June 8, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Redpelleyed, the himbo

Featured image Scott Pelley is the pompous windbag of 60 Minutes. Ted Knight played a character like Pelley for laughs in days of old on the Mary Tyler Moore Show. Pelley amped up the character and drained it of humor. He is beyond satire. An insufferable fool, he plays himself seriously. But he’s worse than that. Jonthan Leaf explains why in the Washington Free Beacon column “Scott Pelley isn’t a serious journalist.” »
June 8, 2026 — Scott Johnson

It’s Noon in Israel

Featured imageAs I wrote earlier this morning, I knew it was almost noon in Israel and Amit Segal would be filng his daily dispatch presently. It has now arrived. I see it does not contrast with my own observations, but his are harsher. I thought some readers might appreciate his perspective from Israel. This is a long excerpt of the column he headlines “Israel vs. Iran: Round 3”: * * * »
June 7, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Two-Tier Mental Health

Featured imageProtests are currently going on in the U.K. over Britain’s two-tier system of criminal justice, but it turns out that the U.K. has a two-tier mental health system, too: NHS doctors are under pressure not to section psychotic black patients to avoid appearing racist. *** Nine current and former NHS psychiatrists reported being encouraged to limit the number of black patients they section under the Mental Health Act to avoid »
June 8, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Iranamok

Featured imageI thought it was difficult to understand the status quo with Iran. Last week I posted General Keane’s assessment here. Suffice it to say that he was dubious about the prospects of a peaceful resolution. John posted Condoleezza Rice’s assessment here. She noticed that Iran’s exertion of control over the Strait of Hormuz constituted a dangling thread. Leaning on Khaled Abu Toameh and Victor Davis Hanson, I posted my own »
June 7, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Trump on Meet the Press, and the Weaponization Fund

Featured imagePresident Trump was on Meet the Press this morning, and his interview with Kristen Welker turned incendiary when Welker attacked Trump over the proposed fund to compensate victims of government weaponization. Welker, of course, wanted to talk about the January 6, 2021 protest, the most over-hyped news story on record. But Trump wasn’t having it, and the conversation turned to election integrity. Welker insisted that there is no evidence of »
June 7, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Noble savages revisited [With Comment by John]

Featured imageAt my oldest kids’ primary school in the 1990s, study of the Yanomamö bushmen permeated the curriculum. By the time my oldest daughter moved on from the school to seventh grade, I believe she “knew” — much of what she was taught isn’t true — more about the Yanomamö than she did about American history. I should have been paying more attention, but I had other battles to fight with »
June 6, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Norwegian Pride!

Featured imageI don’t usually write about un-American sports, but who can resist Norway’s World Cup soccer squad and its iconic team photo? Certainly not me, as an almost 100% descendant of Norwegians. Click to enlarge: The Norwegian players are evidently proud of their Viking heritage. As are many in my home state, Minnesota, where our NFL team is called, as everyone knows, the Vikings. Yet there are always killjoys. One of »
June 6, 2026 — Bill Glahn

Anti-fraud summer tour in Minnesota

Featured imageBeginning later this month (Monday, June 22), American Experiment will be kicking off its annual summer tour of Minnesota. The theme this year is fighting fraud in social welfare programs, a timely topic getting national attention. We have sixteen (16) events on the calendar, covering the state, which can be seen here. One or two more may be added. My personal goal is to appear at every event. John will »
June 6, 2026 — Scott Johnson

D-Day remembered

Featured imageMy college classmate John Floberg retired after a distinguished career in neurology. We took Professor Peter Bien’s freshman seminar on Politics and the Novel together during our first term. John is originally from Chicago but we reconnected in the Twin Cities through Power Line 40 years after our studies with Professor Bien. Last year John wrote “Doorstops” for us. Following in a family tradition, John served as a commissioned Navy »
June 5, 2026 — Bill Glahn

The shrinking federal workforce

Featured imageThe trend is your friend. John had already covered earlier today the big news on the blowout May jobs report and the upward revisions on past months’ data. I like to dig into the report each month for certain numbers that reinforce helpful trends within the bigger trends. In May, the federal government workforce shrunk by another 2,600 for the month. The post office made up for that with more »
June 5, 2026 — John Hinderaker

On Platner, Fetterman Breaks Ranks

Featured imageAs one scandal after another befalls Graham Platner, national Democrats have closed ranks behind him. No doubt they are privately calculating whether they need to dump him, and if so, whether it can realistically be done. But in public, they are with Platner 100%. With one exception: as in so many other instances, John Fetterman dissents: “Every Democrat knows P-Hustle has Nazi ink, was Captain D–k-Pic on Kik, abusive towards »
June 6, 2026 — Bill Glahn

Exposing the hidden habeas files

Featured imageRecently, I’ve had the opportunity to dig into the secret case files of dozens of illegal alien habeas corpus cases filed in federal district court in Minnesota. The hidden files reveal a judicial system far more broken than you can imagine. The habeas corpus petitions are filed as civil cases on behalf of illegal aliens who are being held in ICE custody in anticipation of their upcoming deportation. The number »
June 6, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Vance, Starmer, and Western Civilization

Featured imageWe have been following the Henry Nowak case that his roiled Great Britain. It is only the latest of many instances of Britain’s two-tier justice system, but for whatever reason it seems to be the incident that has opened the floodgates. Yesterday JD Vance weighed in on Twitter: Vance’s comments were only incidentally about the particulars of the Nowak case, and only partly about the U.K. His point was broader–a »
June 6, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Charles Durning recalls

Featured imageYou undoubtedly saw the actor Charles Durning in what might have been a favorite movie or two, including such gems as The Sting, Dog Day Afternoon, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and several others. Those just happen to be my favorite of his films. Durning died in 2012 at the age of 89. His accessible Variety obituary is posted online here. Durning was also a decorated Army vet who served »
June 6, 2026 — Steven Hayward

The Week in Pictures: Pulling Pelley Edition

Featured imageOn the whole, it’s been a good week. It’s not every week that serves up the kind of supreme schadenfreudey goodness that comes from the firing of the pompous CBS News blowhard Scott Pelley, with more to follow. Less noticed was that NPR laid off most of its climate change reporters this week, too. If NPR is giving up on the climate crusade, it is well and truly over. The »
June 5, 2026 — Bill Glahn

Minnesota’s most wanted

Featured imageThe feds are offering a $150,000 reward for one of the international fugitives in the Feeding Our Future scandal. A post from the FBI’s Minneapolis field office, Mr. Ereg is defendant No. 61 (out of 80 or so) in the sprawling $500 million Feeding Our Future fraud scandal. He was indicted, along with his wife (Najmo Ahmed, No. 62), back in January 2024 on charges of stealing more than $4 »
June 5, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Jobs Boom

Featured imageMore good economic news: The BLS number of jobs reported this morning for the month of May was close to 265,000 – when including the upward revisions from previous months. This is a phenomenal number given the declining workforce. The workforce is declining due to illegal aliens self-deporting or, in a smaller number of cases, being deported. This chart shows the numbers: At the same time, the financial markets are »