June 1, 2025

I WAS TOLD THIS WAS IMPOSSIBLE:

Posted at 8:30 am by Glenn Reynolds 101

ALL THE BEST PEOPLE TOLD ME WE WERE DOOMED:

Posted at 8:00 am by Glenn Reynolds 135

ENEMIES: A LOVE STORY. Democrats and Men. “One might think that $20 million would buy something more insightful than this, but then, this is the same party that triumphantly chose Tim Walz as its vice-presidential nominee, fully expecting him to be the answer to their gender gap problem. Or in other words, don’t hold your breath. In reality, the odds that the contemporary Democratic party will be able to win back men, now or in the foreseeable future, are vanishingly small. The party, as it is currently constituted, lacks both the will and the ability to make the changes that would be necessary to do so. What I mean by this is that the contemporary Democratic party is built on a handful of foundational notions that are, by and large, incompatible with the goal of appealing to men.”

When your platform is built by and for batshit crazy upper middle class white women, men are going to look elsewhere.

Posted at 7:30 am by Glenn Reynolds 193

FIVE YEARS AGO TODAY: How the BLM riots broke America.

On the night of 1 June 2020, almost exactly five years ago, gunshots rang out not far from my apartment in East Midtown Manhattan. As my wife and I anxiously scrolled news feeds, our kids — then ages three and one — slept, oblivious to the coruscating sirens that carried hints of chaos beyond our door. At 11pm, I went out to see it for myself: gangs of looters smashing stores down Lexington Avenue, while NYPD patrols stood pat, unwilling or unable to confront them. Black Lives Matter.

That night and its aftermath, I now believe, were the biggest factor behind the backlash rippling through US culture today. That was when a Covid-era tension finally snapped; and many millions resolved that every claim issuing from reputable authorities must be a lie. The beneficiaries: YouTube crackpots, semi-literate weightlifting bros, amateur Holocaust revisionists, manosphere goons, spittle-flecked “X” racists commanding huge audiences.

The political consequences: allowing the Trumpian Right and its new tech allies to justify a raft of self-interested, pro-oligarchic measures by simply gesturing at the very real bogeys of that era: woke, DEI, debanking, censorship. This, even as many of these same moves will only deepen the power imbalances — between corporations and consumers, individuals and institutions — cast into stark relief in the plague-and-pandemic year 2020.

Watching the looting on Lex that night, I told myself they wouldn’t bother with our block, bereft of any cool shops. I was wrong. By the time I returned to our building’s lobby, I spotted those roving packs moving down the street. Over the next four hours or so, I joined our two doormen as they kept vigil, unarmed, while more and more looters came, some clearly pausing to size up our lobby. We were spared, but a restaurant and a salon downstairs were smashed.

In the Bronx, a car deliberately slammed into a black NYPD sergeant, sending his body flying like a ragdoll. Another officer was run over by an SUV in the Village. I’d never felt so unsafe, and I’d filed datelines from northern Iraq during the ISIS takeover. In a place like Iraq, you know you’re dealing with war and terror, and as a reporter, you typically move with the security forces. This, by contrast, was our home, and the police were overwhelmed and seemingly ordered to stand down.

As unnerving as these events were, the mainstream-media coverage was somehow more so. By about 3am, when things seemed to calm down, one of the doormen tuned into a newscast on his iPhone: “Protests continue tonight throughout New York,” the anchor began. We both burst out laughing. Protests — mere protests — was how the local affiliate of a major network was describing what looked more like a scene of war.

Well yeah — they were fiery, sure. But for the most part, quite peaceful, according to CNN:

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 7:14 am by Ed Driscoll 257

FROM CEDAR SANDERSON AND SANFORD BEGLEY:   Supporting Ragnarok.

#CommissionEarned

Valhalla is no place for a loggie. But Master Sergeant (Logistics) Danny Pederson made a career error and died heroically in combat after thirty years of nice boring supply work. He woke up dead to learn he’s stuck in a nightmare of unending battle called Valhalla. Seems the recruiters lied about Valhalla too.

Now, the only hope he has is to carry out the mission given by a mysterious messenger. Whether he likes it or not, they have to support Ragnarok… if that battle can ever happen to bring everything to an end.

Danny’s pissed, and he just wanted to go fishing. He’s about to take Ragnarok to the throat of the gods themselves. After inventory is complete.

Posted at 7:00 am by Sarah Hoyt 4