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,
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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.
@ richf – which is why “Trump is literally Hitler!” is the cry of the Left, because even moderate people can eventually be convinced that anything can be done to Get Hitler!
The paradox is that the German “moderates” followed the Real Hitler into shouting and burning and killing people. Many at the point of a gun, of course, but many of their own choice.
The center did not hold.
Bauxite has been on BS for awhile now.
CC™ has been after The Great Orange Whale for decades now? Since the Light Bringer, Mr. Fundamental Transformation, Mr. Tingle Up My Leg? That is a chronic debilitating affliction, bless his heart.
Bauxite-
I too have some fear of Josh Shapiro, but do you think that the current Dem party will tolerate an actual observant Jew as candidate? I know they loved loved loved Bernie, but Sanders threw his lot in with the far left, Israel-hating branch of the party, and it’s clear that Sanders would use his influence and power to put USA on the side of Hamas, while Shapiro has been strongly pro-Israel and pro-IDF during the current war. Shapiro would reverse the all-too-small migration of Jews from blue to red, and raise a lot of money in the process, but the base of the D party would be in open and violent revolt.
To nominate Shapiro, the Dems would have to demonstrate an ability to learn from their mistakes. I see no evidence of that, and hope it continues.
I’m all for giving government assistance to those who are truly in need of it.
But, if you look around YouTube, and especially TikTok, you’ll see quite a few women “boasting”—sometimes gleefully, and “flexing” about how they’ve got 6,7,8 kids ( each, sometimes from a different father) and, every month, receive $3,000 or even $4,000 in food stamps, plus cash assistance, essentially free Section 8 housing, government paid for daycare, and even other benefits as well.
DOGE needs to get into the “social safety net “ programs, and do some hard pruning.
P.S.–Some of these women on TikTok are truly obnoxious–one lounging on her couch, shaking a bag of the chips she is eating, and bragging,”no bills,”no bills,” and picturing herself dancing though a supermarket pushing many shopping carts, overflowing with the food that we taxpayers are paying for, so many bags of food that, unpacked, they cover her entire fairly spacious kitchen floor.
They just can’t help wanting to rub it in our faces.
Another recipient of many thousands of dollars of assistance each month, looks into the camera and says, ” we “deserve” this.”
I think that a large part of the problem here is the idea that anyone–by reason of just breathing and having a pulse–“deserves” anything in life, especially if you don’t work for it.
A subset of this is, of course, the often heard complaint that “things are not “fair.””
Again, where did these people ever get the idea that life was supposed to be “fair.”
I am particularly annoyed when the pitch in an ad for something is that, you should buy it, indulge yourself, because, “you deserve it.”
Snow on Pine “… about how they’ve got 6,7,8 kids …”
I have often wondered what it would take to allow it to be legal to require women getting welfare for even just one child to be put on mandatory contraception (Norplant?) so they reduce (probably not eliminate) the chances of adding more to the group.
R2L—One of the women on YouTube just looked into the camera and said something like I’ve got seven kids but if I have another one that’s more money. So another kid is just a means to an end .
R2L—One of the women on YouTube just looked into the camera and said something like I’ve got seven kids but if I have another one that’s more money. So another kid is just a means to an end .
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TANF has a five year lifetime time limit. New York, one of the few states which retains general relief, has a two year lifetime time limit. Fewer than 1% of the households in the United States have > 8 residents.
Does New York really adhere to that limit, they are hermorrhaging money left over foot,
RE: China—has there been a tremendous decrease in their population?
Information warfare, propaganda is every where, so how do you determine the truth?
Information is very tightly controlled in China, with the CCP trying to make sure that nothing tarnishes the image they want to project, of a high -tech, modernizing China which is an up and coming challenger to the U.S. for the position of preeminent world power.
China’s large population is one of it’s strengths.
Thus, any information/evidence questioning their official population number of 1.4 billion people is something they are not happy with at all.
Recently, though, all sorts of YouTube videos have appeared, supposedly shot by ordinary Chinese, showing usually bustling, and jammed but now essentially empty cities, and some smaller rural communities, malls, major shopping districts, restaurants, highways, subway systems, trains, and airports, including reports that apartments which were hard to get are now very plentiful.
And all of these Chinese people on YouTube are asking the same question, “where is everybody, where did everyone go to?”
So, are these videos part of an anti-CCP propaganda campaign, or do they reflect the true situation, and China has suffered the deaths of many millions of it’s citizens (perhaps due to repeated waves of COVID and similar viral epidemics?), but has managed to largely cover it up? *
See,for instance,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpaT6wtD9fM&t=134s
and here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsIg-_5Yl_8&t=1400s
and here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umkfdDzdprc&t=190s
or here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1x-W3i3k0Q&t=179s
or here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRjv-mtscmY&t=84s
P.S. Two explanations I have seen offered to explain this very obvious lack of the normal crowds of people are:
#1 In what is usually a major movement of population, many Chinese are, as they traditionally do, traveling back to their home villages for the holidays, and/or
# 2 So many people have been laid off and lost their jobs, with little hope of easily finding another and, therefore, can no longer afford to live in expensive cities, so they are also returning to their much less expensive home villages, to be taken in by their families.
@Snow on Pine:this very obvious lack of the normal crowds of people
FWIW, I’ve been asking and the people I’ve talked to regularly in China say this is crazy and China is not noticeably less crowded. But I’ll be going there again sometime in the next year and will report what I see.