April 2, 2026

DON’T BE SURPRISED IF THAT FIGURE TURNS OUT TO BE LOW-BALL:

Posted at 1:31 pm by Stephen Green

GAVIN NEWSOM’S EMPIRE OF FRAUD:

California is a cash machine. The state collects some of the country’s highest income, business, and fuel taxes, and now spends more than $300 billion per year. And yet, everywhere you look, California seems to be falling apart.

The roads are crumbling. Mismanaged wildfires have turned neighborhoods into ash. Drug addiction and homelessness have metastasized, turning parts of Los Angeles and San Francisco into no-go zones. And the cost-of-living crisis is pricing middle-class taxpayers out of basic necessities like groceries and gas, even as the state spends billions on welfare programs that never seem to lift anyone out of poverty.

Californians are beginning to ask: Where is all this money going? On paper, it funds hospitals, universities, schools, prisons, infrastructure, and other public services. But beneath the surface, something else is happening that California Governor Gavin Newsom does not want you to see: massive, systematic, brazen fraud.

We conducted interviews with public officials, fraud experts, and political figures, and reviewed hundreds of pages of government reports, state audits, criminal indictments, and other public records on California fraud. From unemployment insurance and Medicaid to failed homeless initiatives and welfare programs, seemingly every state program has been compromised by criminals. The best estimates suggest that, on the governor’s watch, fraudsters, scammers, and organized crime rings have stolen at least $180 billion from taxpayers.

Welcome to Gavin Newsom’s empire of fraud.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

ABORIGINAL RIGHTS!

Posted at 1:05 pm by Glenn Reynolds

JUST ANOTHER WELL-TO-DO RED-DIAPER GRIFTER:

Posted at 12:59 pm by Stephen Green

ONCE AGAIN I SAY, LET IT ALL OUT, KURT:

Posted at 12:29 pm by Stephen Green

FINALLY: Trump Trounces Tucker.

Trump posted a link to Douglas Murray’s piece, which absolutely eviscerated Tucker, within about half an hour after his speech to the nation. Obviously, it was top of mind, and the two events are obviously linked directly in his mind.

Trump is at war, and Tucker is a traitor to both the President and the nation. That is the message, and I have to say that everybody I know, at least, believes it.

Murray didn’t hold back, and by extension, Trump isn’t either.

In politics, it is often the people who you think have your back who end up stabbing you there.

Nobody knows that better than Donald Trump, who has been stabbed in the back more times than Julius Caesar — yet has still survived.

This week, part of the noisy right-wing online podcast-sphere again turned on the president.

Leading the virtual charge, again, was Trump’s one-time cheerleader, Tucker Carlson.

By not addressing Tucker directly and allowing Murray to do so, Trump is sending a second message: you are dead to me.

Perhaps Trump could “award” Tucker an Iron Cross, as FDR did to a reporter with the New York Daily News in 1942 when he disapproved of his journalism.

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll

COLLAPSING IRAN: Signs are everywhere that the Mullahs and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are at loggerheads amid the steadily growing piles of rubble creating at will by American and Israeli aircraft and missiles. Richard Pollock surveys the wreckage and looks ahead.

Posted at 11:55 am by Mark Tapscott

SCOTUS OR NOT, THIS HAS GOT TO STOP: HUNDREDS of companies provide BIRTH TOURISM for foreign moms who want US citizen babies.

During oral arguments before the Supreme Court regarding birthright citizenship, the Trump administration noted the prevalence of “birth tourism,” or the action of an expecting foreign national traveling to the United States with the intention of giving birth to their child on American soil, granting them US citizenship.

Kayleigh McEnany said on Fox News as the Supreme Court was in session, “There are more than 500 firms in China that facilitate people coming from the Chinese Communist Party to give birth here in the United States. Obama enabled this through loopholes dating back to 2009, and what that could mean is 1 million new voters by 2030. Imagine that, Communist Party voters.”

Over the years, a number of companies across the US and its territories have catered to mothers from countries such as Russia and China. Recent reports have revealed companies operating in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory in the Pacific.

Insane and self-destructive, just like the rest of Obama’s legacy.

Posted at 11:43 am by Stephen Green

YES:

Posted at 11:27 am by Stephen Green

AN IMPORTANT EPIC FURY UPDATE FROM TOM SAUER:

Takeaway line: “Sure, there are some few remaining drone and missile threats, but the main reason the strait is ‘closed’ is fear from insurers due to perceived risk, real or imagined. That’s on them.”

Posted at 10:56 am by Stephen Green

I’M EXPECTING AN EARTH-SHATTERING IPO: SpaceX files initial paperwork to sell shares to the public and likely make Musk a trillionaire.

A SpaceX IPO promises to be one of the biggest Wall Street events of the year, with several investment banks lining up to help raise tens of billions to fund Musk’s ambitions to set up a base on the moon, put datacenters the size of several football fields in orbit and possibly one day send a man to Mars.

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly about the confidential registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SpaceX did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Exactly how much SpaceX plans to raise has not been disclosed but the figure is reportedly as much as $75 billion. At that level, the offering would easily eclipse the $29 billion that Saudi Aramco raised in its IPO in 2019.

The offering, coming possibly in June, could value all the shares of SpaceX at $1.5 trillion, nearly double what the company was valued in December when some minority owners sold their stakes, according to research firm Pitchbook, before an acquisition that increased its size.

If there were an actual line to stand in to buy just a single share, I’d go stand in it.

Posted at 10:41 am by Stephen Green

JIM TREACHER SINGS THE GLORIOUS PRAISES OF “CHEESE VIOLENCE:” Japanese Twitter Is Awesome.

And now my Twitter feed is just full of these Japanese tweets translated into English, and I’m seeing how much we have in common with each other. There’s dozens and dozens that I could list, but I’ll just point out a few here.

Probably my favorite of all that I’ve seen… The past week, I’ve been introduced to the Japanese theory of “cheese violence.” Let me explain that.

The other day, a Japanese Twitter user named @hoshizorarock quote-tweeted a photo of a huge triple bacon cheeseburger with what appears to be about a half-pound of cheese on it.

And the caption is:

Please witness the violence of cheese.

And since then, I’ve looked around, and there’s a lot of other people talking about “cheese violence.” I was not familiar with this concept.

And at first I laughed, and then I said, “Okay, that actually fits. Putting that much cheese on a burger is cheese violence. That’s it. You nailed it.”

I am both a victim and a perpetrator of cheese violence.

So I asked Grok to explain if that was just a bad translation. But no, it’s actually a thing in Japan.

I’ll quote this from the robot:

“Cheese violence” (チーズの暴力 / chīzu no bōryoku [CHEE-zoo no BOH-ryoh-koo]) is established Japanese internet/foodie slang for ridiculously excessive, melty, gooey cheese overloads in food—hyperbolic praise for something so indulgent and rich it “violently assaults” your senses (in the best way).

So, yeah, that’s it. They nailed it. Cheese violence. I love it. I’m going to start using that. I want some cheese violence.

So say we all!

Posted at 10:35 am by Ed Driscoll

SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE WAS LAST SEEN LOUNGING ON THE LIDO DECK:

Sen. Mike Lee adds: “It has been obvious for years that the same crew who invented the Russiagate hoax are themselves dependent on foreign election interference.”

Posted at 10:25 am by Stephen Green