Steve Bannon’s “flood the zone” strategy is brilliant, in a truly evil sort of way. One can barely keep up with the daily malfeasance, no less spend more than a few minutes thinking about it before the next day’s malfeasance takes its place on the front burner. For some, at least there is an effort made at rationalizing the impropriety, but there’s no excuse for the email directing the remaining staff at the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, to take the documents in its safe and shred them, and when the shredder breaks, burn them.

A senior official at the main U.S. aid agency, which is being dismantled by the Trump administration, told employees to clear safes holding classified documents and personnel files by shredding the papers or putting them into bags for burning, according to an email sent to the staff. Continue reading →

I’ve never had any desire to buy a Tesla save for the time I went to a dealership in California more than a decade ago and saw the original Tesla roadster. It was a very cool car, unlike the current crop that gives K-cars a run for their money on sexy appearance. But that made me an outlier on Long Island, where the streets are littered with Teslas owned by liberal Democrats who thought they were helping the environment by driving an EV. I bet they feel conflicted now.

Then there are the new owners of the Tesla monster truck, enough of which have been purchased that it’s no longer an oddity to see one on the road. My first impression was that they were peculiar, yet unattractive. Unlike the sedans, they were purchased by a different cohort that found them peculiarity attractive. Then again, there were people who bought the Pontiac Aztek, although not too many of them. Continue reading →

One of the least pleasant aspects of being principled is that you have to defend people whose ideology you find repugnant or idiotic. But that’s the test of principle, whether you’re prepared to fight for the rights you demand for the favored for those you despise. I despise Khalil. Free him.

Mahmoud Khalil was a graduate of Columbia who was deeply involved in the anti-Israel encampment and other related conduct. Whether you prefer to characterize it as anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian or pro-Hamas, Khalil has been convicted of no crime for his actions. It may be that he has engaged in criminal conduct. If so, then he should be arrested and prosecuted for what he did, and if it can be proven, then convicted. That’s how it works here, or at least how it’s supposed to work here. Continue reading →

When news broke that the Department of Defense had earmarked thousands of web pages for deletion, including the page about then-Col. Paul Tibbets’ B-29 Bomber, the Enola Gay, it seemed too stupid for words. Perhaps the Muskrats were too young to know why the superfortress was historically important. Perhaps their adoration of algos that picked up the word “gay,” newly forbidden in the war against DEI, led them to act without grasping that it was the name of a person rather than a term of sexuality. Either way, it was laughably idiotic. And yet, here they were, deleting 26,000 pages with the Enola Gay being one of them.

But that was dumb kids with an algo where a brain should be. It pales in comparison to the current interim, and pending nominee, for United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, Ed Martin. Continue reading →

Paul Clement will never be tainted as some bleeding heart lefty lawyer, not that such an animal exists or, if he exists, is necessarily wrong. When Southern District of New York Judge Dale Ho appointed him amicus for the purpose of trying to get an honest argument before making his decision on the government’s motion to dismiss the prosecution against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, the court knew what it was doing. After all, when prosecution and defense are holding hands and blowing kisses, it’s about as clear as it can be that the court isn’t getting any argument contrary to what the loving couple wants it to get.

And Paul Clement did not disappoint. Continue reading →

Prefatory Note: a prominent podcaster recently opined in the future our Netflix queues will consist of AI generated stories customized for our desires of the moment.

In an attempt to test this theory, I fed my script for “Glen the Grocery Store Greeter” to Grok and said “Add zombies.”

The following is the result.

COLD OPEN Continue reading →

Elon Musk called it “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,” which would be an accurate assessment if it wasn’t both obvious and a government program. Without the contributions of people working today, there would not be sufficient funding to pay the people on social security today. We’ve known this for decades, as anyone who remembers Al Gore’s cringey “lock box” analogy during a presidential debate.

But social security is not only wildly popular, but a program into which working Americans have paid throughout the work lives. That further reforms are needed, and maybe Gore wasn’t wrong about the “lock box,” is worthy of debate, but not even Trump is bold enough to admit that he wants to see it die. And yet, there’s Chainsaw Musk, busily doing what he does best. Continue reading →

Trump talked. And talked. And talked more. He was classic Trump, boasting about himself as “many people say.” Facts didn’t concern him. Humility was nowhere to be found. There was a hint of graciousness when he talked about the letter he received from Volodymyr Zelensky, though it might have more to do with being positioned to better serve Putin with Zelensky back in his pocket.

There was no sign of cognitive dissonance when his claims contradicted reality. He loves cops, but pardoned the January 6 cop beaters? He wants to balance the budget as he adds trillions for the national debt? His tariffs will devastate American farmers, not to mention most of America, but he loves farmers and pretends they love him? Continue reading →

Tariffs on Canada and Mexico? Eliminating offensive cybersecurity against Russia? Pausing aid to Ukraine? Indiscriminately cutting the federal workforce, closing national parks and eliminating the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s ability to perform its function to predict weather, from hurricanes to droughts to tsunamis. The cost savings have been miniscule. The disruption has been traumatic. There is little to no connection to fraud, waste and abuse, but one nation, and only one, applauds our president’s initiatives.

The problem is that it will be hard, if not impossible, to undo the damage if and when the president’s supporters come to realize that the deliberate dysfunction of a nation to assuage a president’s bruised ego and appease a dictator will neither bring down the price of eggs, make America great nor improve anyone’s life. Hate the Dems and the woke all you want. This isn’t an answer. Continue reading →

You go to law school. You take a bar review course. You study your butt off. You lie in bed awake with the fear of failure. You study some more. And then comes the day of the California bar exam and…

“I’ve never had this much despair and hopelessness,” said exam taker David Drelinger, a 2023 graduate of the California-accredited Lincoln Law School in Sacramento. He said he tried to start the exam more than 30 times, with the testing platform crashing each time a proctor logged on to his computer. Continue reading →