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Issue: Crime

Mosque Shooting. Will President Trump Get Thomas Massie’s Scalp? Iran Bombing on Hold. Mangione Babes Get Press Passes. Potty Policies of Graham Plattner. More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

Finally, the relative of a mass shooting suspect notified the police beforehand. A mother’s call to the San Diego police department preceded Monday’s shooting at the Islamic Center that left three dead (plus the two suspects):

The police department received a call Monday morning about a runaway juvenile from the mother of one of the suspects, [Police Chief] Wahl said. She reported that she believed her son was suicidal, and that he had taken three of her weapons and departed in her car with a companion, both of them clad in camouflage clothing.

The information led to police using license plate recognition technology to search for the missing juvenile, police said. As they were searching just before noon Monday, a call came in about the shooting at the Islamic Center, Wahl said. Officers arrived at the scene to find three dead men outside the mosque. One was a security guard, he said, who probably helped prevent a far graver tragedy.

A terrifying video showed small children being evacuated from a school in the Islamic Center’s complex. No children were injured. The two teenage suspected gunmen were found dead of self-inflicted gunshot wounds in a BMW near the complex. They have been identified:

The alleged gunmen in a shooting rampage that left three people dead outside a San Diego mosque have been identified as 17-year-old Cain Clark and 18-year-old Caleb Velasquez, according to a law enforcement source.

At least one of the suspects took a weapon from their parents’ home and left a suicide note that talked about racial pride, a law enforcement source told The Post.

Clark attended Madison High School and was a standout wrestler, according to the school’s social media page. …

Anti-Islamic writings were found in the suspects’ vehicle and “hate speech” was written on the firearms used in the shooting, according to the source.

More on Nazi messages on suspects’ gear. The shooting is being investigated as a hate crime. The mother’s call came too late, but I can’t help thinking she deserves credit for trying.

The idea has been growing that the U.S. will have to engage in a renewed bombing campaign to resolve the Iranian war. But President Trump has called off an apparently planned resumption of active hostilities. The president says he received a promising new peace plan at the last minute.

President Trump has not, however, called off active hostilities in his campaign to unseat Kentucky Rep. and libertarian gadfly Thomas Massie, whose primary today is one of several important ones. Bill McGurn of the Wall Street Journal addresses the Kentucky primary:

Tuesday is judgment day in Kentucky.

The Republican primary in the state’s Fourth Congressional District is a contest between seven-term incumbent and MIT graduate Rep. Thomas Massie and challenger Ed Gallrein, a farmer and former U.S. Navy SEAL who earned four bronze stars. Everyone knows this fight is between Donald Trump and Mr. Massie, the president’s most outspoken Republican critic in the House. …

Polls have shown the race is very close. Earlier on, Mr. Massie seemed to have the edge, but the New York Times reports that two new polls—from GrayHouse and SoCal Strategies—show Mr. Gallrein up by 7 points.

If that holds, Mr. Massie could be the president’s second scalp in less than a week. 

The first scalp was that of Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, who was defeated in his primary. Cassidy voted to convict in Impeachment II. President Trump settled his lawsuit against the IRS and the Treasury Department over the leaking of his tax returns, and as a result, a $1.7 billion “anti-weaponization” fund has been established to redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare. The liberal Axios dubs this “a gold rush for Trumpworld.”

Adult Content. In other political news—or is it potty news?—a Nazi tattoo is not the only thing Maine’s Democratic Senate Graham Platner needs to hide:

Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, who is already facing criticism over past Reddit posts, made graphic sexual comments on his now-deleted account about masturbating in portable toilets and explicit graffiti found in military restrooms.

In one March 2017 post on Reddit’s r/Military forum, Platner responded to a discussion about nostalgic military smells by writing: “I still have to jerk off every time I sit in a portas—-er… that blue water smell conditioned me.” 

The archived posts were made under “P-Hustle,” a now-deleted Reddit account that Platner previously acknowledged was his.

In another post from March 2021 on Reddit’s r/USMC forum, Platner described a crude penis drawing inside a portable toilet while deployed overseas.

Moving from Bad Habits to Bad Ideas. How much fun is it that Kamala Harris, the tutti-fruitti salad of political discourse, has come up with the nonsensical notion that there are no bad ideas? Jonathan Turley sets her straight in “Sorry, Kamala: ‘No bad ideas’ is a uniquely bad idea.” One of Harris’ ideas—packing the Supreme Court—gets a bad review from Jed Rosenfeld at The Free Press.

Bad News. The May 6 teenagers’ brawl inside a D.C. Chipotle near the Navy Yard was something. This USA TODAY article provides diagrams of how the incident unfolded and comments on the truly disturbing event. U.S. Attorney for the District Jeanne Pirro indicated that the parents of the teens could be arrested, and the article asks if arrests have happened yet.

Arguably Worse. The supporters of Luigi Mangioni, on trial for the alleged assassination of a health executive, appear as the “Ghouls Next Door” on the cover of the New York Post this morning—mostly young women. City Hall has given these young women press passes:

Standing outside of court, the gruesome trio — Abril Rios, Ashley Rojas and Lena Weissbrot — proudly showed off their press credentials like fan girls finally getting backstage passes to meet their favorite K-pop group.

They obviously weren’t there to report on the hearing. They were there to endorse and justify the cold-blooded Midtown murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

“I’m standing on business, f—k Brian Thompson. I don’t give a flying f—k he died,” Rojas told reporters.

New York is also in the grips of a Long Island Rail Road strike, which City Journal says Governor Kathy Hochul could end decisively. Many striking workers make more than $100,000 a year. Oh, and also in the grips of a mayor, who won’t rein in Carter-esque spending. A Renaissance man, Mayor Mamdani has just re-released his Palestinian-themed film—it has a secret, if you watch carefully.

For a dead while male, Thucydides has been having a good run since the China summit. “Trump, Taiwan and the ‘Thucydides Trap’” is the headline on Gerard Baker’s WSJ column today. Baker writes:

The lessons you draw vary according to your priors. … Perhaps China is Athens, the rising power riding roughshod over allies and foes alike, misinterpreting its heady ascent for inevitable hegemony and winding up being humiliated by the steady incumbent power.

The only reliable lesson is that there is no inevitability in great-power rivalry. Wise leadership, prudent judgment, strategic patience, the maintenance of alliances, domestic cohesion, promotion of economic dynamism—these are all choices that trump destiny in the pursuit of national greatness. We have only to make the right ones.

Thucydides certainly had staying power. The same cannot be said for former Vice President Al Gore, whose “Long and Persistent Record of Miserable Failure” Kyle Smith reviews in the Wall Street Journal’s “Free Expression” section. Congratulations to iconoclast Alex Berenson, whose good ideas have been vindicated.

Ms. Must is off tomorrow. She returns Thursday.

Third Assassination Attempt at Ritzy DC Media Dinner. Drawing a Straight Line: From Hasan Piker to California Teacher Cole Allen. Obama Wonders What Motive Might Be. More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

Thank God the third time wasn’t a charm.

President Trump dodged another bullet, the third assassination attempt of President Trump on record. This time the would-be White House Correspondents’ Association dinner assassin left behind a manifesto that makes his motives crystal clear.  

Except for the willfully blind brigade who hide behind “the search for a motive.” Yes, that includes Barack Obama. In a mealy-mouthed X post the ex-President opined that “it’s incumbent upon all of us to reject the idea that violence has any place in our democracy.” Ya think?

Begging to differ is alleged shooter Cal Tech grad Cole Allen, 31, a teacher (why am I not surprised?), who emailed his “manifesto” to his family 10 minutes before the attack. Which is decidedly inconvenient but not an insurmountable obstacle for the “search for a motive” crowd. The dinner took place at the Washington Hilton (which, alas, does not have an unblemished record with regard to gunmen and Presidents) (via CBS linked above):

The White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting suspect wrote a “manifesto” that stated he planned to target Trump administration officials, “prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest,” according to a copy obtained by CBS News. 

Cole Allen, 31, wrote that law enforcement, hotel employees and guests weren’t his intended targets but that he would still attack them to get to the administration, adding: “I really hope it doesn’t come to that.”

Allen’s “screed,” which the New York Post published yesterday began “Hello, everybody!” and called President Trump “a pedophile, rapist, and traitor,” familiar TDS themes showing. Allen outlined his “rules of engagement”—i.e., he said he would not kill Secret Service agents, Capitol police, or guests unless necessary. Curiously, the manifesto said he would not attack FBI Director Kash Patel, who was present at the dinner.

The scene was shocking. Guests hid under tables (and here and here) as the Secret Service and law enforcement officers rushed into the ballroom, some with weapons drawn, to remove the president and administration officials from harm’s way. The New York Post’s Miranda Devine writes about president Trump’s masterful presser shortly after the attempt:

Two hours later, he was at the podium in the White House press briefing room — named after James Brady, the White House press secretary shot in the head and paralyzed in the 1981 assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan outside the same Washington Hilton hotel.

The historical echo was not lost on any of the hastily assembled journalists still dressed in their black-tie finery.

If his Trump-deranged critics could be honest with themselves for a moment, they would admit that the president’s remarks that night were pitch-perfect. 

Wearing his tuxedo, he offered calm reassurance, wry humor, and even kindness to the shaken reporters and to a nation sick of ongoing political violence.

He called on Weijia Jiang, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, who had been sitting next to him on stage that night, to ask the first question, complimenting the CBS News reporter with whom he has had an acrimonious relationship.

“Madam chairman,” he said, “I just want to say you did a fantastic job. What a beautiful evening.”

Then he quipped: “And after that, it’s very tough for her to ask a killer question.”

The president called for unity and demanded that the WHCA dinner be held again within 30 days. Faith Bottum of the Wall Street Journal says that Trump stood tall under fire.

An editorial in the Wall Street Journal is headlined “A ‘Friendly Federal Assassin’ in Washington” (that’s what Allen called himself) also said that Trump hit the right notes. The WSJ editorial also reminds us of what we don’t need:

Rep. Ro Khanna, the California Democrat with his own designs on the White House, called Sunday for a commission on political violence. But we don’t need a study group to tell Americans how to behave. We need our political and media classes to stop talking and writing in apocalyptic terms and restore reason to political debates. We need to revive the traditional moral line that violence is unacceptable.

Trump was more obstreperous later on “60 Minutes.” (And here.) Security concerns at the Hilton turn out to be a boost for the ballroom. The Free Beacon explores Allen’s Bluesky posts, Kamala Harris support, and attendance at “No Kings” event. Please, somebody, find a motive! The Free Press’s lead story early this morning is an editorial that finds the WHCA dinner attack “only the latest assault on the foundations of our way of life.” Suzy Weiss in the same outlet had a takeaway from the evening: “Dudes Rock.” Weiss writes:

It was a big night for men who use the word ‘vehicle,’ opine on the Roman Empire, and show up as heroes when we actually need them.

Ms. Must was delighted that National Review drew a straight line from the violence advocated last week in the New York Tines by leftie darling Hasan Piker and Saturday’s near tragedy. George Washington University law professor and Fox Contributor Jonathan Turley also penned a good column on the “moral monstrosity” of the New York Times Hasan Piker podcast. Victor Davis Hanson writes about mainstreaming hate against the president.

Sadly, Ms. Must doesn’t expect the likes of Piker & Co. to refrain from putting targets on the backs of those they oppose. But the Wall Street Journal has a good editorial on “One of ‘the Rich’ Answers Mamdani’s Insult.” New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Piker ally, stood in front of hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin’s apartment to put a target on Griffin’s back. Griffin may decline to build a multi-billion-dollar project in New York. The Editors:

Stigmatizing the rich by name is popular on the left these days, in the manner advised by Saul Alinsky. It’s good to see at least someone fighting back. More CEOs and others will have to do so if the U.S. is going to defeat what is becoming an ugly campaign to turn America into a socialist state.

The WHCA dinner isn’t the only sacred institution (just kidding) under attack. Mollie Hemingway, whose new book on Justice Alito is making waves, writes that the collegiality of the Supreme Court is dangerously threatened. Rep. Elise Stefanik’s recent book, meanwhile, is hailed as providing an antidote to Ivy League decay in a review of her new book, “Poisoned Ivies,” by Danielle Shapiro at City Journal:

Stefanik anchors her diagnosis of elite American academia in the now-infamous congressional hearings during which she pressed the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania until they admitted that endorsing the genocide of Jews did not necessarily violate their institutions’ codes of conduct. Drawing on statistical data, documentary evidence, and individual stories, Stefanik demonstrates that this sort of “academically lazy moral bankruptcy” is entrenched across the elite universities and within the bureaucracy of each school.

It’s easy to get lost in Stefanik’s “catalog of horrors,” but her accounts reveal four types of institutional deterioration: financial dependencies, administrative double standards, faculty radicalization, and physical violence….

Stefanik has shown how universities have abandoned their commitments. It’s up to the American people and lawmakers to get them back on a more constructive path.

“Why Can’t Americans Buy More Affordable Health-Care Plans?” in City Journal proposes that households should be able to enroll in plans exempt from ACA rules, which would help to reduce costs. Chris Pipes concludes:

One-size-fits-all coverage may be an inevitable consequence of single-payer health care systems. It need not be a feature of American private insurance.

Looks like Jerome Powell won’t be the man who came to dinner (and wouldn’t leave). Senator Thom Tillis will vote yes for Fed head nominee Kevin Warsh. Fox Digital has a series of updates on the Iran situation. As some wag said, looks like Iran’s leaders are reading MSNBC Now and think they’re winning. They seem to think they have more bargaining chips than is the case.

Seizing Kharg Island? College Newspaper Apologizes for Correctly Calling Murder Suspect Illegal. Kimmel Sneers: Markwayne Mullins Is a … Plumber. More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

President Trump “wants a speedy end” to the Iran War, but Iran maintains it has no plans for negotiations with the U.S. Hmm. Could it be that Iran—which just lost naval chief who was responsible for closing the Strait of Hormuz—is being a bit unrealistic?

The legacy media in the U.S. isn’t going to explore that notion. However, Allister Heath, the U.K. Telegraph columnist does, writing that Trump hatred is so pervasive among members of the “expert” class that they are underestimating U.S. achievements.

AEI’s Danielle Pletka talks to retired four-star General Jack Keane about President Trump’s endgame in Iran. “They would have to surrender to us in major concessions all the things that we are physically taking away from them to include keeping the Strait of Hormuz open,” General Keane tells Pletka. Meanwhile, Israeli General Yoav Gallant’s Free Press headline is “How to Finish the Job in Iran.” Gallant’s argument:

Iran must be compelled to accept conditions that end its nuclear threat and regional aggression. The way to do that is to seize its greatest choke point: Kharg Island.

Two overlooked angles in the Iran war. Sadanand Dhume writes that the overthrow of the mullah regime in Iran would have a beneficial ripple effect on Muslims worldwide, while Matthew Koenig argues with a U.S. win in Iran could spell the end of rogue states.

“Juries Take the Lead in the Push for Child Online Safety” is the New York Times headline on a story about two expensive verdicts that went against social media giants:  

In Los Angeles on Wednesday, a jury decided in favor of a plaintiff who had claimed that Meta and YouTube hooked her with addictive features — a verdict validating a novel legal strategy holding the companies accountable for personal injury. And a day earlier in New Mexico, a jury found Meta liable for violating state law by failing to safeguard users of its apps from child predators.

“Big Tech Invincibility Is Over,” says a New York Post headline, while a Wall Street Journal editorial (“The Social-Media Shakedown Begins”) harumphs:

A Los Angeles jury on Wednesday held Meta Platforms and Google’s YouTube liable for a 20-year-old woman’s personal troubles. The schadenfreude will be overwhelming—nail the billionaires! But using a novel product liability theory to shake down companies won’t help young people and isn’t a good way to make law.

You really can’t beat Politico’s elegiac description of Congress not doing its job:

An overwhelming sense of frustration and despair has overtaken Congress as lawmakers try to clinch a deal to end a nearly six-week shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security as a previously scheduled holiday recess looms.

An overwhelming sense of frustration looms over Congress, the Congress that won’t end the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (here and here)? The shutdown that leaves us all vulnerable and TSA agents unpaid? That Congress?  

There are some people who are trying to help out at our airports. They are called ICE agents. But ICE agents may be the only federal employees the top tier of the left despises (D.C.’s Washingtonian magazine even tells you how to contribute to nonprofits to aid fired federal bureaucrats, who are likeable to the genteel left!).

In a column headlined “The Dems Propaganda of Constant Lies Are Getting Americans Killed” Miranda Devine writes about the “false narratives” that are getting people killed, including attacks on ICE agents:

We see how it works this week as the mendacious trio of Connecticut Democrat Sen. Richard Blumenthal, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate counterpart Chuck Schumer claimed in unison that ICE agents helping ease TSA lines at airports this week will “brutalize and kill” you and kidnap your children.

In fact, ICE agents are kindly giving stranded passengers bottles of water, helping with their luggage, and performing tasks that free up TSA workers who have just missed their third paycheck — thanks to the Democrats.

Unlike fired federal bureaucrats, who sat behind desks and had the power to dole out federal grants for, say, drag queen kabuki shows, ICE agents fall on the wrong side of the genteel left sympathy divide. And let’s face it—there’s a whiff of working class about ICE. Not like those sympathetic bureaucrats. New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill, meanwhile, “will not tolerate” ICE agents wearing masks in her state (they don’t wear masks in the safer airport environment).

Sheridan Gorman, a Chicago college student who allegedly was killed execution-style by an illegal alien, seems to have fallen on the wrong side of the sympathy divide, too. Regarding the murder, Sheridan’s college newspaper issued an apology—for correctly calling the alleged executioner an illegal immigrant. We’re all familiar with a Chicago pol’s “wrong place, wrong time” explanation for Sheridan’s death. Disgraced former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who spent time in prison with gangbangers, put forward the theory that the suspect was participating in a gang initiation.

Twofer. Unlike ICE agents and Sheridan Gorman, this person must have fallen on the correct side of somebody’s sympathy divide—he’s illegal and trans—or how else to explain a six-month sentence for the sexual assault of a 14-year-old boy in Manhattan? Well, it’s in Manhattan—that does help explain it.

Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin falls on the other side of late-night snoot Jimmy Kimmel’s snobbery divide. I mean, my gawd, the man is a plumber:

“Trump’s got a whole new generation of thinkers lined up, including his newly confirmed secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne ‘Chuck Mike Bruce Dave’ Melon — Mullin. Maybe melon’s better,” Kimmel said. “He’s the now former senator of Oklahoma. Before he was elected to the Senate, Markwayne Mullin was a low-level MMA fighter and a plumber. That’s right. We have a plumber protecting us from terrorism now. It worked for Super Mario. Why not Markwayne?”

After his father’s death, when Mullin was 20, the future Cabinet member turned his family’s small plumbing business into a multimillion-dollar concern. Here’s wish Kimmel a broken pipe and leaky faucets.

Adapting a line from the Kamala Harris campaign, columnist Karol Markowicz says, “We’re not going back.” “New York’s Hochul Drove Me to Florida — Now She’s Begging Me to Return. Not Happening” is the headline on a Fox Digital piece by Markowicz:

Hochul said some “patriotic” rich people have stepped up to help fill the state’s budget gap, and that, sure, it’s OK to write her a check. But if you really want to help, Hochul implored her wealthy supporters, “visit Palm Beach and see who you can bring back home, because our tax base has been eroded.”

Hochul sounded annoyed as she delivered that last line, as if it is the fault of her supporters — who are writing her checks to sustain her struggling state — that their wealthy friends have left for sunnier pastures.

Her comments were surprising because, well, Hochul played a large role in forcing those Palm Beachers out in the first place. In 2022, Hochul said, “Just jump on a bus and head down to Florida, where you belong, OK? Get out of town because you don’t represent our values.”

Hochul apparently is also getting cold feet about climate change mandates.

Ya Think? “‘You Lose Your Credibility’: Democrats Warn against Turning a Blind Eye to a Colleague’s Misconduct” is a Politico headline. The colleague is three-term Florida Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who faces federal criminal charges for alleged multimillion dollar fraud.

Savannah Guthrie gave an anguished interview with her old colleague Hoda Kotb about her mother’s disappearance:

“And to think of what she went through. I wake up every night in the middle of the night, every night,” she told Kotb. “And in the darkness, I imagine her terror. And it is unthinkable, but those thoughts demand to be thought. And I will not hide my face. But she needs to come home now.”  

Oopsie. Ms. Must got carried away with a headline yesterday. I promoted the Democrat who flipped a state legislature seat in Florida to the U.S. Congress in my headline. She is President Trump’s representative in the state legislature, not the U.S. House of Representatives. Speaker Johnson, please forgive me.

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.”

FBI Provides Description of Guthrie Abductor. Dem Pols Pursue “Trans” Activism Like Ahab Did the Whale. Teachers’ Unions Resort to Lawfare. Pritzker’s People. More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

Nearly two weeks after the puzzling disappearance of Today co-host Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy, there are finally some developments:

The FBI has released new identifying details about the suspect who kidnapped Nancy Guthrie — and has doubled its initial cash reward for information leading to a break in the case.

“Today, the FBI is increasing its reward up to $100,000 for information leading to the location of Nancy Guthrie and/or the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in her disappearance,” the FBI’s Phoenix office posted on X.

Forensic analysis of doorbell camera footage at the 84-year-old’s Tucson, Ariz., home has revealed several identifying factors about the masked, armed abductor who was seen on her doorstep, officials announced.

Nancy’s alleged kidnapper is a male, approximately 5’9” to 5’10” tall, with an average build, the FBI Phoenix office said. He was also wearing a black, 25-liter “Ozark Trail Hiker Pack” backpack in the doorbell video, authorities added.

Meanwhile, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos disputes claims that he withheld essential physical evidence from the FBI in Mrs. Guthrie’s disappearance. “Not even close to the truth,” the sheriff said Thursday on the NBC Tucson affiliate KVOA. The New York Post has a curious story proposing that a hostage negotiator offer the abductor immunity in exchange for the return of Mrs. Guthrie. One hates to ask, but how likely is it that the 84-year-old has survived this terrible ordeal? Savannah Guthrie posted old clips of her mother and the Guthrie siblings when they were younger:

“Our lovely mom,” Savannah Guthrie wrote in the caption Thursday, alongside a yellow heart. “We will never give up on her. Thank you for your prayers and hope.” 

Neighbors were asked to make their own security videos available to investigators.

Are you still boiling that Canadian authorities were so solicitous that they might offend a dead “trans”-identifying mass shooter that they identified him as a “female in a dress”?  I am — and I am fortunately not alone in my righteous indignation. The Federalist (“Anti-Truth Media Bend Over Backward to Call Canadian Trans School Shooter by His Preferred Pronouns”) observes:

Innocent civilians are dead at the hands of another alleged trans-identifying killer. And as per usual, media propagandists’ biggest concern is whether they’re referring to him with the correct pronouns.

Shouldn’t feminists and sociologists be concerned that this gives a distorted representation of women and violent crime? Here is a picture of a 12-year-old shot in the head while she was trying to protect her friends. According to a survivor, the shooter had vowed to “finish off” his family, including his pro-trans activist mother, Jennifer. Just please don’t misgender him, okay?

Demonstrating that they have their priorities straight, Democratic lawmakers are embracing trans activism “like Ahab chasing that whale.”

Shutdowns are the way we govern now. A partial government shutdown will almost certainly hit the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats detest ICE because meanies there are deporting “our neighbors,” so they are voting not to fund DHS. Ironically, ICE is a part of DHS, which is already funded through 2029.

Speaking of funding, teachers’ unions have always been flush with cash. But school choice is giving them a run for their money – actually, more like competition in educating kids. “Teachers Unions Get Desperate” is the headline of Kimberley Strassel’s Wall Street Journal column. Strassel writes that the unions are filing suits they have no chance of winning just to harass school-choice advocates:

Antichoice plaintiffs “usually file lawsuits right before families sign up for the program just to be particularly cruel. They know they’ll lose nearly every case, but delaying or enjoining the programs in any way is the last-ditch effort to slow maximum uptake for families,” says Tommy Schultz, CEO of the American Federation for Children.

Many suits are striking out. …

Democrats will have to decide how much longer to stick with this unraveling cartel. School choice is out of the bottle, experiencing exponential growth. 

Senate hearings are often just grandstanding, but two Republican Senators drew blood yesterday. Power Line had a great item on Senator Josh Hawley’s exchange with Ellison, as did Townhall. Senator Ron Johnson added that Ellison had egged on violence and was responsible for the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Ellison got a whacking, but he still appeared confident.

Speaking of L’Étoile du Nord, as Minnesota is nicknamed, Governor Walz is asking for a $10 million relief package for small businesses harmed by the immigration situation. It might have been simpler if Minnesota had just obeyed the law and nobody had gotten hurt. Let’s hope the package won’t include too many future “learning” centers.

Pritzker’s Peeps. “In the Midwest, Anti-ICE Democrats Are Failing America” is the headline on a Real Clear Politics story:

Ground Zero is the Midwest, including my home state of Illinois. The state has convened multiple public commissions to undermine the Trump administration’s push to deport criminal illegal aliens — named “Operation Midway Blitz” — and vilify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a “paramilitary force” terrorizing the region.

Illinois’ so-called “leadership” is to blame. Right after President Trump’s resounding 2024 victory on the very issue of border security, Pritzker picked his side: “You come for my people, you come through me.” He repeated the same message in October, when Operation Midway Blitz was supposed to be completed.

Apparently, Pritzker’s “people” are murderers, rapists, and pedophiles who are here illegally. Why aren’t they military veterans who proudly served our country? Why aren’t they police officers trying to keep our streets safe, despite dangerous leftist rhetoric that scapegoats anyone with a badge?

Virginia won’t be purple for the midterms if the state legislature passes — as it will — a new proposal:

Democratic state lawmakers in control of the Virginia legislature are fast-tracking a proposed new congressional map that would give the competitive state up to four more left-leaning U.S. House districts in time for this year’s midterm elections.

“Moderate” Governor Abigail Spanberger is expected to sign it next week.

As a second U.S. aircraft carrier is being sent to the Middle East, Bernard-Henri Levy wonders, “Is Help Still on the Way for Iranian Protesters?” He writes:

I hope that the American armada deployed in the Red Sea, in the Gulf of Oman and at the entrance to the Persian Gulf isn’t a mere negotiating backdrop, bargaining chip or communications ploy, but that as I write, it is identifying its targets, pinpointing the weaknesses in enemy defenses, mapping the nerve centers of power — that it is preparing to strike.

The time for regime change has come. That is what Mr. Trump promised the women and men who, bare-handed and at the risk of their lives, defied this murderous regime when he announced that “help is on the way.”

The study of the humanities has fallen on hard times. A piece in The Atlantic says that the future of the humanities lies in the hands of the multibillion-dollar Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. I tend to think the fate of the humanities lies with grassroots parents who start small classical schools — or curious students who sign up for Latin and get hooked on the riches of our civilization.

Ms. Must wishes she had a smile emoji to use for RFK Jr. explaining why he was not afraid of getting Covid. Savor it, Townhall suggests — but maybe don’t quote it in a family blog.

More Super Bowl halftime fallout: For classicist Victor Davis Hanson, Bad Bunny’s degeneracy evoked that of Satyricon (“Most of Bunny’s lyrics were raunchy and demented, and likely out-Epsteined the imagination of the late Jeffrey Epstein”), while Robby Soave spotted something wholesome in the competing halftime show put on by TPUSA – TPUSA gained a million new supporters immediately after their show.  

Wishing you a happy Valentine’s Day tomorrow. As we’ve long said at IW, Valentine’s Day is a great time to bring back Cupid.

We hope you’ll get a box of chocolates. You should also read IW’s Hadley Heath Manning’s important new report, The Dating Decade.

‘Trans’ Gaslighting; No, Canada Shooter Was Not ‘Female in a Dress.’ Guthrie Glove. REAL Epstein Files. Seeking a Rich Sugar Daddy—Your Friends at WaPo. More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

The initial description was fishy. Early reports identified the shooter in the terrible mass shooting in Canada as “a female in a dress.” But was this accurate?   

Powerline seems to have been the first to question this curious description. The post was headlined “Another Trans Mass Shooting?” Remove that question mark.

Here is how the New York Times describes the shooter, who has been identified as Jesse Van Rootselaar:

Ms. Van Rootselaar was biologically born male and began transitioning to female six years ago, Mr. McDonald said. He added that the police would continue identifying her as a female. He said that the authorities were not yet able to say why the suspect had carried out the murder spree, one of the worst in Canadian history.

Here’s a picture of Van Rootselaar. Look like a female to you? The more reliable New York Post calls him “transgender” in the headline and describes his sick massacre:

The transgender high school dropout who gunned down his mother and stepbrother before killing six others at a British Columbia, Canada school was seen for the first time in resurfaced photos posted by his family – including one eerie snap showing the smiling teen holding a rifle. 

Jesse Van Rootselaar, the 18-year-old ex-student who went on a gun-wielding rampage at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, was spotted straight-faced in several pictures posted by his grandmother on Facebook for his 14th birthday.

“Happy 14th birthday to our grandson Jesse !! Love you always !! XOXO,” the post from August 2021 read.

Van Rootselaar launched the horrifying attack at a private residence in the remote community before continuing the carnage at the high school, where authorities said he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

In the same honest media outlet, Bethany Mandel calls upon the mainstream press to “stop gaslighting” us about “the reality of trans shooters.” Mandel writes:

The tragedy in British Columbia is not an isolated incident. 

Over the past several years, a disturbing number of mass attacks have involved individuals who identified as transgender.

In Nashville, a transgender-identified shooter murdered six people at a Christian school.

In Minneapolis, another attacker with documented gender-identity turmoil targeted a church.

The alleged murderer of Charlie Kirk had transgender associations and beliefs.

Yet the media insist that violence by mentally ill people and their transgender identity is mere coincidence.

The Federalist comments on “an epidemic of transgender violence” and has this about the Canadian shooter’s mother:

An Instagram account purportedly belonging to Jesse’s mother, Jennifer, appears to show she was a trans activist who posted that “you have any idea how many kids are killing themselves over this kind of hate,” adding “ProtectTransKids.”

When it comes to the “trans” issue, it’s not only the public at large that suffers from gaslighting. “What I Suffered Being ‘Transgender’” is an eloquent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by Soren Aldaco, an Independent Women Ambassador, who is suing the medical professionals who gaslight her, encouraging her to undergo radical surgery to “transition” into a male.

There is a belated break in the Nancy Guthrie case. Investigators have found a black glove dropped near Mrs. Guthrie’s yard, potentially a breakthrough. A retired FBI agent believes the suspect is an amateur—in which case, he or she has had a pretty good run so far.

“A Welcome Jobs Rebound” is a headline on a Wall Street Journal editorial on the Labor Department’s January jobs report.

The economy created a net 130,000 new jobs in the first month of the year, according to the Labor Department. But the story is better than that because the private economy created 172,000, offset by a decline of 42,000 jobs in government.

The Biden years were a boom time for government, and the Trump course correction is much needed. …

A major complication in this data is the impact of the Administration’s mass deportation policy. The National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) looked at the BLS data and found a decline of 534,000 foreign-born workers in the U.S. since a peak in March 2025. That’s a reduction of about 1.4 million foreign-born workers than would be expected from previous government estimates. ….

NFAP says the unemployment rate for U.S.-born workers was 4.7% in January, compared to 4.3% in January 2025. The jobs that foreign workers filled may simply go away over time, as the deportation wave continues. But at least in January the labor market showed signs of a welcome rebound.

Meanwhile, the number of voluntary self-deportations skyrockets as (some) illegal immigrants find that the Trump administration means business.   

I’m Napoleon. And I Voted. The Free Beacon has a truly smashing piece on the Mamdani official, whose previous pursuits included registering psychotic people to vote. Alister Martin, New York’s new Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Chief, helped provide help for doctors to register mental patients to vote:

Citing the “therapeutic” benefits of voting, the institute has used Vot-ER’s tools since at least 2021 to register patients hospitalized for schizophrenia, suicidal thoughts, and life-threatening addictions. Some of those patients had been involuntarily committed, raising thorny questions about informed consent and the use of vulnerable people as political pawns.

History Calling. President Trump’s intentions in Iran remain a mystery. “Serious Trump biographies in the decades ahead will begin with the decision he makes on Iran now,” Hugh Hewitt argues.

One door is marked “Truman/Reagan” and the other door is marked “Carter/Obama/Biden.”

President Donald Trump has to choose one. Again. And this time, the choice will define Trump’s place in history.

A New York Post editorial suggests “Iran’s rulers plainly fear US strikes — Trump should prove them right.” Former CIA analyst Martin Gurri writes that from Venezuela to Tehran, Trump keeps the world guessing—to his advantage.

In “The Real Epstein ‘Ring’” Barton Swaim debunks the usual take on the late pedo:

The Jeffrey Epstein files were supposed to uncover the financier’s sex-trafficking and blackmail operation. They haven’t, for the excellent reason that there was no such operation. …

Its nonexistence is, ironically, the main thing to emerge so far from the document dump. … The press purports to think the salient fact here is that Mr. Trump in 2019 claimed he knew nothing about Epstein’s creepy actions. But the salient point is that Mr. Trump in 2006 volunteered his view to the cops that Epstein’s behavior revolted him and is thus unlikely to have participated in it.

Today’s liberals spend a lot of energy discoursing on the American right’s pathologies, often justly. But it ought to bother them that 20 years ago the man they loathe most took a look at Jeffrey Epstein’s conduct and got the hell out of there.

Washington’s Neediest Cases. “Rich Liberals, Please Step Up and Save the Washington Post” is the headline on Michael Tomasky’s plea at The New Republic. Behind the paywall, but you get the gist. Laughter Is the Best Medicine. Townhall’s Kurt Schlichter has a different idea: indulge in some good old schadenfreude. He writes:

There’s a glorious symmetry in their suffering, but there’s so much more. There’s their incessant whining about Jeff Bezos refusing to continue to subsidize their little bubble, like some bratty girl at Wellesley who graduates and finds that Daddy is cutting off her money and she’s got to actually work. Did these people actually work? They told themselves consistently how important and vital their “work” was ….

Personally, I love their incessant whining that Jeff Bezos somehow owes them sinecures. Why, he’s got so much money he could easily continue paying for them to provide zero value! It’s his moral duty! One even referred to his “stewardship” of the Washington Post in a typically overwrought X post. Stewardship? He’s a steward? What, like some sort of ink-stained Denethor? Well, they’ve got the funeral pyre part down.

What Does This Mean? Gallup will no longer chart presidential approval ratings. Gallup has been tracking them for 90 years. … Nina Shea asks what is next for Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong newspaper owner, behind bars at the behest of the communist regime in Beijing. Shea provides a glimpse of Lai’s life in prison through his daughter.