July 20, 2026

REQUIRED READING:

Just click through for the whole thread.

Posted at 9:51 am by Stephen Green

WINNING: Red states winning the prosperity race.

The new study focuses on the more recent years 2020-2024, using modern statistical techniques to show that even after other factors impacting economic change—like climate, the proportion of the population working in manufacturing or producing oil, or the degree of urbanization—are taken into account, Republican-dominated states grew sharply faster than Democratic oriented ones. Controlling for several potential competing explanatory factors, solidly Red states typically had over 25 percent more growth in personal income in the first part of this decade than their Blue counterparts.

Why? Republicans tend to have greater faith in markets to allocate resources and distribute income and wealth and are less inclined to tax the public heavily to fund massive social services, which research shows weaken work effort and business investment—key components in economic growth. For example, the highest income earners in heavily Blue New York City pay over 14 percent in state and local income taxes on some of their income, compared with zero in a more Red city like Miami or Dallas. All eight states with zero state income tax are Red or, in one case, New Hampshire, a swing state that has a history of electing both Democratic and Republican political leaders.

But here’s the kicker: “Our statistical analysis confirms that one of the biggest sources of income growth in the Red states has come from the in-migration of generally highly productive people fleeing high-tax Blue States.”

Posted at 9:36 am by Stephen Green

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Trump’s Obsession With Election Integrity Will Save the Republic. “While Senate Jellyfish Majority Leader John Thune keeps riding the Useless Wuss train rather than pass the SAVE America Act, President Trump is making sure that discussions regarding shoring up our vulnerable election processes stay front and center.”

Posted at 9:05 am by Stephen Green

YES, YOU SEE THIS HAPPENING ALL THE TIME: “Be warned. The Left is trying to make men who exercise, set goals, and adopt masculine roles ‘feel gay’ as a way to embarrass them and reduce their societal influence. This persons view isn’t a serious critique, it is a political attack.”

The goal is always to denormalize normal things, and normalize abnormal things. This would be more effective if normal people paid attention to what academics say, which is no longer the case.

Posted at 9:00 am by Glenn Reynolds

HE UNDERSTOOD:

Posted at 8:49 am by Stephen Green

I DON’T KNOW, I CAN IMAGINE QUITE A BIT: Fraud: More Than We Can Imagine?

The U.S. government spends more than $900 billion annually on Medicaid. How much of that money is stolen by criminals? HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. pegs the theft total at $100 billion.
…
The theft is incredibly brazen. And I suspect Kennedy’s $100 billion estimate may be low. In Minnesota, the authorities have estimated that at least one-half of the total spending on 14 Medicaid programs went to fraud. While our state government is uniquely incompetent, it may well be that other states approach those numbers. The fraud is probably less with regard to bills from doctors, clinics and hospitals, but there too, it is substantial, usually in the form of upcoding.

That’s from John Hinderaker, who wonders “whether a central purpose of our government is to fund crime.”

Just going by the numbers? Yes.

Posted at 8:34 am by Stephen Green

OFT EVIL WILL SHALL EVIL MAR: Boasberg Tried to Box Trump In. Instead, He Handed Him the Court That Gut-Punched the Entire Lawfare Machine.

Sitting in his Washington courtroom during the Alien Enemies Act litigation, exasperated with the Trump administration’s position that the executive could identify terrorist aliens and remove them without his blessing, Boasberg reached for what he thought was a rhetorical trump card. Congress, he observed, had already built a court for exactly this purpose. “You can always go to the ATRC, which would be a first, but that’s what it’s there for, right?” He would know. Boasberg had served on the Alien Terrorist Removal Court from 2020 through 2025, and for that entire period he was its chief judge, presiding over a tribunal that had never once received a case.

Sixteen months later, on July 15, 2026, the Department of Justice filed the first application in the court’s history. The administration took the judge’s suggestion. It simply took it more seriously than he intended.

To appreciate the jujitsu, you have to understand what the ATRC actually is, because almost nobody does. Start with the problem it was built to solve. Imagine the government possesses classified intelligence, perhaps from a human source inside a terrorist network, perhaps from a foreign partner’s surveillance, establishing that an alien inside the United States is connected to terrorism. In an ordinary immigration proceeding, using that evidence means exposing it. Exposing it can mean a dead informant, a burned collection method, or a furious ally who stops sharing. The government therefore faced what Senator Bob Smith described in 1995 as two equally unacceptable choices. Reveal the intelligence and destroy its source, or protect the intelligence and let the terrorist stay.

Congress chose a third path. As part of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, signed in April 1996 after the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City bombings, it created a specialized Article III tribunal. The Chief Justice designates five sitting federal district judges, each from a different circuit, to five-year terms. The Attorney General may bring an application when classified evidence shows an alien is a terrorist and ordinary removal proceedings would endanger national security. A judge reviews the classified material in a sealed, ex parte proceeding and must find probable cause before anything advances. If the application is granted, the case proceeds to a public merits hearing where the respondent receives notice, counsel at government expense if needed, an unclassified summary of the evidence, the right to present a defense, and appellate review in the DC Circuit, with the Supreme Court available beyond that. The government must prove its case by a preponderance of the evidence. This is not a star chamber. It is due process engineered for intelligence cases rather than due process borrowed from traffic court.

Was this some fever dream of the modern right? Hardly. The Reagan Justice Department conceived the idea. The George H.W. Bush administration promoted it and vouched for its constitutionality. The Clinton administration made it a legislative priority, with Attorney General Janet Reno calling the mechanism both constitutional and responsive to a real problem, and FBI Director Louis Freeh describing it as one of the department’s highest antiterrorism priorities. Then-Senator Joe Biden, chairing the Judiciary Committee, pronounced the constitutional argument irrefutable. An earlier Senate version passed unanimously, and the broader bill cleared the Senate 91 to 8. Three administrations of both parties built this court. The words of Reno and Biden now sit in the record like landmines beneath every Democrat preparing to call the tribunal an authoritarian invention.

I’m expecting an earth-shattering kaboom.

Posted at 8:30 am by Glenn Reynolds

SECOND- AND THIRD-ORDER BENEFITS:

Posted at 8:18 am by Stephen Green

CAN CONFIRM:

Posted at 8:16 am by Glenn Reynolds

NOBODY EVER BOMBS A LEFTY MEETUP:

But all this agitation, as I keep saying, just plays into Elon’s hands by boosting the need for his space data centers.

Posted at 7:46 am by Glenn Reynolds

MAKE AMERICA SANE AGAIN: Going Viral: Blue Haired Trans Student Loses It, Attacks Cops When Officer Misgenders Him – Gets Tased and Arrested (Video).

Police body camera footage from the University of Central Florida last year is blowing up on the internet due to the absurdity police had to deal with from a so-called transgender student.

The now viral incident occurred in February 2025 but has resurfaced.

An officer, seen in the video below, walks into a campus building, where he encounters a blue-haired student, who has been identified as 27-year-old Jarrett Vick. “Why do you let those kids get away with this? They are not supposed to be here,” Vick screams at the officer, sparking the incident.

The cop, who said he was on campus for a stolen vehicle investigation, then threatened to put him in cuffs and take him to a Baker Act facility for psychiatric hold, and Vick said, “f*cking try it.”

The officer then called for backup to deal with the unhinged student, and upon saying over the radio, “he’s having a breakdown,” things escalated with Vick screaming, “She! She! Just say the right pronouns!”

Screaming at police is always going to end well:

Posted at 7:45 am by Ed Driscoll

THIS ONE GOT LOST IN THE WEEKEND SHUFFLE: U.S. Marines Board Wen Yao Tanker as Washington Steps Up Maritime Pressure on Iran. “According to CENTCOM, American forces have now redirected three commercial vessels attempting to breach the blockade, disabled one vessel that failed to comply with U.S. instructions, and boarded the M/T Wen Yao to verify full compliance with the ongoing U.S. naval blockade against Iran. CENTCOM added that the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding waters remain open to international navigation, except for vessels attempting to violate what it described as America’s ‘steel wall blockade.’ The announcement signals that Washington is pursuing a selective maritime enforcement campaign focused on vessels suspected of violating blockade measures rather than restricting legitimate international commerce.”

No word on what became of Wen Yao after the boarding.

Posted at 7:32 am by Stephen Green

WE WERE TOLD A LOT OF THINGS OVER THE LAST 20 YEARS:

Posted at 7:30 am by Glenn Reynolds

DON’T MAKE THE MISTAKE:

“Don’t make the mistake of treating communist agitators like they are just another well-intentioned political expression of misguided idealistic youth. When they say they want to toss the Constitution, take them at their word, treat them accordingly.”

Posted at 7:20 am by Glenn Reynolds

MEDIA… I HATE THOSE GUYS:

Posted at 7:16 am by Stephen Green