May 3, 2025

VDH: The Trump Counterrevolution and the Moral Ledger.

Despite the media hysteria, President Donald Trump’s counterrevolution remains on course.

Its ultimate fate will probably rest with the state of the economy by the November 2026 midterm elections. But its success also hinges on accomplishing what is right and long overdue — and then making such reforms quietly, compassionately, and methodically.

No country can long endure without sovereignty and security — or with 10 to 12 million illegal immigrants crossing the border and half a million criminal foreign nationals roaming freely.

The prior administration found that it was easy to destroy the border and welcome the influx. But it is far harder for its successor to restore security, find those who broke the law, and insist on legal-only immigration. Trump is on the right side of all these issues and making substantial progress.

Everyone knew that a $2 trillion budget deficit, a $37 trillion national debt, and a $1.2 trillion trade deficit in goods were ultimately unsustainable.

Yet all prior politicians of the 21st century winced at the mere thought of reducing debts and deficits, given that it proved much easier just to print and spread around federal money. As long as the Trump administration dutifully cuts the budget, sends its regrets to displaced federal employees, seeks to expand private sector reemployment, and quietly presses ahead, it retains the moral high ground.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 8:14 pm by Ed Driscoll 1

OH NO! ANYWAY . . .

Posted at 8:06 pm by Glenn Reynolds 34

IT’S COME TO THIS: Shedeur Sanders Fan Sues NFL for Emotional Distress Over Sanders’ Late Draft Pick.

Plaintiff seeks a “formal acknowledgment from the NFL regarding the emotional distress caused by their actions and statements,” a “retraction of the slanderous statements made about Shedeur Sanders, along with an apology,” “[i]mplementation of fairer practices in the drafting process,” and $100M in punitive damages “for the harm caused to [Doe] and the impact of the NFL’s actions on his emotional well-being.”

Plaintiff states that he’s unable to pay the filing fees, so the court will screen it to determine (among other things) whether it’s “frivolous,” which is to say “it lacks an arguable basis either in law or in fact.” I expect the court to indeed promptly dismiss it as frivolous.

UPDATE: Prof. Andy Geronimo (Case Western) Tweets: “Not sure it’s [intentional infliction of emotional distress] to see your favorite college player fall to the fifth round of the draft, but a claim that you now have to be a Cleveland Browns fan is [plausible].”

Heh, indeed. In other news regarding the Browns’ new backup QB*: CBS analyst recalls time Shedeur Sanders missed pregame obligation with network.

People asked me, NFL people asked me after that game, ‘What did you think of Shedeur?’ And I said, ‘I didn’t get to talk to him.’ Maybe he’s the greatest kid ever, maybe he’s a bad kid. I don’t know. But I told them the story, and they just kind of nodded their head.

“And it just made me wonder how many stories are there like that in which Shedeur did things that were not customary. He did things non-traditionally. It certainly seemed like that was the deal with a lot of the combine interviews and meetings with teams. And especially at that position, I think it makes them very nervous that already in college he was getting out of things that you’re supposed to be doing. What’s he gonna be like if he’s a first-round pick in the NFL Draft?”

More here: What caused Sanders’ draft slide? [Albert] Breer details QB’s interview red flags:

Sanders, the son of an NFL superstar and one of the biggest names in college football last season, isn’t a “blend into the background” type of player. And according to Breer, he didn’t act like it in the lead-up to the 2025 draft.

“He handled the process like he was a top-five (pick) lock,” Breer said, adding that Sanders declined to meet with several teams with the assumption that he’d be taken early in the first round.

“All these teams that either heard the bad stories from the other teams or that (he) refused to meet with or that had a bad experience with (him) personally … now the amount of teams that are willing to (draft him) has narrowed,” Breer said of teams passing on Sanders in the later rounds.

What exactly are those “bad stories” about Sanders? Breer shared two examples he heard from NFL sources, including one that came during a meeting with a team that asked Sanders to install an offensive play to test his football knowledge.

“They give players an install, and there are mistakes intentionally put in the install,” Breer said, noting that this is a common practice among NFL teams. “He didn’t catch them and got called on it, and it didn’t go well after that. … He was pissed that they did that to him.”

The other example came during an NFL Combine meeting with a team that asked him to explain one of his interceptions.

“He throws a bad interception. It was a deep throw early in the game,” Breer said. “They go in the meeting, they show the interception and they say, ‘What happened here?’ (Sanders responds,) ‘Well, I like to get into a rhythm earlier in the game.’

“They get into it over that, and (Sanders’) conclusion is, ‘Well, maybe I’m not a fit for you.'”

“The person who told me that story was like, ‘I’ve never heard that before.’ It was in a combine interview when you’re just going from team to team trying to put your best foot forward.”

* Not yet: “Sanders faces an uphill climb to win the QB job in Cleveland, which currently has five signal-callers on its roster in Deshaun Watson, Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Gabriel and Sanders.”

Posted at 6:56 pm by Ed Driscoll 86

AXIOS BURIES THE LEDE: In his column at Spectator World, “Cockburn” concludes:

President Trump signed an executive order last night withdrawing government funding from PBS and NPR. “Neither entity presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens,” the order reads.

The move ends a longstanding debate over why, exactly, the US government was pumping money into outlets that so regularly and vociferously espoused very progressive viewpoints. A fact sheet circulated by the White House highlighted some of the most egregious examples: a PBS station in New York that produced a kids’ program about drag queens, including one called “Lil’ Miss Hot Mess”; a PBS segment on “wokeness” and “white privilege,” and an NPR interview about why genderqueer and trans people love dinosaurs that name-checks the “trans-ceraptops.” How educational!

Spectator contributing editor Stephen L. Miller has been banging the drum for the defunding of NPR for years. “The world will be a great place when our schools have all the funding they need and NPR and PBS need to hold a bake sale,” he told Cockburn this morning.

Cockburn understands the lamentations about how the executive order is another “attack on the press” – but it could have been worse for them. Imagine if Trump had treated the outlets like the Kennedy Center and installed a top loyalist at the top? Would it have been less of an affront to norms to have a Kari Lake-led PBS or a Sebastian Gorka-run NPR? (Gorka may find himself otherwise occupied, if speculation that he’s under consideration to be the next national security advisor prove true.)

Compounding the media’s woes is the fact that the White House is getting into the content aggregation game. This week, while much of the media struggles for traffic and audience capture, White House Wire was launched, as a more MAGA alternative to the Drudge Report. “I’m considering a $1 trillion lawsuit!” Matt Drudge told Axios.

Wait, the real Matt Drudge? He’s actually alive? Has Axios confirmed this? Wouldn’t they have many questions about what happened to the site that bears his name in recent years?  A year ago Outkick.com noted, “No One Can Find Matt Drudge.” If Axios has tracked the reclusive former conservative down, don’t they owe it to the readers to get to the bottom of what happened to him? Or as Don Surber asked in December of 2023: Merry Christmas, Matt Drudge: Did you flip because you were bored, you sold the site, or you feared the FBI?

Posted at 6:31 pm by Ed Driscoll 54

YES, THERE’S A REASON WHY PEOPLE HATE THEM: Dear Bicyclists: The Roads Were Built for Cars. I’m convinced that so many people hate cyclists because they’re perceived as cheaters, demanding the rights of cars when it suits them, then running traffic lights or u-turning in traffic without a thought.

Posted at 6:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds 232

RICK MCGINNIS: Truth, Myth or Both? Getting History Right in Battle of Britain:

The film made $13 million on a $14 million dollar budget (not helped by the cost of the aerial unit) and only turned a profit years later with home video sales. There’s been plenty of pictures set during the Battle of Britain made since then, but Hamilton’s film is still the only one that’s about the whole of the battle as a hinge upon which history turns and not just a backdrop.

“Given time,” [Michael] Korda writes, “all historical events become controversial*. That is the nature of things – we question and rewrite the past, glamorizing it or diminishing it according to our inclinations, or the social political views of the present.”

“Nobody in academe,” he adds, “gets tenure or a reputation in the media by examining the events of the past with approval, or by praising the decisions of past statesmen and military leaders as wise and sensible.” And yet nobody has managed to debunk the victory of Dowding and the RAF over Goring’s Luftwaffe. “As at Trafalgar,” writes Korda, “the British got it triumphantly right” and that might explain the longevity of Guy Hamilton’s Battle of Britain – a deeply unfashionable film that we’d never be able to make today.

Read the whole thing.

* Tucker Carlson, Kier Starmer, and David Lammy could not be reached for comment.

Posted at 5:14 pm by Ed Driscoll 175

EVERYTHING IS PROCEEDING AS TRUMP HAS FORESEEN: China Erupts: Furious Workers Riot As Factories Collapse Under Trump’s Tariffs. “Workers throughout China are flooding the streets in revolt as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs slam the fragile Chinese export economy. From the cramped streets of Sichuan in the southwest to the cold outskirts of Inner Mongolia in the northeast, furious workers are demanding back pay and protesting mass layoffs as factories shutter under pressure from Trump’s tariffs.”

Posted at 4:32 pm by Glenn Reynolds 276

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: The New Democratic Purity Test: Anti-Israel Or Else.

Let’s be honest here: the timing of these “concerns” and the article’s publication is suspicious. The same media figures who vigorously defended Fetterman’s fitness for office during his campaign are now wringing their hands over his mental state. What changed? Obviously, his positions on key issues like Israel and border security didn’t align with the radical left’s agenda.

The article’s author, Ben Teris, actually undermines his own narrative when he admits, “I didn’t find any indication that the stroke had left him cognitively impaired.” In fact, Teris noted that Fetterman appeared engaged and excited during their hour-long conversation.

So I guess cognitive impairment isn’t a big deal, but supporting Israel is? Let’s be honest: this isn’t a story about John Fetterman’s health. It’s about how fast the left cannibalizes its own the moment someone dares to step out of line. The second a Democrat breaks ranks with the party’s radical orthodoxy, every concern Republicans ever raised—once mocked or dismissed outright—suddenly becomes fair game. Funny how that works, isn’t it?

It’s Joe Biden all over again.

We spent months exposing the very real (and very obvious) cognitive impairment of John Fetterman during the 2022 campaign, and yet the media went to incredible lengths to say that everything was fine.

As Jim Geraghty wrote yesterday:

Let me get this straight: Back when Fetterman could barely speak during the debate, his medical condition was no big deal, and certainly not a reason to keep him out of elected office. But now that he’s speaking more clearly, but taking positions that irritate progressives, now his staffers think something’s not right with his brain? From what everyone else can see, Fetterman’s in significantly better shape than he was in 2022 and early 2023. (Last year I interacted with him briefly in the Fox News green room.)

I hope Fetterman’s in the best position possible, and I hope he’s following the instructions from his doctors. But both the staffer concern and New York Magazine’s attention on Fetterman’s health are remarkably conveniently timed.

Not just New York magazine — the Daily Beast, the HuffPost, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Newsweek, MSNBC and the New York Times all quickly joined the leftist dogpile yesterday. As our friends at Twitchy wrote, “What a difference Fetterman holding up an Israeli flag makes.”

(Matt Margolis’ article on Fetterman at the first link is just for our VIP members; please use the discount code LOYALTY if you’ve been thinking of becoming a supporter.)

Posted at 2:14 pm by Ed Driscoll 75

ATTENTION, DOGE:

Posted at 1:45 pm by Ed Driscoll 44

SANDY’S WAR: AOC taunts Tom Homan after DOJ referral threat over deportations: ‘Come for me, do I look like I care?’

“Squad” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dared border czar Tom Homan to haul her to court on Friday,  months after he threatened her with prosecution for trying to impede President Trump’s mass deportations.

“Tom Homan said he was going to refer me to DOJ because I’m using my free speech rights in order to advise people of their constitutional protections. To that I say: Come for me. Do I look like I care?” the Bronx and Queens Democrat told attendees at a jam-packed town hall in Jackson Heights, Queens.

There’s “nothing illegal about it — and if they want to make it illegal, they can come take me,” she declared.

In February, AOC hosted a webinar and shared a “Know Your Rights” pamphlet with her more than 12 million followers on X to give illegal immigrants tips to evade the feds.

Homan told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” in an interview that month he had been “working with the Department of Justice and finding out” who was seeking to block deportations.

“Maybe AOC is going to be in trouble now,” he cautioned, noting that immigration authorities are looking out for those who “cross” the line into abetting illegal aliens unlawfully present in the US.

AOC apparently believes her constituents aren’t in the Bronx and Queens, but El Salvador:

At least for the moment, she seems determined to live out the lead image in this week’s Power Line Week in Pictures:

Of course, that could change, as the need to keep generating clicks and hot takes warrants. In in 2019’s “Sandy’s War,” Kevin D. Williamson wrote:

“Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez” is, at 16 syllables, a mouthful. The day before yesterday, she was “Sandy,” a pleasant-seeming young woman who liked to dance, worked in a bar, worried about her family, and chafed that her advantages and elite education (Boston University shares Case Western’s academic ranking and is significantly more expensive than Princeton: Is there a more appropriate preparation for life in Washington?) left her struggling, obscure, and unsatisfied. And so she set after glory and personal significance in politics, to which she is relatively new — the hatreds and grievances she dotes on are obvious enough and familiar enough that one assumes she has been in possession of those for some time. They are not newly acquired.

If you spend enough time around politics and/or media, you have seen this figure before. Years ago, a young woman beginning what would turn out to be a successful turn on the Washington cursus honorum asked me, earnestly: “Is it wrong to want to be famous?” I asked her what she intended to do with the celebrity she sought — for what purpose did she want it? “Why?” The question obviously had never occurred to her. I might as well have asked her why she wanted two eyes rather than one. She has a lot of Twitter followers now.

Back then, Sandy’s cause du jour was radical environmentalism; now it’s defending illegal immigration and MS-13. The causes change, but the goal remains the same: getting as much PR as possible, as quickly as possible.

On the other hand, sometimes leftist intersectionality intersects in ways that PR-seeking opportunists weren’t expecting: The Left Protests Itself as a Pro-Palestine Nurse Relentlessly Berates AOC at Her New York Town Hall.

Posted at 1:14 pm by Ed Driscoll 101

WHAT COULD GO WRONG? Aurora’s driverless trucks are making deliveries in Texas.

After years of testing and validation, Aurora says its first fully autonomous tractor-trailers are operating on public highways in Texas. The company’s Class 8 trucks are now making customer deliveries between Dallas and Houston, having already completed 1,200 miles “without a driver,” Aurora said. The clients for these initial trips are Uber Freight, the ridehailing company’s trucking brokerage, and Hirschbach Motor Lines, a carrier that delivers time- and temperature-sensitive freight.

Aurora CEO Chris Urmson said he rode in the backseat during the first truck’s inaugural ride, which he called “the honor of a lifetime.”

“We founded Aurora to deliver the benefits of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly,” Urmson said in a statement. “Now, we are the first company to successfully and safely operate a commercial driverless trucking service on public roads.”

Aurora said it plans to expand its driverless service to El Paso and Phoenix by the end of 2025.

Driverless trucks were once expected to precede robotaxis and personally owned autonomous vehicles in mass adoption, considering that highways are vastly less complex than city and residential streets. But self-driving truck operators have run into hurdles involving the technology and regulation that have delayed their public debut. Some companies, like Embark Trucks, TuSimple, and Locomation, have gone out of business, while others have cut plans to deploy driverless trucks as timelines have stretched into the future and funding has dried up.

Moreover, public opinion toward autonomous vehicles has trended downward, thanks in part to missteps of companies like Tesla and Cruise. But like Waymo, Aurora has placed its hopes on a measured, conservative approach to commercialization, as well as an emphasis on safety.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lzgE4QMRuM

I’m very old school when it comes to this sort of technology — this is my preferred definition of Aurora trucks without a man behind the wheel inside the cab:

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll 162