Victor Davis Hanson

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The Fall of the House of Presidential Persecutions

Another excellent essay from Hanson; After demolishing each and every one of the political witch trials that have been used by the left since Americans had the temerity to elect Trump president in 2016, VDH sums up:

What will be the endgame of all these attacks on the American legal system and the warping of it for blatant political purposes?

One, we have entered new territory. There will soon be hundreds of local and state prosecutors who feel they have now been given license in election years to go after national presidential candidates for political advantage, both local and national.

Two, conservatives are in a dilemma: whether to restore deterrence by boomeranging the left’s extra-legal effort to ruin a candidate and president or to refrain from what would be a descent into third-world, tit-for-tat criminalization of politics.

Three, the persecution of Trump, coupled with the derelict candidacy of Joe Biden, threatens to erode the traditional base of the Democratic Party and redefine politics in terms of class rather than race. Minorities are beginning to empathize with the gagged, railroaded, and victimized Trump while distancing themselves from the victimizers, who are using their “privilege” to warp the law on behalf of a bullying president.

Four, the U.S. has lost a great deal of credibility abroad due to the erosion of what was once seen as the greatest system of jurisprudence in the world. No longer.

Enemies like China and Russia now boast that America’s new political prosecutions are similar to their own systems, or even more egregious, and will welcome us into their own customs of bastardized justice.

Latin-American, African, and Asian dictators are delighted that the U.S. has lost the moral authority to lecture them on the need for a disinterested and independent judiciary and the rule of law.

Our democratic allies in Europe and Asia are increasingly disturbed that the instability and unlawfulness apparent in the current lawfare put into question the reliability of the United States and its adherence to a rules-based order—whether at home or aboard.

Any president who would sic the justice system on his opponent might be equally vindictive and lawless to his allies abroad.

I've heard exactly this argument from a middle school science teacher friend of mine — when asked, though, he wouldn't volunteer to go first

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Professor Bill McGuire is a well-known vulcanologist and climate scientist who doesn't care much for humanity. …. Ooopsie. McGuire deleted the tweet a few hours later but had no regrets. The trouble is, we just don't understand how brilliant he is.

As I said, I have a friend who remains a friend so long as we don’t touch on politics, but he’s given to grand pronouncements of what he perceives as his field of expertise, global warming. One day recently, while he was spouting some truly misinformed nonsense about how solar energy would save the world, he pronounced that the maximum population the world could support was one billion (a figure often cited by expert depopulators like Bill Gates). “How will that be achieved?” asked I; “what will you do with the surplus 6 billion?”. “War and disease will do it”, he explained.

So this jolly, jovial fatman, beloved teacher and ardent Democrat, hates humanity just as thoroughly as the rest of his peers; that’s not surprising, but it is a warning of what they have in mind for us.

Just like Covid spending

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into the black hole

California spent $24 billion of its taxpayers’ money on homeless people, has no idea where it went, or whether it did any good.

Exactly how much is California spending to combat homelessness — and is it working?

It turns out, no one knows. That’s the result of a much-anticipated statewide audit released Tuesday, which calls into question the state’s ability to track and analyze its spending on homelessness services.

The state doesn’t have current information on the ongoing costs and results of its homelessness programs because the agency tasked with gathering that data — the California Interagency Council on Homelessness — has analyzed no spending past 2021, according to the report by State Auditor Grant Parks. Three of the five state programs the audit analyzed — including the state’s main homelessness funding source — didn’t even produce enough data for Parks to determine whether they were effective or not. 

The audit also analyzed homelessness services in San Jose and San Diego, finding both cities failed to thoroughly account for their spending or measure the success of many of their programs.

“The lack of transparency in our current approach to homelessness is pretty frightening,” said Assemblymember Josh Hoover, a Republican from Folsom who co-authored the request for the audit. 

That means state policymakers have little data to go on when they make funding decisions related to what has become one of California’s most dire challenges. 

“The State Auditor’s findings highlight the significant progress made in recent years to address homelessness at the state level, including the completion of a statewide assessment of homelessness programs,” the Interagency Council on Homelessness wrote in an emailed statement. “But it also underscores a need to continue to hold local governments accountable, who are primarily responsible for implementing these programs and collecting data on outcomes that the state can use to evaluate program effectiveness.”

Tens of billions of dollars, nine agencies and more than 30 programs

As the homelessness crisis has intensified, California under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s leadership allocated an unprecedented $24 billion to address homelessness and housing during the last five fiscal years, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office.

Nine state agencies administered more than 30 programs aimed at preventing or reducing homelessness. Some of those programs did such a poor job tracking their outcomes that it’s impossible to tell if they’ve been successful, according to the audit, which marks the first such large-scale accounting of the state’s homelessness spending.

RELATED:

Sacramento gave a homeless camp a lease as an experiment. Here’s what happened

(Spoiler alert: exactly what you’d expect to happen)

A “Self-governing” community for addicts and alkies. Yes, there are dumpsters, no, they aren’t used

Nothing to see here, move along, move along

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the city “expects a well-behaved group of protesters from a variety of viewpoints.”

Secret Service Won't Budge in Moving Security Zone Farther From GOP Convention in Milwaukee

Republicans are livid with the Secret Service who are refusing to move the perimeter of the "security zone" at the Republican Convention in Milwaukee further from the Finserv Forum.

The current "free speech zone" for the convention is in Pere Lafayette Park, a mere quarter of a mile from the convention venue. By comparison, the Democrats in Chicago have set up a free speech zone about three miles from the United Center where the convention will be held. There will also be several other "security zones" around the United Center.

Republican officials met with the Secret Service and strongly urged them to move the free speech zone further than a quarter mile from the venue. The agency refused.

The park's location sets up a gauntlet that convention delegates will have to walk through to get to the venue. While most convention gores will arrive on buses, restricting the movement of delegates and guests because of security concerns is unacceptable, say Republicans.

“We have no information that there will be unrest related to that activity,” one Secret Service official said.

In fact, Milwaukee police are claiming the real danger at the convention is from Republican delegates.

Washington Post:

At the meeting, a Milwaukee police captain also said there were concerns within the community that Republican convention attendees might “terrorize Milwaukee citizens” and “harass minorities.”

“There is fear in the community,” the Milwaukee police official said.

…. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wrote a letter to Kimberly Cheatle, the director of the Secret Service and demanded to know why the Republican weeks-old request for a meeting with Cheatle hasn't been answered.

“I am deeply concerned about reports that the security perimeter around the Republican Convention site in Milwaukee may be creating a likely — and preventable — area of conflict between protesters and Convention attendees and delegates,” McConnell wrote in the letter. “The RNC and Convention leadership have conveyed they have made a request to meet with USSS Leadership several weeks ago and that has yet to happen. That is unacceptable and I request you personally ensure this meeting takes place next week so that these concerns are heard and adjudicated.”

The Republicans argued that if clashes occur, they would be blamed and it would distract from the convention.

“Do you watch the news?” one Republican official asked. Others cited pro-Palestinian protests on campuses that have led to arrests and some violence. [“Some”. Well, it’s the Washington Post]

Jeff Fleming, a spokesman for Milwaukee, said the city “expects a well-behaved group of protesters from a variety of viewpoints.”

Was Fleming being facetious? It makes one suspect that efforts to disrupt the GOP convention in Milwaukee would be considered regrettable by the Secret Service, the Milwaukee police, and civic leaders but roughing up a few Republicans might be justified.

Senility is not just a privilege reserved for the young

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“We demand the End the use of oil by 2030” How?

TO BE FAIR, THE TWO VANDALS ARE OLD ENOUGH TO BE AMONG THE ORIGINAL SIGNERS: Just Stop Oil Tries to Destroy Magna Carta.

The Just Stop Oil tactic of attacking priceless works of art and other artifacts is an attempt to duplicate the Taliban campaign to erase non-Muslim culture in Afghanistan. It is a tactic of cultural terrorists and, in my view, should be treated in exactly the same manner.

Victor David Hanson (2019): Waging War Against The Dead. “Not since the iconoclasts of the Byzantine Empire or the epidemic of statue destruction during the French Revolution has the world seen anything like the current war on the past. In 2001, the primeval Taliban blew up two ancient Buddha statues in Afghanistan on grounds that their very existence was sacrilegious to Islam. In 2015, ISIS militants entered a museum in Mosul, Iraq, and destroyed ancient, pre-Islamic statues and idols. Their mute crime? These artifacts predated the prophet Mohammed. The West prides itself on the idea that liberal societies would never descend into such nihilism. Think again.”


No man's life, liberty or property are safe when the legislature is in session

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Just a few of the geniuses, including hector arzeno, who have decided for you how to run your business

As of June 1st, small businesses must grant employees one week of paid “sick leave” which can be used for any purpose; in other words, a paid vacation.


HARTFORD —  After more than seven hours of debate, majority Democrats in the state Senate late Monday night approved legislation that would phase-in mandatory paid sick days for employees of progressively smaller companies. This came despite Republican claims that it would interfere in traditional negotiations over terms of employment and make it harder to do business in Connecticut.

Workers, including part-timers, would have to accrue 120 days of employment before being eligible for paid time off, for a maximum of 40 hours off per year. There would be an hour of time off earned for every 30 hours of work. While the legislation's title includes the notion of paid sick time, in reality, Kushner, co-chairwoman of the legislative Labor & Public Employees Committee, said the days off could be for any reason, without a physician's note.

Currently, companies with 50 or more employees are required to offer paid time off based on the number of hours worked. Under the legislation, companies with as many as 25 people would have to offer time off starting next Jan. 1. The threshold would decrease to 11 workers in January, 2026, and down to one employee in 2027.

If you run a small business with, say one or two employees, who would you trust best to decide how to run that business: yourself, or Hector Arzeno, the Democrat who represents you in Hartford? Has Arzeno ever even stepped foot in your store, let alone studied your books, or observed how your business operates? The answer is almost surely “not once”, yet Arzeno will answer that he knows better than you; you may differ, but you no longer have that right.

That same Arzeno, together with his fellow Democrats, failed to get gas cars and gas or oil furnaces banned by 2035, but you can be sure that they’ll be back, and with the Governor, Greenwch’s own, Paul Bunyon firmly behind the proposal, it will probably succeed when next these morons assemble.

The Wise Latina speaks

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The Week in Pictures is up, and for some reason — I assume because they’re trending again this week — Powerline posted two old chestnuts; one is accurate, the other, though funny, is not. However, it’s the accurate quote from a sitting justice of the Supreme Court that’s significant and alarming, not an old joke about a horse race.

Fact check: False claim that Kentucky Derby winner rejected White House invite is a years old joke

Quote dates to at least 2018 

This same quote has appeared regularly after various horse races in recent years.

This time last year, USA TODAY debunked the claim when the quote began circulating on social media about the jockey for 2021 Derby winner Medina Spirit.

It appeared to originate from a 2018 joke posted on Reddit. That post in r/Jokes attributes the fabricated quote to the horse: “In breaking news, triple Crown winner Justify has turned down an invitation to White House. When asked why he answered, ‘If i wanted to see a horse’s ass, i would have finished second.”  

Since the 2018 Reddit post, a version of the quote, often including the president at the time, has appeared on social media after various other races as well. Last year, a version of the claim referenced a trip to see former President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago rather than the White House.

But there's no record of this year's winner, Leon, saying any such thing after the early May race.