If I had to guess, the only memory we’ll have of Graham Platner in a year is as the punchline to a bad joke. A belated accusation is likely to be the rape that broke the camel’s back, because Totenkopf tat and sexting while married, etc., weren’t red flaggy enough. After all, as the millennial pixie argues, he had what young passionate Democrats were seeking in a senatorial candidate who had never before served in any public office.

Also liable for this disaster are the progressive operatives who recruited Platner and were so infatuated with his identity — a gruff, handsome oysterman with social democratic politics — that they failed to do their due diligence. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Platner’s top strategist, Dan Moraff, didn’t want to spring for a thorough background check, which can take weeks and cost around $20,000. “Moraff asked for an expedited, cheaper review to be done within days,” The Journal said.

Michelle Golberg bigly blames herself as well, for having come under Platner’s spell. Continue reading →

Trump made more money in the first year of his second term than he ever did as the “successful businessman” he purported to be. It wasn’t the stock market, as he claimed. It was mostly cryptocurrency.

President Trump reaped a stunning windfall in his first year back in the White House, including about $1.4 billion from his family’s cryptocurrency businesses, a new filing shows.

All told, the president pulled in at least $2.2 billion, a figure that includes other parts of his vast holdings, such as his real estate assets. That compares to a minimum of $622 million his enterprises pulled in for all of 2024, before he returned to the presidency.

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My running joke is that soccer (futball for you purists) is the favorite sport of people who feel baseball is too exciting. I don’t hate soccer. I just don’t like it, care about it or watch it. You are welcome to disagree. Many do, and that’s great too. But the international governing body of soccer, Fédération Internationale de Football Association, or FIFA as its commonly, known, has long been seen as a shady, borderline corrupt, association.

This was true even before FIFA invented a Peace Prize to give to Trump when he was sad not to have won the Nobel, to place alongside the trophy he glommed and the medal he pocketed. FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, is nothing if not pragmatic. He knows where his tongue must be stuck to get what he wants. Continue reading →

I remember well thinking as a child how fortunate I was to have been born in America. And I was, I’ve traveled extensively and love many other places, but America is my home. It has been very, very good to me, and I deeply appreciate all it has given me. I love America.

That the United States should be in such turmoil at this time, the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, is both troubling and understandable. Never has the integrity of the nation been under such stress, being pulled apart by the venal and ignorant radicals on the right and left. But that’s the nature of a free nation, that people are free to make choices, even if their choices are poor or corrupt. And we are free to make other choices, whether to stop the venal or ignorant or to stand up for the founding principles that have served to make this great nation what it is today. Continue reading →

It’s hot in Knoxville, and the AC at Seaton Castle isn’t cranking since the only outlet is being used by  the another, more critical appliance, making it a bit too sultry for his usual deep Friday thoughts. Instead, an oldie but goodie from Mud Lick.

Sheriff Roy Templeton finally had a day off. He’d told Deputy Miranda, his second in command, to hold all calls for the day unless the matter was nothing short of an active shooter scenario. Settling into his easy chair, Mud Lick’s top cop prepared to open his copy of Peter Thiel’s “Zero to One” and finally let the tension in his shoulders and neck release.

That’s when a loud buzzing noise emanating from the kitchen threatened to severely damage Sheriff Roy’s calm.

“Arlene!” Sheriff Roy yelled from the living room. “What in tarnation is that blasted noise?”

“It’s the dishwasher,” Mrs. Templeton yelled back. “It just started doing this and I have no idea why!” Continue reading →

Squandering public money on vanity projects, from a ballroom to an Arch, is bad enough, but at the very least it’s obvious. We know the monies are being spent. We know there are other things the money could be spent on. We know a choice was made and we can either be for it, against it, or ignore it. But there is a significant difference in kind when resources are diverted from their integral purpose to unadulterated vanity out of public view.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is assigning an army of 260 investigative analysts to a “priority” investigation related to the 2020 election in Fulton County, Ga., a reflection of President Trump’s ongoing push to prove his baseless claims that the 2020 election there was rigged.

The effort is outlined in an internal memo obtained by The New York Times and confirmed by a person familiar with the investigation. The memo says that the surge is part of a “priority” effort by Kash Patel, the director of the F.B.I. The analysts will work to complete “approximately 708 records checks,” according to the memo. The type of records being checked is unknown.

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After a two-day bench trial before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Miguel de la O, Precious Bland was acquitted of all counts by reason of insanity:

“As to count one, aggravated manslaughter, the defendant is not guilty by reason of insanity. As to count two of attempted murder in the first degree, the defendant is not guilty by reason of insanity. And as to count three attempted murder in the first degree, the defendant is not guilty by reason of insanity,” De La O said.

The state had accused Bland of intentionally drowning her 15-month-old daughter in a bathtub in 2021, and Judge de la O entered a judgment of acquittal. Bland’s defense lawyer, Larry Handfield, argued that she was suffering from a COVID-induced psychotic breakdown. Given the nature of the accusation, the age of the victim, the theory of defense, and the Court’s verdict, the stage was set for hysterics. And Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier delivered in schtick. Continue reading →

Over the years, I’ve decried efforts to redefine words and concepts in order to horseshoe current ideological shifts onto long-settled concepts. These ranged from the meaning of rape to the meaning of sex. It’s not a matter of whether these shifts were good policy, or desirable outcomes per se. They may well be, or not. That’s a separate debate. What mattered was that these were not what these words or concepts meant when they were used in the Constitution or laws. This was not our law, whether you liked it or not.

When Trump signed his Day One Executive Order redefining birthright citizenship, it received near-universal ridicule. Outside of a handful of radicals, it was a laughable effort to change what was unquestionably settled law as to the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. To add insult to injury, Trump tried to change it by presidential fiat, the absolute dopiest mechanism for trying to ram a spurious reinvention of the meaning of birthright citizenship down the throats of America. It was considered a joke, as was he for, inter alia, signing it. Continue reading →

It’s not that government by unaccountable bureaucracy is acceptable. It’s not, and over the years, as federal administrative agencies have been captured by the very people they were created to regulate, strayed from their legislated purpose into politicized realms to pursue ideological goals far beyond anything Congress authorized and grew into untouchable fiefdoms of their own that sneered at the idea that either court or public could hamper their total control over some niche of American society, it became clear that something had to change.

The first change was the Loper Bright decision, ending Chevron Deference. The next change was Trump v. Slaughter, holding that the president, as executive under Article II of the Constitution, had the inherent authority despite whatever limitations were crafted by Congress in the creation of a board, agency or commission to dictate who could hold a position in the Executive Branch. Continue reading →

Contrary to the fevered dreams of the woke, everything isn’t racism. That doesn’t mean, however, that a particular thing that the government does isn’t racist. Distinguishing between the two matters, the Supreme Court’s decision in Mullin v. Doe fails miserably to accomplish this critical task.

This case involves a challenge to the Trump Administration’s decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian migrants in the US. TPS status protects from deportation migrants who entered the US from countries where conditions such as war, violence, or natural disaster make it dangerous for them to return home.

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