Mamdani’s Personality Transplant. Epstein Mania and Trial by Jury. More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

President Trump tonight delivers the first State of the Union address of his second term. The President is expected to use the SOTU to assess that the United States is ‘strong, prosperous and respected’ as it enters its 250th year:

President Trump will use his State of the Union address to sell the public on the economy and unveil new measures meant to lower costs, as Republicans try to address voters’ concerns ahead of the midterm elections later this year.

The official theme of the speech, according to White House officials familiar with the draft: “America at 250: Strong, Prosperous and Respected,” a reference to the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding. The address will emphasize the idea of American exceptionalism, and the president is planning to weave in stories of Americans who say they have benefited from his policies, the officials said.

Fox Digital also looks to tonight.

Coming shortly after the Supreme Court’s ruling against the Trump tariffs, the stakes for the President could be even higher than usual.

The question for the out of power party tonight is: “‘Silent defiance’ or outright opposition? Democrats split over how to confront Trump” MS Now informs us. They tried the first and made fools of themselves last year (it was a presidential speech but not a SOTU) and thus Rep. Hakeem Jeffries is leaning towards the silent treatment this year.

Bummer. But some will boycott the SOTU and there will be an array of options outside the House chamber (where the speech is delivered):

One of those events, dubbed the “People’s State of the Union,” will take place on the National Mall beginning shortly before Trump’s speech is scheduled to begin. Sponsored by liberal activist groups, including MoveOn Civic Action, it’s set to feature a number of prominent Democrats from both chambers, including Sens. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), Ed Markey (Mass.) and Chris Murphy (Conn.), and Reps. Veronica Escobar (Texas), Pramila Jayapal (Wash.) and Greg Casar (Texas), who heads the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Another countermessaging event, “The State of the Swamp,” will be staged at the National Press Club near the White House. That gathering is also expected to attract some high-profile Democrats, including Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.) and Reps. Seth Moulton (Mass.), Eric Swalwell (Calif.) and Dan Goldman (N.Y.). At least two other Democrats, Reps. Jason Crow (Colo.) and Eugene Vindman (Va.), have said they will participate in the event but also attend Trump’s speech later in the evening.

And if Eugene Vindman and Dim Dan are not enough star-power, Joy Reid was touted last week as a “sober, centrist” voice at the People’s SOTU. Half dozen or so Democrats have invited Jeffrey Epstein victims to be their guests, presumably because hope springs eternal that next 3 million documents dump will bring down the President. Meanwhile, Team USA hockey star Jack Hughes says the guys are super excited to meet President Trump tonight.

Ruy Texeira of The Free Press writes that the State of the Union has been “overstated:” he argues that the speeches used to make history but are now mired in tribal warfare. Nothing Trump could say will change that. Former George W. Bush speech writer Bill McGurn makes the case for the SOTU. A White House invitation for also triumphant women’s hockey team either was not sent or was declined.

“War in Paradise” blares the New York Post cover headline. “Mexico just decapitated its most dangerous cartel. That means war,” award-winning Mexican journalist Leon Krauze writes in the Washington Post. He urges President Claudia Sheinbaum to stay the course. A piece at Unherd argues that El Mencho death shows President Trump’s growing influence in Mexico. Bloomberg says Sheinbaum has crossed her Rubicon.

More Snow. A record snowfall blankets the Northeast. In response, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has softened his policy forbidding homeless sweeps that was responsible for 19 deaths. And there is much rejoicing because this will save lives of the poor and downtrodden? Nope, “compassionate” left wing activists are furious. 

“Tax the Rich—Or Mamdani Will Tax You All” is the headline on Nicole Gelinas’ latest City Journal piece. Galinas observes:

[T]he guy who couldn’t stop smiling last year insists the city is in crisis now. Why? He needs a crisis to push through his proposed $9 billion in annual new taxes on high earners and corporations. He wants to raise taxes for the sake of raising taxes—and the governor, who must sign off on any such increases, won’t cooperate. Last year, Mamdani wanted these tax hikes partly to pay for his universal childcare plan. Instead, the governor swiftly agreed earlier this year to fund the plan’s gradual rollout with existing state revenues.

Meanwhile, a City Counsel member warns Mamdani that his plan not to add 5,000 police will make the city less safe. Meanwhile, a mob tormented police officers during the snow emergency:

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been blasted for fueling anti-cop hate after an unruly mob launched a “disgusting” snowball attack on NYPD officers during Monday’s blizzard.

Former Police Commissioner Bill Bratton calls upon Mamdani not to eliminate NYPD’s Strategic Response Group, which keeps protesters safe and does much more.

Police aren’t the only New Yorkers feeling undervalued by the Mayor. “’Jim Snow 2.0′: Critics blast Mamdani’s $19 snow jobs after $30 wage pledge” explains that Mamdani wants you to pay a high minimum wage from which he exempts himself. Give the kid a break—this is the first time he’s ever had to make payroll.

Dumb Like You. Ms. Must thought Andrew Stiles’ Free Beacon piece on California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s racial pandering might be satire. Nobody could be that dumb. But no. Somebodu is that dumb. CBS has a story on the pandering and Newsom’s (dumb) attempt to blame the fallout on “MAGA bigotry:”

Newsom spoke Sunday with [Atlanta Mayor Andre] Dickens in front of a packed auditorium, reflecting on his academic challenges. “I’m not trying to impress you, I’m just trying to impress upon you I’m like you, I’m not better than you,” Newsom said. “I’m a 960 SAT guy and you know, I’m not trying to offend anyone — you know — trying to act all there if you got 940 — but literally, a 960 SAT guy. You’ve never seen me read a speech because I cannot read a speech. Maybe the wrong business to be.” 

Another prominent Golden State politician has yet to make public her SAT scores but I for one would be interested.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is a fool and a knave. But Wall Street Journal columnist Gerard Baker writes that “Even Contemptible Men Don’t Deserve Mob Justice.” The “militant wing of Epstein mania” is beginning to worry me.

Wall Street Journal columnist Walter Russell Mead writes that the tariff battles are far from over.  Limits will only inspire President Trump to for alternatives to search to increase his leverage at home and abroad. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal complains that (in the opinion of the Editorial Board) the President’s new basis for tariffs is “a relic of a bygone era.”  FedEx is suing the administration for return of tariff revenues taken so far. President Trump “smacked” the tariffs in the lead-up to tonight’s speech. National Review’s Jeffrey Blehar deduces:

Yes, tonight’s State of the Union address is probably going to be a dumpster fire, or, for that matter, a zeppelin fire. Donald Trump has already warned: “It’s going to be a long speech. Because we have a lot to talk about.” (Imagine the futility of speechwriting for Trump, knowing that a full 65 percent of your material will never be spoken, given his improvisational tendencies.)

Don’t Miss. There was a wonderful tribute to the kind of masculinity personified in the US hockey team in the Examiner. It’s headlined “The US hockey team knelt — and that is what matters.”   I don’t know as much as I should about sports, but I was blown away by this piece.

Violence Follows Death of Mexican Drug Cartel Boss. Would-be Trump Assassin Shot Dead by Secret Service. Gorsuch: Tariff Ruling Catches Kagan in Hypocrisy. Big Marco & More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

Well, with at least three stories that would lead on a normal news day (do we have those anymore?), we’ve decided to go South of the border to start the day.

“Violence erupts in Mexico after cartel leader “El Mencho” killed in military operation” CBS News reports:

Violent clashes erupted in parts of western Mexico on Sunday amid a military operation that led to the death of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader, triggering widespread security concerns throughout the region.

Mexican security forces killed Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, also known as “El Mencho,” during an operation in the western state of Jalisco, Mexico’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement on X. It said he was wounded during the raid in the town of Tapalpa and died while being flown to Mexico City.

The state of Jalisco is the base of the cartel known for trafficking huge quantities of fentanyl and other drugs to the United States.

USA TODAY has a helpful capsule account of the notorious cartel boss’s career. The violence is mostly in areas controlled by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Vehicles and businesses are set ablaze.

Californians trapped as cartel unleashes hell near US border over drug kingpin’s killing, according to the New York Post. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the U.S. provided “intelligence support” to the Mexican government. Rocket launchers capable if bringing down airplanes were found in the cartel’s extensive arsenal.

This would lead the news on an ordinary day: An armed man apparently trying to kill President Trump was shot dead by Secret Service at Mar-a-Lago. President Trump was not at Mar-a-Lago when the shooting occurred, at around 1:30 am Sunday. The identified as Austin Martin Tucker of North Carolina:

The armed madman who was shot and killed by Secret Service after he snuck onto President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate Sunday was reportedly obsessed with the Epstein files — and implored others to “raise awareness” just days before the deadly encounter.

Other colleagues told the outlet that Martin was deeply disturbed by what he believed was a concerted government campaign to cover up the Epstein files so elites could continue “getting away with it.”

They also said he voiced frustrations about the economy and how difficult it is for young people to afford to live on their own. He went so far as to try and organize a union at the country club for higher wages, but no one supported the move, the outlet reported.

Inevitably, “sources” have told nuisance gossip spot TMZ that the gunman was “a vocal supporter of Trump.” Quest for a motive arriving on schedule.

The Jerusalem Post asks when (not if?) President Trump will attack Iran and gives the four most likely options. Iran is finding itself more isolated than it expected, with pals China and Russia not coming to the regime’s rescue. Rusia expert Rebecca Grant evaluates the Iranian arsenal versus the U.S.’s. She also highlights Iran’s four top threats and how the U.S. fights back.

The U.S.-Iran negotiations are being conducted along nuclear policy lines. But the protests were for a better life for Iranians and the dislodgement of a tyrannical regime. Thousands are dead. Four recount their ordeals in the Wall Street Journal.

As you know, the Supreme Court ruled Friday in a 6-3 majority that President Trump’s tariffs are illegal. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal, which has been stalwart against the tariffs, heralded what it called “The Real Tariff Liberation Day,” and praised the ruling:

It’s hard to overstate the importance of the Court’s decision for the law and the economy. Had Mr. Trump prevailed, future Presidents could have used emergency powers to bypass Congress and impose border taxes with little constraint.

As Chief Justice John Roberts explains in the majority opinion, “Recognizing the taxing power’s unique importance, and having just fought a revolution motivated in large part by ‘taxation without representation,’ the Framers gave Congress ‘alone . . . access to the pockets of the people.’” …

The tariff law ruling also gives the lie to the Democratic charge that the current Court is a rubber stamp for Mr. Trump. The Court has now shown it is willing to block abuses of executive power by Presidents of both parties. This is exactly what the Constitution calls on the Justices to do.

Writing at City Journal, Ilya Shapiro argued that on tariffs, the Supreme Court had “delivered a reminder” that a President must work with the tools that Congress has provided. Here is his conclusion:

And then there’s Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who wrote a separate concurrence resting on legislative history—an opinion that, tellingly, no other justice joined. In a case where statutory text was front and center, turning to congressional committee reports feels like looking for circumstantial evidence after the statute has already confessed.

In the end, the decision is less a rebuke than a reminder: Congress controls the taxing power. If it wishes to arm the president with sweeping tariff authority, it must do so unmistakably. Until then, presidents must work with the tools Congress has actually provided.

Three conservative Justices—Clarence Thomas, Samel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh—dissented. Justice Thomas has ripped the ruling, saying that the majority “errs” on the Constitution. A Washington Post editorial (hey, they’re really getting good!) explains how Justice Neil Goruch has Justice Elena Kagan, who has ruled differently for Democrat Presidents, “dead to rights.”

A Wall Street Journal editorial, meanwhile, praises Gorsuch for trying to “revive Congress,” while Allysia Finley writes that there is “plenty of hypocrisy to go around” regarding the tariffs case. This isn’t over by a longshot. President Trump, though he will not disobey the Supreme Court, “won’t blink” but will use a different legal justification of tariffs.

A historic snow dump has brought New York to a standstill. This time Mayor Zohran Mamdani is granting a “full, classic snow day” to school students. But New York ace financial writer Charles Gaspario thinks it’s already too late for Mamdani to redeem himself financially:

Truth be told, I thought it would take at least one budget cycle for our socialist boy-wonder mayor to implode in a sea of idiocy over how he plans to govern this city and how he intends to pay for it. 

The fact that it’s happening even before his first budget is finished — with an absurd debate over raising taxes on rich people who are already leaving the city in droves or socking it to working-class homeowners through higher property taxes — is downright scary. 

It’s a big red warning sign that this mayor is so fundamentally unfit for the job of governing Gotham that Gov. Hochul should remove him from office before he destroys what’s left of the city’s economy. …

The fact that Mamdani doesn’t understand all of this is the reason you don’t elect as mayor a 34-year-old former lefty rapper with a degree in Africana Studies unless you actually think destroying what’s left of the city’s economy is a good thing.

Eli Lake reports at The Free Press that the White House has “had enough” of Tucker Carlson, after repeatedly  asking him to cut his Israel bashing. I did not catch the Tucker Carlson-Ambassador Mike Huckabee interview in which the U. Ambassador to Israel triggered the fever swamps. Also in The Free Press, Peter Savrodnik had a distressing story about antisemitism battles among Christians on the right.  

Miracle on ICE:

Forty-six years to the day after a bunch of unheralded amateurs stunned the heavily favored Soviet Union en route to winning Olympic gold, the U.S. men’s hockey team engineered another epic victory. The Americans won a battle of the sport’s superpowers on Sunday, toppling longtime nemesis Canada 2-1 in overtime to win their country’s first Olympic gold in men’s hockey since the famed 1980 “Miracle on Ice.”

Not a Miracle. FBI head Kash Patel got beat up in press for attending big hockey victory bash in Italy.

He’s Big Marco Now.  From Axios: “JD or Marco? Trump keeps asking advisers about 2028.”