Roundup
(1) They say sunlight is the best disinfectant. And perhaps we’ll soon see how it works on NGOs:
Ahead of a key Senate hearing on Tuesday to examine the Biden administration’s work with outside entities to censor Americans, Chairman Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., blasted the former president’s “sprawling network of federal agencies and NGOs” reportedly used to limit speech and posts that were “disfavored.”
“The Biden Administration created a vast censorship enterprise, comprised of a sprawling network of federal agencies and NGOs that have been working overtime to censor Americans’ speech. From special reporting portals to the White House press secretary admitting at the podium that they were flagging posts to be taken down, the level of coordination to subvert the First Amendment and remove disfavored speech was beyond what most imagined,” the Missouri senator told Fox News Digital in an exclusive statement previewing the hearing.
Chairman Schmitt will lead his first hearing in the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution to review “the role non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have played in the censorship of Americans, all while receiving billions in federal tax dollars and subsidies,” per an advisory.
We all saw the censorship and how far-reaching it was. But exactly how it was coordinated was somewhat opaque.
This should prove interesting.
(2) RIP Mia Love, who has died at 49. Here is her wish for America.
(3) How on earth did Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg get included in a Signal chat?:
The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, claimed President Donald Trump’s national security team added him in a Signal message thread regarding their plans for military strikes in Yemen.
(4) The sadists of Hamas release another propaganda video featuring two emaciated hostages. The families of both men had previously received signs of life.
(5) Democrat voters are unhappy with Democrats in Congress:
Congressional Democrats have typically enjoyed higher popularity with their voting base than their Republican counterparts. But the trauma of the 2024 presidential election defeat appears to have ruptured that relationship. A review of Quinnipiac University’s annual first-quarter congressional polling reveals that, for the first time in the poll’s history, congressional Democrats are now underwater with their own voters in approval ratings. …
Despite the restive energy in the party’s progressive wing, the Democratic discontent does not seem to be centered around a desire to pull the party to the left or the right. Democrats cannot seem to agree on which direction the party should move in — recent Gallup polling found that 45 percent wanted the party to become more moderate, while 29 percent felt it should become more liberal, and 22 percent wanted it to stay the same.
That sounds to me like a lot more Democrats want the party to become more moderate than more leftist. But if you add up the more leftist and stay the same versus more moderate, you get a roughly equal split.
In re: #3 — much speculation is being made that the signal chat messages read like PR releases, not people speaking to each other, and that the reporter got deliberately added so that he could “leak” administration messaging into left-wing media to increase its reach.
a former?? lawyer for Covington and Burling (Holder’s firm) added him to the chat
Caroline Glick interviewed by Tony Perkins on the current state of matters in Israel: https://youtu.be/aJIjOMoeUg8
The moderate wing of the Dems have been discontented for a long time.
But for the last several years, the Dem base has been happier with their politicians than the GOP base, because the Party policies reflected base priorities better than the GOP.
It was almost a cliche that the GOP voters would turn out over social issues and nationalism and traditionalism, and the GOP would then govern in the interest of the business class. The frustration over that tendency was already visible in 1992, it drove much of the Perot phenomenon, and it just kept building up until it blasted out in 2016.
But even after 2016, the Dems and the GOPe in alliance were able to block most of what the GOP base wanted, even though Trump was actually trying to do it.
Now, though, suddenly it’s happening. A lot of stuff that is absolute _anathema_ to the Dem base is happening or looks to be about to happen, and the Dems, while they’re willing to fight it, are mostly powerless. Their base is used to getting what they want, and they don’t want to hear about rules or votes in the chamber, they want Trump _stopped_ . NOW. But the Dem politicians can’t do it, not right now, anyway.
That’s the trap Schumer is in. He’s many things, but none of them are stupid. Giving in the CR was probably the least bad move, from a Dem tactical position, because Trump was positioned to benefit _either way_ . In that situation, the best you can do is choose the lesser evil.
But the progressive activists and hard-core base voters don’t want to hear about that, they want to know how he’s shutting down Trump. So he, or whoever replaces him if he goes down, has to thread that needle.
Re (5) – I see a lot of parallels between Democrats in 2024 and Republicans during the Obama years. If the Democrats’ base decides that it is not going to play ball with the folks in the party who actually want to win elections, I could easily see them start nominating candidates “who fight” and begin blowing winnable races. As someone who fears Josh Shapiro in 2028, I think that’s a generally positive development. Except, as we found out with Trump and the whole “binary choice” thing, the Trumpy candidates can actually win if the other side is awful enough. (President AOC, anyone?)
I’ve always said that Obama broke the Republican party. He just stopped following the normal rules and playing the game the normal way, causing elements of the Republican party to demand crazier and crazier responses, and candidates who were willing to deliver them. Maybe Trump is doing the same thing to Democrats.
the astroturfed rallies and the silly round robin with Sanders give away the ghost, he up and left the ABC studios when he was asked whether he would back AOC,
of course he wouldn’t, despite the protestations otherwise,
who would they replace him with anyways, Durbin, the duplicitous one,
just a fish of another kettle,
I suppose they could replace him with the Loathsome Warnock, but would they really,
But if you add up the more leftist and stay the same versus more moderate, you get a roughly equal split.
Sounds like a real pickle. That’s a shame.
that barrel is not very deep
https://redstate.com/bobhoge/2025/03/25/gov-hot-wheels-texas-rep-jasmine-crockett-sinks-to-new-level-of-deplorable-in-mocking-greg-abbott-n2187066
https://redstate.com/smoosieq/2025/03/25/cia-director-john-ratcliffe-swats-down-signal-story-in-senate-intel-hearing-n2187065
So we will have another congressional hearing on ……….whatever.
The results never vary; nobody is ever indicted or prosecuted and the most severe “punishment” meted out is somebody , maybe, gets censured.
Getting censured means that enough members of Congress are pissed off at someone, but the individual censured either keeps his/her job or retires (with full benefits and pension) .
Oh yeah, I forgot; congressional hearings produce voluminous reports that nobody reads.
Now there may be upcoming some hearings on these federal district court judges who have claimed for themselves the authority of the president of the USA and have blocked/delayed Trump’s agenda. I assume it will be the dumbpublicans that will arrange these hearings.
It will be a total waste of time because what really needs to be done is Congress needs to either remove these judges or issue legislation enumerating precisely what authority federal district judges have and what authority they do not have.
The republicans need to play hardball over this issue and hearings will accomplish nothing at all.
In less than two years or so there will be the midterm elections that historically have favored the party out of power. The republicans have got to be far more aggressive and decisive right now to get Trump’s agenda enacted, and holding hearings is not going to cut it; it will be a total waste of time.
Most of the Dems in Congress are not there because they are ideologues, they’re there to appropriate on behalf of their cronies. But they’re more used to having majorities, and so they haven’t yet mastered the GOPe art of extracting the maximum possible appropriations out of minority obstruction.
Neo asked:
How on earth did Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg get included in a Signal chat?
Babylon Bee answered:
4D Chess: Genius Trump Leaks War Plans To ‘The Atlantic’ Where No One Will Ever See Them (https://tinyurl.com/2pky6m2k).
maybe don’t hang around this guy,
https://x.com/mypetjawa/status/1904521565754003486
Charlie Martin takes a crack out of decoding Signal-gate:
https://pjmedia.com/charlie-martin/2025/03/25/counterintelligence-and-canary-traps-n4938265
Makes sense if you’re trying to ID who’s arranging unauthorized disclosures to the media.
I feel for the hostages but can’t even imagine their words are coming without a AK-47 pointed at them
Skip:
Everything hostages say is under extreme duress.
I’ve always said that Obama broke the Republican party. He just stopped following the normal rules and playing the game the normal way, causing elements of the Republican party to demand crazier and crazier responses,
==
Thanks for the fantasy. We’re all enlightened.
The thing about moderate Democrats is that they’re moderate, and moderate people are generally disinclined to burn car dealerships or police stations, or shout down speakers, or any of the other behaviors that appeal to the left.