If I were grilled about Agatha Christie
Illegal Immigration: How Much Process is Due?
In comments discussing due process in deportation cases (see, Due Process and Immigration?), there was a lively debate about how much process is due.
In this piece on the indispensable Powerlineblog.com, we get this stunning statistic about the backlog of immigration cases:
What do Canadians think about becoming “our cherished 51st state?” Ezra Levant has some better ways for Trump to annoy former PM Justin Trudeau and new PM Mark Carney.
Lessons from Lost Relationships
Periodically I go into a funk and indulge in dark memories of the relationships I’ve ruined. Fortunately, I don’t do that very often, nor do I stay in that mindset for very long. But recently when I reflected on the past, I found myself shifting my perspective in what I think is a productive and healthy way. I thought you might find something useful in my reflections.
But to set the stage, it’s fair to say that over 75 years I’ve done some serious damage: hurting the feelings of people beyond repair. I say the hurts are beyond repair, because I apologized in every case, but the people involved would not forgive me. Even over time.
Seven Things You Can’t Say About China
I just finished this book by Tom Cotton this morning. It is short but leaves very little unsaid. “If brevity be the soul of wit….” Cotton does a terrific job of pointing out exactly how dangerous our most formidable enemy really is. The obvious fact to anyone who has any awareness of the differences between Western and Eastern thought processes is that in the East, they tend to think long term, really long term. The West is far more obsessed with the present and short-term goals.
One need only remember that for Muslims, the Crusades are still a very active issue. Cotton points out in his discussion on fentanyl that for the Chinese, what they are doing in distributing this potent poison to the West is payback for the opium trade and its consequent war. This is only one example of how their long-term thinking differs from how we perceive the competition for hegemony. There are many, and the more you read, the scarier it gets.
War Department. Oh, Hell No!
Life Amid the Refuse
It is October 2001. New York City Detective Barbara Bucciero (Booch for short) is in charge of the search for human remains in the World Trade Center rubble being hauled to Staten Island’s Fresh Kills landfill. But October 18 brings an unwelcome new discovery: a skull from a body years older than six weeks.
Garbage Town, A Novel by Ravi Gupta opens with Booch trying to unravel a new, yet cold case while the city wants her focused on 9/11 remains identification.
The world’s largest landfill, Fresh Kills creates health hazards for those living nearby. It is also a major source of income for the organized crime family running the rackets in Staten Island. It is big enough that the mob is willing to kill to keep it open and in their control.
Due Process And Immigration?
To what extent should people who have entered the country in violation of the country’s laws (i.e., illegally) be entitled to “due process” before being removed from the country?
Ricochetti, please help me process the concept or principle. As a lawyer I have no doubt that there are details in statutes, the Constitution, and prior court decisions that lawyers and others can argue ad infinitum, but I’m trying to think through the principles, mostly so I can discuss it with non-lawyers.
Trump does more consequential things in a day than most presidents do in a month, so we may need to measure his tenure in office in dog years. It must certainly seem like dog days for the left, which is lying prostrate on the ground much of the time, panting and out of breath, gnawing on a bare bone.
After ticking through a number of happy stories this week—the end of DEI at Berkeley; Greenpeace getting nicked for $667 million dollars, Columbia University capitulating to Trump—we get down to the week’s new frontiers of lawfare. Is this moment a “constitutional crisis,” as the left claims, or is it a long overdue moment of constitutional challenge, with the aim being the restoration of the proper dimensions and functions of our republic?
AI-Garbage In, Garbage Out
Artificial Intelligence is really nothing new. One only has to watch The View, MSNBC, or a Congressional hearing to see AI on full display. Any press conference that one or more Dems conduct provides all the daily artificial intelligence one could want or need.
Sometimes the use of AI infects decisions made by individuals who do have good intentions.
Immediately upon the president’s return to office, we discovered that stopping the flood of illegal immigrants across the border was as simple as turning off the spigot. While the crisis may be over, the mission has yet to be accomplished. Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies and host of the Parsing Immigration Policy podcast returns to discuss what follows the end of the beginning efforts to correct the long-neglected immigration mess.
Plus, Rob, James and Steve look forward to the dismantling of the Department of Education; they do their best to ignore the psychopathic attention-seekers in the Middle East; and James finally turns the tables on Rob for a good old-fashioned troll.
The odometer clicks over
Bit of a milestone today. 
It’s actually a bit more than that, since ACX doesn’t track the couple of books I’ve done for a flat fee rather than a royalty share (including the splendid book by our Ricochet friend Mark J. Boone, Faith, Reason, and Beyond Reason). But it’s nice when the meter clicks over. As it says, my first (awful) Audible book was released in 2013. I can’t recommend it, because it was a self-published vanity title, but it did help me get attention from real publishers. I am now wrapping up my 91st title and have a contract waiting for #92. I need to feel like I’m doing something worthwhile, so what started out as a side hustle is now saving my life post-retirement.
Sauron Knows Elon Has the Ring: Will the Courts Take it Away?
The real battle has begun. In Does 1-26 v. Musk, Case 8:25-cv-00462-TDC in the District Court of Maryland (text here), a judge has ruled that Elon Musk has no authority to order cuts and that Trump has no authority to close an agency (USAID) created by Congress. The first point is largely legit and easily fixed—Musk’s status does need to be formalized in some way as an official exercise in Article II executive authority, or else all such orders have to come from POTUS and not DOGE.
The second one is a real issue that will inevitably get to SCOTUS.
A Simple Biblical Double-Entendre
There is a character in the Torah named Potiphar (G. 37:36). He purchases Joseph, who ends up running Potiphar’s household before Potiphar’s wife makes her #MeToo claim and gets Joseph imprisoned.
Joseph ends up marrying Potiphar’s daughter. But the text does something strange whenever it mentions her name. Instead of being “Osnot, the daughter of Potiphar” she is consistently (in all three cases – G. 41:45, 41:50, 46:20) referred to as “Osnot, the daughter of Poti Phera, priest of On.” Why create a space in the name “Potiphar?” And why refer to her father’s profession?
One hears of our constitutional crisis often enough nowadays that an observer of American politics might wonder what we’ll say if the event comes to pass. This week, Henry enlists AEI’s Yuval Levin to identify and account for the pent-up tensions in a system designed to restrain ambitious rulers. The duo hammer out the roles of independent agencies in a government limited to three branches; stress test the originally unanticipated dilemma of congressional pliancy; and consult the schematic on the executive’s authority over impoundment, rescission, tariffs and treaties.
Tune in for a commute-friendly masterclass on Constitutional authority in the era of DOGE and EOs.
Another childhood icon extirpated, by their own hand
Join Robert and Ericka as they welcome author, activist and former Executive Director of Christians United for Israel, David Brog, for a wide-ranging discussion about his current work at the Maccabee Task Force combating antisemitism on college campuses, and why Christian support is critical to winning the battle to preserving Western civilization.
Brash, irreverent, and mostly peaceful! Stay in contact with us!
One Easy Step To Stopping Campus Tentifadas
I know how to end the Tentifadas on American university campuses!!
Some background: The students say they are upset about Israeli Jews colonizing and settling on “Palestinian” land. They are so upset that they are taking over buildings and harassing their Jewish classmates. So how do we get these students to calm down and go back to normal? I think I know. All the Israeli government has to do is re-create that unique American innovation that protects every American university from the same unrest. And it will work! Here’s why:
In this episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng and Alisha Searcy interview Robert Enlow, president and CEO of EdChoice. Mr. Enlow discusses his decades of leadership in school choice advocacy, from his early work with the Milton and Rose Friedman Foundation to spearheading policy reforms nationwide. He examines the persistent stagnation in U.S. K-12 education despite massive funding and highlights the rapid expansion of charter schools and education savings accounts (ESAs). Enlow also reflects on the legal victories school choice achieved in the U.S. Supreme Court’s Espinoza and Carson rulings, the rise of microschools and homeschooling post-COVID, and the evolving coalitions shaping school choice. Additionally, he previews upcoming legal and political battles as opponents push back against further reforms.
Autopens and Out to Lunch Presidents
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey wants the Department of Justice to look into Biden’s autopen signed executive orders. It’s a powder keg lying about in an unruly political moment. Biden may not have been a full-time nullity, but we know the firefighters in the press kept things quiet, passed off doddering as a stutter, and when presented with evidence they were supplying questions ahead of time to administration officials and other enabling acts, stood very, very still. How often he was out wasn’t something we were worthy of being told.
We knew there was an issue from watching the basement campaign and all of its lids. Now most of the Lawrence O’Donnells are pretending they had suspicions, but didn’t know-know, y’know. (Tread lightly, implications, national interests, unless we were absolutely certain.) In the last few months, I’ve been told “some” suspected in the weeks leading up to the debate. After a time, “some” didn’t argue when the Hur Report was referenced without pushback. Water testing was underway, recollections of meetings from 2021 were talked about openly, then meetings from 2020 where it was understood how the campaign would handle their guy to keep the world from noticing the stutter. The smart set bravely bread-crumbing that they were oblivious to the obvious, or that others — better if it’s others — in their industry conspired to maintain the biggest con. A “since” comparison doesn’t spring to mind.
Lindsay Chervinsky, Director of the George Washington Presidential Library, joins Cara Rogers Stevens this week to discuss Abigail Adams and her impact on John’s public life.
Learn more about Lindsay: https://www.lindsaychervinsky.com/
Israel Re-Starts the Bombing of Gaza: Blame Trump
A new, bizarre accusation against President Trump has appeared in the news. One Israeli thinks it’s Trump’s fault that the fighting has re-started:
A former Israeli hostage negotiator who once acted as a channel to Hamas said Israel’s renewed strikes on Gaza show US President Donald Trump’s failure to live up to his promise to end the war there.
