September 23, 2025

September 22, 2025

LIFE AT THE NYT: “Charlie’s approach was to engage his adversaries in endless, ongoing conversation — more and more speech. The commenter insists on an end to speech. That too is speech — saying you want an end to the speech on a topic you don’t want to have to speak about. It has an eloquent implication: The listener may assume you don’t have a powerful contradiction.”

Related:

They literally don’t know how to talk to people who disagree, and see it as an imposition.

Posted at 11:19 pm by Glenn Reynolds 24

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN “GENOCIDE” AND, YOU KNOW, ACTUAL GENOCIDE:

Posted at 11:13 pm by Glenn Reynolds 36

FIGHT THE POWER, STICK IT TO THE MAN! Insiders reveal the real reason Jimmy Kimmel is returning and the secret monologue plan that could spark mutiny.

Jimmy Kimmel could face a mutiny from his crew if he doesn’t speak out against Disney for suspending his show.

Insiders told the Daily Mail staff expect the late-night host to ‘come out swinging’ when he returns to air on Tuesday night.

The 57-year-old’s show was put on hiatus over his comments about conservative leader Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

Disney announced on Monday the show would return after days of talks with Kimmel, sparking speculation of how he would respond to the scandal.

A source has now told the Daily Mail the content of Kimmel’s opening monologue is being kept a secret, and it’s unclear if he will address the suspension.

Staff at the show don’t know whether he will apologize, or decide to criticize Disney and ABC’s move.

Kimmel should hit Disney with both barrels. Don’t hold back, go full-on rage. Demand that a boycott of all their product continue indefinitely.

Meanwhile: ABC Affiliate Stations Push Back in the Face of the Network’s Cowardice on Kimmel.

It’s fairly obvious why Sinclair is doing this, and it wouldn’t surprise me if we see Nexstar, another large affiliate owner, follow suit. These companies do not expect Kimmel to go on air and show any contrition about his comments, much less offer a sincere apology. Rather, they expect him to double down in a show of defiance. Whether ABC can somehow persuade him to do otherwise has yet to be seen. So why should Sinclair put its neck on the line for a clown like Kimmel when they don’t know how this will be handled?

In that sense, their decision to preempt Kimmel’s show is just smart business. It’s also a necessary moral stand in the face of abject cowardice on the part of ABC. The legacy broadcast network had a chance to rid itself of a money sink and negative lightning rod, but instead, they let a bunch of actors and politicians intimidate them into a self-defeating reversal. What now? They just keep setting cash on fire to make sure Jennifer Aniston and Jim Acosta are happy? Talk about painting yourself into a corner. Kimmel will now be unfirable no matter what happens.

That should do wonders for ABC’s ratings long-term: Jimmy Kimmel’s ratings were plummeting before ABC suspended him for Charlie Kirk comments.

Earlier: “Outstanding. Disney deserves to be chained to this unfunny ratings-hemorrhaging prick forever after what they did to Star Wars and Indiana Jones.”

Posted at 10:22 pm by Ed Driscoll 263

OPEN THREAD: Monday, Monday.

Posted at 9:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds 1368

NEW CIVILITY WATCH: Dems booted from Ohio County Fair over Trump buttons, sheriff alerting Secret Service.

The Ashland County sheriff is planning to contact the U.S. Secret Service after “offensive” buttons were found at the Democratic Party booth at the Ashland County Fair in Ohio, resulting in the group’s removal from the fairgrounds.

The buttons at the Ashland County Democrats booth had messages about President Donald Trump like “Is he dead yet?” and “One day, we will wake up to his obituary” alongside “He’s not my president” and “We will survive,” Fox 8 News reports.

* * * * * * * *

The Ashland County Sheriff’s Office is investigating, Fox 8 reports. Sheriff Kurt Schneider plans to report the matter to the Secret Service.

“Violence shouldn’t be tolerated in any way, in any venue in any jurisdiction in the United States, and it certainly won’t be tolerated here in Ashland County,” he told the Cleveland TV station.

The Ashland County Democratic Party later responded with a statement comparing its situation to President Richard Nixon’s enemies list and Senator Joseph McCarthy’s communist hearings of the 1950s.

Well, that’s one way to admit guilt. But in any case, as Glenn asked in late 2020, “After a decade of seeing leftists doxxing people and getting them fired for expressing a forbidden opinion, I have to ask what’s their beef with Joe McCarthy?”

Posted at 8:30 pm by Ed Driscoll 70

THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND:

The Weather Underground began as a college-based movement, emerging from the activist culture of the late 1960s. Initially operating in the open, it organized public demonstrations against what it saw as the “imperialist” policies of the United States. Its roots can be traced to 1969, when the group first convened under the banner of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

* * * * * * * *

By the mid-1970s, the Weather Underground had split into two distinct factions. The “Prairie Collective” remained relatively open and less violent, focusing on organizing and propaganda, while the May 19th Communist Organization (M19CO) embraced a more militant and clandestine approach. The May 19th cell collaborated with Black communist groups on a series of jailbreaks and carried out escalating armed robberies, culminating in the notorious 1981 Brinks armored truck heist, during which three people were killed. By 1986, law enforcement had dismantled both factions, with members either captured, imprisoned, or, in some cases, killed.

What distinguishes the Weather Underground is not merely their violent tactics, but the trajectories of their members post-activism. Bill Ayers, a co-founder of the group, became a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In the 1990s, he collaborated with Barack Obama on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago, a philanthropic organization. He later ghost wrote Obama’s memoirs.

The broader Weather Underground network also saw its members transition into academia and policy making. Bernardine Dohrn, another key figure, became a tenured professor at Northwestern University School of Law. These individuals have influenced educational and political landscapes, shaping policies and ideologies that persist today.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 8:14 pm by Ed Driscoll 78

GREAT MOMENTS IN ANTI-JOURNALISM:

If only Todd had some staffers while still at NBC who could have briefed him on Antifa’s origins, much like there was apparently no one on his former colleague Tom Brokaw’s staff to bring him up to speed on Obama’s foreign policy views by the eve of the 2008 election:

UPDATE: Chuck Todd’s Antifa Blackout: Too Dumb or Perhaps Just Drowning in Leftist Kool-Aid.

Posted at 6:57 pm by Ed Driscoll 233

ED MORRISSEY: ABC to Bring Back Kimmel; Mamdani Boycotts ABC Debate.

Surprised? Don’t be. Disney ended up caving to the Left. The real question is whether Sinclair and Nexstar follow suit:

Jimmy Kimmel is getting back on the air.

The ABC late-night host is returning to broadcast on Tuesday following a brief-but-monumental suspension that sparked a national debate over the Trump Administration’s pressure tactics and the modern limits and consequences of free speech.

As John just noted in an update, this should put Kimmel on the air tomorrow night, but the real question will be on how many channels. ABC and Disney have a number of owned-and-operated stations, but a significant number of ABC stations are affiliates. Two companies own most of those, and so far they’re not talking about whether they plan to restore that time slot:

Despite Kimmel’s return, it is not immediately clear if he will be available across the entire country. Sinclair, for its part, had said that it would not go back to running Kimmel’s show on its stations until the late night host apologized for his comments, met with Sinclair representatives, and made a donation to Turning Point, the organization that Kirk founded. Sinclair, it should be noted, owns the ABC station in the Washington D.C. metro area, among other markets.

Nexstar, similarly, could also choose to continue to preempt the show, though of course it would still be accessible online across the country after it runs on ABC.

Will Sinclair cave twice to the hecklers’ veto?

UPDATE:

Posted at 6:35 pm by Ed Driscoll 279

THE CORBYNIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONTINUES APACE: The Democrats’ Mamdani dilemma: Is Jew-hatred good politics?

With or without Hochul’s blessing, [Mamdani] continues to hold a commanding lead of 18.6% over former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, his nearest competitor in a four-man race. His three opponents may have more combined support than Mamdani (48.4% to 43.4%). But as long as the trio of Cuomo, current Mayor Eric Adams and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa refuse to unite behind a single challenger, Mamdani seems to be coasting to an easy plurality victory.

That means that New Yorkers need to brace themselves for four years of the rule of a Socialist extremist whose single-minded support for Israel’s elimination is not something that he thinks he needs to moderate or downplay. Like his threat to Netanyahu, his refusal to even distance himself from antisemitic chants about Jewish genocide and terrorism against Jews—“From the river to the sea” and “Globalize the intifada”—indicates the depth of his ideological commitment to cheerleading for Hamas and jihad against the one Jewish state on the planet.

But Hochul, whose power over the city’s budget gives her the ability to play a pivotal role in limiting the harm that Mamdani can do to the city’s economy and the security of its citizens, has higher priorities than whether New York’s Jewish communities feel safe. She’s up for re-election in 2026 and faces a formidable opponent in Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the likely Republican nominee for governor, whose national reputation rests in no small part on her zealousness in holding the presidents of elite universities accountable for their toleration and encouragement of antisemitism. To hold off a challenge from a well-funded opponent like Stefanik, she’s going to need a united Democratic Party and the enthusiastic support of its left-wing activist base.

Stefanik waits in the wings

That’s why—after dithering for nearly three months, and under pressure from pro-Israel and moderate Democrats to keep her distance from him—Hochul decided that she had more to lose by failing to endorse him than the potential backlash against her for aligning herself with an extremist such as Mamdani.

Not everyone agrees with that judgment, and Stefanik probably celebrated Hochul’s decision. The upstate congresswoman likely intends to spend 2026 linking the governor to an antisemitic Socialist. And considering that the GOP results in the last two statewide elections—in 2022 when Hochul’s Republican challenger Lee Zeldin got nearly 46.7% of the vote and in 2024 when President Donald Trump received 43.3%—were their best showings in 20 years, Stefanik has reason for optimism in a state where no member of her party has won a statewide office since 2002.

National Republicans are also viewing the prospect of Mamdani being mayor as a gift to them in the 2026 midterms and perhaps even the 2028 presidential election, even if it is terrible for New York. The White House surely intends to make Mamdani the poster child for the Democrats’ inability to marginalize woke extremists who have linked them to unpopular positions on crime, illegal immigration, gender ideology and Jew-hatred on college campuses.

A whole lot of contradictions will be heightened in the next four years.

Posted at 6:24 pm by Ed Driscoll 49

CHANGE (IT BACK):

We needed to import cheap labor and lock citizens out of perfectly good starter jobs why, exactly?

Posted at 6:12 pm by Stephen Green 146