April 23, 2026

BLUE STATE BLUES: ZEV Technologies Leaving the Hostile Washington Business Climate for Gun-Friendly Utah. “The latest company to read the room and decide that their business is no longer valued or wanted where they’re currently located is ZEV Technologies. The maker of high end GLOCK platform pistols — among other firearms — has been located in Cenralia, Washington. But as creeping California hoplophobia made its way up the west coast, it’s become clear in recent years that the Evergreen State is no longer a conducive atmosphere in which to do business as a gun maker.”

Posted at 9:39 am by Stephen Green

PRIORITIES:

Posted at 9:23 am by Stephen Green

#JOURNALISM:

Posted at 9:19 am by Glenn Reynolds

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Whaddya Know — Republicans Can Play Legal Hardball Too. “What’s rich about this is that the Democrats immediately began whining about an ‘activist judge.’ Their entire strategy to fight anything that President Trump and his administration do is built around activist judges; without them, the party is nothing. They haven’t had the greatest luck with them so far, mostly because their activist judges tend to overreach and/or ignore the law. Let’s hope this one is based on stronger legal grounds and sticks. If not, bye-bye Virginia.”

Posted at 9:08 am by Stephen Green

I THOUGHT THEY HAD TO GET SWORN IN BEFORE ENGAGING IN THIS LEVEL OF CORRUPTION: Prediction market Kalshi suspends 3 congressional candidates for betting on their own races.

The candidates, named in regulatory filings as Ezekiel Enriquez in Texas, Matt Klein in Minnesota, and Mark Moran in Virginia, wagered on the outcomes of their elections in violation of the platform’s rules.

Enriquez and Klein both wagered on the outcomes of their races, the platform said. But Moran, who ran as a Democrat in Virginia’s primary for U.S. Senate, also placed bets on himself under the event contract, “Who will run for public office this year?” before subsequently announcing his candidacy, according to the platform.

“Moran qualified as a direct decision maker for this contract and had direct influence on the outcome of the underlying event,” the filing states. Moran later also wagered on the outcome of his race, Kalshi said.

They’ll fit right in.

Posted at 8:37 am by Stephen Green

I FEEL YOUR PAIN:

Posted at 8:21 am by Stephen Green

IT’S MY THURSDAY ESSAY FOR VIP SUBSCRIBERS: Peace Through Strength — and the Cost of Forgetting It. “Most Thursdays, I take readers on a deep dive into a topic I hope you’ll find interesting, important, or at least amusing. This week, we’ll examine Trump’s massive military spending proposal, and whether it’s really all that.”

Posted at 8:06 am by Stephen Green

CHANGE:

Posted at 7:50 am by Stephen Green

MAYBE THEY CAN CATCH UP TO THE POLES BY THEN, IF THEY WORK REALLY HARD AT IT: Germany unveils strategy for becoming Europe’s strongest military by 2039.

Titled “Verantwortung für Europa” − Responsibility for Europe − the military strategy identifies Russia as the primary threat and sets out scenarios for potential attacks on NATO territory. Pistorius declined to detail the classified threat assessments, quipping that releasing them would be tantamount to “adding Vladimir Putin to our email distribution list.” The strategy also marks a doctrinal shift toward a “one theater approach,” treating NATO territory, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific as interconnected security spaces rather than discrete theaters.

The accompanying capability profile moves away from rigid hardware quotas − the number of tanks, aircraft or ships − toward a flexible, effects-based planning model. The question is not how many battalions the German army needs, but what effects it must be able to produce, said the defense minister. He cited deep precision strike, air defense against hypersonic missiles, and drone capabilities as priority areas, stressing that Germany was essentially starting from scratch on long-range strike.

The personnel growth plan foresees expanding from 185,420 active-duty soldiers today to 260,000 by the mid-2030s, alongside a parallel reserve buildup from around 60,000 currently assigned reservists to at least 200,000, for a combined total of 460,000 combat-ready troops.

The 13-year timeframe ought to make you wonder how serious they really are.

Posted at 7:35 am by Stephen Green

IT WOULD TAKE A HEART OF STONE NOT TO LAUGH:

Posted at 7:19 am by Stephen Green

NEW CIVILITY WATCH:

Paul Krugman could not be reached for comment.

Posted at 7:14 am by Ed Driscoll

ROBERT SPENCER: Hey SPLC, Where’s My Check? “There is another striking aspect of the recent revelations about the SPLC secretly funding ‘right-wing extremist’ groups and providing a bogus foundation for the Biden regime’s ridiculous claim that ‘white supremacists’ constituted the biggest terror threat the nation faced. And that is that neither I nor others that the SPLC included on its spurious and defamatory “hate list” for years ever received a penny. The payouts were apparently reserved for the real hate groups, not for the patriotic groups the SPLC was trying to destroy by including them on its list.”

The whole SPLC enterprise was about propping up dwindling hate groups like the KKK, and them using them to smear the entire right.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN):

Plus:

Tweet concludes: “In other words, it’s accused of funding white supremacist groups, and then pointing to these white supremacist