June 3, 2025

NOT MESSING AROUND:

Posted at 5:55 pm by Stephen Green 33

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: I Have Seen the Future of the Air Force and it Is Good. “I had the honor of spending quality time (and more than a few drinks) last week with several just-commissioned Air Force officers at an Academy graduation party we threw — and let me tell you, the future looks solid.”

Posted at 5:22 pm by Stephen Green 36

BOULDER TERRORISM SUSPECT WAS PREPARED FOR MASS MURDER: FBI.

“From a behavioral and psychological profiling perspective, this suggests impulsive extremism or a desire for martyrdom rather than escape or survival,” Jason Pack, a retired FBI supervisory special agent, told the outlet.

At one point during the attack, Soliman reportedly yelled, “Free Palestine.”

“These traits [are] often associated with ideologically driven lone actors. This kind of attacker typically operates without a support network but may be influenced by online propaganda or perceived injustices,” Pack said.

“The erratic behavior, crude weaponry and politically charged language point to a disorganized, emotionally unstable individual whose radicalization, if confirmed, could place the case within the growing trend of unpredictable, lone-wolf-style domestic attacks,” he added.

An arrest affidavit detailing Soliman’s interview with local law enforcement following his arrest suggests a lack of sophistication in his actions.

“During the interview, SOLIMAN stated that he researched on YouTube how to make Molotov Cocktails, purchased the ingredients to do so, and constructed them,” according to the affidavit.

What, not the New York Review of Books? 

Posted at 4:30 pm by Ed Driscoll 95

WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY: Genghis Khan was a nice guy. Israel is evil. Frisco parents push back on ‘ethnic studies’ mandate.

Most parents who talked to The [San Francisco] Standard requested anonymity, the reporters write. “They described fear of being labeled as racists or right-wing and of having their children singled out at school.”

Jewish parents say their children are told Jews are oppressors. “In October, students at one high school were shown a presentation claiming that Israel’s founding was an ‘invasion’ that ‘decimated Indigenous populations,’ akin to European settler-colonial projects in Australia and the Americas,” write Wallach and Kaiser. “Following pushback from parents and students, that slide was removed from the presentation.”

“Other parents of freshmen, many of them self-proclaimed liberals, took issue with what they characterized as lectures and assignments that demonize the United States and Western civilization,” they write. One parent said her child was taught that Genghis Khan was peaceful.

Well, I don’t know about “peaceful,” but as the ultimate eco-warrior, the Grauniad assures me that: Genghis Khan was good for the planet.

Posted at 4:14 pm by Ed Driscoll 25

ALL THE BEST PEOPLE SWORE UP AND DOWN THIS KIND OF THING NEVER HAPPENS: More Frio Vote Fraud Ring Suspects Named. “Remember how they arrested six people in that Frio County voting fraud case? Well, now they’re looking at six more.”

Posted at 3:49 pm by Stephen Green 21

EVERYTHING SEEMINGLY IS SPINNING OUT OF CONTROL — at least in the UK:

One reason I started writing this newsletter is so we could share information and data with people they might have missed but really need to know. Here are two things that caught me eye over the last 48 hours, which I think you really need to know:

Firstly, in the UK, the number of illegal migrants and small boats entering the country is now rapidly spiralling, fuelling the immigration crisis and a broader collapse of public trust in the established parties and, for that matter, the entire system.

On Saturday alone, some 1,195 illegal migrants entered the UK on 19 small boats. This is the largest number for a single day this year, the fourth largest on record since the border crisis began, and means that overall number this year, nearly 15,000 illegal migrants, is some 42 per cent higher than the same point last year.

While immigration is already the number one issue in British politics, and is the main reason why millions of voters are abandoning the established parties for Reform, the numbers now look set to spiral even higher, with The Times this weekend forecasting that around 50,000 migrants will arrive this year, a new annual record.

None of this will surprise longer-term readers, of course. Even before Labour came to power, in May 2024, we explained why Labour’s plan for “smashing the gangs” would not work and the crisis would get worse. And this is now happening.

Also happening in the UK: England now has a blasphemy law.

Officially, blasphemy was abolished by New Labour in the 2008 Criminal Justice Act. But today, with the conviction of Hamit Coskun, blasphemy laws now exist in England.

This law has been created by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and District Judge John McGarva. Between them they have prosecuted and found a man guilty of a ‘religiously aggravated public order offence’ because he burned a Quran outside the Turkish consulate. The CPS mounted a prosecution conflating the religious institution of Islam, with Muslims as people, and a British judge has accepted this. Islamic blasphemy codes are now being enforced by arms of the British state, via what the National Secular Society describes as ‘a troubling repurposing of public order laws as a proxy for blasphemy laws’.

Hamit Coskun burned a Quran outside the Turkish consulate in February, before being attacked by a man named Moussa Kadri who has since pleaded guilty to the assault. Mr Coskun was initially charged under the Crime and Disorder Act with ‘intent to cause against the religious institution of Islam harassment, alarm or distress’. This means that the Crown Prosecution Service were treating Islam itself as a person, and a victim of Hamit’s Quran burning. Under English law this is nonsensical, as only people can be harmed in this fashion, so this charge, if it had been successful, would have established a special, protected status for Islam. Weeks ago I made a Freedom of Information request of the CPS, asking in how many instances of ‘the religious institution of Islam’ appeared in recent indictments. Just this morning they responded, saying that it would take too long for them to review all the charges they had made, and that they would not comply with the FOI request.

In other words: Welcome to the Islamic theocracy of Great Britain. “t won’t have escaped your attention that our new backdoor blasphemy laws only seem to cover one religion in particular. Those who seek to ringfence Islam – and Islam alone – from ridicule or criticism no doubt believe they are protecting an embattled little guy. But Coskun’s case rather complicates that narrative.”

(Classical reference in headline.)

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll 89

TRUE, BUT…: Ukraine’s Drone Attack on Russia’s Strategic Bombers Will Not Materially Alter the Military Situation.

As someone who lives practically under the shadow of Cheyenne Mountain and within spitting distance of the Air Force Academy, I appreciate Russia having fewer strategic bombers.

Also:

I wanted a strong Russia as a counter to China. What I got was a weak Russia increasingly beholden to China. So it goes.

Posted at 2:16 pm by Stephen Green 329

MY IRONY METER JUST BROKE: 75th Anniversary Edition of Orwell’s 1984 Comes With a Trigger Warning.

UPDATE: Shock: Orwell’s 1984 Slapped with Trigger Warning.

The 75th anniversary features an introduction by Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author of “Take My Hand.” She explains why some new readers might find Orwell’s masterpiece upsetting.

“I’m enjoying the novel on its own terms, not as a classic but as a good story, that is until [the main character] Winston reveals himself to be a problematic character,” Kirn reads from the trigger warning text.

Taibbi starts to laugh as Kirn continues.

“[Winston] dislikes nearly all women, and especially the young and pretty ones … Winston’s views on women are at first despicable to the contemporary reader … he’s the kind of character who can make me put a book down,’” he continues with her text.

“How many books have you thrown away by Hemingway, by Tolstoy?” Kirn asks as an aside before continuing from Perkins-Valdez’s introduction.

“When I was younger that’s exactly what I would have done, but I’m a more seasoned reader now and I know the difference between a flawed character and a flawed story. I remind myself that this is a dystopian novel and Orwell is suggesting misogyny is likely in a totalitarian society and Winston is a product of that environment.”

“Thank you for your trigger warning for ‘1984,’” Kirn said. “It is the most 1984ish thing I’ve ever f***ing read.”

Kirn summarizes the rest of the trigger warning, which includes suggestions that the book is racist.

Wow, you caught him, Dolen! The man who wrote “Shooting an Elephant“ is a crypto-racist in spite of himself. The Bletchley Park racial cryptographers strike again!

Posted at 1:55 pm by Ed Driscoll 97

JONATHAN TURLEY: Marco Rubio declares war on the global censors.

This week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stopped feeding the crocodile.

On May 28, 2025, Rubio shocked many of our allies by issuing a new visa restriction policy that bars foreign nationals deemed “responsible for censorship of protected expression” in the U.S.

The new policy follows a major address by Vice President J.D. Vance in Munich challenging our European allies to end their systematic attacks on free speech. Vance declared, “If you are running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you. Nor, for that matter, is there anything that you can do for the American people that elected me and elected President Trump.”

At the time, I called the speech “Churchillian” in drawing a bright line for the free world. Rubio’s action is no less impressive and even more impactful.

Europe has faced no consequences for its aggressive efforts at transnational censorship. Indeed, this should not be a fight for the administration alone. Congress should explore reciprocal penalties for foreign governments targeting American companies or citizens for engaging in protected speech.

After Vance spoke in Munich, I spoke in Berlin at the World Forum, where European leaders gathered in one of the most strikingly anti-free speech conferences I have attended. This year’s forum embraced the slogan “A New World Order with European Values.”

That “new world order” is based on an aggressive anti-free speech platform that has been enforced for years by the European Union. At the heart of this effort is the Digital Services Act, a draconian law that allows for sweeping censorship and speech prosecutions. Most importantly, it has been used by the EU to threaten American corporations for their failure to censor Americans and others on social media sites.

The EU, like Communist China, is now in the business of exporting authoritarianism — and we’re under no obligation to buy.

Posted at 1:45 pm by Stephen Green 35