May 4, 2026

R.I.P. STEWART BAKER. I worked with him on some interesting stuff many years ago, and of course have known him as a blogger for decades. We sometimes disagreed, but he will be missed.

Posted at 3:55 pm by Glenn Reynolds

THANKS FOR NOTHING, DEMS: House bill Balances Colorado budget using taxpayer refunds.

Polis’ office suggests that, due to immediate reductions in state tax collections upon passage of the federal OBBBA, the state is entitled to recoup Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) refunds accordingly.

However, as previously explained, Legislative Council Staff believed that the request was legally dubious and could exacerbate future fiscal challenges should the governor’s office be wrong.

Regardless, four members of the Joint Budget Committee decided to pursue recouping TABOR refunds from taxpayers, and House Bill 1419 is how they plan to do it.

Assuming the governor’s suggestion is legal, the state would retain $136.1 million in overcollected revenue that would otherwise be refunded back to taxpayers under TABOR in FY2026-27 and $153 million in FY2027-28.

However, if the Polis proposal is found illegal, the state would likely be required to repay the money at 10% annual interest, as required by TABOR.

But cut spending? Never.

Posted at 3:48 pm by Stephen Green

LITERALLY ANY BEHAVIOR IS ACCEPTABLE UNTIL IT COSTS THE DEMS POWER:

Posted at 3:32 pm by Stephen Green

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: The Horns of Hormuz. “If Project Freedom succeeds, the Strait will essentially be controlled not by Iran, but the United States.”

Posted at 3:17 pm by Stephen Green

THE CEASEFIRE SEEMS TO BE EFFECTIVELY OVER:

Posted at 3:01 pm by Stephen Green

MAJOR ARSON SUSPECT OBSESSED OVER LUIGI MANGIONE AND WANTED TO KILL THE RICH, PROSECUTORS SAY:

The suspect accused of starting one of the largest wildfires in Los Angeles history, fixated on Luigi Mangione weeks before starting the blaze out of resentment for the rich, according to federal prosecutors.

Federal prosecutors said in a trial memorandum that 30-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht demonstrated an obsession with Mangione in the days before he started the Lachman and Palisades Fires on January 1, 2025. Mangione has developed a cult following among the Left after he was arrested for gunning down Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare.

“On January 24, 2025, when investigators asked defendant why someone might commit arson in the Pacific Palisades, he responded that it would be out of resentment of the rich enjoying their money as ‘we’re basically being enslaved by them’ and compared such an act of ‘desperation’ to the murder for which Mangione was charged,” the memo said.

The memo added that Uber passengers who rode with Rinderknecht on December 31 and January 1 recounted him being “angry, intense, driving erratically, and ranting about being ‘pissed off at the world’ and Luigi Mangione, capitalism, and vigilantism.”

Related: At the Wall Street Journal’s Substack, former Popular Mechanics editor James Meigs writes: Political Violence Is Cool Now.
Why do so many elites support violent extremism?

We used to have a stereotype that political violence typically emerges from the uneducated mob. Today, the opposite is true. Some of today’s most bloodthirsty rhetoric can be heard on college campuses or from influencers embraced by political elites. “Kill those motherf——,” Mr. Piker once said, speaking of landlords. “Let the streets soak in their f— red capitalist blood!” In a New York Times column originally headlined, “Hasan Piker is Not the Enemy,” liberal centrist Ezra Klein argued that Democrats should not write firebrands like Mr. Piker “out of acceptable political discourse.” The celebration of violence isn’t some depravity found only in America’s political swamps. It’s a viewpoint widely tolerated, even encouraged, among denizens of our cultural high ground. Yes, the right has its share of scary extremists, too. But their ideas get far less prominence in our mainstream culture. And, unlike some leftist icons, they’re not teaching at Ivy League universities.

Once, I would have argued that education is the best antidote to violent extremism. People need to learn tolerance for other viewpoints and the value of fair-minded debate. Again, the opposite appears to be true today. A recent survey by the Skeptic Research Center found that people with advanced academic degrees “were about twice as likely to support political violence than those with less formal education.” And the people committing violence aren’t anonymous losers. Both Luigi Mangione and Cole Allen, the latest would-be presidential assassin, were graduates of elite universities.

Miegs concludes, “To get out of this spiral of violence, our country will need to reset its moral compass. I’m not hopeful that such reform will come from the top down. It may have to come from the bottom up.”

But leftists with a love of Radical Chic will do everything they can to prevent that change from happening:

“Exploiting the grief of the people in the Palisades:”

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

IRAN FIRES UNSUCCESSFULLY ON US NAVY SHIP, IN RESPONSE…:

Some ceasefire, eh?

Posted at 2:31 pm by Stephen Green

YOU BOYS COULD USE A LITTLE CHURCHIN’ UP:

Or as America’s Newspaper of Record suggests:

(Classical reference in headline.)

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

FRAUD, ALL THE WAY DOWN: Daycare Fraud, Visa Fraud, Flashy Cars, And Communism. “You know, if I were a communist-connected foreign national committing welfare and H1-B visa fraud, I would think you would want to keep a low-profile and drive something like a Honda Accord, a Toyota Camry or a Ford F-150.”

Posted at 1:44 pm by Stephen Green

UNDER A BLOOD RED STATE SKY:

Related:

Posted at 1:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW:

And it’s starting to feel like it.

Posted at 1:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds

DID MR. KISS KISS FANG FANG EXPOSE HIS WANG WANG? Eric Swalwell Sent Women ‘Videos of Him Masturbating’ and Other Perverted Messages After Joining Snapchat to Restore ‘Faith’ in ‘Democracy’: Report.

One young woman claimed Swalwell would send her Snapchat messages about her future, before asking inappropriate questions such as, “What are you wearing?”

Two other women told CNN that Swalwell sent them “sexually explicit messages and unsolicited nude photos and videos of himself” in 2021, while a third woman also claimed to have received “sexually tinged messages and videos.”

One former congressional staffer allegedly developed a consensual sexual relationship with Swalwell after he began flirting with her on Snapchat in 2021.

During the relationship, Swalwell reportedly sent “nude photos of himself and videos of him masturbating,” which showed the congressman’s “face and naked body.”

The videos, which were saved by the woman, were shown to CNN.

“His stories would be his, like, congressional content, but then he would be sending me dick pics,” she alleged, adding that Swalwell sent her another “explicit video” late last year, just weeks before he announced his 2026 California gubernatorial campaign.

No wonder Swalwell was taken out so quickly last month by his own party.

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll