Mickey Kaus

My old @NonzeroPods podcasts with @robertwrighter are here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rob… Archives of the Patreon Parrot Room podcasts [$] are here: nonzero.substack.com/t/parrot-room Parrot now resting.

A Democratic fantasy world. A new poll shows a sizable number of Democrats believe the Trump assassination attempts were fake. The one that seems most undeniably real--the Butler shooting--is the one the most Democrats believe is phony. washingtonexaminer.com/daily-memo/456…

As he left for China, Trump repeatedly gave a three-sentence rationale for the Iran war: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Preventing that is worth an economic hit. As soon as the war is over -- soon! -- the US economy will boom. c-span.org/program/white-…

🚨 NEW; Fox’s Democrat panelist Harold Ford Jr just BACKED Republican @SpencerPratt, saying: He is “doing what every politician should do: offering real, practicable, actionable solutions to actual problems people are facing.” “Angelenos understand homelessness is a problem, public safety is a problem, and housing is unaffordable for most californians. Whether you like him or not, I give him a lot of credit. He’s tackling this in an unorthodox, unusual way for today’s politics which should be the norm.” “He’s actually offering answers. I say that as a Democrat!” “So Democrats in this race, if you don’t start offering answers, this guy could very well surprise you and win this thing.” “People are fed up with the answers that are not being given,” adds @HaroldFordJr

@kausmickey He's not Trumpy at all and if he's playing a long game and later turns around and becomes an authoritarian, then he's a VERY good actor, which he's not.

@imalexbeamyrnot Ha. Instead of demonstrating my mastery of military terms, I shoud have said "any military actions not directly involved in maintaining the blockade."

@kausmickey But … “kinetic”, I mean I think I cd get a whole column right there.

DEAL, SCHMEAL: I don't understand why one option isn't to cease the "kinetic" military operations in Iran--just walk away--without seeking any deals. Stop threatening imminent destruction if we don't get the promises we want. Declare we've done X damage to their nuclear ambitions and can always come back. But maintain the blockade--again, not to reach a deal but to put severe economic pressure on Iran to open up the Strait. Take the Win. Leave the Blockade. As sketched out by Victor Davis Hanson on Megyin Kelly's show x.com/kausmickey/sta… It's disappointing that Robert Kagan spends so little time assessing options like that. He seems to want to get to "total defeat" and Trump humiliation ASAP, by any means necessary. (It's @TheAtlantic.) theatlantic.com/international/…

It's definitely true that neither Bass nor Raman will give the people what they want.

I get decidedly un-fascistic vibes from Pratt. He's angry but happy angry. He's not even very Trumpy. Raman seems a bit desperate to pull out this word now. You might as well call Reagan a fascist (I guess some did).

Here's a piece from 3 weeks ago outlining this strategy. It looks better every day. alantonelson.wordpress.com/2026/04/20/our…

🇺🇸 SCOTT BESSENT: "If you're on public assistance, you can no longer wire money out of the country!"

Wow.... the STATION posted this. And good for them. There's a microexpression on his face a few seconds before the end of this clip where you can see his anger briefly, which he quickly replaces with a smile. Trying to come across as jovial, kind Becerra... but that ain't who he is.

This is great -- fraud is endemic in OPT. But why hasn't OPT been cancelled altogether? Not only was it just made up by the executive branch, but it's facially illegal -- student visas are only valid while engaged in a full course of study. More here: cis.org/Jacobs/Whats-P…

@poladian57260 Many people who had access to water did save their houses.

@kausmickey Idiot. Reservoirs had nothing to do with it. We had 120 mph winds knocking down trees and power polls and spreading fires. No one can stop that.

She really does blame climate change. Pathetic. Did climate change empty the reservoir?

Executive actions, including those by Mayorkas, are what CAUSED the crisis. Congress did not pass some law that ended immigration enforcement when Biden became president. Biden just stopped enforcing the law.

Bruce currently trying 3X to lead crowd to chant ICE OUT NOW. Maybe 20 pct response

@andrews75653242 @ByronYork @SecRubio He's "walked back" and "distanced" and "retreated" and "revised" quite a bit, but as far as I know hasn't said the bill was a huge f--king mistake he apologizes for.

@kausmickey @ByronYork I will never vote or support amnesty @SecRubio because of his stupid support of that idiotic gang of 8 amnesty bill. Had he ever disavowed that stupid bill??

Rubio spent the 2016 campaign disavowing his major initiative in the Senate. Never a good look. But given the realities of 2015/2016, unlikely he would have beaten Trump under any circumstances. Now, it's probably true some long for the old Rubio. Don't think that's gonna happen. But who knows? washingtonexaminer.com/daily-memo/456…

Biden's strategy on chips is paying off.

President Biden created the CHNV migrant flights mass parole program which allowed 30,000 migrants to fly into the U.S. every month (not on taxpayer dime) for 2 year humanitarian parole grants, totaling over 500,000 migrants. But they never left, and the DHS Inspector General found the Biden admin wasn’t even tracking their parole expiration & certainly wasn’t enforcing it. There was also no vetting of their sponsors and widespread fraud was found in the program, leading the Biden admin to temporarily pause it. One Haitian man who flew into JFK airport as part of the program was supposed to be with his listed sponsor in New Jersey, but he ended up in a migrant hotel outside of Boston where he was convicted of raping a young girl in the hotel. This program didn’t exist before Biden, so yes, Biden quite literally allowed more than half a million migrants to circumvent the border and fly into the US outside of the normal visa or legal immigration process, and the large majority of them are still here well past the expiration of their 2 year parole grants.

All the leadership classes in the West have to do is reduce immigration, and they just cannot bring themselves to do it.