June 16, 2026

HE’S RIGHT. IT IS BAFFLING.

Posted at 10:51 am by Glenn Reynolds

THEY JUST CAN’T HELP IT: Republicans Saved by Democrats’ Vanity Projects—Again.

Earlier this week, I told you about a Politico story that should send ice through Republican veins: Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters at a news conference Monday that the first bill the Democrats plan to pass if they win the House in November would focus on lowering costs, and Democrats are already working on legislation to tackle the biggest struggle Americans are currently facing.

Luckily for the Republicans, that story is already dated.
…
Rep. Jamie Raskin wants voting rights…

Rep. Yvette Clarke said she’d like to see the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act revived in any new H.R. 1. as well as “comprehensive immigration reform.”

Rep. Adriano Espaillat wants H.R. 1 to claw back funding for ICE and redirect it to Medicaid and affordable housing.

Rep. Brad Schneider wants the party to undo Trump’s tariffs in their first action.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is on the health care working group, wants “guaranteed health care.”

Then there’s Rep. Ro Khanna, believed to be considering a presidential run in 2028. He laid out his agenda on a podcast later in the week, and it included the usual progressive priorities: Abolish ICE, expand the Supreme Court, and a billionaire’s tax.

Left unsaid: There hardly a Democrat policy that doesn’t involve making things more expensive.

Posted at 10:39 am by Stephen Green

SO THE SPLC WAS BASICALLY JUST A TERRORIST FRONT GROUP THEN? SPLC boss funneled $1.2 million to lover in neo-Nazi group — pair even had joint bank account.

UPDATE:

What if — hear me out — we’ve had it backwards? What if the Nazis secretly set up the SPLC as a funding channel? Just sayin’.

Posted at 9:56 am by Glenn Reynolds

RENDRE COUP POUR COUP: Trump warns France in exclusive interview with The Post: Kill tech tax or face 100% wine tariffs: ‘I have no choice.’

Trump said he gave the blunt warning directly to outgoing French President Emmanuel Macron, demanding he ditch the 3% tech levy or face devastating duties in the American market, which accounts for a fifth of the French wine industry’s global sales — worth more than $2 billion annually.

“I asked him not to charge American companies, and if they do, I have no choice but to charge a 100% tariff on all champagnes and all wines coming out of France,” Trump told The Post. “All [Macron] has to do is get rid of the sales tax, and he wouldn’t have that kind of pressure.”

The ultimatum drew a defiant response from Macron, who on Monday told French TV channel TF1 that “tariffs don’t do anyone any good, especially tariffs between G7 countries”. Asked if he would yield to the tariff threats, he responded: “No, because that is not how it works.”

I suppose we’ll see about that, including how long Macron can hide behind the fiction that his “tech levy” isn’t effectively a tariff on American tech firms.

Near as I could get Grok and GPT to figure it out for me, if the entire French tech sector were one American firm, it probably wouldn’t rank among the U.S. top 15 in market cap — maybe the size of Sandisk, or at best, Netflix.

Posted at 9:37 am by Stephen Green

WELL, GOOD: FBI arrests 5 people in connection with drone attack plot against White House UFC Freedom 250 event. “The multi-phase terror attack allegedly involved using explosive-laden drone aircraft to strike buildings in the vicinity of the event, sparking mass panic and driving the fleeing crowd toward a sniper team poised to pick them off, officials told Fox News Digital. A ‘second wave’ of attackers then allegedly planned to storm the White House gate, officials said.”

Posted at 9:13 am by Glenn Reynolds

IT CERTAINLY WON’T DEBUNK ITSELF:

“So: SpaceX saved the US taxpayer more than the total value of contracts it earned on a single project, PLUS provided the US government with the requested services (put stuff in LEO) at the best possible price.”

But if you present the facts to a member in good standing of the Party of Science™, they’ll call you a Nazi.

Posted at 8:51 am by Stephen Green

THIS IS THE WRONG QUESTION: How Quickly Can the Strait of Hormuz Get Back Up and Running?

“The backlog of stranded vessels and the need for crew changes and rest mean a realistic return to normal shipping patterns is weeks, if not months, away,” said Stephen Cotton, general secretary of the International Transport Workers’ Federation. He added that the deal wouldn’t be the end. “It is, at best, the beginning,” Cotton said.

Coordinating the order of transits will take time. It is unclear whether Iran would continue to control the strait, and whether tolls would be charged, analysts said.

​“It’ll all come down to the actual ship count out, and then, more importantly, to what Iran actually allows,” said Rory Johnston, founder of oil research firm Commodity Context. “Even if it is over, then we’ll start the monthslong process of renormalizing traffic.”

The correct question is, how long will it take for the Arab Gulf states to make the Gulf much less relevant?

“Iran’s neighbors wanted a speedy end to fighting because they weren’t ready to handle the redistributed shipping load, but now they’re going to work to make sure that they’re not vulnerable to disruption in case the IRGC does this again.”

Posted at 8:35 am by Stephen Green

MEHDI HASAN WOULD BE LAUGHABLE IF HE WEREN’T SO EVIL:

Posted at 8:30 am by Glenn Reynolds

THANK YOU, PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY MAKE THE WORLD BETTER:

Posted at 8:00 am by Glenn Reynolds

WE’VE REACHED “THE LAMENTATIONS OF THEIR WOMEN” STAGE:

Posted at 7:48 am by Stephen Green

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: A Majority of Law Professors Say Legal Education Is Heading in the Wrong Direction.. “Conservative law faculty experience a sharply different climate than their liberal colleagues: 61% of conservative faculty say their law school is hostile toward people with their political beliefs, compared to 11% of liberal faculty, and three times as many hide their political beliefs to keep their job (52% versus 17%).”

Posted at 7:34 am by Glenn Reynolds

BIG MONEY: SpaceX IPO raised $10bn more than thought.

Elon Musk’s rocket and Artificial Intellgience (AI) company pulled off the biggest initial public offering (IPO) in history when it joined New York’s Nasdaq stock exchange last week.

The listing had raised $75bn from investors, which Musk told employees will be spent funding a “significant growth phase”.

But the banks which backed the IPO exercised a so-called “greenshoe” clause, which let them purchase an extra $10bn of SpaceX shares.

The extra $10bn raised, revealed in a statement by SpaceX announcing the completion of the listing, would by itself rank as one of the biggest IPOs in history.

It came thanks to a financial mechanism known as an overallotment option, more commonly referred to as a “greenshoe” option.

When a company goes public in a highly anticipated listing, investor demand can outstrip the initial supply of shares.

To prevent wild price swings and ensure a smoother launch, a greenshoe agreement lets the banks handling the listing sell more shares than originally planned.

In SpaceX’s case, appetite was exceptionally high.

Here’s maybe one small reason why, courtesy of a CNBC interview from Friday:

Getting Starship into service before the end of the year would be a Very Big Deal, and Shotwell’s ETAs tend to be a bit more reliable than Elon’s.

Posted at 7:33 am by Stephen Green