June 4, 2026

THOSE ARE ROOKIE NUMBERS: Trump signs order to make it easier to fire 8,000 federal workers. “You can have any political views, but if you allow those views to basically interfere with your willingness to actually carry out lawful orders and ​policy directives with the administration, then this provides a mechanism obviously for ​people in those agencies to be able to be removed effectively at will.”

Posted at 2:49 pm by Stephen Green

REASON’S MICHAEL MOYNIHAN AND MATT WELCH ON SCOTT PELLEY’S CRASH AND BURN:

Later in their Fifth Column podcast, Moynihan and Welch discuss the current state of the CBS News:

Moynihan: We have seen this for so long. This pompous, journalistic attitude of, “We are here for the truth.”

It’s like, you’re not here for the f**king truth. You’re here for the truth in some ways; you’re not always here for the truth. And thank God you aren’t. I’m happy that you’re not. I just don’t want you to pretend that you’re doing something you’re not.

Welch: If you are here for the truth, you don’t say–because it’s not true–that Bari Weiss was sent to destroy 60 Minutes.*

Moynihan: Or you don’t say to Donald Trump in an interview, as Lesley Stahl did, “You can’t tell that that’s his laptop.”

Are you a journalist? Are you brain-dead?

All you have to do is look at the emails and email the person in the email and say, “Did you get this email from Hunter Biden?” “Yeah, I did.”

[Then] it’s his f**king laptop.

One email. Do five of them. Do ten of them. Take ten minutes.

But they didn’t want the story. They didn’t want it because it crashed into their worldview, and they thought it would help Donald Trump. And that’s not what journalism is about.

“It’s going to help Donald Trump.” Who f**king cares? It’s a story. Go after the story.

And everyone abdicated their responsibility on that. And she did that on camera to Donald Trump: “Well, we can’t tell. There’s no way of verifying it.”

Yes, there’s a way of verifying it.

You guys go to the Uyghur camps in China–and congratulations, you do great work on a lot of stuff–but you couldn’t verify it? You didn’t want to verify that.

That’s fine. But don’t pretend you’re speaking truth to power in a broad way. You’re not.

* As X personality “Jarvis” notes:

Political talk today is characterized by CATASTROPHIZING. Your enemies will put you in CAMPS. Democracy is ENDING. Every election is THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION OF OUR LIFETIMES. Scott Pelley being sacked isn’t the mere natural outcome of calling his new boss a murderer and generally acted like a petulant dickhead in front of God and everyone — it’s the END OF LIBERAL MEDIA AS WE KNOW IT just like it was when Acosta and Lemon and a million other replacement level talking heads were shown the door.

 

Weiss isn’t “destroying” 60 Minutes, but technology and market forces rendered the original three TV networks no longer a monopoly for news, a topic that Geoffrey Ingersoll explores in “The Truth Behind Scott Pelley’s Epic CBS Meltdown:”

Pelley’s highly choreographed meltdown is more than likely his way of resigning so that he can launch a substack or his own podcast venture amid the kind of controversy that gets an early boost in viewers.

Yes, it really is that cynical and contrived.

Underneath it, however, is a real anxiety.

Scrape away the high-minded f*ckery, the self-flattering elitism, and you lay bare a rather coherent theory of mind.

Pelley is right. Something is dying. They’re losing their grip on the (un)reality machine. They see their rapidly dissolving ability to include and exclude lines of inquiry and it freaks them out. New people with new motivations will now be deciding which stories are legitimate and, importantly, how to cover them.

Pelley’s composure might be well practiced, intact, stalwart, but he is almost certainly shrieking on the inside.

Tranquility Base here, the Ego has landed. Was Pelley doing an Olbermann? Does he think he’s Cronkite? William Holden in Network? Olbermann left MSNBC 15 years ago. Cronkite retired 45 years ago. Network debuted in movie theaters 50 years ago. The era of mass media was over a long time ago.

So what could be Pelley’s next gig?

That cable opinion network is a perfect fit in many ways: Pelley ripped for claiming he was ‘in combat’ in Afghanistan and Iraq after CBS News firing.

Pelley was fired from the long-running CBS News show on Tuesday following a bitter clash with the network’s editor-in-chief Bari Weiss and new “60 Minutes” executive producer Nick Bilton. Pelley, who first joined CBS News in 1989 and did not serve in the military, quickly raised eyebrows with a statement he gave following his termination.

“I have been in combat in Afghanistan. I have been in combat in Iraq. I have been in the war zone in Ukraine multiple times, risking my life and the happiness of my family because of my devotion to the broadcast,” Pelley, who has reported from several war zones in his career, told The New York Times.

As the successor to MSNBC, M-SNOW has a lot of experience with former network anchormen who cosplay as soldiers:

UPDATE: Democrats’ youth movement continues unabated:

 

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

CHANGE:

Tweet continues:

After not letting Bessent answer his question, Bessent ultimately revealed that the Trump admin has already asked Congress to eliminate the gas, after Larsen thought Bessent would be against it.

Of course this Congressmen had no idea; Larsen had no words and responded surprisingly, “You’re in favor of eliminating the gas tax?! Why isn’t it before the committee for a vote?”

Bessent responded with, “I don’t run the agenda.” These people in Congress don’t even know what they are working on!!! Unbelievable.

I’m so old, I can remember Tom Brokaw, The New York Times and The Washington Post simultaneously begging President Elect Obama to raise the gas tax in late 2008, and Hillary being excoriated by Obama earlier that year for wanting to lower it.

Related: Question asked and not answered:

Americans at the time knew who was president during WWI. Afterwards, not so much: Jill Biden, Edith Wilson, and the Changing American State.

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

THAT SEEMS LIKE A LOT: Judicial Watch Sues California to Clean Up 873,000 Inactive Voter Registrations on Rolls. “Under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA), states are required to make reasonable efforts to remove ineligible voters from the voter rolls, including those who have died or moved. The lawsuit also alleges, again citing admissions by California officials, that the state takes no effective action to require counties to comply with the NVRA. As a result, they do not comply.”

The counties don’t want to comply and Sacramento doesn’t want them to comply, which tells you there’s a reason nobody wants to comply.

Posted at 1:47 pm by Stephen Green

HOW IT STARTED:

How It’s Going: Could Joe Rogan replace Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes? Here’s what we know:

CBS News is reportedly searching for a replacement for “60 Minutes” correspondent Anderson Cooper, and network executives may have their sights set on Austin-based podcaster Joe Rogan.

RadarOnline, a celebrity and entertainment news site, reported that CBS considering Rogan, who boasts 20.9 million subscribers on his YouTube channel, “PowerfulJRE,” and millions of viewers of his podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” would be “strategy,” not “stunt casting.”

Rogan would bring “a core connection to over 50 percent of the country,” an unnamed media executive told RadarOnline, saying the 58-year-old media mogul speaks to “viewers who feel ignored or mocked by legacy media,” a viewership that, if reengaged, would solve the network’s ratings and credibility problems. 

The American-Statesman reached out to Rogan’s team for comment. CBS and “60 Minutes” have not confirmed the reports.

—The Austin American-Statesman, yesterday.

Well, Rogan does have broadcasting experience, of a sort:

But in all seriousness, would his style translate to the much shorter segments that 60 Minutes runs? Rogan’s podcasts involve the guest talking and talking and talking until the listener realizes, “wow, this guy really knows what he’s talking about.” Or, “this guy is full of it.” Rogan’s 60 Minutes segments would likely need a lot of editing before they air.

UPDATE: Alas, not to be: CBS Denies Rumors Joe Rogan Is Under Consideration For 60 Minutes Role.

Posted at 1:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

21st CENTURY HEADLINES: Dancing Spot Robots Will Surveil the 2026 World Cup.

Hyundai, the South Korean automaker that owns Boston Dynamics and sponsors FIFA, said the bots “will support on-site security operations, helping contribute to a safer tournament environment.” Neither statement says what happens to the footage after the package gets checked, how long the feeds live in storage, or who beyond the security team can pull them up later.

After a viral TikTok video claimed the dogs could identify faces, a Boston Dynamics spokesperson told WFAA that “the robots do not have facial recognition capabilities,” saying they flag unauthorized people in restricted zones without facial scans for now.

A robot that already sees in every direction, senses heat, and runs anomaly detection is a face-recognition system waiting on a software update. Off-the-shelf AI can add that capability through a settings change rather than a hardware rebuild, so the denial describes today’s configuration and nothing past it.

These robots are not autonomous. Human operators sit at consoles, watching the live feeds and deciding when to sound an alarm or call police.

The same platform already works outside the stadium. Security dogs patrol apartment complexes and parking lots in Atlanta, issuing spoken commands to residents and calling in officers even after people comply.

Which as we noted in April isn’t creepy at all: Robot Police Dogs Powered by AI Take Over Atlanta’s Streets. (Language alert if you’re playing the video in public):

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE IS STUCK LIKE THAT: Obamacare Enrollment Fraud May Cost Taxpayers Billions In 2026, New Study Shows. “The newly released study alleges that approximately 6.2 million or nearly 27% of all ACA exchange sign-ups were improper in 2026. The analysis also estimates U.S. taxpayers will pay up to $25 billion in improper subsidies in 2026, almost a quarter of total projected ACA subsidy spending for the year.”

Posted at 12:45 pm by Stephen Green

TWENTY MINUTES INTO THE FUTURE: Do Senate Democrats Really Buy Graham Platner’s Assurances? “‘Worse than [the] Nazi tattoo.’ That’s the claim of Steve Robinson, who runs the website Maine Wire, regarding some sort of forthcoming scandal news about Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner. I think that may be the first time those words have been put in that order in the English language. Robinson isn’t alone; other folks claim to have heard similar claims of some worse scandal that will emerge soon.”

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

CHANGE? The President Endorses the Tiger. “I mean, Colombia is harboring guerrilla insurgencies and cartels whose violence spills over its borders into dozens of other countries, and it produces roughly two-thirds of all the cocaine in the world. Imagine the country having a leader who is aligned with Donald Trump and others in the region at this unique moment in time, and who is ready to actually combat all that.”

Posted at 12:14 pm by Stephen Green

ICYMI: OVER ON SUBSTACK, ERIC OF SECURITY & CIGARS (WHICH I’VE LINKED A NUMBER OF TIMES) HAS BEEN WRITING A SERIAL NOVEL, BOUGIE APOCALYPSE. “”Bougie Apocalypse” is a serial style post-apocalyptic pulp story. Retired Sergeant Major Jack Harlan and his wife Raych are doing their best to keep civilization alive (real coffee, quality beans instead of MRE’s, refusing to become savages) while the Cough turns people into Zombies. It’s a mix of World War Z realism, Zombieland humor, and Mad Max road survival in the face of collapse. Competent protagonists, zombies, gas station raids, and killing zombies with frying pans!”

I’m in the book, maybe alive, maybe not. Schrodinger’s law professor!

Posted at 12:05 pm by Glenn Reynolds

JOEL KOTKIN: The Strange Afterlife of Fascism.

Within MAGA, right-wing racism is often seen by its critics through their concern that immigration is slowly “replacing” whites who settled and largely built the nation. Like fascism, the term white supremacy has been cited in massively greater instances this decade. Nativism is clearly ascendant on the right, but while some of this is racially driven, much rests on a defense of traditional culture and has only rarely been implicated in organized race-centric violence.

By contrast, the identity politics embraced by progressives in the U.S., Britain, and the EU hinges on pigeonholing individuals as members of specific groups to whom favors are dispensed or withheld. And when it comes to violence, those acting most like the fascists tend to be Trump’s bitterest opponents. The call for political violence is now stronger on the left than the right, and particularly among their young, college-educated base, where it is rising far more rapidly, notes one recent study. Witness, for example, the support and even admiration for Luigi Mangione, who murdered a healthcare executive in cold blood. And it’s a sign of the times that anti-Jewish rhetoric, as well as “anti-Zionist” violence, comes increasingly from the left. Nick Fuentes, who is virulently anti-Israel, is now telling his acolytes to vote for Democrats in November.

The idea that Trump must be eliminated “by any means necessary” certainly does not focus on democratic procedures but reflects attitudes reminiscent of Mussolini’s enforcers – and almost every left-wing dictatorship. A combination of radical politics and personal delusion marks the rhetoric of would-be Trump assassins, as is evident in their digital imprint. Indeed, outside the Washington, D.C., hotel where one recent attempt took place, demonstrators carried “death to the dictator” signs.

Another parallel lies with the embrace of criminal behavior that was typical among Mussolini’s and Hitler’s thuggish enforcers. Today, progressive media figures such as Hasan Piker, as well as writers at the New Yorker magazine, openly embrace theft as a kind of social protest, something practiced on a large scale in the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots. Antifa, the self-appointed center of “resistance” to fascism, most resemble Mussolini’s Blackshirts shirts – and even wear the appropriate color.

Related: Porn-obsessed Hasan Piker goes on shocking homophobic rant after Scott Wiener wins SF congressional primary.

“It’s just f–ing rich liberals who just want homo-fascism in the country, that’s it. They want gay fascism. They want gay techno-fascism,” he insisted, without explaining what those terms meant.

Wiener is a prominent gay politician in the state who has heavily leaned into his LGBT background. During the campaign season, [rival Saikat] Chakrabarti had accused Wiener of being wedded with certain artificial intelligence groups that spent to support Wiener’s bid.

In Chakrabarti’s concession statement late Tuesday morning, the flopped candidate claimed he couldn’t overcome “the 7 million dollars of AI, crypto, and AIPAC money that were put into this race.”

In 2019, Chakrabarti seemed to prefer a much less hyphenated form of fascism:

And apparently still does: “In a move that perfectly captures the modern left’s priorities, former Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez campaign manager Saikat Chakrabarti is melting down because Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Jake Auchincloss dared to call out a Nazi tattoo on Graham Platner as personally disqualifying—and suggested voters might feel the same way.”

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll

LEFTIES ALWAYS ACCUSE THEIR ENEMIES OF DOING WHAT THE LEFT IS ACTUALLY DOING:

Posted at 11:58 am by Stephen Green

UNEXPECTED HEADLINES: Bill Gates: Sex Machine. “Learn to code” is presumably less insulting than “Learn to feign enthusiasm for doing the nasty with schlubby sexagenarian billionaires.”

What, and deny his raw animal magnetism?

Posted at 11:43 am by Stephen Green

YES:

Key bit:

There are three basic responses to any crisis that reflects poorly on the left.

1) Shut up. You can’t say that. Accusations of racism fall under this category.

2) Denial and dismissal. “Without evidence.”

3) Utterly ignore or actively censor.

“Combinations of those tactics may be applied in any given situation. Actually examining or addressing the claims is not part of the playbook.”

Posted at 11:27 am by Stephen Green

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