May 13, 2025

HE’S RUNNING: Gavin Newsom calls on California cities to ban homeless encampments.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) on Monday called on hundreds of cities and counties to ban homeless encampments on sidewalks, bike paths, and other public property, increasing pressure on local governments to follow the state‘s lead.

His office released a model for a local ordinance that municipalities can adopt to make encampments illegal and clear existing ones.

The template would prohibit camping for more than three days, creating a semipermanent shelter, or camping in a way that blocks sidewalks. It is a very different approach from the traditional liberal one, which has been to emphasize government housing and treatment but not criminalize homelessness.

“There’s nothing compassionate about letting people die on the streets,” Newsom said in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner. “Local leaders asked for resources — we delivered the largest state investment in history. They asked for legal clarity — the courts delivered. Now, we’re giving them a model they can put to work immediately, with urgency and with humanity, to resolve encampments and connect people to shelter, housing, and care. The time for inaction is over. There are no more excuses.”

Just as the Pravda media hid Obama’s radical chic past in 2007 and 2008, and Joe Biden’s infirmities from 2020 to 2024, California’s PR rehab over the next four years will be astonishing to watch.

Posted at 5:00 pm by Ed Driscoll 8

THAT’S REAL MONEY: Paxton Wrests $1.375 Billion From Google. “More good news out of the Texas Attorney General’s office: He just compelled Google to cough up $1.375 billion to settle a lawsuit over illegally using biometric data.”

Posted at 4:51 pm by Stephen Green 4

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: We’re Digging a Hole to Mars… Well, Sort Of. “Humanity just took another step toward colonizing Mars but this week’s advance didn’t involve Elon Musk’s massive Starship rocket, SpaceX, some gee-whiz new rocket propellent, or even anything that humans can fly, land, or breathe. But yes, Musk was involved because, of course, he was.”

VIP members keep us in business and there’s rarely a better time than now to become one with our 60% off FIGHT promotion.

Posted at 4:20 pm by Stephen Green 4

MARK JUDGE: The Totalitarian Impulse Buckley Knew.

For the purposes of this first part of the review, however, I’d like to focus on the things Buckley got right. Namely, communism and the totalitarian nature of the American left. The most important paragraph in Buckley appears in a section that takes place in the early 1960s. Buckley was debating Arthur Schlesinger Jr., an advisor to President Kennedy. Schlesinger thought that whenever dictatorships arose in the modern era it was “because democratic government is too weak, not because it is too strong.” The best way to prevent totalitarianism was for the government to create economic prosperity and social equality, providing “a minimum national standard to save individuals from intolerable handicaps.” [Sam] Tanenhaus explains Buckley’s reaction:

This might sound good, Buckley countered, but in reality, Schlesinger and others were concealing their true intentions, their “intellectual desire to redirect society. Even if every citizen had a million dollars, John Kenneth Galbraith would still find a need for government action….There are in motion today forces that want to drain our power into a reservoir. I hope someday Mr. Schlesinger will turn in horror on the system he has abetted.”

Here Buckley gets to the heart of the matter. The left wants revolution and totalitarian control. Period. If every house had a full refrigerator and every American had a job, they would still be calling for revolution. To think otherwise is naïve.

Buckley founded National Review in 1955. Tanenhaus reveals his bravery in those early years in his fight against totalitarianism. Buckley sent a reporter to Cuba to honestly report on Castro, and he openly called liberals who appealed to the Soviet Union cowards. He once proposed that Taiwan could “liberate the United States” because Taiwan’s fight against communism was much braver than any resistance to the same ideology taking place in the United States.

Yet, over time, National Review began to resemble the liberals Buckley once condemned. “National Review thinks we can make peace with the liberals in debates over principles and policies,” the conservative scholar James Piereson told me last year in an interview about the magazine. “But we can’t go too far lest they call us radicals. The other side thinks we are in a wartime situation: the left wants to destroy us. That is a large difference.”

Piereson said that the conservative divide is like a scene from The Godfather. In that film, after a rival faction tries to assassinate the head of the family, someone offers the possibility of a peace deal. “The two brothers reply that you can’t make peace with people who are trying to kill you,” Piereson said. Another conservative publisher put it to me in starker terms: “National Review thinks its job is to police the right. We think that our job is to defeat the left.”

Piereson offered examples.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 4:00 pm by Ed Driscoll 82

A LEARNING CULTURE MATTERS MUCH MORE THAN MONEY: It’s Mormons: Low-spending Utah is #4 for education. “Utah is the best state in the union, according to U.S. News, thanks to a strong economy, a sense of community and — despite spending less per pupil than any other state but Idaho — its education system.”

Posted at 2:47 pm by Stephen Green 117

EPISCOPAL CHURCH REFUSES TO RESETTLE WHITE AFRIKANERS, ENDS PARTNERSHIP WITH US GOVERNMENT:

In a striking move that ends a nearly four-decades-old relationship between the federal government and the Episcopal Church, the denomination announced on Monday (May 12) that it is terminating its partnership with the government to resettle refugees, citing moral opposition to resettling white Afrikaners from South Africa who have been classified as refugees by President Donald Trump’s administration.

In a letter sent to members of the church, the Most Rev. Sean W. Rowe — the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church — said that two weeks ago the government “informed Episcopal Migration Ministries that under the terms of our federal grant, we are expected to resettle white Afrikaners from South Africa whom the U.S. government has classified as refugees.”

The request, Rowe said, crossed a moral line for the Episcopal Church, which is part of the global Anglican Communion that boasts among its leaders the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a celebrated and vocal opponent of apartheid in South Africa.

“In light of our church’s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step,” Rowe wrote. “Accordingly, we have determined that, by the end of the federal fiscal year, we will conclude our refugee resettlement grant agreements with the U.S. federal government.”

Which seems particularly odd in light of Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde blowing up a National Prayer Service attended by Trump and JD Vance in January to call for more immigration: In sermon to Trump, Bishop Budde pleads for immigrants, transgender rights.

Posted at 2:30 pm by Ed Driscoll 259

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: David Plouffe is the Michelangelo of Play-Doh. “The thing is, Concha is entirely correct that Plouffe’s decisions on Al Smith, Rogan, Walz, and Cheney all led to disaster. What Concha misses is that, as bad as those choices were, the alternatives were worse.”

Posted at 2:16 pm by Stephen Green 19

THIS IS CNN: Someone Should Be Fired After CNN Analyst Goes on Wild, Racist Rant Against White South Afrikaners.

South Africa’s ruling party has infamously made singing “Kill the Boer,” which translates to “kill the farmer,” a staple of their political rallies. For context, the song specifically refers to white farmers (Afrikaners) and dates back to the country’s apartheid days. Laws to confiscate their land and extra-judicial killings have taken center stage over the last several years.

For some reason, though, that has greatly offended Democrats, who have finally found refugees they do not want to admit into the country. Funny how that works, right? I’m sure it’s just a coincidence. On the other hand, here’s Ashley Allison making it clear that it’s not one.

ALLISON: So if the Afrikaners don’t actually like the land, they can leave that country.

JENNINGS: They are. They’re leaving to come here. These refugees are coming here.

ALLISON: No, they can leave and go to where their native land is, which is probably Germany or…

JENNINGS: Are you against them coming here?

PANELIST: Holland…

ALLISON: Holland, yes.

JENNINGS: Are you against them coming here?

ALLISON: I’m against the hypocrisy of this administration…

JENNINGS: No, no, that’s not the question. The question is are you against them coming here.

ALLISON: If there was actually a genocide happening like there is other places in Sudan and the Congo, I would not, I’m not opposed for Congolese and for the Sudanese to come to Africa [America?] just like I’m not opposed to Venzualans and South Americans coming to America if they are fleeing and looking for asylum. What I am against…

JENNINGS: So just these 50 people, you’re against…

ALLISON: What I am against is that they are being given special treatment when there is not a genocide happening in South Africa, and they just don’t like the law of the land!

What an absolutely deranged thing to say on so many levels. Imagine, for a moment, if a Republican CNN panelist told black Americans that they can “leave and go to where their native land is” if they don’t like laws that physically and financially persecute them. Do you imagine that person would still have a job right now?

Related: Based on This CNN Panel, the Lib Media Is Going to Go Insane Over This South African Refugee Issue.

Posted at 2:00 pm by Ed Driscoll 190

VDH: The Decivilizing of America.

Secure borders and stationary populations were considered the mark of emerging civilization by classical historians. In contrast to nomadism and constant strife over disputed territory, peoples who had clearly defined and protected borders ascended to statehood, maintained a distinct culture, and achieved greater prosperity and security.

In contrast, what we suffered from 2021 to 2025 was unprecedented. It was an intentional administration effort to de-civilize the nation by destroying its borders—as if to return to the premodern era, when there were no clearly defined or secure borders, and nomadic peoples migrated as they pleased.

Stranger still, illegal aliens were at times given precedence over citizens—as immigration law was simply discarded.

Without IDs, illegal aliens boarded U.S. flights, while the government ordered citizens to obtain more secure “real” IDs.

Some 8,500 veteran soldiers were drummed out of the military for refusing the experimental mRNA vaccinations. Yet 10 million simply walked across the southern border into America, without a care from the Biden administration whether they were vaccinated, ill, or had criminal records.

Any American citizen pulled over for speeding with an invalid driver’s license, while trafficking eight illegal aliens without identification, would be jailed and charged with felony counts. Not Abrego Garcia—the violent spousal abuser, M-13 gang-member, and previously deported illegal alien. He was neither arrested nor even cited by the officers who pulled him over.

One of the great hallmarks of Roman civilization and subsequent Western civilization was its ability to create large cities by importing clean water, removing waste through sewers, and collecting garbage from the streets. Even in the age before microbiology, ancient and premodern city planners knew the connection between cleanliness and epidemics and how to lessen disease through sanitation.

But in the last two decades, our major cities have been de-civilizing. Citizens are told not to flush non-biodegradable plastics down their toilets, both to preserve the environment and to ensure municipal septic systems work properly. They are reminded to pick up their pets’ excrement on sidewalks and in parks. For purposes of collective health, they are taught not to urinate, spit, or defecate in public areas.

Is all that for naught? After all, our mayors and city councils in our biggest and most iconic cities simply destroyed centuries of such health protocols and allowed tens of thousands of homeless people with impunity to inject, urinate, defecate, and fornicate in or on storefronts, streets, gutters, parks, and sidewalks. The stench, flotsam, and jetsam have utterly transformed American inner cities. Central Seattle, Los Angeles, parts of San Francisco, Portland, and Washington, DC, now resemble medieval London or Paris—as if a millennium-long knowledge of basic public health was simply ignored or mocked. In truth, the centers of America’s big cities are spaces where public health protocols are no longer enforced, where all the ancient and hard-won rules of civilization no longer apply. It would likely be safer to walk through Dickensian London of 1850 than to take a nocturnal ride on the New York subway.

Don’t worry though; California will end all its homeless woes overnight, since Gavin Newsom is running in 2028: Newsom calls on California cities to ban homeless encampments.

Posted at 1:30 pm by Ed Driscoll 41

TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE! Excruciating moment Biden couldn’t recognize A-list star who’d backed him for years, as top Dems leak grim new details of plot to trick Americans.

So outraged are influential Democrats that a number have allowed their names to be used in the book, including David Plouffe, who managed Obama’s successful 2008 campaign. ‘We got so screwed by Biden as a party,’ Plouffe is quoted as saying.

In one of the most shocking revelations, Biden was reportedly so impaired that he didn’t recognize Clooney at a star-studded June 2024 Democratic fundraiser in Los Angeles, the book says, claiming it left the actor ‘shaken to his core.’

‘It was obvious to many standing there that the president did not know who George Clooney was,’ the authors write.

Another Hollywood VIP guest reportedly said: ‘It was like watching someone who was not alive. It was so awful.’

Weeks after that LA fundraiser, and following Biden’s disastrous TV debate against Trump, Clooney wrote a now-infamous op-ed for The New York Times calling for Biden to drop out of the race.

The tactfully-worded article didn’t go into details but Clooney wrote that, in private, the president was, indeed, ‘the same man we all witnessed at the debate.’

* * * * * * * * *

When the White House aides filmed his appearances, they would use more than one camera, allowing ‘jump cuts’ (switching from one view to another) to obscure his stumbles, according to the book.

Original Sin says that from January 1, 2023 to April 27, 2024, the president had undertaken only four public events before 10.00 am.

He had 12 clear weekends with no public events, and, claim the authors, only 12 public events after 6.00 pm most of which were off-camera.

But the president’s issues weren’t a recent development. The authors claim that by 2020, during Biden’s first campaign, he already could no longer follow conversations and a special team was hired to edit his verbal stumbles out of campaign ads.

The authors say he had trouble recording even mundane thoughts without fluffing his lines.

‘Biden often couldn’t make it through one or two minutes without botching a line or two,’ one source says.

Just a reminder that “the authors” here include Jake Tapper, who spent all of Biden’s term defending the president against anyone who pointed out his infirmities.

Today though: Jake Tapper Accuses Biden’s White House Of Lying About Ex-President’s Declining Health.

Posted at 1:00 pm by Ed Driscoll 127

ANDREW MICHTA: “A few observations from this European trip. BLUF: Our European allies—at least some of the largest ones—do not fully appreciate that we are in an economic war with China. As I wrote here, how Europe rolls on China will define transatlantic relations.”

More:

When I hear that some key allies will not decouple from the PRC, but may actually strengthen those economic relations, I’ve got to ask: What do you want your future to be? Are you ready to decouple from the US and throw your lot with the Chinese Communist Party as your future?

Do you see yourself as a link in the land-baset supply chain network run from Beijing called Belt and Road? Do you believe that your future no longer lies in then Atlantic? If so, please say so loud and clear because right now we are debating what our force posture should be.

For over 20 yrs I’ve argued that US corporate elites’ greed was making China what it is today-an existential threat to our survival as a democracy and a people. Finally, Americans have awakened to the threat, but will Brussels or Berlin now walk this path to self-destruction?

As I visit Europe this time I’ve to say to say this to our friends here: It’s time to choose sides. It’s a zero-sum game: When it comes to your economic policy, you are either with the United States or with communist China. I say this as a lifelong transatlanticist – it’s real.

I understand that the tone coming from Washington is not what you’ve been accustomed to. And sometimes over the top and hurtful. But this is real: you must tell us if your elites can see beyond the rhetoric and still believe in the national security relationship with the US.

The Trump administration has shocked our allies with its rhetoric, and I would be the last to choose the harshness of the tone. But the message above the imperative of European rearmament in NATO is spot on— US administrations, Democrat and Republican called for it in the past.

Just months ago I never thought I would write such a post. But this trip made me realize how disconnected some among Europe’s elites have become from the foundational principles of the shared Western cultural DNA. So I ask: Do you still remain committed to this alliance?

When “a lifelong transatlanticist” has that kind of warning for Europe, there’s something deeply wrong with Europe.

Posted at 12:43 pm by Stephen Green 121

HOW IT STARTED: How Joe Biden Is Positioning Himself as a Modern FDR.

—Time Magazine, October 28th, 2020.

How it’s going: Biden aides discussed wheelchair use if he were re-elected, new book says.

The discussions reflected the extent of the president’s declining health — particularly the significant degeneration of his spine — and his aides’ alarm over it as Biden sought a second term at age 81.

The conversations also reveal the White House’s determination to conceal the reality of Biden’s condition, at the risk of his own health, while he faced a tough re-election bid against Donald Trump.

  • The book is based on interviews with more than 200 people, mostly Democratic insiders, with knowledge of the events that unfolded during the final two years of Biden’s presidency. Almost all of the interviews took place after the 2024 election.

Driving the news: “Biden’s physical deterioration — most apparent in his halting walk — had become so severe that there were internal discussions about putting the president in a wheelchair, but they couldn’t do so until after the election,” the authors write.

  • Biden aides believed it was politically untenable to have Biden use a wheelchair during his re-election campaign.

  • “Given Biden’s age, [his physician Kevin O’Connor] also privately said that if he had another bad fall, a wheelchair might be necessary for what could be a difficult recovery,” the authors report.

—Alex Thompson, Axios, today.

Now it can be told.

UPDATE: America’s Newspaper of Record once again doing straight-up reportage:

No, they really are:

MORE:

Posted at 12:35 pm by Ed Driscoll 155

WAS IT GOOD FOR YOU? Is the AI boom already over?

Investment bubbles do sometimes involve assets which have little intrinsic value, yet it is remarkable how often they begin as an entirely rational reaction to some new invention or development – an invention which outlasts the collapse of the speculative bubble, as if nothing had happened.

You only have to look at a share chart and you would assume that railways went out of fashion in the 1840s, when a mad speculative umbrella collapsed. See share charts from the early 2000s and you would likewise assume that people took one look at the internet and then swiftly went off it.

Yet the opposite is true. Railways did not just survive railway-mania, but their development accelerated through the 1850s and 1860s to the point that they came to dominate land transport in almost every industrialized country. Their supremacy was only challenged by the development of the internal combustion engine at the very end of the 19th century. Internet usage mushroomed throughout the dotcom collapse. Even tulips survived the mania of 1630s Amsterdam, becoming a popular feature in gardens the world over. This is what makes investment bubbles difficult to spot. Those who get drawn into them are often both very right and very wrong at the same time. They are right that the subject of their affections is, indeed, the future, yet in their enthusiasm they over-estimate the speed at which it will transform the world.

It’s possible to use the Apple iPhone 16 debacle as one sign of AI’s “tulip mania” phase abating. But just as the railroad is still one of the dominant forms of distributing freight across continents, AI is poised to radically reshape our lives. And like trains and the birth of the Internet in 1969 and the World Wide Web in 1989, it could very well be something that becomes taken for granted, rather than something that dominates headlines, as AI did when OpenAI first rolled out ChatGPT in late November of 2022.

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll 119

THIS IS EXACTLY RIGHT: Extend Trump’s tax cuts, pay for it by repealing Biden’s climate handouts.

The U.S. is on the brink of a tax nightmare, with Democrats pushing the largest tax increase in history.

President Trump’s signature legislation from his first term, the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, is set to expire at the end of the year, and Democrats are united in their efforts to end this successful policy and implement an automatic $4.5 trillion tax increase.

Republicans were elected up and down the ballot in 2024 with a mandate to end the lunacy of Bidenomics and make America competitive again. This means enacting bold tax reforms that go beyond simply extending the Trump tax cuts and — most importantly — preventing any tax hikes. Trump recently reminded Republicans that they cannot repeat the same mistakes that sank previous administrations. A tax increase of any kind would ruin any chance of success in 2026 for the Republicans as would failure to go beyond the tax cuts.

The tax cuts expire on Dec. 31. If Congress does nothing, an automatic $4.5 trillion Democratic tax hike will land squarely on working families, many of whom are already struggling under lingering Biden-era inflation. Less than a year from now, the average taxpayer could see a 22 percent tax hike. For a working family of four, that’s a $1,700 tax increase.

This is pretty simple stuff but it sure could use more of a populist push from Trump, plus whatever it is Speaker Mike Johnson is supposed to be doing.

Posted at 11:41 am by Stephen Green 74