May 15, 2026

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: That Guy Is SO Going Back to Venezuela. “It’s time for your much-needed break from the serious news, and this week, we’ll learn why they call it blow, what not to do to your boss’s Subaru, and when to stop drinking on that flight to Cuba.”

Posted at 4:23 pm by Stephen Green

CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN:

Posted at 4:07 pm by Stephen Green

SECRET SERVICE: One Loser Got Far Too Close…So What Happens When Four Pros Show Up? “Let’s revisit that same glittering ballroom. We’re back again with the same black-tie crowd of self-important media elites and administration heavyweights at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner 2.0 in D.C. with the same velvet-rope security theater outside.”

Posted at 4:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

REDISTRICTING DIDN’T LEAVE HIM MUCH CHOICE:

You’re in MAGA country now, Congressman.

Posted at 3:36 pm by Stephen Green

LARRY KUDLOW: Mr. Xi Can Saber-Rattle, But Mr. Trump Has the Goods

In recent weeks he has watched America end his influence in Venezuela, the Panama Canal, soon it will be Cuba, and of course Iran. I mean Communist China’s buying 90 percent of Iran’s oil and gas exports.

But with Mr. Trump’s air-tight blockade of Iranian ports, China is starving for energy. They might make a deal with us, but that too remains to be seen if it comes under Treasury Man Scott Bessent’s investment board idea.

Meanwhile Mr. Trump has elbowed China out of the Middle East and out of the Western Hemisphere.

And on top of all that, China’s economy has never recovered from the real estate property crash of a couple years ago.

They used to post GDP growth rates of 15 percent or more. Now that’s down to 5 percent or even less, which is essentially for them a recession.

And if they have bad economic statistics cropping up, they have decided not to publish them at all.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 2:50 pm by Stephen Green

THE GOP SHOULD PROBABLY GO AHEAD AND DO IT BEFORE THE DEMS DO, BUT IT WON’T.

Posted at 2:47 pm by Glenn Reynolds

21st CENTURY HEADLINES: AI Might Make Campaign Ads Halfway Tolerable.

If there’s a person on the face of the planet who actually appreciates and enjoys political campaign ads, I’d like to meet them. On second thought, maybe I wouldn’t. We’ve all experienced those weeks of torture leading up to primary or general election battles — where you can’t escape the horror that is political advertising. It’s bad. It’s annoying. It’s grating. It’s irritating. And it’s seemingly endless.

But the rise of AI and social media has introduced a new wrinkle into things, and we’re seeing that play out in particular regarding the L.A. mayoral race. Now, many of the “ads” we’re seeing aren’t actually from the campaign(s). They’re from creative sorts, interested in the race, who have put their imaginations and AI to work and come up with some real bangers.

I happened upon this one last night and couldn’t help but marvel at its cleverness — and its swiftness. This one incorporates components from things that just happened on Wednesday! Watch and enjoy.

I don’t know how Pratt will actually do in the election (John Nolte sounds particularly glum), but his campaign and its supporters have jump-started a new form of political advertising that will be endlessly copied going forward:

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

NICE WORK, FELLAS:

Posted at 2:34 pm by Stephen Green

HOORAY FOR PALLYWOOD! Why would the NY Times make such horrific claims about Israel? The reasons are several-fold.

Nicholas Kristof raped my dog. At least that is what I have heard, from an anonymous source. A source who is intensely hostile to the New York Times columnist. And that’s good enough for me. Now I come to think of it, my pet pug has had a strange look on his face lately.

As it happens, the rumor that I have just attempted to spread is far less lurid and fanciful than the one that the New York Times chose to spread around the world this week.

In a piece that has already been widely debunked, Kristof claimed that Israeli prison guards routinely use rape as a method of torture on Palestinian prisoners. The piece portrayed Israeli prison guards and soldiers as rapists, sadists and akin to Nazi prison camp guards. Perhaps even worse.

Kristof’s most grotesque claim is based on an anonymous source who is described as a “journalist” from Gaza. According to this source, while being held in an Israeli prison in 2024, the Gazan man was stripped naked, blindfolded and handcuffed. Then “a dog was summoned.” The dog’s handler — who we are helpfully told was speaking Hebrew — then encouraged the dog to “mount him.”

The “source” goes on to claim that he “tried to dislodge the dog, but it penetrated him.” During this time, the Israeli guards were allegedly taking photos and filming the assault while laughing and “giggling.”

Like a number of other journalists, I have spent far too much time this week reading up on the relevant literature about this claim. My computer’s search engine history is probably now as suspect as Kristof’s.

Exit questions:

I’m so old, I can still remember when newspapers still employed their own reporters, but that was quite a long time ago. These days, just think of the DNC-MSM as the American distribution wing of Hamas propaganda, and it all makes sense.

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

WELL, BYE:

Posted at 1:32 pm by Stephen Green

FASTER, PLEASE: U.S. moving to indict Cuba’s Raúl Castro, sources say.

The U.S. is taking steps to indict Raúl Castro, the 94-year-old former president of Cuba and brother of Fidel, in connection with the downing of planes 30 years ago, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

The potential indictment — which would need to be approved by a grand jury — is expected to focus on Cuba’s deadly 1996 shootdown of planes operated by humanitarian group Brothers to the Rescue.

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.

The plan comes as the U.S. heaps pressure on the Cuban government. The Trump administration has threatened heavy tariffs on any country that exports oil to Cuba, leading to energy shortages as oil shipments are largely cut off. President Trump has pressed for major reforms in Cuba and has floated a “friendly takeover” of the country.

The pressure on Cuba began to pick up in January, after the U.S. military removed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro from power and flew him to New York to face drug charges. Venezuela was a key partner of Cuba’s before the operation.

Raúl Castro formally stepped down as the leader of Cuba’s Communist Party in 2021, but he is still widely seen as one of the most powerful figures in the country. His grandson Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, known as “Raulito,” is viewed as both a representative of the 94-year-old and a key point of contact between the U.S. and Cuba.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with the younger Castro on Thursday, following an earlier U.S. visit last month. Ratcliffe personally delivered President Trump’s message that the U.S. is “prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes,” a CIA official said. The official added that Cuba can “no longer be a safe haven for adversaries in the Western Hemisphere.”

Related: James Piereson on JFK’s revenge. “Still, notwithstanding commentary to the contrary, it is highly likely (given the evidence) that Oswald carried out the assassination in order to protect Castro from efforts by the Kennedy administration to overthrow his regime. If this was Oswald’s purpose, then he achieved it when President Johnson chose not to follow JFK’s policy toward Cuba. With U.S. pressure withdrawn and American attention turned elsewhere, Castro (and his regime) was able to survive for decades thereafter, much as Oswald might have hoped for. Nevertheless, President Kennedy was not wrong in trying to eliminate the Cuban dictator who was a security threat to the United States. Today, six decades later, President Trump is once again using American power to topple the Communist regime in Cuba, in belated vindication of the original campaign sponsored by President John F. Kennedy.”

Soon?

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll