Random stuff I find interesting and you may not.
One of the advantages of finding myself in recent years without a political home is that I feel no temptation, let alone an obligation, to justify or minimize unsavory behavior from either side of the political aisle. My disenchantment with both the Republican and Democratic camps has its drawbacks, but one advantage is that it … Read more
“It concerns me in terms of what kind of precedent it sets and how the rest of the world looks [at] us as a nation of laws.” So said President-elect Joe Biden in 2020, responding to rumors that Donald Trump planned to issue preemptive pardons of himself, members of his family, Bombay Sapphire Nosferatu Rudy … Read more
Yesterday, I celebrated Biden’s exit from Washington. We have 50-plus years of evidence showing he is a corrupt, big-government mediocrity. Good riddance. But Biden being bad does not imply Trump being good. Instead, he’s an incoherent mix. Some of his policies are good and some are bad. In today’s column, I’m going to outline my … Read more
In the last days of the Biden presidency, with the media focused on Senate hearings for Donald Trump’s second-term cabinet, now is a good time to recall just how historically inept Joe Biden’s cabinet members have been. Secretary of the Treasury Janet “the inflation is only transitory” Yellen, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro “the border … Read more
Corporate cronyism is bad all the time. Long before “woke” and “DEI” entered the mainstream political lexicon, I’ve been complaining about businesses tailoring their policies to win favor from Washington and about Washington trying to force ideological priorities on businesses. I started writing my first book to rail against precisely this sort of corporatism. Lander … Read more
Every day, the UN, international organizations and the media claim that everyone in Gaza is starving to death because they have no food and every day Israel’s COGAT aid coordination agency lists exactly how many trucks filled with humanitarian aid have actually entered Gaza. On Jan 2, for example, 189 trucks filled with aid entered … Read more
Experts warn of addiction, corporate influence, and effect on young people as online gambling surges MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Tuesday the 7th of January. We’re so glad you’ve joined us today! Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard. NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. First up on The World and Everything in It… sports gambling. If … Read more
As part of yesterday’s column about potential “offsets” for Trump’s tax agenda, I wrote “Don’t hold your breath” next to the line that stated taxpayers could save more than $500 billion if Congress refuses to spend any money on unauthorized programs. My skepticism does not mean disagreement. After all, if Congress is too incompetent to … Read more
Politicians love to talk and heap cheap glory upon themselves. But what they don’t say is that voters will have to pay and pay for gruesome policy, like the forced sterilization of minor children through so-called “gender affirming” care. As other nations turn away from the leftist fetish practice and see America as a desperately … Read more
The office-debt meltdown keeps getting worse. The motto in 2024 was “Survive till 2025” via extend-and-pretend. But now what? The delinquency rate of office mortgages that have been securitized into commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) spiked to 11.0% in December, a new all-time high, surpassing even the debt-meltdown during the Financial Crisis, when office CMBS delinquency … Read more
Defenders of fiscal sanity have received quite a surprise with Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). For the first time in what seems like forever, complaining about government waste has almost become…cool. To all of the newcomers to this issue, we’d like to extend a warm welcome. Whether it was the DOGE hype or … Read more
Politicians want to create jobs, “good-paying union jobs,” in existing industries. But that’s not what markets do. The “destructive” part of creative destruction eliminates jobs in existing industries. In a dynamic economy, innovations in division of labor can create good-paying jobs in new industries, but new industries require entrepreneurs, not politicians. Frederic Bastiat had two … Read more
One year people around my age woke up and discovered that the “holiday season” of Christmas and New Year’s Dah became a trio, with the addition of something called Kwanzaa. Oh sure, there were rumblings of a new holiday. This new “holiday” raises the question, why is a day invented in 1966 by a rapist … Read more
President Joe Biden’s handlers want you to believe he values life. Just a few days before Christmas, the White House announced, through an online written statement, that all but three people on federal death row will have their sentences commuted from a death sentence to life without the possibility of parole. The move saves the … Read more
During Trump’s first term, he was a big spender. He even wound up increasing domestic spending at a faster rate than Barack Obama. What can we expect in a second term? A week after the election, as part of my “Second Edition of Trump” series, I speculated whether he might do a better job and … Read more
One of Donald Trump’s closing campaign arguments was that he would deliver a new “golden age” for America. This week, he announced that this Trump-powered golden age has already begun. . . . The U.S. economy is nevertheless the envy of the world. Don’t take my word for it: The cover of a special issue … Read more
If the Bidens want to escape legal accountability for their pay-for-play operation, Joe better be ready to pardon the whole family. Joe Biden, who spent his vice presidency as the “big guy” behind his son Hunter’s foreign influence-peddling exploits and skated into the presidency because media and tech gatekeepers covered up news of the family … Read more
What do you think one man and a few ‘based’ people can do against hundreds of rotting bureaucracies? . . . More of these newly naive, bushy-tailed Republicans should be wary of this outcome even if Trump does win. Federal spending didn’t decrease under Trump last time, just as it can’t now. What do you … Read more
If anything illuminates the insanity and moral bankruptcy of our times, it’s the reaction to Israel’s decision to act against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Laws passed this week by the Israeli Knesset, which will come into force in three months’ time, ban UNRWA from operating in either Israel or Gaza, prohibit … Read more
New York City recently took a small step forward in correcting historical wrongs—at least, that’s what lawmakers would have you believe. The city council has passed a legislative package that would “fully examine the present-day impacts of injustices inflicted on Black New Yorkers and communities” and “advance necessary efforts to consider potential remedies that can … Read more
Throwing more money at the problem will not fix anything without incentives to spend resources wisely. Vice President Kamala Harris has not said much about education on the campaign trail, but she has consistently demonstrated allegiance to the teachers’ unions who want nothing more than for American families to give away more of their hard-earned … Read more
Brandon Johnson is rapidly establishing himself as one of the worst mayors in Chicago’s history. In just over a year and a half in office, his approval rating has plummeted to an abysmal 25 percent. This decline highlights broad-based discontent, not only among the civic and business communities but also in a significant portion of … Read more
There’s almost a surprising bit of good news in there if you squint: As hard as it is to believe, Eric Adams is the first sitting mayor of New York City to be indicted on federal charges. I’d have thought he’d be the fifth or the sixth or something. New York, our greatest city, is … Read more
We previously discussed Shellyne Rodríguez , the machete-wielding former Hunter College professor. Rodríguez is back with a large following shown in a video with protesters chanting with her about “slitting the throats of the masters.”We previously discussed a videotape of Rodríguez trashing a pro-life student display in New York. Before attacking the table, she told … Read more
The extent of Chinese government infiltration of our governing system is appalling. Even more than usual, everyone should read Jim Geraghty’s Morning Jolt from Wednesday, about the appalling extent of Chinese government infiltration of our governing system (at the state and federal levels) and society. Jim is right, of course, to observe that few publications … Read more