July 23, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Red States Win, Going Away

Featured image I think it is generally understood that red states outperform blue states by any possible measure. The Committee to Unleash Prosperity offers a new analysis that reaches that conclusion. This approach is unique because it tries to eliminate other variables, and isolate the importance of political philosophy: [W]e needed to use more sophisticated statistical analysis to account for these other, non-political factors. We want to be able to say with »
July 23, 2026 — Scott Johnson

The Lindell road to GOP ruin

Featured imageIt turns out that Trump-endorsed Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Mike Lindell has a plan. It’s a six-month amnesty plan for illegal aliens. The Washington Examiner reports: “Mike Lindell proposes six-month amnesty for illegal immigrants if elected Minnesota governor.” Fortunately, Mike Lindell will never be elected governor of Minnesota. Unfortunately, if he prevails in the August 11 primary, he may bring down Republicans in state and federal races all over the state. »
July 23, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Bloomberg vs. Bernie

Featured imagein yesterday’s Wall Street Journal Best of the Web column Bloomberg vs. Bernie, the Rematch,” James Freeman salutes Michael Bloomberg — for his effective needling of Bernie Sanders during the 2020 Democratic primaries. He writes that “many news consumers may recall Mr. Bloomberg’s 2020 campaign for president as an expensive failure, but he did an an enormous public service at a moment when Vermont’s socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders was leading »
July 23, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Sophie points the way

Featured imageESPN profiles WNBA Sophie Cunningham in “Love her or hate her, Sophie Cunningham won’t be ignored.” With her ostentatious defense of Indiana Fever teammmate, Caitlin Clark, I have been on the love side of that particulary binary. In the ESPN profile I would point my finger this way: You say she’s a “MAGA Barbie,” as some corners of the internet have taken to calling her? Projection, she says, because of »
July 23, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Treating advanced breast cancer: An update

Featured imageThe home page of the Star Tribune currently features the story “With FDA approval, Celcuity sees big future for its new breast cancer drug.” My friend Brian Sullivan is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Celcuity. In 1998 Brian was the founder and CEO of Recovering Engineering, his first company. He also served as the chairman of our state Republican Party’s platform committee. Brian appointed John Hinderaker and me »
July 22, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Trump’s New Iran Policy

Featured imagePresident Trump has been hitting Iran hard, following that country’s attacks on our troops and our allies. He has now announced a new policy on the Strait of Hormuz: I approve of this policy. In fact, not only do I approve of it, it is precisely the policy that I have been advocating for something like the last two months: every time they attack a ship, bomb a power plant »
July 22, 2026 — Scott Johnson

The Trump effect [With Comment by John]

Featured imageI decried President Trump’s endorsement of clown gubernatorial candidate Mike Lindell last week in “Put a MyPillow over it.” Lindell is running in a multicandidate primary field. According to a KSTP/SurveyUSA poll, Lindell now predictably appears to have extended his lead over competitors including endorsed candidate Kendall Qualls and House Speaker Lisa Demuth. That is a shame. Lindell is a joke. I would have said that before it was reported »
July 21, 2026 — John Hinderaker

What’s Affordable, What Isn’t

Featured imageThis graphic has been all over X for the last few days, and I have been meaning to get to it. It is similar to many other charts I have seen over the years. We all know that the cost of living has been rising, especially during the Biden administration. But many are not aware of how targeted those increasing costs actually are. Many goods and some services have gotten »
July 21, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Feds Suspend $1 Billion in Medicaid Funds to California, Minnesota

Featured imageIn a long-overdue action, the federal government is moving to protect taxpayers against systematic fraud in California and Minnesota: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday he’s stopping more than $1 billion in federal Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota over suspected fraud. “We are not sending Medicaid dollars out the door until we have confidence that they are being spent lawfully and appropriately,” Kennedy said »
July 21, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Sentence affirmed & unreported

Featured imageSurely you don’t remember Charles Littlejohn. He is the guy who was nabbed for leaking the tax returns of President Trump to the New York Times. He also leaked tax information of thousands of the most successful and wealthy Americans including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Warren Buffett to ProPublica. He pleaded guilty to only one crime, but he committed many. Ira Stoll reports this underreported sequel for the Washington »
July 20, 2026 — Bill Glahn

7th Prime Minister in 10 years

Featured imageFrom NBC News, ‘King of the North’ Andy Burnham to become 7th UK prime minister in a decade. The 7th in ten years, dating back to David Cameron in 2016. By my count, only Burnham’s immediate predecessor, Keir Starmer, took office immediately following a general election. Burnham and four others first assumed office following something like a palace coup. Until recently, Burnham was the Mayor of Manchester. A month ago, »
July 22, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Gavin Newsom, Juggernaut?

Featured imageGavin Newsom has been the presumptive Democratic nominee in the 2028 presidential race for some time, despite his abysmal record as Governor of California. Many have praised his political skills. But the Newsom train has been losing steam: Former Vice President Kamala Harris has a significant advantage over Newsom and the rest of the field by comfortable margins, in the most recent 14 major polls, suggesting she has the early »
July 22, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Co-presidents for life [With Comment by John]

Featured imageI vaguely recall reading Ron Radosh’s 2021 Quileette essay “Sandinista! The US Left and Nicaragua.” However, while my attention was turned elsewhere, Nicaragua’s National Assembly amended the constitution to allow the president to run for an unlimited number of five-year terms. Given the fact that Sandinista Commie Daniel Ortega was president, that was a bad sign. As I understand the relevant developments, it got worse in 2025 when the Constitution »
July 21, 2026 — John Hinderaker

The Democrats’ Most Loyal Voters

Featured imageWhen I was trying civil jury cases, the conventional wisdom was that plaintiffs wanted jurors who were mad at the world because they thought their merits had not been sufficiently rewarded. The classic plaintiff’s juror, I was told, was a guy with a PhD in comparative literature who was driving a taxi. Conversely, the ideal defense juror (I am talking about civil cases, not criminal cases) is a happy person, »
July 21, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Fox News covers “depraved rag”

Featured imageTwenty years ago I covered Keith Ellison’s first campaign for Congress extremely closely. I talked to sources all around the United States in the course of the campaign. I have an Ellison file six inches thick deriving from my work on that campaign. Star Tribune reporter Rochelle Olson covered that campaign for the Star Tribune. Her coverage essentially performed public relations on its behalf. Her motto was not there’s no »
July 21, 2026 — Scott Johnson

One-Trick Pony

Featured imageTCM is playing Paul Simon’s film One-Trick Pony (1980) at the moment. I was one of the few who found Simon’s film to be terrific. I should probably shorten that to say I was one of the few who found his film, period. I loved it, complete with the guest appearances of the Lovin’ Spoonful and Sam & Dave (below). Sam & Dave were barely talking to each other by »
July 20, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Biden Judge Blocks Paramount Acquisition

Featured imageIn February, Paramount Skydance agreed with Warner Bros. Discovery to acquire that company for $111 billion. The agreement followed a convoluted battle between Paramount and Netflix to be the buyer, which Paramount ultimately won. The Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice cleared the acquisition last month, finding no anticompetitive impact. The Antitrust Division is highly respected; its analyses are largely mathematical and look at the pricing implications of alleged »