December 31, 2025

GODSPEED, IRANIAN CITIZENS:

Related: Iran says regime loyalist killed as protests turn violent.

Chances of Iran regime falling surge as unrest spreads.

Iranian protests expand beyond economy as students demand freedom, end to regime rule.

Posted at 7:13 pm by Glenn Reynolds

#JOURNALISM:

Posted at 7:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

POWER ISN’T THEIR CHIEF VALUE. IT’S THEIR ONLY VALUE.

Posted at 7:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

DAVID IS TOO KIND HERE:

UPDATE (From Ed): The Hater’s Guide to Woodrow Wilson. “I come now not to explain Wilson, but to hate him. A national consensus on hating Wilson is long overdue. It is the patriotic duty of every decent American. While conservatives have particular reasons to detest Wilson, and all his works, and all his empty promises, there is more than enough in his record for moderates, liberals, progressives, libertarians, and socialists to join us in this great and unifying cause.”

Posted at 6:31 pm by Stephen Green

FIGHTING TRIM: Navy doubles annual PT test requirement, updates failure guidelines. “The new policy also stipulates that sailors who fail three physical fitness assessments within four years will be processed for administrative separation, whereas the previous policy stated that two or more consecutive PFA failures would lead to the administrative separation process.”

Posted at 4:52 pm by Stephen Green

QUESTION ASKED:

Of course it is. But Ohio’s Republican governor responds ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

 

Posted at 4:45 pm by Ed Driscoll

DIMINISHED LEFTY INFLUENCE, GOOD. HAVING THEM COME BACK TO X… YUCK:

Posted at 4:36 pm by Stephen Green

OLD AND BUSTED: Annexing Greenland.

The New Hotness? Donald Trump enters 2026 as the real leader of Europe.

Forget Friedrich Merz, Emmanuel Macron, or Ursula von der Leyen. Donald Trump emerged in 2025 as the real leader of Europe, and 2026 is only likely to cement his position.

In just the first year of his second term, Trump’s administration has shaken Europe’s foundations to the core, with a far more assertive and effective approach towards transatlantic relations compared to the previous Biden administration.

The impact is being felt at every level, not least by European voters. A striking recent story in Politico (“Trump dominates democracy in Europe”) highlighted the results of a 10,000-person poll, showing that he was viewed as “strong and decisive” compared to their own leaders by 74 per cent of Germans, 73 per cent of Frenchmen, and 69 per cent of Britons. The corresponding figures for the leaders of Germany, France and the UK were 26 per cent, 27 per cent and 31 per cent respectively. Trump may not be loved in Europe, but he is increasingly respected as a force to be reckoned with. Europeans evidently view him as a towering presence in shaping their destiny.

Trump is often erroneously accused of being an isolationist. The truth is he has taken a far keener interest in Europe than his predecessors and has been actively involved in helping shape the continent’s future. He is the most transatlanticist American president since Ronald Reagan, and views rescuing Europe as a vital national interest for the United States. His approach toward Europe is nothing short of revolutionary. He is the first US president to challenge the European Project, and his end goal is momentous: saving Western civilisation itself.

We will be greeted as liberators (again.)

Posted at 4:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

YES. NEXT QUESTION? Is it time for trade school?

Gen Z workers are turning to skilled trades jobs, reports Sophia Hernandez for NBC6 in South Florida. While Gen Z workers are 14 percent of the workforce, they were nearly one in four hires in skilled trades jobs last year, according to Gusto.

Arturo Rodriguez, 20, is apprenticing as an industrial electrician with Horsepower Electric after completing lineman and electrical classes at Miami Dade College North. He takes pride in his work. “If I do something and I, I wired it up or I do it from scratch, I enjoy doing that and knowing that I did that on myself or with the help of somebody,” he said. He’s getting paid while he trains.

Forty-two percent of Gen Zers are working in or pursuing a blue-collar or skilled trade job, including 37% of those with a bachelor’s degree, according to a May survey by Resume Builder. Men are much more likely than women to choose blue-collar careers.

So much of GenZ — and I don’t just say this because both my sons are members — seems to have looked at the changing landscape, adjusted accordingly, and gone to work without much complaint.

Posted at 3:50 pm by Stephen Green

THAT WOULD EXPLAIN A LOT, ACTUALLY: Did God Send Islam to PUNISH Mankind?

As I never tire of reminding people, I always learn a lot from Raymond Ibrahim’s video podcasts.

Posted at 3:19 pm by Stephen Green

TEXAS: Musk Backs Wilco GOP Chair In Tranny Bathroom Wars. “Via Holly Hansen in The Texan News comes a culture war skirmish that checks off a lot of this blog’s interest boxes: Williamson County GOP Chair Michelle Evans had her phone seized documenting a man using the women’s restroom, and now she has a powerful ally in the war against transsexual madness.”

Posted at 2:48 pm by Stephen Green

JAMES PIERESON: Norman Podhoretz: the Undeceived.

In the wake of Hamas’s terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, many observers assumed that the massacre would release a wave of sympathy for the Jewish state and for Jews around the world. That would have been the logical expectation. After all, some 1,400 Israelis and Jews from other nations were killed in the attacks, and more than 200 were taken into Gaza as hostages.

Yet, something altogether different happened: the attacks unleashed a barrage of criticism against Israel, along with a resurgence of anti-Semitism in the United States and Western Europe. Jews were victims twice over: first in the terror attacks; second, in the response to them. That may have been part of the plan all along, since anti-Israel marchers hit the streets almost as soon as the event occurred. Nevertheless, the counterintuitive response took many by surprise.

Among those not surprised was Norman Podhoretz, who died on December 16, one month shy of his 96th birthday. Podhoretz was widely known for his transition in the late 1960s from radicalism to conservatism, in defiance of views widely and vehemently held by those who then dominated New York’s intellectual scene. In rejecting his youthful views and, much worse, turning himself into a conservative, Podhoretz became an outcast among his former friends, as he chronicled in Ex Friends, one of his later books. But by turning in those credentials, he won a larger following not only among Jews but also among many Americans who were not Jewish and had never stepped foot in Manhattan but looked to him, and to Commentary, the magazine he edited, for guidance in cutting through the fashionable left-wing views that they encountered in schools, Hollywood movies, and television news programs. It was a response that he did not expect but certainly welcomed.

Moreover, the concerns that caused him to change his views more than a half century ago were basically the same as those that led his allies today to lament the resurgence of anti-Semitism and hostility to Israel after the October 7. Podhoretz saw decades ago, as he saw recently, that an irrational and deeply rooted animus existed on the left toward Israel, linked to a parallel animus toward the United States. The more successful these countries are, the more the organized Left despises them. As much as anything, Podhoretz’s recognition of these twin impulses led him along a path toward conservatism, and turned him into the most influential editor and public intellectual of the postwar era.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU COMBINE STATE CORRUPTION WITH NEW DEAL WRONG-HEADEDNESS? YOU GET GAVIN NEWSOM’S CALIFORNIA:

Posted at 2:32 pm by Stephen Green

KURT SCHLICHTER: Republicans Are Slowly ‘Learing’ How to Fight the Democrats.

This is an opportunity for the Republicans, and they had better not blow it. There must be merciless investigations. There must be prosecutions, including of Tim Waltz and others, if they appear criminally liable for tolerating, or even aiding and abetting, this looting of the public purse. We need to be careful here – we are foreclosed both by God’s prohibition on bearing false witness and the utilitarian consideration that the last thing we want to do is not be able to get a conviction should we criminally charge someone. But if we do criminally charge them, having found probable cause to do so, that may make it break through the regime media and the Democrat denials. There are some Democrats who aren’t completely psychotic, and they will oppose public corruption. Sure, a huge number will excuse it, or even argue that it’s a good thing, but there’s something about Nick Shipley‘s video of empty offices that get millions of dollars a year that can even raise doubts in loyal Democrat voters.

That’s why this is a golden opportunity for the GOP. You’ve got to be either getting paid off yourself or completely nuts to accept corruption. There are a few Democrats who are neither, but there are a lot of independents who are neither, and this is a winning issue. It’s also highly effective. The Democrat machine runs on government money. This is why they screamed so hard when we turned off the USAID spigot. And that’s why it’s going to be so effective as we tighten the controls on money going to illegal aliens. Almost everything they do can be traced back to siphoning off government money. That’s where the Republicans need to focus.

We need to starve the Democrat machine of cash. We need to demonstrate their perfidy with targeted prosecutions of real crimes. And we need 100 guys like Nick Shirley out there with their iPhones, finding the truth that the Democrats and the regime media have hidden, just like Andrew Breitbart wanted.

Republicans, surprise us. Don’t screw this up.

This should be the issue for the GOP in 2026, given the level of corruption involved and that Minnesota has been a near-Democrat-monopoly state for about 80 years now. But alas, next year will serve up plenty of GOP failure theater instead: House Probes Minnesota Fraud: Walz & Ellison Invited – X Users Predict No-Show & Kabuki Theater.

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll