R^3

NOW: Mamdani says his admin will transfer ownership from bad landlords to non-profits. “For buildings that have suffered chronic neglect, we will work to transfer ownership to responsible stewards. Stewards that include community land trusts, non-profits, or even the tenants themselves.”

There is overwhelming evidence that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen. 80%+ of Americans now want Voter ID to protect the integrity of our elections. So what does John Thune do? Ignore Voter ID, block President Trump’s recess appointments, and waste $ on John Cornyn.

The Obama and Biden administrations gave away tens of billions of dollars to political allies without meaningful judicial or Congressional review, often in cases they had already won (Cobell) or cases where the agreed-upon billions of relief was literally illegal (Sweet). Internal DOJ memos singled out conservative organizations as NGOs who shouldn’t get the money. Court review was for whether the *plaintiffs* were being treated fairly, not whether taxpayers were—taxpayers had no standing to challenge the settlements, and it was assumed that DOJ was looking out for taxpayers even when it was obvious they weren’t. Cobell even got a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom for her role in ripping off taxpayers. In 2017, House Republicans passed a bill to stop DOJ slush fund settlements. (I had testified for a version of the bill a year or two earlier.) It got no material Democratic support and Senate Democrats killed the bill. Trump could do six settlements as large as the weaponization settlement, and he still wouldn’t have done half as much damage to the rule of law and the taxpayer fisc as Obama and Biden. These are the rules Democrats in Congress and the presidency insisted upon.

If you were against Obama’s third party settlement nonsense, this should outrage! “Hard-to-supervise slush funds aimed at financing well-connected political allies are exactly the sort of thing a populist presidency is supposed to end.”

Some of us on the right were and continue to be critical of Trump because of where he falls short of our principled views and/or policy preferences. It bothers us that Trump isn't concerned about the national debt, that he supports harmful tariff policies, that he abuses pardon powers etc. None of that prevents us from supporting his administration when they do good things that are consistent with our principles. It certainly doesn't prevent us from cheering on border enforcement, encouraging a strong national defense/counter-terrorism strategy, or supporting better tax policies. Other people formerly on the right have made opposing Trump the central principle of their political ideology. They determine all of their policy views based on Trump's current policy preferences. Then there is another group that determines all of its views based exclusively on Israel now. Again, their guiding principle is driven exclusively by opposition/hate. Both of these groups are now increasingly allying themselves with left-wing extremists because their guiding political principle is centered on things that have nothing to do with policy outcomes or what's good for America. Even if they sometimes call themselves "America First". You will notice that we aren't the ones who changed any of our views. We aren't the ones suddenly pretending the threat from Islamic terrorism is overblown, that communism isn't that bad, or that Democrat extremism isn't a problem. We aren't the ones coordinating messaging with the left. We aren't the ones allying ourselves with Hasan Piker, Cenk Uygur, Anna Kasparian etc., or making excuses for open bigotry on the left. The mistake that some people have made is to assume that the group doing those things, which is now driven exclusively by hate (whether of Trump, Israel, Jews etc.) is still part of the right's coalition. They certainly aren't reliable elements of it, and there is no need to pander to them. Let them try to get power within their new coalition, while the right should focus on recruiting people who are driven by wanting competence and policy wins, not motivated exclusively by hate.

BREAKING: Trump purchased up to $630,000 worth of Palantir, $PLTR, during the first three months of the year. In March alone, Trump made at least seven purchases of Palantir totalling as much as $530,000. A month later, Trump literally wrote on TruthSocial: “Palantir Technologies (PLTR) has proven to have great war fighting capabilities and equipment."

I haven't seen anyone tracking all of the alleged (or open) Trump corruption, self-dealing, and quid pro quos in one place. For the last 15 months, I've been tracking every single tip+story I can find and organizing it. Today, I published a 6,000 word piece with every example.

A necessary update to the PJ O'Rourke classic: "When companies' buying and selling are controlled by one politician, the first thing to be bought and sold are the stocks of the companies the politician is controlling"

Mike Pence: "I think Republicans ought to do a lot of soul-searching" before 2028 "I think Republicans face a new time of choosing — whether we're going to stay on the path of the traditional conservative principles that have always defined our party for the last half century, or whether we're going to follow the siren song of populism" "We've always been a party committed to low taxes, including low tariffs and free trade. Now, as we witnessed, the president imposed unilateral tariffs on friend and foe alike until the Supreme Court stepped in and used the Constitution to turn him back." "I know Donald Trump better than his most ardent defenders know him. Okay? And he is not ideological. In fact, he often bristled when I would refer to policies as conservative. He would, with a wave of a hand, say to me, 'That's just common sense.' But now, as you see the stops and starts on our support for Ukraine under this administration, nationalizing American businesses, unilateral tariffs, price controls on everything from pharmaceuticals to credit cards, all of this should should create a backdrop for a very healthy debate over whether we're going to stay moving in the direction, on these issues, that President Trump has led our party, or whether we're going to re-ground ourselves back to those timeless conservative principles, I think, that have always made not only our party successful but, more importantly, have made America strong and prosperous and free."