December 20, 2025

THE POWER LINE WEEK IN PICTURES: Return of the King Edition.

Okay, John Hinderaker went and did it last week! He has abused his stewardship of TWiP and went full Die Hard Christmas Movie Denialist!  As the Dude says in The Big Lebowski, this aggression will not stand, man! To restore proper balance in the universe, I [Steve Hayward] am staging a coup d’tat, and am taking over this week’s TWiP. To mix movie references further, John has done a Denethor-level job as Steward of TWiP; time for the Return of the (TWiP) King! Actually, like the Gaza and (prospective) Ukraine ceasefires, we’re going to share power, and alternate TWiP each week. And so as the great John McClain would say on basic cable Christmas season reruns, “Yippie-ki-yay, melon-farmer!”

‘Tis the season:

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll

AMERICA FIRST IS NOT HATRED — IT’S STEWARDSHIP: From that title’s basic and most essential understanding, Virgil Walker’s Sola Veritas column includes much wisdom, including a warning to the churches — Protestant and Catholic alike — about their role in the American story:

“Today’s political disorder is downstream from theological failure.

“For years, the American Church avoided hard categories. Pastors replaced clarity with emotionalism. Stewardship was recast as selfishness. Prudence became fear. Borders became taboo.

“The result was not greater compassion, but moral confusion.

“Christians were taught how to feel, not how to think. How to sympathize, not how to steward. Loving your neighbor was weaponized against loving your nation, as if responsibility were a sin.

“It is not.

“Compassion without boundaries is reckless. Hospitality without expectation is destructive. A silent Church does not preserve a nation. It hastens its unraveling.”

Posted at 8:43 am by Mark Tapscott

HEH. INDEED.

Posted at 8:34 am by Glenn Reynolds

HAHA. YES.

Posted at 8:30 am by Glenn Reynolds

DISPATCHES FROM THE EPSTEIN FILES: Nearly naked Bill Clinton pictured soaking in hot tub with unidentified woman in Epstein files: ‘His reckoning.’

Former President Bill Clinton is photographed reclining nearly naked in a hot tub with an unidentified woman at his waist in files kept by late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein — drawing strong reactions, including an ex-aide’s pronouncement that “this is his reckoning.”

Clinton, 79, is shown in many other images in the sprawling cache of Epstein files released Friday by the Justice Department — including with his arm wrapped around a young lady on a plane.

The ex-president is seen vacationing with the now-notorious predator in the UK, traveling with him to Brunei and Thailand and attending the 2002 wedding of Moroccan King Mohammed VI.

The extent of the Democrat’s appearance in the files drew shock shortly after the DOJ’s heavily redacted dump of thousands of records in compliance with a congressionally mandated deadline.

In one image, Clinton is shown frolicking in a swimming pool with Epstein’s girlfriend-turned-madam Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking crimes.

“This is his reckoning. I mean, if you turn on CNN, that’s what they are talking about. I’ve gotten a million texts about it,” said one former Clinton aide.

Related: Epstein Files Have Been Released, And Democrats Won’t Like These Photos.

Curiously, distaff Democratic Party operatives with bylines are shocked not by their man being in the Epstein files, but by his images actually being released:

Evergreen:

Posted at 8:14 am by Ed Driscoll

WINNING!!!:  I’ve been beating the drum for the last several years about the federal government’s “Minority Serving Institution” programs. These are programs that shovel large sums of money to colleges and universities based on whether they have high minority student enrollment.  For example, to be a Hispanic Serving Institution, at least 25% of a college or university’s students must be Hispanic.  These programs are UNCONSTITUTIONAL.  I’ve urged this before both large and small crowds, in various cities, both live and via Zoom.  Dan Morenoff, who is the Executive Director of the American Civil Rights Project (where I’m chairman of the board) has been plugging away with me.  I also enlisted by former special assistant Alex Heideman to write on the issue.  And we’re getting somewhere.

The latest development is a 48-page official opinion from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel agreeing that these race-based programs are simply unconstitutional.  The opinion is binding on the executive branch.

In addition, Senator Jim Banks (R-IN) has introduced a bill—called the PELL Act—that would abolish the programs once and for all.  You can read about it here.

Meanwhile, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has brought a lawsuit (and my American Civil Rights Project has successfully intervened in that lawsuit (representing both the NAS (National Association of Scholars) and FASORP (Faculty, Alumni, & Students Opposed to Racial Preferences).

Things are rolling.

Posted at 8:12 am by Gail Heriot

IT’S COME TO THIS: “Patriots should not fight for the British state,” says a columnist…in the London Telegraph?!

Talk of war is everywhere. Last week Mark Rutte, Nato’s secretary general, warned that the West must be prepared “for the scale of war our grandparents or great-grandparents endured” and that Nato is “Russia’s next target”. Then Sir Richard Knighton, the chief of the defence staff, said that the global situation is the most “dangerous I have known”, before describing a “new era for defence” which “doesn’t just mean our military and government stepping up… it means our whole nation stepping up”.

But is this realistic? Will the Britons of 2025 rise to the call as we did in 1914 or 1939? Polling suggests not. According to an Ipsos poll in June, almost half of us “say there are no circumstances” in which we “would be willing to take up arms for Britain”, with 39 per cent of men saying they would never fight for this country, and only 42 per cent of 18-34 year olds saying there are circumstances in which they would fight.

Some of those refusing are Leftists, but an increasing number of those on the Right, especially the young, believe that to obey the British state is to act against the interests of the British people.

If only there was a military role that many young conservative British men would flock to serve:

 

Posted at 7:45 am by Ed Driscoll

LEFTISTS WANT TO DESTROY ANYTHING THEY DON’T CONTROL: Ivy League Law Professors: We Need to Destroy the Supreme Court to Save It. “They don’t even bother to justify any of their claims that the court is illegitimate. It’s just taken as a given and therefore attempts to further destroy the court’s reputation aren’t something to avoid but something to embrace.”

Posted at 7:11 am by Glenn Reynolds

QUID PRO QUO:

Posted at 7:08 am by Glenn Reynolds

FROM NATHAN BRINDLE:  I’m the Beautiful But Evil Space Princess Who Rules A Galactic Empire But Really Wants To Leave People Ruthlessly Alone: Volume 2 (I’m The Beautiful But … Wants To Leave People Ruthlessly Alone!).

Princess Regnant Alice and her companions, after a trip to Prince Daniel’s world Xeros, and a visit to Lost Terra and a meeting with Michael, the mysterious, ancient human, have been directed by Michael to travel to Mahoukai — a world of magical beings who will be able to properly train and guide Prince Daniel’s sister Alouette in the use of her inborn magical powers.

But a nagging question continues to bug both Alice and her father, Roger; what is really going on, back on Capital? Is a revolution brewing? Is the Lord Chancellor, Rupert, somehow involved, and at what level? Eventually they must bid a reluctant farewell to the Mahoukaian Great Mages of Antiquity, and end Alice’s six month absence from her Throne.

And what they find on Capital is far, far beyond anything they might have imagined from 50,000 light years away.

The second volume of the BBESP light novel!

Posted at 7:00 am by Sarah Hoyt