September 20, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Lior Raz is the man

Featured image We finished watching season 5 of the Israeli series Fauda on Netflix last night. It’s excruciating. It’s violent. It’s gripping and it’s excellent. The former CIA officer Marc P. channels my thoughts in the post below. Just finished @FaudaOfficial season 5. The last several episodes r extraordinary, I could barely breathe. I did not think the series could get better, but it did. This is television at its very best, »
September 20, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Engineering hate

Featured imageThis past August the Washington Free Beacon published my review of Yossi Sheffi’s book Unsafe at MIT: A Chronicle of a Campus War on the Jews. As I wrote about Pierre Rehov’s documentary “The Shadows of War” on Power Line yesterday, it occurred to me that this review made for a good companion to the documentary. Free Beacon deputy editor Vic Matus, who commissioned my review, gave it the headline »
September 19, 2026 — John Hinderaker

The Church of England Has Lost the Plot

Featured imageI know, that is probably breaking news from 1998. But still, many were surprised by this: on the 25th anniversary of 9/11, the Archbishop of Canterbury, a woman named Sarah Mullally, presented an award for “interfaith cooperation” to a Muslim who praised Osama Bin Laden. The award was soon rescinded: Their letter follows Lambeth Palace’s withdrawal of the “interfaith” award in the face of an outcry after it emerged that »
September 20, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Sunday morning coming down

Featured imageLeonard Cohen died ten years ago at the age of 82. Tomorrow is the anniversary of his birth. Cohen expressed a premonition of his death in connection with the death of his former lover Marianne Ihlen (of “So Long, Marianne”) in July 2016. He wrote her shortly before she died: “[W]e are really so old and our bodies are falling apart and I think I will follow you very soon. »
September 19, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Tired of Winning?

Featured imagePresident Trump has banned CNN, Politico and MS NOW from the White House on the ground that they are fake news: The Trump administration denied POLITICO, MS NOW and CNN journalists entry to the White House grounds Saturday morning, the outlets said in separate statements, a day after President Donald Trump announced he was barring the outlets from the White House campus. *** In a newsroom-wide email Saturday, POLITICO’s global »
September 19, 2026 — Bill Glahn

Fraud all the way down

Featured imageFrom Fox News, Minnesota’s anti-ICE aid fund becomes latest casualty of state’s embarrassing fraud problem. Only 82 of 300 applicants could be cleared as non-fraudulent before officials stopped processing the relief funds No. Embarrassment requires shame as a predicate. This story will make no sense unless you understand The Narrative which still holds for many arising from last winter’s events. It goes something like this: back in December, prompted by »
September 19, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Quote of the day

Featured imageIsaac Schorr turns the spotlight on twit streamer Hasan Piker and his most important friend in the New York Post column “Hasan Piker just told the truth about America hating Dems,” published with the AP photo of the dynamic duo taking a selfie with young fans following a campaign event on Tuesday, April 7, 2026, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (below). https://t.co/iNVIUxdCXO — Isaac Schorr (@isaac_schorr) September »
September 18, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Free Speech: An American Oddity

Featured imageIn recent years the U.S. has been diverging from our allies in Western Europe economically, culturally and legally. One thing that has become clear is that very few countries share our* commitment to free speech. Germany, for example, where Chancellor Friedrich Merz considers free speech to be an American oddity. What I want to highlight–assuming the translation below is correct–is Merz’s characterization of free speech as “a libertarian political understanding »
September 18, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Trump Announces Greenland Agreement

Featured imageA few hours ago, President Trump announced that an agreement has been reached with Denmark and Greenland for the U.S. to assume security responsibility for that country: Details of the agreement will be made public soon, but based on Trump’s description it sounds like Greenland will remain a mostly self-governing territory of Greenland, but with the U.S. having rights and responsibilities with regard to military security and perhaps other matters. »
September 18, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Quote of the day

Featured imageAnticipating the 25th anniversary of 9/11 earlier this month, Tablet published Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s long essay on our confrontation with Islam: “What Mohamed Atta Was Trying To Tell Us” (“After 25 years, it is time for the West to face the true cause of 9/11”). Ms. Ali’s Tablet profile states that she is a fellow at the Hoover Institution, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a former »
September 17, 2026 — John Hinderaker

Who Defends the Decline in Higher Education?

Featured imageThe New York Times does, or at least one Miriam Pawal does, on the Times op-ed page. A New York Times writer came out swinging against the push to bring back admissions tests at the University of California — even as she admitted that students are struggling with “basic math.” But all of that is worth it, Miriam Pawal argued, because the university is now more inclusive. “Students on University »
September 19, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Pallywood state of the art

Featured imageI post everything the pseudonymous Pierre Rehov writes for Gatestone in our Picks, as I did his September 13 column “The Human Rights Industry Has a Favorite Kind of Victim” this past weekend. Gatestone provides this profile of Rehov: Pierre Rehov, who holds a law degree from Paris-Assas, is a French reporter, novelist and documentary filmmaker. He is the author of six novels, including Beyond Red Lines, The Third Testament »
September 19, 2026 — John Hinderaker

The Week In Pictures: Sydney Sweeney Goes AI Edition

Featured imageThis was one of those weeks when a lot of the main stories–the meme stories, anyway–are holdovers. The Lindsay Clancy trial continued to reverberate. The 9/11 commemoration, and liberal responses thereto, went on. Canada remained in the news by proposing to become an associate member of the European Union. Which makes sense, given that Canada has heretofore been an associate member of the Western Hemisphere. But some stories were new: »
September 18, 2026 — Bill Glahn

Fraud all the way down

Featured imageIt all sounds made up. From the Palm Beach Post, FAU autism center director resigns after Epstein fund scheme plea. Let’s break this down. FAU here stands for Florida Atlantic University, a Division 1 state university located in Boca Raton. Until yesterday, they employed a woman (Jennifer Percival) who ran an autism center located at the university, serving the surrounding region. This woman pled guilty to defrauding an Epstein victim »
September 18, 2026 — Scott Johnson

Speaking of misdirection

Featured imageWriting this week about the investigation of Ilhan Omar, as I did here (September 14) and here (September 17) earlier this week, I’m sure I have made mistakes that will become evident in due course. I am drawing inferences based on the evidence available to me, such as Omar’s memoir, the various investigative materials released by the Minnesota State Campaign Finance Board in 2019, and my participation as a witness »
September 17, 2026 — Bill Glahn

The rule of judges

Featured imageFrom the New York Times, Trump’s Minnesota Surge Threatened Democracy, Judge Warns. The Times begins its piece with “In a rare interview, Patrick Schiltz, who served as the federal court’s chief judge…” Media interviews with judges are rare because judges shouldn’t give interviews. There are no exceptions to this rule. Since the piece appears in the New York Times, we’ll have to rely on the reporting on the reporting. From »
September 17, 2026 — Scott Johnson

How krass can you get?

Featured imageThe krassest Krasner must be Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner. How krass is he? The Free Beacon morning newsletter condenses the latest krasmania into one paragraph: A federal judge referred Philadelphia’s far-left, Soros-funded district attorney Larry Krasner to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for potential prosecution, writing in a 40-page [memorandum opinion] that Krasner may be guilty of “false statements, false declarations under oath, perjury, obstruction of justice and conspiracy.” At issue »