Posts on Sunday, May 17, 2026

few days ago, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation bestowed one of its storied Bradley Prizes on James Hankins, a sometime professor of history at Harvard University, now at the Hamilton Center at the University of Florida, and co-author of The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition. (Actually, Hankins is the sole author of Volume I of The Golden Thread, which tells the story of the Western tradition from the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC through the Renaissance. Volume II, which picks up the story with the Reformation, is by the historian Allen Guelzo.) This is the moment when I note for the record that,

Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy missed the runoff in the state’s GOP Senate primary Saturday, ending the reelection hopes of one of the few Senate Republicans who voted to convict President Donald Trump after the January 6 Capitol protest. Trump-backed Rep. Julia Letlow and Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming are now set to advance after no candidate received the majority needed to avoid a June 27 runoff. Cassidy’s defeat is not complicated. In 2021, Cassidy joined Democrats and a small group of establishment Republicans in voting to convict Trump during the second impeachment trial.

It has taken a few days for the climate headbangers to work out the best spin to counter the recent IPCC ruling that the RCP8.5 computer model pathway is “implausible”. Necessary work of course, since the shock ruling from the UN’s main climate science body about a set of impossible assumptions destroyed the validity of almost every mainstream Net Zero-supporting climate scare story published over the last 15 years. First out of the traps was Adam Vaughan of the Times, who said that the most apocalyptic worst-case scenario had been ruled out “thanks to the rapid rise in renewable energy”.

Sen. Bill Cassidy was denied a third term by Louisiana Republican primary voters Saturday, as he was projected to finish third behind Trump-endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.) and state Treasurer John Fleming. With 92 percent of the vote in, Letlow was leading with 44.8 percent and Fleming was in second with 28.4%, and were projected to be the winners by the Associated Press — while Cassidy brought up the rear with 24.7 percent. Letlow and Fleming will now advance to a June 27 runoff, with Letlow favored to secure the nomination on the strength of President Trump’s endorsement,

President Donald Trump is raring for a fight. The president openly solicited contenders on social media Saturday to primary Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) after she campaigned for Trump-foe Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.). “Is anyone interested in running against Weak Minded Lauren Boebert in Colorado’s Fourth Congressional District? You remember Lauren moved to the District when it became obvious that she couldn’t win in her original Congressional District (The Third!) — A Carpetbagger, indeed!” Trump posted on Truth Social Saturday.

Although many of these Jewish progressives might claim to be Zionists, they seem to be attempting to put a "friendly face" to Zionism -- one that could be described as "soft Zionism" or "Zionism-lite." They appear to find the Jewish religion "offensive," and instead promote an airbrushed "politically correct" expression of social justice, more to their liking. Many also undertake to "remain committed to two safe and secure states – Israel and Palestine – as the most viable solution to the present situation." As Netanyahu explained in 2025, "There was a Palestinian state. It was called Gaza. Look what we received. The biggest massacre since the Holocaust."

Nick Kristof of the New York Times has created a new breed of Israeli dogs. There was a time long ago in a distant galaxy when I used to read the NYTimes opinion page. Before Obama, there were here and there some interesting thought pieces, but with the rise of Obama, the articles became unreadable. Thomas Friedman, Paul Krugman, Maureen Dowd and the rest became leftist partisans and oftentimes admitted as much. Krugman, the erstwhile Nobel Laureate, wrote a tome, Conscience of a Liberal, as if lefties actually have a conscience. The one person whose work I could not stomach was that of Nick Kristof. I always found his positions

Of all the problems Democrats have created and unleashed on the country, the unwillingness and inability to speak to anyone who disagrees with them is among the worst. They don’t even try anymore, liberals only engage with each other in an agreement-festival that rivals a row of bobblehead dolls double-sided taped to the dashboard of the family truckster all nodding with each other as they ramble down a bumpy dirt road. When was the last time you heard a dissenting voice on MS Now? Anyone who dares disagree with the “progressive” narrative on CNN is spoken over, shouted down or cut off for a “correction” from the host or

Sara Innamorato (D), Allegheny County’s county executive, was a proud member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) when she defeated an old-guard Democrat to take her seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 2018. This marked her entry into public life. Apparently, realizing that being seen as an unofficial socialist is more convenient than being an official socialist, she switched over to the Democrat Party in advance of her run for the top political office in her region, a race that she won. The office she now holds entails oversight of a county that encompasses the greater Pittsburgh area. For reference, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) calls Braddock, Pa., home,

Real Time with Bill Maehr probably upset liberals over the weekend, with this episode where he went on a fierce attack against Democrats for their usual nonsense: their increasingly extreme stance on Jewish people and Israel. Enough with the ‘you can be critical of Israel and not be antisemitic’—these people are shouting Hamas war cries(Snip) Israel is the only functioning democracy in the Middle East and a top ally. The reasons for nixing aid and military shipments are illegitimate and frankly, silly talk, with the latest entrants to this position, namely many former Obama officials, merely reacting to their insane activist base that has become totally subservient to terrorist

L. Louise Lucas, the prominent Virginia Democrat who was subject to a recent FBI raid on her home in business as part of a federal corruption and drug probe that began during the Biden administration, has launched a crowd sourced fundraiser to gain cash to pay for her legal defense. “I have spent my entire life looking for good trouble,” Lucas said in her post on social media advertising the fundraiser. The fundraiser seeks to raise $100,000 for her defense. She has managed to just raise 6 percent of her goal in over a day of begging for help. “Lucas faces legal challenges while continuing to stand firm

In what could be a big get for Republicans in Kentucky — and a huge blow for Republicans in the House of Representatives — Rep. James Comer has openly announced that he plans to run for governor come 2027. Speaking to The Daily Independent in a piece published May 7, Comer made it clear that he felt that this was the right decision. “I plan on running for governor in 2027,” Comer said. “It’s not official yet; it will probably be official somewhere around December.” He continued: “I am touring Kentucky. Obviously I’m way outside of my district. The governor’s race is in 2027 and I’m very interested in that race…

America’s left turn in the 1960s delivered a writing on the wall that was clearly read by Randall Terry in 1994: In 1959 it would have been unthinkable to the average American — whether Democrat, Republican or Independent — that children would be murdered by abortion, homosexuals would be indoctrinating our children and demanding ‘marriage’ rights, that our surgeon general would be calling for the legalization of criminal drugs, and the distribution of condoms to ten-year-olds, that our tax money would pay for a crucifix floating in a vat of urine, that prayer and Bible reading would be illegal in government schools, that new-age, one-world, indoctrination would be standard fare.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote last week that Israelis have used dogs to rape Palestinian prisoners. Getty Images for Aurora Humanitarian Initiative For those who missed last week’s gutter-level low for The New York Times, here’s a catch-up — and the big picture meaning. The focus is Nicholas Kristof’s bizarre column last Monday that repeated debunked claims that Israeli dogs had raped Palestinian prisoners. Among the landslide of criticism, the most frequent was that the author had swallowed, hook, line and sinker, garbage from sources widely known for peddling Hamas propaganda.

It’s obvious to me that during the four-year hiatus from the White House occasioned by a stolen election, President Trump gave thoughtful consideration to what had to be cleaned up domestically and internationally. It’s equally clear that he mapped out how he planned to do that, and despite media, congressional and judicial intransigence, he plowed ahead. We are at a point now where the blueprint is now obvious, It’s a continuing, ascending trajectory. Having hoisted Maduro out of Caracas to stand trial here for his crimes, the U.S. made it perfectly obvious that Russian and Chinese security personnel and military equipment were no match for a determined U.S. military.