AI is doing some impressive stuff. See an extremely clever parody of the Mamas and Papas’ California Dreaming featuring Gov. Newsom and Mayor Bass in clown paint, the CA grizzly bear hamming it up, and President Trump performing the flute solo. Great lyrics too.
California Freedom is genuinely entertaining, as well as politically on point. Enjoy!
Yesterday the Democrats held a series of rallies across the country under the banner of "No Kings." Their point being, one supposes, that President Trump has been acting king-like.
With the national legislatures quite evenly split, and the Senate's filibuster requiring 60 votes to override, the legislative branch is more than a little stymied. If the government is going to do anything, the executive branch will have to do it.
Trump as the executive has stepped up, and acted. Democrats are aghast. Hence their rallies.
The truth is this country has had no king since George III. His reign here ended in either 1776 with the Declaration of Independence or in 1783 when the revolutionary war ended, take your pick.
What worries Democrats is that Trump's popularity is more king-like than what most presidents achieve. As a showman, he "reads the room," plays to the crowd, and they love it.
So ... the US had no king last century, last decade, last year, and last week. Today, it still has no king, as I'm sure Trump would agree. It does have a hyperactive President, and I am happy about that.
A couple of posts ago, I had one with two charts showing population migrating from so-called “sanctuary” states to states where illegal immigrants are not welcome. There is an interesting side effect you might not have noticed.
While most internal migrants are conservatives moving from blue states to red, there are also a few progressives leaving blue states. Hence the modest growth experienced by true-blue Vermont and Colorado.
My conservative relatives in rural western CO hate that their state has become a destination for progressives fleeing the mess their policy preferences created back home on the coast.
US Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) forced his way into a press conference being held by DHS Secretary Noem, shouted at her, and was dragged out and handcuffed by security. He isn't a "famous face" like Rand Paul or Chuck Shumer and while he claimed to be a US Senator he didn't flash his ID.
It was straight up street theater, an attempt to embarrass Noem and the Trump administration. It could have worked as his D colleagues were quick to jump to his defense.
Except ... with no malicious intent toward Padilla ... Israel picked this evening to go to war against Iran. Talk about stepping on Padilla's moment of glory, they really sucked all the air out of his grandstanding. Karma is a bitch.
It's likely they also stepped all over the "No Kings" anti-ICE protests scheduled for this weekend. Trump's luck is legendary, you could almost forgive POTUS for believing God is on his side.
The editorial board of the Issues & Insights website quantify the migration from states favoring sanctuary for illegal immigrants and to states which support ICE's actions to remove illegal immigrants. Their charts cover the four years of the Biden presidency.
In case you haven't been paying attention, tonight Israel attacked Iran's nuclear sites, ballistic missile sites, and military command centers. Israel has also targeted specific leaders of the IRGC, and reportedly killed its leader.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has announced the attacks will continue until Iran's nuclear enrichment and weapon development programs are destroyed. As you can imagine, Israel is hunkered down expecting retaliatory strikes.
SecState Rubio has announced the attacks were undertaken unilaterally by the Israelis, who have declared they were left no choice when Iran refused to stop nuclear weapon development. Rubio further cautioned Iran to avoid retaliation against US personnel in the region, saying we have not been involved in these strikes. Implicit in his warning is that we are not now attacking Iran but will do so if we are attacked.
Iran has called for the death of Israel, which they call "the Little Satan" and of the United States which they call "the Great Satan." A view I share with many: if someone announces they seek your death, believe them and act accordingly.
Iran has been a theocratic pain the butt for their Arab neighbors, for Israel, for the entire region, and for the US. Regime change in Iran would be fully justified, I wish Israel well in this endeavor.
Riots in Los Angeles ... let me think ... almost as unusual as sunshine in Palm Springs. What I love is the irony of the rioters waving Mexican flags.
None of those doing the waving want LA to be part of Mexico. They fled Mexico, or at least transited it without being tempted to stay.
Indeed, if LA were somehow magically handed back to Mexico, the rioters would leave and head for Denver or Salt Lake City, or maybe Phoenix. The whole point of being an economic refugee is moving to a first world nation, which cartel-ridden Mexico definitely is not.
LA elected a mayor who idolized the late Fidel Castro, traveled to Cuba, and sides with the protestors. To punish the rioters will require bringing federal charges as local prosecutors will let them walk.
The CA governor is term-limited out of office in 2026 and would like to be the Dem. nominee for prez in 2028. This unrest doesn't put him in a favorable light, both he and the mayor are on the wrong side of the immigration issue, according to US voters.
OTOH, President Trump has stepped up to meet the challenge. I approve.
I wish I could be optimistic about the city of my birth, but I cannot. It seems to be on a downhill path and gaining momentum.
Politico reports (not behind paywall, for a change) that our diplomatic missions in Iraq have ordered an evacuation of all but skeleton staff. Spouses and children are to go home, and some diplomats as well. Gateway Pundit adds the drawdown extends to Kuwait, Bahrain and beyond (see below).
As I see it, there are two ways to read these 'tea leaves.' First, the nuclear talks with next door neighbor Iran are stalemated and kinetic strikes on Iran's nuclear installations are imminent. Therefore we are reducing the risk of reprisal to non-essential personnel.
Or second, as a way to suggest to Iran a not-distant attack. Thus perhaps getting those same talks restarted.
I suppose a third, remotely possible interpretation is that DC has finally become realistic about Iraq and decided to let the locals sort it out themselves without our hand-holding.
One thing it does not mean is "everything is fine, no worries. Open Source Intel posts the following on X.
The U.S. has directed all embassies within range of Iran — including those in the Middle East, parts of Eastern Europe, and North Africa — to activate emergency action committees and report back to Washington on their risk mitigation plans. This directive triggered today’s evacuation moves in Iraq.
Instapundit posts a quip by Chris Arnade, concerning attitudes toward immigration.
The entire immigration debate in US comes down to if you see this undisputed fact (we have an imported servant class) as a positive thing, or a negative thing.
I’m thinking there is quite a lot of truth in that assertion. It is another fine example of Miles’ Law, “where you stand depends on where you sit.”
An article in Foreign Affairs starts out with the description of finding an "extermination camp" in Mexico where one of the drug cartels was killing kidnapped children and young people, and disposing of their bodies. It adds:
It wasn’t the first one discovered in Mexico in recent years. It wasn’t even the biggest.
Then the article goes on to describe the difficulties Mexico's new President Sheinbaum has in dealing with corruption in her nation. Needless to say, these are manifold.
What is never explained is why cartels want to exterminate large numbers of children and youth. The article presumes the reader understands why cartels view this as important to do. I don't get the rationale.
Were they hostages whose parents have refused to pay ransom? Were they the beloved dependents of people resisting cooperation with the cartels?
Multiple "extermination camps" suggest a need to 'disappear' hundreds of individuals, many of them children. This feels more like the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia, or the Nazi's Auschwitz; not the Mafia 86ing a rival or making an example of a bodega owner who won't pay "protection."
Marc Thiessen is often a panelist on Bret Baier's Special Report. Here interviewed by Fox News' Shannon Bream, he describes the Trump administration's work-around for stymieing sanctuary cities.
Local officials can refuse to honor an ICE detainer, but they can’t refuse to honor a federal felony warrant. So the Trump administration has this thing called Operation Guardian Angel, where they are charging illegal migrants who reenter the country with felony illegal reentry, and then they are presenting the local jurisdictions with federal felony warrants, and they have to hand them over. So they’ve been handing over hundreds of illegal migrants to ICE, and this has set people off.
Outstanding, round up illegals entirely within the law. This has the advantage of labeling those so apprehended as felons who are therefore ineligible for asylum.
Anti-immigration enforcement riots in Los Angeles, the mayor and Governor siding (more or less) with the rioters. Trump sends in the National Guard. I do believe the summer ‘street festivities’ have begun in earnest.
Meanwhile polling shows public opinion supports the deportation of those here in the US without permission, the so-called “illegals immigrants.” And it turns out the NGOs supporting the rioters are funded by government grants, a misuse of tax revenues that should stop immediately.
I support what ICE is trying to accomplish. I hope you do so as well.
China announced the official end of its notorious "one child policy" less than 10 years ago, on Oct. 29, 2015. The policy was in effect for 35 years, having started in 1980.
Do the math, everyone younger than 45 serving the People's Liberation Army is an only child. The entire body of their actual combat forces is composed of only children, only sons.
In a culture like China's where sons are expected to care for aged parents, imagine how unpopular would be a war where every combat death creates a newly-childless couple facing old age with no caregiver. no living progeny.
It is probably no coincidence that the PLA is almost never deployed outside the country, and when it has been, they've started no wars. The last time the PLA went to war outside China and sustained severe casualties, was in Korea and hostilities there ended well before "one child" became policy.
It is just possible China has no intention of getting into a serious fight anywhere except in defense of its own territory, and "own territory" might exclude Taiwan, as it now seems to do in all but rhetoric.
China's CCP leaders have held the country together for something like 77 years. That's no small feat in a culture with a several thousand year history of internal strife, regional warlords, civil wars, and foreign intervention.
Perhaps China can, in the current parlance, "take the win" and let the rest of us do likewise? I suggest this as one of several possible paths the future may allow, rather than as a prediction.
