May 7, 2026

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES:

Posted at 12:59 pm by Stephen Green

YES YOU CAN Support Obama’s Hideous Vanity Complex With These Inspiring Gift Shop Items.

The Barack Obama Presidential Center won’t be open to the public for another few weeks, but the gift shop is already up and running. All proceeds will support the Obama Foundation and its mission to “inspire, empower, and connect people to change their world.” The foundation is also responsible for funding and operating the new presidential center, which has been described as a “hideous eyesore” befitting the colossal vanity of a tinpot dictator.

So, what are you waiting for? You can help fund Obama’s brutalist monstrosity right now by purchasing some of the inspiring items for sale on the center’s website.

This gorgeous lapel pin ($30) This “unique accessory” was designed by Sameera Chukkapalli Holmes, a former NYU professor of ethical leadership and an architect who specializes in sustainability and social equity. It allegedly represents the “intersection of bold design and global leadership.”

The New York Post adds that “Many weren’t impressed with the pricey pins — with some comparing them to chewing gum, pregnancy tests and blobs of toothpaste. ‘It looks like chewed gum or an eraser that a third grader has been mutilating,’ one user on X wrote.” Wow, that’s just churlish, and rude. Why, it’s as if a Murdoch-owned publication has a grudge with the Lightworker.

And vice-versa:

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

HUH:

Posted at 12:29 pm by Stephen Green

WHAT LOSERS THINK IS A “SCANDAL.”

Posted at 12:06 pm by Glenn Reynolds

OKAY, GROOMERS: Border Patrol Raids Disney Cruise Ship, Finds Every Parent’s Nightmare Lurking on Board — This Is What Dems Want Defunded.

A group of alleged child predators were arrested after they’d been working around children and families aboard a Disney cruise.

They were apprehended by the same immigration agents Democrats want to defund.

KNSD reported Wednesday that a Disney cruise docked in San Diego after a trip with stops in Ensenada, Baja California, as well as Catalina Island, where federal agents took several employees into custody.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Sandra Grisolia released a statement about the raid:

“On April 28, HSI San Diego arrested twenty-three crewmembers from multiple cruise ships at the Port of San Diego as part of Operation Tidal Wave. The arrests targeted individuals suspected of involvement with Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), based on information received from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.”

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll

TEMU MISSILES:

Posted at 11:58 am by Stephen Green

JON CALDARA: Flipping the script: Coloradans no longer run their government.

Independence Institute, which I run, helped bring together nearly 50 highly diverse organizations that are usually at each other’s throats. We all shared a common concern: government in Colorado is turning opaque.

Open records are getting harder to access, open meetings are closing. The “people’s” work is being hidden from the people.

And when I say organizations from all over the political spectrum worked together, I’m not exaggerating: Independence Institute, the ACLU, Heidi Ganahl’s conservative Rocky Mountain Voice, the progressive Colorado Times Recorder, Colorado Public Radio, League of Women Voters, Colorado Press Association, Colorado Broadcasters Association, Common Cause, Colorado Black Women for Action, and many, many more.

Over a year-and-a-half of work we crafted a constitutional reform based on what many other states already have, called “Right to Know.” It’s simple: a fundamental right for the people to access public records and government deliberations, with reasonable exceptions.

But you won’t see this proposed amendment on your fall ballot.

The normally sober state Title Board voted 2–1 to block it. The appointees of Secretary of State Jena Griswold and Attorney General Phil Weiser voted against you being able to vote on governmental transparency.

Were they ordered to do so? I’ll let others speculate.

Their argument was that your “right to know” the affairs of government isn’t a single subject, and only “single subjects” may go to the ballot.

Legislators’ bills must also have a single subject. The difference is they get to decide for themselves whether a bill qualifies. By contrast, we “the people” must get permission from an unelected board. A set of rules for them; a different set for us.

If they don’t want openness, it’s because they’re hiding stuff.

Posted at 11:43 am by Stephen Green

NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT, AND YOU CAN GET IT WITHOUT EVEN TRYING:

Posted at 11:27 am by Stephen Green

OR JUST SITS THERE DOING NOTHING WITH 80/20 LEGISLATION, SEN. THUNE:

Posted at 10:56 am by Stephen Green

BLUE CITY BLUES: Wall Street giant Apollo aims to open ‘second headquarters’ outside NYC — in latest fallout from Mamdani’s war on the wealthy.

Private equity giant Apollo Global Management, headquartered in Manhattan, has decided to open a new business hub — internally dubbed its “second headquarters” — in either Florida or Texas with an official decision likely to be made public in the coming weeks, people close to the matter say.

The new outpost could eventually become home to as many as 1,000 employees over time – in line with Apollo’s current headcount in New York, the sources said. The buyout firm currently employs more than 6,000 worldwide.

Previously: Zohran Mamdani’s victory in NYC mayoral primary leaves Wall Street ‘alarmed’ and ‘depressed.’

Now they’re just leaving.

Posted at 10:41 am by Stephen Green

ONCE BURNED, TWICE SHY:

Posted at 10:38 am by Glenn Reynolds

APOCALYPTO II, FIRST WORLD BOOGALOO:

 

If only Aztec Batman had been better at his job: Trailer: Warner Brothers reveals Aztec Batman, where evil white Europeans come to destroy the peaceful natives.

Posted at 10:35 am by Ed Driscoll

IT ISN’T THEFT WHEN THE LEGISLATURE DOES IT:

Posted at 10:25 am by Stephen Green

IF AMERICA IS A CREEDAL NATION, THEN CAN WE DENATURALIZE AND DEPORT PEOPLE WHO COME HERE AND DON’T SUBSCRIBE TO THE CREED?

Because if not, what does “creedal nation” mean?

Posted at 9:59 am by Glenn Reynolds

NOVEMBER PREVIEW (MISSISSIPPI EDITION): ‘Earliest Opportunity’ — Gov Opens Door To Redrawing Maps After SCOTUS Nukes Race-Based Districting.

Mississippi, Reeves said, now has three separate redistricting fights in play.

“We have Supreme Court districts, we have congressional districts – which is what everybody in Washington, D.C., cares about — and then we have legislative districts,” Reeves said.

The most immediate issue is Mississippi’s state Supreme Court map. A federal judge ruled last year that Mississippi’s three Supreme Court districts violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, triggering a remedial phase that could force lawmakers to redraw the districts.

“My initial call for a special session … was specifically for Supreme Court redistricting in the event that the federal judge forced our legislature to redraw those districts,” Reeves said.

But the governor made clear that the special session may not stop there.

“I have the ability as governor, constitutionally, to either remove that call of the special session or to add to it for the purposes of any other topic, which could include other redistricting matters,” Reeves explained.

Well, get to it.

Posted at 9:39 am by Stephen Green

FRAUD ALL THE WAY DOWN:

Posted at 9:23 am by Stephen Green