Andrew Sullivan Gets It Right Again

Andrew Sullivan: “This is what many Dems want: a woke party dedicated to non-whites and non-Asians and non-Jews and non-white queers, equity over excellence, race over merit, ideology over economics, and leveling down rather than raising up.” https://t.co/VORo29jwFn

— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) October 24, 2025

Abigail Spanberger, Agent Double-O-Trans

We're screwed.

But the think I really wanted to point to is the following (I've discussed the embedded quote before):

According to John Gentry, author of Neutering the CIA: Why US Intelligence Versus Trump Has Long-Term Consequences, the CIA deploys diversity dogma to a greater extent than the National Security Agency. As the former CIA analyst noted, the NSA specifies 11 employee “resource groups,” including IC-Islamic Culture, NG-Next Gen, and PRIDE—Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and allies.
John Brennan could cite “no major accomplishments in operational performance” Gentry wrote, and “no IC official ever credibly explained how demographic diversity improved the performance of US intelligence or even provided an example.” Others claim to have found several. Consider the mysterious Sneha Nair, Biden’s choice for “special assistant” at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and co-author of “Queering nuclear weapons: How LGBTQ+ inclusion strengthens security and reshapes disarmament

.” During “Pride Month,” Nair wanted readers to understand:
The visible representation and meaningful participation of queer people matters for nuclear policy outcomes. Discrimination against queer people can undermine nuclear security and increase nuclear risk. And queer theory can help change how nuclear practitioners, experts, and the public think about nuclear weapons. . . Equity and inclusion for queer people is not just a box-ticking exercise in ethics and social justice; it is also essential for creating effective nuclear policy. Studies in psychology and behavioral science show that diverse teams examine assumptions and evidence more carefully, make fewer errors, discuss issues more constructively, and better exchange new ideas and knowledge.

I know Gentry. He's a smart guy, and eminently worth listening to--though I have my disagreements with him. And he does know about the inner workings of the CIA.

   As for the embedded quote: this is the real idea of "diversity"--though it gets confused with Affirmative Action, a completely different thing. The core idea of "diversity" is that it makes organizations better at what they do. It's entirely forward looking and has nothing to do with rectifying past wrongs--which is what AA is supposed to do. There's some truth in that central claim of the diversophiles...if the right kinds of heterogeneity were chosen, it would, I'll bet, have a tendency to improve certain kinds of performance. E.g. if "viewpoint 'diversity'" were selected for. But that's not what they select for. Rather, "diversity" means: more leftism...and more individuals from left-preferred demographics...like blacks and transes...which means: more leftism... 

Which tends to me: worse performance...

More leftism means more cult groupthink...which is always bad.

Sweden has a Problem with South Asian and African Men Assaulting White Women...So Guess What Kind of PSA They Produced?

Yep

Better to let women be raped and otherwise sexually assaulted than to speak the truth and be accused of racism...it's a small price to pay to remain in good standing with the Cult...

Lefties Don't Understand the First Amendment: Kat Abughazaleh and Impeding ICE in Chicago

Kat Abughazaleh is a cute but brainless and crazy "influencer" (stupid word) and Congressional candidate in Chicago. If you've watched as much footage of leftist mobs attacking ICE as I have, you know that they just shriek propaganda over and over. For example, they repeat that they are just exercising their First Amendment rights. And, of course, that's the version of the story that ends up on leftist and MSM sites. In fact--as should go without saying--they are blocking roads and otherwise impeding ICE. Not to mention attacking them. Anyone who knows anything about First Amendment law knows that time, place and manner restrictions are common and lawful constraints on assembly and speech generally. But the protest-rioters will e.g. show up at restricted times (e.g. before dawn, after sunset), mob the exits from federal facilities, attack agents, etc. etc.

   Anyway, I've seen Abughazaleh do all those things. She's commonly out in front of the crowd, looking for exposure. You may have seen the famous footage over her being thrown to the ground as agents tried to clear the way for a vehicle--something she richly deserved.

Bullshit Studies and Leftist "Hegemony" in Academia: "Monster Studies"

   'Hegemony' is just one of the perfectly good words that the left has ruined. So I can't even hear myself think it without scare quotes anymore...

   There's nothing intrinsically wrong with stuff like "monster studies." Hell, I'm sure there are some interesting things to be said about it...though...TBF...the kind of things you could whip up in five minutes of drunken bullshitting...

   Anyhoo...

   I do really think there's no intrinsic problem. Hell, why not have a little fun in academia now and then?

   Well, here are the main problems, according to me:

[1]  Instead of being an occasional thing, some academicians make it their major thing.

[2]  This kind of shit is way, way too common--that is, this is only one variety of froofy bullshit that's afoot in the academy. The shit is just everywhere.

[3]  The intellectual standards associated with such shit are inevitably extremely low...

...in part because:

[4]  Such stuff is always even more corrupted by leftist thought than most stuff in the humanities and adjacent areas

though, TBF:

[A] These people would be doing politicized bullshit anyway...so I guess it's better to fuck up "monster studies" etc. than English literature...

I considered writing a little paper about H.P. Lovecraft and the Matrix a few years ago, in which I tried giving the idea of the Necronomicon as red (or black) pill a run for its money...mostly just for fun...but also because I think it's kinda right. Though, admittedly: total fluff. So I mean it when I say that I think screwing around like this every couple of years is fine. In principle.

But in practice...well...see [1]-[4] (above).

TV: The Diplomat

I'm not the biggest fan of tv/movies...and I know nothing about feeeelm...so my opinions about the stuff carry little weight. But I was just going to mention that Jonny Quest and I have been "bingeing," as the kids say, on The Diplomat. (Bingeing by our standards, anyway, which means about 2.5 episodes a night pretty much in a row, for about 2.5 seasons of the show.

   Kerri Russell's on my list now...

   Anyway...obvs we really like the show...but...then that thing starts to happen...

   You know the thing--it's a somewhat well-known phenomenon among non-lefties:

   A show starts off straight...but...then...a couple of episodes in...the lefty comments start showing up.

   There were bad signs early on--but they weren't that prominent. And we're not on hair triggers, believe it or not...though we're getting that way... I don't let this shit infect my whole life. But the bad signs have kind of piled up. Thus far, the worst individual comment has been a denunciation of Brexit, delivered in a casual-but-passing way (dunno how else to describe it). You know how lefties do it--they just assume everyone agrees with their oh-so-enlightened views...so they can just assert their crackpot views as if they were saying the equivalent of the sky is blue... But also the whole thing overall is turning into one big girlboss/girl-power circlejerk. We haven't given up on it yet--and I say it's worth a look if you haven't yet.

So there's that.

Spanberger Cruises in Virginia...

...or South Maryland as it will soon be known....       link

Bill Gates Abandons Climate Doomerism

...after he has done extraordinary damage to public opinion.

Good on him for changing his mind...

Seriously...this should really be the headline of this post...if I weren't such a jackass...

But damn, man...it's been clear for quite some time that climate change is radically overblown.

But still: good on Gates.

PC Search Engines: I Binged "England is Being Destroyed by Immigration"

...and the first three results were about predictions of falling immigration rates to the UK, and what a disaster that will be...:

UK’s disastrous immigration crisis exposed

The coming collapse in immigration to the United Kingdom - UK in a changing Europe

Migrant crisis: New data reveals shocking immigration truth...and it'll be a 'disaster' for Britain

Right-wing authoritarianism is very bad...but left-wing totalitarianism wants to destroy your mind...

Noah Rothman: The Biden Pardons Scandal Isn't Going Away

The MSM is uninterested, of course.

Imagine if Trump had done it...

Reddit Wants Trump to Die

Reddit is now basically an online mental institution.

Though this sort of thing is apparently all over different social media platforms.

Mamdanimania! Catch It!

Actually, don't catch it.

It's really fucked-up.

More Men Winning Woman/Women of the Year

The left just can't resist.

No lefty organization that gives out awards to women can rest easy until it's given the award to a man--or, in this case, men.

   Kinda reminds me of our interim chairman telling us, in 2020, that we had to produce an open letter in favor of St. George of Floyd and BLM and whatnot, because we were the last department in our college (or maybe one of the last two) not to have done so...and we would be in hot water if that didn't change. (I argued against it and insisted that people sign the letter individually so that I (and like two other guys) could withhold my (their) signatures. But the rest of the department signed.

   Anyway--I was thinking that this was the sort of position these kind of crap-ass magazines are in...but...I kinda thought the whole transanity nonsense was fading...so maybe they're just true believers...and/or they want to get their woke cred before the fad becomes any more ridiculous than it already is.

Sir Roger Scruton: How to be a Conservative (Uncommon Knowledge)

I wised up (or got confused...or whatever) a couple of years too late. Turns out he lived not all that far from me.

Was Tucker Carlson Always This Way?

My current view: both people and publicans often do good work...during a limited window. Some people do good work across their entire careers, obviously. In the pop political realm, Andrew Sullivan is a good example of the latter. I think Carlson (and, to some extent, even Candace Owens) is an example of the former. I thought he was doing interesting stuff for...maybe a year? Before that and after that...ehhhh... Apparently the other day he was interviewing Nick Fuentes (about whom I know almost nothing, incidentally...but I do know the conventional wisdom...), who said something like that he was a fan of Stalin. Which...there's got to be some twist to that story... But anyway, he, Carlson, kind of let that slide. He was taken aback, and said they'd need to return to it. I don't know how bad it is that he didn't get around to it. But anyway.

   Maybe it's a little like being a "one-hit wonder." There's a derogatory aspect of that phrase...but I always want to ask in response: how many chart-topping pop hits do you have? Probably your no Buggles, Mr. looks-down-on-1HWs...

   Anyway. As far as publications go, I think the Federalist is a good example--you can find some great stuff there...but...you have to pick through some trash...

   But, then, the same can be said of e.g. the Atlantic...

   Though: the world is largely composed of differences of degree...

   When it comes down to it, I haven't really seen anything Carlson has done in...well, again, maybe a year or something. So I don't really know.

Victor Nava: Arctic Frost: Biden's FBI Investigated Over 160 Republicans re: Election Interference

Bigger than Russiagate?

Federal sources confirmed to @FDRLST that Biden’s DOJ deliberately chose the name “Arctic Frost,” rather than follow the customary procedure of using a randomly generated name from agency computers.

Why? Because Arctic Frost is also a type of orange tree cultivar that can… https://t.co/VRlXU7qn3b

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) October 29, 2025

Psychobabble on: Choice Feminism

A lot of these people are really confused, though I think they do have a point or two:

Psychobabble Watch: New Victimhood had Dropped: "KinKeeping"

Thoughtcrime Watch: Letitia James and the NYAG's Office Go After VDARE

VDARE is, of course, a terrible naughty very bad organization that does thoughtcrimes all day. Even notorious thoughcrimers like me shy away from VDARE.

   I'm not familiar enough with their stuff to give an authoritative overall assessment of the organization, but I've probably read ten or fifteen of their posts. There's little doubt in my mind that they deserve to be heard.

   There's also little doubt in my mind that this is a politically-motivated attempt to suppress and destroy them.

   Agree or disagree with them, it seems clear that this is just more left-wing censorship:

One obvious clue is contained in the filing of the original civil complaint. Letitia James and James Sheehan, chief of the state’s charities bureau, are listed first, but right below them is Meghan Faux, a longtime progressive lawyer whose title is “chief deputy attorney general for social justice.”

 Don't forget: "social justice," in actual fact, means: Woketarian ideology.

Colin Wright on "Transgenderism: Evidence Backs the Social Contagion Hypothesis"

Well of course it does.

Remember: the left believed this "transgender" bullshit.

Well, wrong tense--many of them still do.

And don't forget...sex is a "social construct"...but "gender identity"...that's real. Fetuses know their "gender identity" in the womb, bigotREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Michael Brendan Dougherty: The National Review, Standing Athwart Open Borders

This is largely a plea for support from NRO--but (though I think they're worth supporting, and I sometimes spring for gift subscriptions) that's not why I post it. Rather, I post it because of the tight statement of the case against open borders.

RCP: Poll Shows Startling Number of Dems Support Violence Against ICE in Chicago

Plus a lot of other insane views.

Lefty Political Violence Watch: Turley: TPUSA Member Assaulted After Antifa Posted "Hit List"

For the gazillionth time:

I generally don't hold a faction's lunatic fringe against it...

...but on the progressive left, fringe beliefs have moved closer and closer to the center.

This sort of thing is hardly even surprising anymore.

USBP Agents Boxed in and Attacked by Anti-ICE Rioters in Chicago

This shit is more insurrectiony than the Capitol Riot was, by far:

David Catron: Is a Democrat Early Voting Disaster Brewing in VA?

Betteridge's law of headlines tells us: if a headline is a question, the answer is usually No.

I think that law probably holds in this case...

...but keep hope alive...

If Spanberger could just be the moderate she pretends to be--even just a little bit--I think she could win easily. But she isn't. So she won't.

But she probably will win.

Hell, I'd be fine with a moderate Dem.

Rothman: If Trump Doesn't Want to be Impeached, He should Stop Doing Impeachable Things

Preposterous!

Venezuela: How It Started, How It's Going

You can vote your way into socialism, but you've gotta shoot your way out.

Leonora Barclay: The Great Feminization Hasn't Gone Far Enough

I don't have any fixed view of this stuff.

Men and women (and, for that matter: males and females more broadly, to include nonhuman animals) tend to have some psychological differences. The male tendencies tend to be better for hunting and fighting, and the female tendencies for nurturing and raising young.

That doesn't tell us much about much, though.

It's likely that the influx of women is harming academia in the following sense: women are less likely to support free speech and objective inquiry, and more likely to be sucked into bullshit like critical theory, postmodernism, CRT and feminism.

Contra Ms. Barclay, I'd bet some money on the proposition that cancel culture wouldn't have happened without a lot of women influencing that aspect of the culture.

Now: women have also had good effects on academia, undoubtedly. In philosophy, in particular, I think the influx of women helped tone down the excessively combative style of analytic (or post-analytic) philosophy. That really was some stupid shit...and I say this despite having been very good at it... We all used to defend it by representing it as some kind of crucible of truth...but egos got too much involved...and it became like a kind of pathetic battle for dominance... A really pathetic one...

Anyway, thing is, we'll have to admit that both male and female tendencies can be good and/or bad, depending on what we're doing. Men's overall natural tendencies aren't the best thing in every context, and neither are women's.

And, of course: they're just general tendencies--they're not exhibited by every man, woman, boy or girl.

The greatest current danger is to refuse to criticize women's general tendencies, and to over-criticize men's. That certainly wasn't always the case. Currently, male-bashing is everywhere...but even obvious points that so much as suggest criticism of women's general tendencies are verboten e.g. in academia.

So we have to get over that shit.

Oh and: politics:  women have been a--or perhaps the--main driving force in the Woketarian madness that's wrecked the country--and the Western world--for a decade. Women lean left politically...and that's a catastrophe...at least when it goes as far as it has recently. (I'm not impressed by Barclay's counterpoint here...but admittedly it deserves more thought).

However: it's really unmarried women who are the core of that problem.

Right now, it looks like unmarried women and nonwhites are likely to vote us into a Euro-shit future. And that would be a catastrophe.

Of course, from the perspective of the left, those groups are on track to save us...

TBYS: Leftist Activists and True Believers in Education Aren't Even Trying to Hide It Anymore

The White House Ballroom

People just seem to be lining up on this issue along partisan lines.

E.g. Reddit is in a mass meltdown about it. It destroyed some FDR trees!!1

...which, I'll admit, sounds bad...though one of the deeply-downvoted comments there asserts that these particular trees were near the end of their expected lifespans anyway...which...well...big if true...

Me, I don't know and don't care all that much.

Sounds to me like the case for the ballroom is pretty good.

But surely there are architectural historians and whatnot out there who have weighty opinions on this.

Though since I got off Twixxer, I don't see a lot of the stuff I used to would have seen.

Given the rabid and reflexive anti-Trumpery of the left, it's hard to find sensible anti-Trump opinions. You feel like you're panning for gold dust in a mudslide...

Anyway, I'm more than willing to believe that he's doing something terrible here...but I haven't seen arguments showing that yet.

York: How John Brennan Lied to Congress

I've been very skeptical of these cases by the DoJ--e.g. against Comey and Brennan--even though they're lying partisan scumbags... McCarthy says that the Comey case isn't sufficiently strong. Dunno what he thinks about this one.

   I want the law to be followed with minimal damage to the nation. That might mean letting some of these guys go--I really don't know.

   This is all largely beyond my understanding.

Christine Rosen: The Dangers of "Trans"

link

   When the history of this madness is written, it has to be stressed that (a) this insane view--roughly that men can become women by fiat--was adopted by the left en masse and without reason, and (b) they maintained the belief long after it had been soundly refuted, (c) despite the fact that it had become clear that it was a dangerous bit of mass hysteria with undeniable links to other mental illnesses and (apparently) to violent actions.

[In case you've forgotten: behold, "Barbie Kardashian."]

Noem: The Left Attacks the Rule of Law

agreed

Arielle Scarcella: Woke Leftists are Mentally Broken

Maine Senate Candidate Platner Really Did Have an SS Totenkopf Tattoo

I wasn't following this. I figured it was just partisan political BS, and that he'd have maybe some indeterminate kind of skull tattoo that was being blown out of proportion...but...well...if you look it up...it's an SS Totenkopf, alright...

   Obviously I have no interest in the "performative" woke anti-fascism/anti-Nazism...but every normal red-blooded 'Merican boy ought to know what that looks like...and even if (as Platner claims) you got such a tattoo when drunk, you'd want to get that shit removed / covered up asap... I'd be creeped/grossed out beyond the telling of it. I'd probably never admit that I hadn't known what the Totenkopf looked like...

Damn, man...

   It's weird as hell...but still, I think it's pretty damn unlikely that the guy is a secret Nazi. That is like the tenth most likely explanation of all this.

   What he apparently is is a guy who was willing to keep a Totenkopf tattoo long after he knew what it was. Which is pretty fucked up if you ask me.

Nicole Russell: Democrats are Starting to Like Trump

Not really.

Russell's point is really: they ought to be.

They like his policies--but, as she admits, 

Yet party affiliation still carries significant weight, even in the face of a strong record. An October Economist/YouGov Poll found that Trump's favorability, likability and leadership ability were purely determined by the respondents' ideological persuasion ‒ and by significant margins, too.
So even though Democrats say they support the president's initiatives, because he has addressed many of their main concerns, they still don't really like Trump or want to give him credit for improving their problems. That's too bad.

I've got a lot of blue-team friends and acquaintances...and they just plain detest Trump. They're inchoately against deportations, inchoately against removing fraud from government...and basically on the warpath against all of his efforts to save/reform universities. Dunno what they'd say about lowering Medicare drug prices...it's the kind of thing they'd be for (well...if it was Medicaid, anyway...)...

   Me, I don't know how lowering prescription prices is supposed to work...I'd normally be against such chicanery...but this is supposed to be effected by...greater bargaining power or something? So: not price controls? If so: more power to him.

   Anyway, Mr. Trump's unpopularity is, to a large extent, his own fault. He could be significantly less Trumpy...and more people would like him.

   But as for the academic types of my acquaintance: they are never, ever, ever going to admit that Trump is doing a good job.

Big Blue Dumb: "We Keep Hearing About 'Legitimate Concerns Over Immigration'--the Truth is There Are None"

I'm only including the author's name--Maya Goodfellow--because she deserves to be remembered for this crack-brained piece of shit op-ed for...well, along time.

Honestly, who's this stupid?

Of what major policy can it truly be said that there are no legitimate concerns?

Progressivism is a helluva drug.

Four Chinooks...

...just came hammering over my house.

If I hear aircraft over the house, I usually go look, but this time I was busy and guessed that it was probably just the ER helicopter. But the noise got louder...and louder...and louder...and by the time I got outside, it was shaking the whole house.

Anyway: four Chinooks. Dunno what model--I'm not that knowledgeable about them.

No idea what they're up to.

As you can probably infer from the above: this isn't a common occurrence here--never seen such a thing before, actually.

Borysenko: Most "MAGA Men at ICE in Portland Have My Back"

American Leviathan: "From Sanctuary Cities to Street Armies: Leviathan's War on Citizenship"

Agreed!

Whole-heartedly.

   To summarize my two-tiered left hypothesis: the radical fringe of the left--no longer really a fringe--is currently the vanguard, setting the agenda. And that agenda includes, first and foremost: destruction of the West (ergo capitalism). And one of the most effective strategies for destabilizing a nation is: promoting unchecked immigration. The less-radical left--which is the fat part of the curve--won't go along with that. So the project is packaged to them in humanitarian wrapping with an emotive bow on the top: oh, those poor people...families belong together...etc. Then there's the usual lame philosophical quasi-defense: Borders are arbitrary...bigot.

   One consequence of all this is to undermine the very idea of nations and citizenship. Which is the point. 

   At any rate, the unstated policy of the Democrats is now: when we're in power, we're going to let in a flood of illegal aliens. When you're in power, we're going to prevent you from deporting them.

   If you watched footage of the flash mobs--and I've watched a lot of it--what you hear is mostly the same shit over and over: Why are you doing this? Let them go! Show us your face! blah blah blah Turtle Island...No one is illegal on stolen land...blah blah blah... Pure emotion. No reason. An abject inability to think the next thought--What will be the consequence of not enforcing immigration laws? The left has become a mob of Firefly-esque Reavers, whether online or in person. Shrieking, howling, mindless...

   If the left were more rational about this, immigration laws could be enforced in a more orderly way. But the left now thinks--or at least acts as if it thinks--that no one should be deported. Thus we must choose between: (a) allowing the nation to go farther down the road to destruction...and (b) enforcing immigration law more-or-less with a hammer rather than a scalpel... We can't be as careful as we might like to be when shrieking mobs of lunatic cat ladies, Pantyfa Blackshirts, and Greenhat lawyer-activists could descend on the operation at any moment.

   Though, actually, Trump's approach is still overly limited--we're not even really going after illegals generally. We're only going after criminal illegals--though ICE is allowed to sweep up other illegal aliens caught up in raids targeting criminals. Which is a smart policy--but, still, too limited.

   And if you haven't vividly represented to yourself what can go wrong when we enforce immigration laws in these ways, here's something that will slap you upside of the head about it all.

McCarthy: [Democrat Lawfare, Trump v. U.S., and] Why Trump Has Immunity for His Lawless, Lethal Attacks on the High Seas

First, I've been inexcusably flippant about this.

I knew it when I was doing it...but I did it anyway.

Second, this piece ranges beyond just the bombing of the drug boats.

Worth a read, sez me.

Not to mindlessly bash the Dems again, but I think McCarthy is right. This largely goes back to (maniacal, inexcusable) Democrat lawfare.

But understanding the origins of our predicament--though important--won't itself extricate us from it.

5600+ Illegal Alien Criminals Arrested in VA Since February

It's yet another measure of how nuts the Dems have gone that they're even opposed to deporting criminal illegal aliens.

VA Dems to Drag Us into the Redistricting Fray?

Very bad.

But some Dems may balk at this...not to mention the voters.

Panicked VA Dems Embark on Naked Power Grab

Pulling WES off the campaign trail for a bogus special session of the GA.

SAD!

Even worse is the redistricting scheme they're cooking up. I've been skeptical of claims by e.g. Nick Freitas that VA Dems have gotten unusually ruthless...but...I'm a little less skeptical about them these days.

Do you want Maryland?

Because this is how you get Maryland.

A Trump Tariff Tantrum

Typical

Trump's Deal with UVA Sounds Great

Now...I'm clueless about the legal aspects of the situation, and, though I'm inside the belly of the beast (or, rather: a much less prestigious beast in the same state...) I really don't understand academic administration, nor how any of this stuff works.

BUT:

The Trump compact seems good to me, and the UVA deal seems good, and it seems to me to be a measure of how corrupt academia has become that such a deal even had to be struck. It sounds to me like UVA agreed to be a, y'know, university...

...Instead of a politicized institution for the development and dissemination of left-wing political and philosophical ideas...

Wonder what will happen in 3 years or so when Spanberger appointees outnumber Youngkin appointees on UVA's Board...?

Borysenko Attacked by MAGA Counter-Protestors in Portland While Undercover as Antifa

Background: innumerable acts of aggression, assault, battery, and abject retardation have been committed by Pantyfa in its relentlessly idiotic rioting outside the Portland ICE facility...and it all goes unreported by the MSM... 

So don't forget that part.

Not that you would.

HOWEVER...

Don't neglect the below.

I'm absolutely with Karlyn on this one--the retarded right might as well be on the retarded left; they're both our enemies. Retardation is retardation. And the more we win, the more the retards on the right are going to crawl out of the woodwork. The left has gone so far too far that there is simply no defending them...until, that is, the right goes too far as well. Eventually the left will moderate and the right will radicalize, and the left will again become the lesser evil.

This isn't rocket science...

AAUP Tacitly Admits Discrimination Against Conservatives in Academia

To my mind, the most astonishing thing about this is that anyone could honestly think that the academic left is adept at critical inquiry... In fact--especially when it comes to political and "culture-war"-related issues--it would hard to find a groups that's more deeply-immersed in its own echo chamber...

It’s been often claimed that conservatives are largely non-existent in academe because they are drawn to money-making careers. Glad to see this canard utterly obliterated by the American Association of University Professors, who admit that conservatives are effectively purged… https://t.co/K8laiCH3Eq

— Patrick Deneen (@PatrickDeneen) October 22, 2025

    The academic left has been enthralled by outright absurd theories about race, sex, "gender," class, etc...not to mention many other things...for at least the last 50 years. The most absurd ideas you've ever heard are often de rigueur in wide swaths of the academy--from Women have penises to Reality is socially constructed... Mindless, brainless ideas from the left are commonly recited on campus as if they were the plainest truth...and often with the smug sanctimony of the invincibly self-satisfied.
   It is true that the academic left is apt to "challenge traditional norms"...but that's almost just definitive of the left. They reflexively...even mindlessly...challenge traditional norms. Challenging traditional ideas is basically taken as undeniably good...no matter how stupid those challenges might be. So this isn't really so much a virtue...it's really nothing to crow about...

   As for genuinely deep and rational thought in academia...honestly, I tend to think conservatives are better. Leftist academicians are more likely to be herd animals. Conservative academicians are more likely to be independent-minded. But this is a general phenomenon--someone who bucks the herd mentality may do it mindlessly...but more often doesn't.

   And finally: is it any surprise that those in the majority value peer review more highly? More of their peers agree with them, after all... (Note: I'm cynical about peer review...but I don't have a better idea...)

Oh, and: the "fascism" nonsense actually slipped right by me...that sort of mindless crap from the left is just background noise to me at this point.

Moonbats vs. Battle Penguins

The loony left (but I repeat myself) is going after the F-35.

A New College Ranking--and Ranking System--from City Journal and NAS

The National Association of Scholars and City Journal have produced a new university ranking system that includes factors like intellectual freedom on campus.

Their first ranking puts Carolina at #3 [Oops--I originally said 2] in the nation...so I'm favorably disposed toward it...

70% of You People are Fatties

Says so right here.

Trump's "Compact for Academic Excellence"

This is pretty good--but I've only read the whole thing once (and fragments from it a few times).

My initial reaction: academia would be much better at what it allegedly does if it accepted these...what are they? Guidelines? Constraints? Principles?

But it's pretty unlikely that many schools will.

To just address the most important idea: they don't want institutional neutrality.

Too many professors see themselves as "scholar-activists"--they have a political orientation, and they see it as central to what they do. They're not interested in understanding the world--only in changing it.

'Nuther Drug Boat Go Boom

Hasta la vista, baby.

Dems Take Yet Another Step Toward a *De Facto* Open Borders Position

...by taking yet another step toward the position that immigration laws should not be enforced:

NEW: Democrats are planning to launch a "master" ICE-tracker on their website. pic.twitter.com/aYbtH36kJF

— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 22, 2025

VA Governor: Good News / Bad News

The good news: the best pollsters of the lot, Trafalgar, has the race closest.

The bad news: that still puts WES three points down.

New Yorkers Lose Their Minds Over ICE/HSI Raid

The beginning looks rather like the penultimate scene of Blackhawk Down.

NS manages to get some interviews with the mobsters and onlookers. Almost all the lefties are hysterical and idiotic. There's one guy at the end who manages to calmly articulate an idea...a bad one...but at least it's coherent.

As one of the sane onlookers says: the mob is all emotion, zero logic.

As he's speaking to NS, a scrawny Asian dude with a bike says that if the cops weren't there he'd kick his ass. (LOL that guy ain't kickin' nobody's ass in this world...)

The women, as is typical of the left, are the most hysterical and aggressive--in part because they know they can get away with it. One of them is finally arrested--go ICE!

This is at least as much of an insurrection as the Capital riot was. That was symbolically worse for two hours--no doubt about it. This, like the BLM/Antifa riots over George Floyd, is more deliberate and destructive, worse in substance, and more like an insurrection in that it's ongoing and entirely without legal justification. At least the attempt to stop certification had a thin legal argument underlying it--for whatever that's worth. (Don't get me wrong--that Capital rioters were completely wrong, as I made clear at the time.)

Anyway--behold, the left:

Don't Forget About Possibly the Greatest Woke Hoax Ever: The Canadian Indian Residential Schools Mass Graves Hoax

Apparently, the Woketarians are still insisting it's real.

But there's never been any substantial evidence for it.

The only evidence is some vague and almost certainly bogus anomalies found with ground-penetrating radar...that could be almost anything.

They refuse to dig for the bodies...ostensibly because something something tradition...but really because even they probably realize there are no bodies there.

It's all complete bullshit.

[There's even a major report--by academic woketards, of course--alleging to show that the "hoax narrative' itself is a hoax...that is, that the mass graves hoax isn't a hoax...despite the near-total lack of evidence for it.]

Lisa Selin Davis: "Trans" ID Decline Points to Social Contagion

There's never really been any question about this.

   It will all go away more slowly than it should--I predict--because so many people have such a deep, personal, moral, and quasi-religious commitment to it. Many (perhaps most) people who fell for it and allowed themselves to be mutilated will have a hard time admitting it (though some, of course, will stampede to find an excuse). Parents--mostly mothers--who inflicted this on their children may be the real bastion of transanity. Many of them will likely never be able to admit their role in the mutilation and neutering of their own children. Even parents who merely went along with it will likely be plagued with guilt. Teachers were a significant vector of transmission. More guilt there...

   In fact, I expect this will never completely go away. "Trans"ness has long been a thing. It's a psychological glitch for many men--autogynephilia (note: a word Blogger still pretends not to understand...). And it fades off into a perfectly reasonable disinterest in conforming to social norms about attire and whatnot. But, anyway: the demon is out of the pentagram. It'll probably be with us, to some degree, for a long, long...long...time.

Galston: "No Kings" Protests Were Peaceful--Even Patriotic

Seems that some Republicans made some pretty implausible claims about the protests...though I'm not sure they're refuted by Galston talking to people in his synagogue and driving around his neighborhood...

   Seems to me that these protests...which I guess we're having every month or so now...are filled with shitlibs and cat ladies, not Antifa anarcho-retards. This is the clueless milquetoast end of the spectrum...

...

Though, as you know, I think they do basically get their political ideas--such as they are--and the equivalent of their marching orders from the wacko lefty end of the blue end of the spectrum...but no reason to yammer on about that again, I guess.

   Anyway, it's worth remembering that a lot of people on the center-left (such as it is anymore) do love the country and want the best for it. They're confused--currently--but mostly good people. And our countrymen, remember. I wish they'd think things through a bit more. They're making some really stupid mistakes. But, then, politics does that to people. And Trump is making it much more difficult for them to think clearly about things.

   Of course, the left makes it more difficult for us to think about the issues, too. When you've got a mob of incoherent loons shrieking nonsense at you all the time (here I speak mostly of the more radical part of the blue team...but not entirely...) it's difficult to keep a level head and sift through it for the few nuggets of sanity...

   But anyway...

   The flagship demand of the left right now seems to be: No enforcement of immigration laws...ever. Bigot. 

This seems to me to be no improvement on their last three-or-so flagship issues:

Women have penises, bigot.

Trump is literally Hitler, bigot.

No enforcement of any laws against blacks, bigot.

And those haven't gone away, of course. The left, loving fads, has just moved on to a new shiny ideologivcal bauble.

Oops...almost forgot:

From the river to the sea. Bigot.

Some river or other...some sea or other...

Well, anyway. I didn't expect anything radical from these shenanigans. I'm surprised Bessent et al. did. I mean, there were radicals mixed in there. But this was always going to be the left on its best behavior.

But really, the most important point here is: these aren't the radicals. These are mostly people who want the best for the nation...they're just confused about what that amounts to. 

What is the Deep State?

The Daily Caller...but still pretty good:

The Most Important Device in the Universe

VA Dems Getting Unjustly Busted for "Racist" Anti-Earl-Sears Stuff

So now there's this:

I'm an ABL fan--and not given to mindless defense of JMU...

And it's hilarious that the dude is yelling "go back to Haiti"...when WES is from Jamaica...

But...

It's not racist.

Telling somebody to go back to where they came from is asshattery of a high-ish level (under normal conditions)...but...not racist.

Unless, of course, the asshat in question is saying the thing he's saying on account of his racist attitudes...

But we've got no reason to think this JMU-fan-Democrat wouldn't be yelling the same kind of thing at WES if she were from, say, Lithuania.

I mean, look: is it racist for the Dems to call Trump Hitler? He is of German heritage, after all...

Answer: no.

They call every GOP Presidential candidate Hitler. It has nothing to do with Trump being of German extraction.

So, again: the JMU thing: asshattery...but not racist asshattery.

On a similar note:

Also not racist:

Now, I'm rooting for WES, obvs, given Spanberger's acceptance of "transgender" pseudoscience and her support for an "assault weapons" ban...and despite the fact that she'd likely sign the bill legalizing the commercial sale of weed in the OD... And, of course, because we're cooked if the Dems take both the governorship and both houses of the GA...

But, again: not racist.

See, the sign is stupid...because it's stupid to defend men in women's or boys in girls' restrooms.

But it's saying: sex-segregated restrooms are bad--like race-segregated water fountains.

Extremely dumb analogy...

But not racist.

Lefties are Losing Their Minds Over ICE

Reddit has gone stark, raving mad about this stuff:

r/illinois link with comments.

At this point, Reddit is almost nothing but videos from the weak-ass "No Kings" protests (didn't they just do that like, last month?) and videos of poor innocent be-beh angels being "kidnapped" by ICE.

Honestly, I can't remember either of our major political factions going this insane before in my adult life. 

Lott: The Crime Surge is Real

The left is lying to you...again.

Carol Marks: The Young Republican's Chat Scandal--Dumb, Disgusting, and Definitely Not the Apocalypse

I haven't read nor thought enough about this to have much to say about it. It's mostly dark humor--anyone who thinks that "I love Hitler," for example, was a serious comment is nuts.

   The Jay Jones texts were much worse. Vicious, even. Murderous...maybe.

   I argued that Jones should be cut slack for the well-known joke template You're in an elevator with x and [two of the most evil people in history, y and z [e.g. Hitler, Stalin]] and you only have two rounds...who do you shoot? Answer: shoot x twice.

   See, that's humor. It's a well-known template. It's probably never been uttered seriously.

   But Jones went way, way beyond that.

   And it wasn't funny.

   And it didn't seem to be exactly intended to be funny...

   How bad the YR's chats are depends, in large part, on the details...which I just can't bear to dig into.

   But as someone or other was arguing the other day, Vance's defense seems pretty lame. He's right about the sickness/madness of "cancel culture" (stupid term), and in particular right about the twisted practice by the left of destroying the lives of kids who did something innocuous ten years ago when they were 13 or whatever.  HOWEVER: these aren't kids. They're apparently 20-somethings and even people in their 30s (is that right?) And, though it might not be reasonable to trash someone's life for dark humor, it doesn't seem obviously unreasonable to refrain from hiring someone as e.g. a political consultant on such grounds.

   Anyway, I just don't know. I'm a big fan of dark and un-PC humor...but I do have my limits.

   Also, this is the kind of thing that's so impressionistic that political biases matter a lot--and I'm not exactly neutral these days.

   One last point of comparison: conservatives are still getting trashed for humor that it actually much less bigoted than things many leftists say openly and seriously--e.g. all whites are racist (in fact: to be white is to be racist), all men are sexist, all non-leftists are fascists, "whiteness" must be destroyed/"dismantled, etc.

   But, anyway, these are general thoughts, and they won't give us determinate answers to specific questions about how mad the chats are. Me, I'm open to them being terrible or completely innocuous. I don't have a pre-determined position. Largely because I don't care much.

Alan S. Blinder: Trump's University "Compact" Would Make Universities Mediocre

link

To my shame, I haven't read the compact carefully yet.

   But this op-ed seems to willfully ignore the problem of left-wing institutional capture of academia.

I don't see that Blinder makes any case for the claim that the compact would make universities mediocre.

   And the "who's to say?" point...well...such a point is always easy to make against all sides in such a dispute. It tends to be raised by the left whenever we remind them that our job is to seek the truth (who's to say what's true?), or to transmit the best that's been thought and said (who's to say what's best?) or to objectively assess ideas (who's to say what's objective?)....but when the academic left insists that all other goals must be subordinated to "social justice," they never ask "who's to say what's just?" nor any such thing. When they were relentlessly pushing DEI, they never asked "who's do say what's equitable?'...etc.

   It probably goes without saying that I don't want the DoJ hovering over our heads...but it would probably be better than the virtually unchecked ideological manipulation of academia we've been living with for the past 50--and especially the last 10--years.

Quasi-Threats of Violence from the "No Kings" LARPfest

Fortunately, this laughable girly-boy obviously doesn't have what it takes to kill a sixpack, much less a person...nevertheless, he does come about as close to making a death threat as the Pantyfa legal advisors will let them come:

Oh yeah, and: Stephen Miller's Jewish...so...

More Embarrassing Moonbattery From the "No Kings" Crowd...With a Wee Bit of Foreshadowing at the End from Our Friends on the Right

"What--specifically--are you all bitching about?

"Democracy...fascism...democracy...rights...rights...democracy...fascism...."

To coin a phrase: Orange Man bad...

Chip Roy Contra "No Kings": There is a King and He's Jesus

facepalm

Here's the next big problem looming on the American political horizon...and I expect it'll weaken our efforts to push back on political correctness / Woketarianism:

Decoy Voice On: "No Kings" Protests, the Olds, and Know-Nothing Lefties

At least skip to 4:45 to see some interviews with protestors who have absolutely no idea what they're even protesting...

No Komissars

Maybe that should be our analog to 'no kings.'

Major difference: kings aren't an actual threat to us here and now.

That Trump Meme With the F-16 Shitting on Leftist Protestors

facepalm

I'm not even going to link to it.

That guy is anti-Presidential.

Such an embarrassment.

He's done a great deal of good for the country, and he has several important virtues...but almost every day I wish he'd go away and leave the job to Vance.

* Derp. Just saw the thing again...it's an F-18, obvs.

The Left Suddenly Discovers the Diversity is Bad...When it Thwarts Their Ends: Lisa Saraganian, "Seven Theses Against Viewpoint Diversity"

What a huge, steaming pile of crap.

Now, I don't like the phrase "viewpoint diversity"--we just have to jettison the now-malignant term "diversity" entirely. If we don't, the PC left will use it as an entering wedge for their nefarious projects.

Just ditch it.

That won't solve everything, obviously. But it'll help avoid one kind of problem.

  Look, here's the short of it:

  "Diversity" in the mouth of the progressive left always meant:  More of what we like, less of what we don't. That is: more leftist and left-friendly stuff, less traditional scholarship and science.

In the academy (and elsewhere, too), this meant, first and foremost: hiring more nonwhites and women, especially other than Jews and Asians, promoting more leftist ideas, fewer non-leftist ones, more anti-West, anti-American, anti-capitalist stuff, more kinky sex masquerading as scholarship...just in general: more weird, politicized, relativist-nihilist antics by kinds of people the left prefers...less serious scholarship by boring olds and whites and guys. Less, e.g., dreary, sober, philosophy of science, more flamboyant trans/drag/queer/feminist "science studies."

   But the chiefest of these has always been, roughly: more blacks, fewer whites.

   Now, when challenged, the main defense of this nonsense has always been a sideways appeal to "viewpoint diversity"--though not so called: blacks have a different perspective on things than whites.

   The other extremely important argument has involved confusing "diversity" with affirmative action--i.e. misinterpreting "diversity" as a means of redressing past wrong. But that's not what it's supposed to be. Affirmative action is affirmative action, and "diversity" is "diversity"...it's supposed to be forward-looking. AA is backward-looking. The great lie on which the obsession with "diversity" was built is: even if we pretend to ignore our all-consuming obsession with "social justice," and merely (" ") focus on making the university better by traditional standards, hiring more non-old, non-white, non-males will help do that.

   Total nonsense. But that's the almost-never-explicitly-stated idea.

   But anyway...one of the central ideas of "diversity" programs has always been: Race is a proxy for viewpoint.

   That's the main defense of this madness--once much confusion and intentional obscuration has been cleared away.

   There's a lot more to say about that, but I've said some of it in the past, and am disinclined to say it here.

   Bottom line: now that their bluff is being called, and Trump is demanding actual viewpoint "diversity," it takes virtually no time at all for some leftist hack to spit out an anti-"diversity" screed.

   The old view: it's impossible to "do" universities without diversity!!!111

   The new view: "diversity"? Ridiculous! Conservative! Trumpian!

   Saraganian's argument functions as a premise for the following bigger argument: a variety of perspectives is valueless in academia...but more non-whites is absolutely necessary...

   What a crock of shit.

   Now, the AAUP is crap--in the way that much of the rest of academia is shit--it's a progressive-left organization pretending to be a scholarly organization. Though Academe has published a few good things in the past (notably, McCaughey and Welsh, "The Shadow Curriculum of Student Affairs"), and AAUP has done other good work, it's mostly gone over to the dark side. And this Saraganian piece fits right into their overall orientation.

T-SPLY: More Attacks on ICE Agents

For years I've ridiculed the idea that we might be headed for Civil War II: Electric Boogaloo...but honestly, I'm starting to think it might be a real possibility. When one of our major political factions thinks it just gets to nullify laws--in this case, immigration laws--and use mobs to prevent enforcement...

Very bad:

Entitled Commies Who've Spent the Last Decade Undermining Free Speech Outraged They're Not Allowed to Block Public Streets

...as part of their effort to unilaterally invalidate immigration laws:

Arrest 'em all--let God sort 'em out.

Paul Sperry: The [cough] Remarkable [cough] Rags-to-Riches Story of Stacey Abrams

link

Dems Now Only About 60% Likely to Re-Take the House

I don't know which would be worse--the still-insane Democrats retaking the House, or the in-the-thrall-of-Trump Republicans keeping it.

link

   The Democrats should be kept as far away from power as possible unless/until they come back to their senses. But having some kind of check on Trump is crucial...and the Pubs obviously aren't up to the task.

   And I say this even though most of the things Trump is doing are either good or plausibly so...

   Given that I don't even know which would be worse, I'm not going to fret about it.

   Besides, I'm too busy fretting about the looming destruction of the OD if/when Spanberger takes the Governorship...

T-SPLY: Retarded Portland Lefties Block in ICE Vehicles

Jarrett Stepman: Obama's Legacy Crumbles Before His Eyes

link

I was an Obama fanboy.

Really bad.

In my defense, though I read news obsessively, my understanding of the positions and movements in American politics was pathetic. And I barely read conservative sources...largely because I thought that, by reading the NYT and (mainly) the WaPo obsessively, I was getting the most accurate available version of current events. (Which, hell, may actually be true...they may be the best...but they're extremely biased and not very good.) But, much as I tried to be objective, I thought the blue team was the good guys and the red team was the bad guys. That thought--or feeling--was just lodged deep in my brain. Or soul. Or whatever.

Well, anyway.

Enough about my epistemic failures...

Though I've moved significantly to the right, some of that happened because the left moved so insanely far left. To some extent it's no movement at all on my part. That's the Colin Wright point:

But I also actually moved right--largely because I finally came to understand more about political issues, more about economics, more about the right--and more about the left.

But anyway:

I've always been opposed to the PC left--or, rather: I was opposed to it when I first encountered it as radical feminism as an undergraduate, and then, when political correctness called by that name took over campuses my second or third year of grad school, I was its most vocal opponent in the department. Anyone who's read Orwell should have vocal opponents ofit...but damn few actually were.

The point, really:

I wouldn't have supported Obama--ever--if I'd have known that he was a PC leftist at heart--or, even if he isn't--that he would help kick off something like the "Great Awokening." (The Great Retardening would be a better term...)

Well, maybe this is the real point:

I'm still not convinced that he's a leftist at heart...but there are bad signs.

And I just did not know about (or I've forgotten about)--this Executive Order.

Anyway.

I now don't know what to make of Obama. I still like things about him--e.g. his "no drama" demeanor... There's just no comparison to Trump's all-carnage-all-the-time demeanor.

I'm still think hope is important...but change...shudder...I now realize that's an ominous slogan. Not that I think much should be made of slogans--generally.

Well, that's all.

Almost all:

Don't miss some of the great links in the piece, especially this link to a piece by the great Zack Goldberg: "How the Media Led the Great Racial Awakening."

Daniel Huff: Government Shutdown? No--An Efficiency Audit

I don't know, but this sounds reasonable:

This approach—furlough broadly, identify failures, restore specific functions—is vastly more efficient than conventional budget cutting. Successive shutdowns have refined the data. The Office of Management and Budget produces detailed post-shutdown reports analyzing what worked and what didn’t, creating institutional learning that improves planning. For example, the fiscal 2014 shutdown generated data on which services generated outcry when suspended (national parks), which created safety risks (fewer inspections by the Food and Drug Administration), and which caused surprisingly little disruption.

But all I can really say about this, knowing virtually nothing about it, nothing about what it looks like from the inside, is that it doesn't sound crazy. Maybe it's worth a shot.

Ned Ryun/American Leviathan: The Collapse of the Democratic Party and its Deep State Keepers

I've never really known how much of the Deep State hypothesis to take seriously.

I think there's clearly substantial truth in it...but I expect it's overblown in some corners of MAGAland.

I can say--and have said repeatedly--that I can attest to the fact that the Deep Academy is real and dangerous.

Anyway...

All I can really say is that I take this and similar things very seriously.

More of Pigglypuff's ICE Freakout

T-SPLY: Another Chicago Freakout--Mob Attempts to Prevent ICE From Arresting Illegal Aliens

There was a judicial order for these two Venezuelans to leave the country in 2024. There was a 30 minute car chase in which the illegals rammed the ICE vehicle. When the chase finally ended, a crowd surrounded the agents, screaming at them throwing eggs and other objects, and throwing back tear gas cannisters. On the bright side, Chicago PD did eventually show up and help to control the situation.

Pigglypuff Shrieks at ICE Bus Filled With Illegal Aliens

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

LET MY PEOPLE GO

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

LET MY PEOPLE GO

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

LET MY PEOPLE GO

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

LET MY PEOPLE GO...

Really makes ya think.

Shouldn't she be out snorting for truffles or somethin'?

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

I'M GOING TO STAND IN FRONT OF THIS BUS BECAUSE MY PCFEELZtm ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE CONTINUED SURVIVAL AND FLOURISHING OF THE WORLD'S MOST IMPORTANT NATION

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

I'M STANDING FRONT OF YOUR BUS, HOLDING ONTO THE GRILL BUT PLEASE DON'T KILL ME

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Emotional blackmail...but the threatened consequence of noncompliance doesn't seem so bad, TBH...

Heather Cox Richardson's Revisionist History

Apparently this person is the most popular substacker (2.7 million readers)--though I'd never heard of her before this week.

I guess she's popular because she's clearly extremely PC--i.e. she energetically subordinates facts to leftist dogma.

I maintain that the center-left will eventually reassert itself and ditch such people--largely, anyway.

But, then, I thought that would happen long before now.

Lying Psycho and Antifa Blackshirt Elizabeth Richter is Deposed for Participating in Violent Assault and Battery Against Andy Ngo

I would very much have liked to have been there that night. Things would have gone differently.

That would have been a lot of fun.

These are the violent psychopaths that progressives defend.

She's clearly been coached by lawyers--and she's almost certainly being represented by some of the Antifa-friendly lawyers who do free legal work for them.

The Great Andy Ngo on Antifa

Stephen Witt: The AI Prompt that Could End the World

link

Lott on Crime Rates and Armed Citizens Stopping Mass Shooters

Yes, crime rates are high. The left has focused on unrepresentative and incomplete evidence. And yes, armed citizens are effective at stopping mass shootings:

Marc Rowan: Academia Is Broken. Trump's University "Compact" Can Help Fix It

I haven't looked at the compact yet, but what Rowan writes here seems right on target to me.

LOL @ Jeet Heer: "Portland's Dancing Protestors"

This is a slightly different tactic of Antifa and the left: ignoring the actual problems, recording something else...then using that footage as evidence that the problem doesn't exist. As when the governor of Oregon walked down a safe, quiet street for the cameras--miles from the ICE facility--to show that there's no Antifa violence in Portland. Or, in this case: Antifa showed up in costumes at the ICE facility one night and danced around, recorded themselves, then used that video as prove that they're happy, peaceful, zany protestors. If you want the real story--e.g. of Antifa attacking non-left independent journalists, beating up conservative women like HoneyBadgerMom, refusing to allow people to drive to their homes, terrorizing residents of the building across from the ICE facility, attacking federal agents, etc., you can look at any number of videos by T-SPLY, many of which I've linked to here in the past.

   If you watch actual footage--rather than the left's carefully "curated" (stupid word fad) propaganda, you'll see that Antifa is a truly disgusting collection of freaks. The majority of them seem to be mentally ill, actually.

Turley: Antifa Denialism

To repeat myself twice:

[1] The cornerstone of the left is political correctness, the subordination of truth to leftist political dogma.

[2] Perhaps most notably, when caught doing or supporting some indefensible thing, x, the left often just denies that x exists.

   In fact, they do this so often that it's become a meme on the right (though I can't find a good instance of it right now)--you know the one: it's not happening...ok it may be happening...it's happening, but that's a good thing.

   The left has gone down this trajectory with: Antifa, critical race theory being taught in K-12, critical race theory itself, gender pseudoscience being taught in K-12, gender-pseudoscience-based medical mutilations of children...and even political correctness itself. PC, you see, does not exist!...or, at least that was the story the left was sticking to for awhile, ca. 2015...

   At any rate, here's Turley on Antifa denialism.

   As I point out every time: every political faction does this to some extent. But no faction does it quite like the left. But I've discussed that many times, and so won't do it again here.

   Other recent instances of this include: the denial that crime is a significant problem in DC and other blue cities, the denial that Biden was slipping, the denial that the Charlie Kirk assassin had leftist motivations, the denial of "transgender" violence generally, the denial of leftist violence generally, the denial of rioting during the Fiery But Mostly Peaceful Social Justice Riots For Peace And Justice of 2020. More long-term, ongoing instances include: the denial that men are male and women are female (and all the associated lunacies (e.g. the denial that only men have penises, and that only women can give birth)), the denial that there are average physical differences among races / that races are natural kinds...

   So anyway, here we are again: caught out, the left is just denying the facts. Those mobs of Blackshirts who are smashing windows, lasering cops and helicopters to damage people's eyes, bocking streets, beating up any non-insane-leftist who tries to document their crimes, attacking cops, and impeding the enforcement of immigration laws...not Antifa. Or, rather: they don't exist at all...so they aren't doing those things. Andy Ngo was beaten up and put in the hospital with brain damage by...nobody.

   To quote another meme on the right: that thing that never happens is happening again...

Turley: Second Amendment Challenge: CA Bans Glocks in Major Challenge to Gun Rights

Commiefornia, at it again.

Virginia will get an "assault weapon" ban if Spanberger wins (unless the Pubs can take the House of Delegates back).

MN AG Kieth Ellison: There is No Such Thing as Antifa

The left's repertoire of arguments is [a] rather limited and [b] stupid as hell.

Insty on the Insurrection Act

Short, reasonable, informative.

Helen Andrews at NatCon: Overcoming the Feminization of Culture

This is a major challenge, especially for academia. To preserve institutions that put truth over feelings, we may actually have to limit the number of women. If you even suggested this anywhere in academia...well...just imagine a mushroom cloud over the campus...

   A more direct route: we may have to limit academic freedom, and kick out those who aren't sufficiently dedicated to truth--e.g. the "scholar-activists" of the left.

Mike Benz at NatCon25 on: Our Wins re: Censorship and "Disinformation," and Challenges on the Horizon

Benz is great, this is longish, but eminently worth watching:

🚨 My full speech at Natcon 🚨 Timestamps:
(0:00) How We Are Winning: Massive Victories at USAID, State, Pentagon, NSF & More
(10:36) 2 Big Challenges: The Clockmakers Dilemma & International Laws Harming US Free Speech
(18:47) AI Censorship & The Frontier | Solutions From Here pic.twitter.com/nc7GCafT2y

— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) October 12, 2025

All 20 Living Israeli Hostages Held by Hamas Freed

I didn't really believe it would happen.

The F-15QA Squadron and Qatar Facility at Mountain Home AFB is NBD

This is a perfectly ordinary arrangement, and the left and far right should just throttle back about it.

Singapore already trains there. The Luftwaffe has leased parts of bases in the U.S. We have bases in allied countries all over the world.

Weird how primed people are to fly off the handle even when they know absolutely nothing about what's going on.

Civitas Institute

Worth putting in your bookmarks.

Israeli Hostages Freed Tomorrow?

I guess I'll believe it when I see it.

I'm not sure this deal is a good idea--but what do I know?

If Hamas lives to murder Israelis another day...then it seems to me that's exactly what they'll do.

A "5.5-Gen" F-35 Upgrade?

I think I posted this before, but just in case:  link

Nate the Lawyer: Tom Homan Took $50k in an FBI Sting...but it Wasn't Illegal

The phrase "Banana Republicans" comes to mind...

Trump on Antifa and Flag-Burning: We Took Away Their Freedom of Speech

Jesus Christ he just can't control himself.

I don't know when the lines will cross and Trump will become more of a danger than the left...but at this rate, it might not be as long as you'd think.

This is just flat-out idiotic.

Two seconds of thought would reveal to him why the "agitates the crowd" argument is a train wreck.

At first I kind of let this flag-burning stuff slide because the courts will slap it down so hard it'll make his head spin--and I hoped it was an aberration.

But it sounds like he's doubling down on this.

Dude is basically his own worst enemy.

Nobel Peace Prize Winner Dedicates Her Prize to Trump

Ohhh...that's gotta sting...

Prepare for the lamentation of the lefties...

New Lefty Talking-Point Dropped: Antifa Does Not Exist!

Actually, it's a known talking-point that showed up a couple of years ago, but it's back in vogue:

New talking point directive just issued #AntifaDoesntExist pic.twitter.com/1BbAe8ql0q

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) October 10, 2025

   One creepy thing about this is how often so many people on blue media are suddenly saying almost exactly the same things. There's pretty obviously some kind of coordination going on. I guess they used to use the "Journolist" to coordinate. Not sure whether that's still a thing or what.

    Their message varies a bit on this point, with their conclusion sometimes being:

Antifa is not an organization

and sometimes being:

Antifa isn't real/doesn't exist.

Sometimes they combine these into an argument:

Antifa isn't an organization

Therefore:

Antifa doesn't exist

I don't know whether there's some kind of technical (e.g. legal) definition of 'organization' that might make the weaker proposition/conclusion plausible. But I kind of doubt it. Obviously the more ambitious proposition/conclusion is just plain stupid.

   This is, in general, a known rhetorical tactic of the left: pretending that the thing they're doing or supporting just doesn't exist at all--it's a figment of the right's imagination. They did the same thing with critical race theory. This is part of a well-known rhetorical trajectory the left gets on when busted for doing or supporting x: x isn't real/doesn't exist...x exists but it's a good thing...x is necessary/indispensable.

   This is the kind of bizarre, quasi-philosophical nonsense we find so often on the left. There's a kind of tacit metaphysical claim here that shows up as an implicit premise in the argument above:

Antifa isn't an organization

[If a group isn't an organization then it doesn't exist]

Therefore:

Antifa doesn't exist.

Note, just ad hominem, that they had no inclination to reason in this way sevenish years ago when they were freaking out about the "alt-right"...

   You'll note that some of them include a gesture at an argument to the effect that they "don't even know what Antifa is"...as if their ignorance somehow constituted an important premise in an argument. And, again: no one had much of a clue what the alt-right was supposed to be...but that, of course, was different...bigot...

   This kind of inconsistent, ad hoc nonsense also shows up, just for example, with respect to transgenderism, where they argue, roughly:

Jenner thinks he's a woman

Therefore:

Jenner is a woman

The tacit premise, of course, is:

If S thinks that S is y, then S is y

Which is demonstrably false and, in fact, absurd. They accept this reasoning and this premise in this domain, despite that fact that neither they nor anyone else accepts it in any other domain...and despite the fact that they explicitly rejected the following reasoning:

Dolezal thinks she's black

Therefore:

Dolezal is black.

The academic left has succeeded in importing bad philosophical arguments (e.g. about "social constructionism") into political disagreements, invoking only the arguments that will advance their causes, and only in domains where this is convenient.

   The "Antifa doesn't exist" nonsense is just that--nonsense. Perhaps if we were inclined to care, we might be able to make something of the claim that it's not an organization. If that were true, it would matter given that the administration has declared it a terrorist organization. Here stuff in the law will matter--stuff about which I'm entirely ignorant. I don't see how it could matter much, because, if there is such a distinction, it could, instead, be declared a terrorist movement or whatever. This would merely be a tricky legal maneuver in any case. It wouldn't matter much substantially.

   The really important point here is: Antifa undoubtedly exists, and this talking-point blitz is just another case--one of many--in which the left is prepared to deny outright facts and accept utterly absurd reasoning for the sake of advancing their political projects.

Addendum: Purely imaginary!

Jimmy Kimmel: "There is no Antifa!"
Reality: pic.twitter.com/fDunRFpqRI

— Damon Imani (@damonimani) October 10, 2025

MORE Made-Up, Bullshit PoPoMo/Prope-Marxist/Critical-Theory Majors

The Sears-Spanberger Debate--After Watching the Whole Damn Thing

I hate all candidate debates, but I think I might actually hate this one most.

Spanberger dodged and dissembled on the things she had to dodge and dissemble on--especially so-called "transgender" boys (i.e.: boys pretending to be girls) in girls' restrooms, locker rooms, and sports. And, of course on Jay Jones. The Jones thing is almost certainly a poli-tactical decision...but there's no doubt where she stand on transanity.

That should have made it a very easy debate to win...but WES basically just talked over Spanberger almost the entire debate. It was one of the more grating performances I've seen--even though Sears was often right about what she was saying.

It's clear that each candidate came in with her strategy mapped out:

      Spanberger: Don't say what you think about you-know-which issues.

      WES: Just keep talking over her.

Each stuck relentlessly to her game plan.

I'd have a hard time picking the biggest loser in this debate.

Hard as it is for even me to believe, it's entirely possible that Spanberger is the biggest loser. I'd have thought there'd be no way to lose against Sears's fingers-on-a-chalkboard strategy of ceaseless interruption...but the moderators actually did a great job of pointing out that Spanberger was not answering the questions...and they didn't do a good job of keeping WES in line. They seemed to get on her only maybe half as often as I thought they should have...though maybe the rules permit commentary by the person who doesn't have the floor? Well, I doubt that.

I'm no good at scoring such rhetorical contests.

But I guess if I had to pick the bigger loser, it would be Spanberger?