April 20, 2026
PULL IT ALREADY:
.@SecDuffy: 53% of Commercial Driver's Licenses issued to foreigners in New York were issued illegally.
We gave them FOUR MONTHS to comply with the law. They refused, so we had no choice but to pull funding — and if they still refuse, we can pull their ability to issue CDLs. pic.twitter.com/Y34iGN0U2Z
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 19, 2026
THE CORBYNIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONTINUES APACE: Michigan Dems Nominate Lawyer Who Praised Hezbollah, Called Israelis ‘Demons’ for Powerful University Post.
Michigan Democrats nominated Amir Makled, a radical Dearborn-based lawyer, for the University of Michigan Board of Regents over incumbent Jordan Acker, a Jewish board member who has faced intense backlash for his support of Israel.
Makled secured the nomination for one of the board’s two open seats at the Democrat’s convention on Sunday and will appear on the general election ballot in November. The eight-person board governs the University of Michigan, the state’s largest university and flagship public school.
Throughout his campaign, Makled argued that the university should divest from Israel. In recent years the left-wing lawyer has taken to praising the U.S.-designated terror group Hezbollah and attacking Israel in antisemitic terms on social media. In one since-deleted tweet, surfaced by the Detroit News, Makled described Hezbollah official Abu Ali Khalil, who was killed in a June 2025 Israeli airstrike, as “a martyr on the road to Jerusalem.” In another post, Makled referred to Hezbollah’s former leader, Hassan Nasrallah, as a “martyr.”
Makled also reposted and then deleted a message on X praising Iranian military leader Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in June 2020. Makled used the honorific “Haj” ahead of Soleimani’s name, a title of respect given to a Muslim person who successfully completes the Hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca. As commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, Soleimani directed terror operations that claimed thousands of lives across the Middle East and around the world.
Makled also reposted social media posts from far-right influencer Candace Owens, including one post in which Owens referred to Israelis as “demons.”
The 21st century isn’t turning out as I had hoped, to coin an Insta-phrase:
As Noah Smith said, Islamism is the future of American liberalism, and it will consume the Democratic Party like it has European left-wing parties.
This sucks, and I'm not looking forward to Democrats defending terrorists. https://t.co/5AWlMqrjD0
— Corey Walker 🇺🇸 (@CoreyWriting) April 20, 2026
Fetterman does not hold a single position that wasn’t mainstream in the Democratic Party in 2020. Not one. That’s how fast the party embraced Islamo-Marxism. Stunning. https://t.co/SsocHIQhHk
— David Marcus (@BlueBoxDave) April 20, 2026
WHEN WAS SHE ON THEM? Marjorie Taylor Greene Has Officially Gone Completely Off the Rails.
GO LONG POPCORN FUTURES: Kash Patel Makes Bombshell Promise: Arrests Are Coming Over 2020 Election.
MY GRANDMOTHER USED TO TIE A THREAD AROUND THEM: Why You Should Never Try to Remove a Skin Tag at Home.
VOTING WITH THEIR DOLLARS:
Chevron has now fully divested from Alberta’s oilsands.
It believes investing in Venezuela is less risky than investing in Mark Carney’s Canada. https://t.co/yGHNMkAR10
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 18, 2026
VIA JK ROWLING: Inside the feverish delusions of the professional arts class.
A few weeks ago, I ventured out to an arts event here in Belfast — something I do rarely these days. It was entitled Working Against the Clampdown: Who’s Afraid of the Arts?, and it was part of the Belfast Festival of Ideas and Politics.
I was there with Sara Morrison and Rosie Kay. Both are outcasts from the publicly funded arts sector in the UK — Rosie having been kicked out of her own very successful dance company — the Rosie Kay Dance Company – by her own dancers, who complained to her board alleging ‘transphobia,’ which led to the board launching an investigation into her, and ultimately, the dissolution of the entire company. Sara, as I have written about here and here, was similarly treated by her employer, the Belfast Film Festival, after she spoke in favour of women only spaces at one of Kellie Jay Keen’s Let Women Speak events in 2023.
On a rainy night in late March, sitting in the audience with these two women, l listened to salaried grandees discussing the challenges they faced while existing off the largess of the British taxpayer. It was an experience of cognitive dissonance so sharp it felt like a slap in the face.
Read the whole thing.
FROM JONATHAN LEAF, a review of Roger Simon’s excellent new Middle East novel, EMET. I read the book and blurbed it; you can see my blurb at the link.
“TRUST THE EXPERTS,” THEY SAID:
Philip Tetlock's results in the early 2000s were the most important in the history of political science: on average, subject-matter experts didn't beat random guessing—and did worse than simple heuristics.
If this isn't part of your worldview, you're ngmi pic.twitter.com/KGCA7PVriO— Werner Zagrebbi🇦🇿 (@zagrebbi) April 16, 2026
DECLINE IS A CHOICE.
How It Started: The real SAS Rogue Heroes: the true stories behind the WW2 drama.
How It’s Going:
🚨EXCLUSIVE🚨
SAS soldiers are resigning in significant numbers over fears they will be subjected to “witch hunts” by human-rights lawyers.Multiple sources have claimed that personnel from across 22 SAS, the Army’s most elite fighting force, have applied for premature…
— Tom Cotterill (@TomCotterillX) April 20, 2026
JAMES LILEKS: Your TV is watching you watch TV.
SCENES FROM THE COUNTER-RECONQUISTA:
SPAIN: Pakistani migrants are rushing to the consulate in Barcelona for their paperwork, as the government plans to regularize 500,000 illegals.
Notice they are all military-aged men, no women or children. They will soon be able to move freely across Europe. This won’t end well. pic.twitter.com/tSepsIqY55
— Dr. Maalouf (@realMaalouf) April 19, 2026
CDR SALAMANDER: It Looks Like Commerce Raiding Is Back on the Menu!
THAT’S BECAUSE HE’S XI’S STOOGE: Carney Tries To Redefine U.S. Ties as a Problem.
CLEAN YOUR HOUSE: iRobot Roomba 104 2in1 Vacuum & Mop Robot. #CommissionEarned
K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE:
Teachers post lower SAT/IQ scores than any other white collar profession except social workers. https://t.co/VTP56aWnhu
— Wilfred Reilly (@wil_da_beast630) April 19, 2026
GOODER AND HARDER, FUN CITY: New York City Isn’t Prepared for a Recession.
In mid-February, just seven weeks into office, New York City Mayor Zohran K. Mamdani delivered somber news to state legislators: the city faces a $5.4 billion deficit for the fiscal year beginning July 1, the result, he said, “of budgetary failures of the past.” Even after spending cuts, he argued, the state should raise income and business taxes and transfer the proceeds to the city immediately—“the most direct route out of this budget crisis.” Thankfully for New Yorkers, the mayor was mostly bluffing: this year’s budget gap is manageable, and the city faces no acute emergency.
But Mamdani’s push unwittingly raised a graver point: If things are this strained when the global, state, and local economies are nominally doing all right, and when city tax revenues are therefore rising, what would happen if the city entered a recession—historically, a matter not of if but when?
No modern New York mayor, save for Mamdani’s one-term predecessor, Eric L. Adams, has avoided a downturn, and the economy is overdue for one. Aside from the sharp unemployment spike caused by the Covid-19 lockdowns in the spring of 2020, the U.S. economy has not experienced a normal cyclical recession since 2008, nearly two decades ago. And no modern mayor is less equipped than Mamdani to grapple with an economic and fiscal crisis.
After attacking him during the mayoral race, Mamdani has wisely attempted to buddy-up to Trump. Will that be enough to prevent the “TRUMP TO CITY: DROP DEAD” headlines that are sure to follow from New York’s tabloids?
YES, IT SHOULD:
The amount of fraud in education research at elite universities should get way more attention pic.twitter.com/aje0hoEAW8
— Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp) April 20, 2026
DO YOU SEE THOSE, TOO? I For One Welcome Our New Giant Melting Purple Neon Spider Overlords. “At the very least, hopefully we should get some good data on whether psychedelics like ibogaine are actually effective in treating PTSD and other disorders. Maybe they’ll help, and maybe they won’t.”
Early studies showed promise with MDMA, but not in a later, bigger study. Same with THC.
So my hopes aren’t high, but maybe one of these days…
COME SEE THE ANTISEMITISM INHERENT IN THE LEFTISM:
The Michigan Democratic Party just endorsed a candidate for the University of Michigan Board of Regents who:
Called Jews “demons” who “lie, cheat, murder and blackmail.”
Shared an ISIS-origin slur about Jews.
Amplified calls to ban Jews from Congress.
Praised Hezbollah figures… pic.twitter.com/G3Nu2zjGW2— Yehuda Teitelbaum (@chalavyishmael) April 20, 2026
READER FAVORITE: FREE SOLDIER Men’s Outdoor Waterproof Soft Shell Hooded Military Tactical Jacket. #CommissionEarned
ALSO, THE TRAILER MADE IT LOOK HEAVY HANDED AND POORLY DONE:
America’s left is facing a critical shortage of right wing terrorists so they have to invent them https://t.co/IHBEOT0TPY
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) April 19, 2026
A HUNDRED MILLION HERE AND A HUNDRED MILLION THERE…: Putin losing $100M a day from Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia’s oil infrastructure.
Ukrainian drone strikes targeted Russian oil refineries overnight into Saturday, hitting four important sites.
Fire raged at the Novokuybyshevsk and Syzran oil refineries in the Samara region, as well as at an oil terminal in Leningrad and the Tikhoretsk oil pumping station in Krasnodar Krai, Ukraine’s Armed Forces said.
Ukrainian drones also hit oil storage sites in the occupied Mariupol region.
Russia, meanwhile, launched 219 drones across Ukraine, killing at least one and wounding 26 others.
The worst attack was in Zaporizhzhia, where drone and missile strikes that lasted for hours injured 10 civilians. A multi-story apartment building and nine houses were destroyed.
It comes as Russia’s top diplomatic envoy said Saturday peace talks with Ukraine are not at the top of Putin’s to do list.
Moscow’s spring offensive has yet to accomplish much, and casualties remain high.
