Venezuelan Earthquakes. Mamdani Earthquake: Do Old Guard Dems Know What Hit Them? Testy Trump-GOP Meeting On Hill. Iran. Wacky Wiki. Contrarian Take on an Independent Woman. More
This is a morning to think about earthquakes.
Venezuela faces a difficult recovery from the two historically strong earthquakes that devastated the country after hitting in rapid succession. Up to a hundred are feared dead as President Trump vows to help.
Unlike the people of Venezuela, the Democratic Party doesn’t quite seem to understand what hit them. The Mamdani Earthquake, which hit full force in New York on Tuesday, is historic.
An editorial in the Wall Street Journal (“The Socialist Democrats of America”) explores the meaning of the “Mamdani left” on the Democratic Party and the country at large:
It’s tempting to dismiss Tuesday’s primary sweep by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) as an artifact of weird New York City. It is that, but also more. The victories by Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s slate of leftists will change the Democratic Party—and perhaps the politics of the country…
This shows the DSA is highly organized and can get out the vote of the young progressives who have replaced the white centrist voters who have fled New York.
It’s hard to overstate how far to the left the Mamdani slate is. Aber Kawas, who won the primary for a state Senate seat, has said she found it “reprehensible” to apologize for 9/11 when America hasn’t apologized for its “system of capitalism, and racism and white supremacy.” We guess she won’t be going to the 25th anniversary ceremony at Ground Zero…
Another reason for the socialist rise is that mainstream liberals put up so little resistance. Like other Democrats, Mr. Espaillat shares the socialist left’s goals but wants to get there more gradually. This is a feeble answer when angry voters want immediate progress. The defeated Democrats in New York refused to make principled arguments against socialism or the antisemitism of the Mamdani left.
After Tuesday they may offer even less resistance.
Only 7 per cent of registered voters turned out, mostly young and white. The New York Post calls them “The Young and the Clueless.” The situation presents “a governing nightmare” for Democrats, according to an editorial in the Washington Post. City Journal notes that the Mamdani socialists are prepared to storm Congress. This should be a “jolt for complacent Democrats.” A Wall Street Journal Free Expression calls the Mamdani socialists “The Radicals Inside the Tent:”
Mainstream Democrats hope far-left insurgents will settle down after arriving in Washington. They’re in for an ugly surprise.
Columnist Hugh Hewitt writes that the current situation stems from the the Obama years:
This is the third act in a three-act tragedy.
First, former President Barack Obama’s achievement-free eight years atop the country and the Democratic Party saw a generation of federal, state and local Democratic youngsters get wiped out in the political earthquakes of 2010, 2014 and 2016. Obama always took care of himself, but left the party to the ossified care of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer to collectively run, and they ran it aground.
Trump Derangement Syndrome, which consumed Democrats, Hewitt asserts “left the party without a platform or a leader of any ability or charisma who wasn’t also eligible for Social Security.” Part three was the “passing of the baton” from Senator Bernie Sanders to the energetic AOC.
Mamdani socialists are hostile to the state of Israel and Jews in general. This leaves Commentary editor John Podhoretz to observe that “We’re in a Waking Nightmare.” Mark Halperin writes about “How Israel Became the Biggest Litmus Test in American Politics.” It has to do with bad ideas.
It wasn’t quite an earthquake, but President Trump stunned Republicans yesterday when at the last minute he cancelled the signing ceremony for a bipartisan housing bill. The President says he won’t sign the popular housing bill until Congress passes the Save America Act (which would require an ID to vote). If a bill passed by both the House and Senate is ignored and not signed within ten days, it automatically becomes law. It’s unclear what Trump plans to do. A Wall Street Journal editorial says Trump was right not to sign the Elizabeth Warren backed housing bill, even though he did so for what the editors believe is the wrong reason.
But the President still turned up for a scheduled meeting with Capitol Hill Republicans, which did not go smoothly:
President Trump’s meeting with Republican senators on Wednesday turned testy, and at one point, he sternly told Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy to sit down, after questions arose about the War Powers Resolution, according to sources directly familiar with the meeting.
Cassidy had been trying to respond to the president, telling the president he should sit down — but Cassidy later relented, saying he would be seated, but not at Mr. Trump’s behest. …
The more-than-hourlong meeting with Mr. Trump focused mostly on the Iran war and the War Powers Resolution. On Tuesday, the Senate approved a Democrat-led resolution to keep the president from ordering further military action in Iran. Four Republicans voted in favor of the concurrent resolution, which is symbolic and does not carry the force of law.
Senator Cassidy lost his Senate primary for the GOP nomination to a Trump-backed opponent. Key Republican Senators switched their votes after the meeting, causing the war powers resolution to fail.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose miserable demeanor while President Trump outlined the Iran deal has been much remarked upon, is traveling among our Gulf allies. Amid deep Israeli dissatisfaction with the deal, Rubio this morning assured Gulf allies that a Hormuz toll or fees just won’t happen.
Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance is touting “our new relationship with Iran,” which Sohrab Ahmari in turn touts at Unherd. Larry Kudlow also touts the Iran agreement as “Neither Neocon or Obama–and It Is Working.” An op-ed in the WSJ warns the administration not to help Iran prop up its terror proxy Hezbollah. Karl Rove in the same outlet takes stock of the political peril for a deal with Iran.
Our friend Emily Jashinsky writes that Trump’s fraud crackdown is an easy win. To that point, Fox Digital reports on a Michigan childcare provider that collected $1.1M in taxpayer funds despite no visible signs of operating. There were no children anywhere to be found.
It’s so unfair when somebody gets a stiff prison sentence just for killing an innocent person. I mean, c’mon. Kirsten Fleming documents the “Free Karmelo” movement:
It’s been two weeks since Karmelo Anthony was found guilty of murder, and the lies keep rolling out….
I’ll give [Sunny] Hostin this: She and her “View” crew aren’t as bad as the ghouls posting AI images of themselves urinating on [teen-aged murder victim] Metcalf’s grave. Nor are they as depraved as the disgusting teens on TikTok doing the “Austin Bop,” where they dance around pretending to stab themselves in the heart.
Shorts …
You likely remember the horrific photo of a girl being napalmed in Vietnam. Who really took the photo? New doc explores alleged AP coverup of real photographer of Vietnam’s most horrifying image.
Wacky Wiki. It doesn’t help to promote balance and fairness at Wikipedia:
Left-leaning website Wikipedia has taken the drastic action of permanently blocking one of its founders from editing pages — after he had campaigned to make it more balanced and fair.
Last month, Larry Sanger launched WikiProject Intellectual Diversity (WID), a group designed to help reinforce the online encyclopedia’s “original, firm commitment to intellectual diversity,” by emphasizing neutrality and transparency.
Refreshingly Contrarian. “Great Americans: The Strange Dependence of an Independent Woman” is the headline on a Free Press entry into a series. The subject is Eliza Lucas Pinckney, who at 16 was thrust into running her family’s vast properties:
Eliza Lucas Pinckney (1722–1793) is an ideal figure to help us think through the meanings of independence. She forged a far more independent life than what we might imagine was possible for an 18th-century woman. Yet her life also reveals that no one, at any time, lives a truly independent life, whether a founding father or a 21st-century American.
