December 21, 2025

OLD AND BUSTED: Statue Toppling Endorsed by College Professors and Once Respectable Publications.

The New Hotness? JFK’s Niece Kerry Kennedy Vows to Remove Trump’s Name from the Kennedy Center with a ‘Pickax.’

More members of the Kennedy family are speaking out after President Donald Trump added his name to the Kennedy Center this week.

Following a controversial vote by a MAGA-friendly board, workers officially added Trump’s name to the Kennedy Center’s exterior on Friday, Dec. 19. They tacked on “The Donald Trump and” above the previously-existing lettering, which reads, “The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”

Kerry Kennedy, the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and JFK’s niece, took to X after photos of the new addition went public.

“Three years and one month from today, I’m going to grab a pickax and pull those letters off that building, but I’m going to need help holding the ladder,” she wrote. “Are you in? Applying for my carpenter’s card today, so it’ll be a union job!!!”

Sounds awfully violent and destructive, but that’s par for the course for her family’s lineage. As RFK said in March of 1968, “If our colleges and universities do not breed men who riot, who rebel, who attack life with all their youthful vision and vigor then there is something wrong with our colleges. The more riots that come on college campuses, the better the world for tomorrow.”

I like Ike; let’s rename it after him. But assuming we don’t have a President Vance or Rubio in office four years from now, Democrats will be working harder than Winston Smith in the Ministry of Truth to airbrush President Trump two terms of office out of existence.

Posted at 1:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

21st CENTURY HEADLINES: First wheelchair user goes into space. “A German engineer has become the first wheelchair user to go into space.Michaela Benthaus, an aerospace and mechatronics engineer at the European Space Agency, crossed the Karman line, the internationally recognised boundary of space, during the 10-minute Blue Origin flight. Ms Benthaus, 33, from Kiel in Schleswig-Holstein, suffered a spinal cord injury in a mountain biking accident seven years ago.”

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

ROGER SIMON: J. D. Vance Has a Tucker Carlson Problem.

Is Tucker’s cognitive disorder Qatar’s doing? Maybe partly, but it is J. D. Vance’s problem. Currently, he and others are unable to shake themselves free of Carlson’s celebrity and the attendant charisma that remains.

If they don’t, it could sink the Republican ship. I’m not just talking about the Jews, many of whom were in the process of shifting to the GOP or already had, only to be repelled by Tucker’s antisemitic ravings, but also about the evangelicals who constitute a much larger backbone of the Republican Party. Without them, they are lost.

As many have noted, demography is destiny. Among Jews, the more orthodox are the fastest-growing segment, obeying the biblical admonition to be fruitful and multiply. The others, like most secular people, are having fewer children. The orthodox have long been the most conservative and by far the most likely to vote Republican—until the advent of Tucker’s screeds.

Exit quote: “This places J. D. Vance in a box. He must separate from Tucker and his followers, but he must do so subtly to avoid escalating the already percolating civil war. I sympathize with his dilemma.”

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll

WILD:

Posted at 9:35 am by Stephen Green

STILL A FEW BUGS IN THE SYSTEM: Waymo Suspends Service in SF Amid Blackout, Driverless Cars Basically Give Up.

And block everyone else. “Traffic lights across the city were down, seemingly confusing the driverless cars — and halting them in their tracks. Riders and pedestrians posted videos of Waymos stuck at intersections, long lines of drivers behind them.” Time for a backup plan.

UPDATE: Not entirely surprising:

Posted at 9:27 am by Glenn Reynolds

WHY CHARLIE BROWN GOT CHRISTMAS WRONG: Yes, when Charles M. Schultz designed what is perhaps the best-known Peanuts, Linus gets the true meaning of Christmas exactly right. But here’s what you may never have realized — Charlie Brown’s critique of commercialism missed the mark big-time, according to Rod Martin.

And after you take in Rod’s thought-provoker, check out this beautiful version by Casting Crowns of “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” on HillFaith. The youth choir in this one is simply splendid.

Posted at 8:57 am by Mark Tapscott

REMINDER: After today, the days start getting longer and the nights start getting shorter.

Posted at 8:52 am by Glenn Reynolds

MORALE AMONG MANY MAGA SUPPORTERS SEEMS LOWER THAN I’D EXPECT GIVEN RECENT DEVELOPMENTS:

Posted at 7:30 am by Glenn Reynolds

I AGREE:

Posted at 7:21 am by Glenn Reynolds

IT WAS A POLITICAL BUBBLE, INFLATED BY (MOSTLY U.S.) TAXPAYER MONEY: The Electric Vehicle Collapse: Wow, That Was Quick!

It was less than three years ago — early 2023 — that I was writing about the then-universal government and industry line that electric vehicles (EVs) would soon be taking over the American car market. In April 2022 the Biden Administration had adopted aggressive vehicle mileage standards intended to be achievable only through rapid transition to EVs. Our “climate leader” states, California and New York, had then adopted regulations in August and September 2022, respectively, mandating a phase-out of sales of combustion vehicles, to culminate in 2035, after which only EVs would be allowed. In a post in January 2023, I linked to the websites of Ford and GM, where they both touted their grand plans for rapid conversion of their companies to the manufacture of mostly or entirely EVs. At that time, Ford was claiming that it would “lead America’s shift to EVs,” and would achieve 50% of its sales in that category by 2030. GM bragged about its “path to an all-electric future” by 2035.

In a post on February 23, 2023, I expressed skepticism.

Well-founded, as it turns out.

Posted at 7:06 am by Glenn Reynolds

WHEN THE OPPOSITION IS TRYING TO ORGANIZE A COUP AGAINST YOU, IT’S IMPORTANT TO PAY THE TROOPS:

Posted at 7:00 am by Glenn Reynolds