Closing the tabs ...
.@MegynKelly and @BuckSexton debate if the Trump White House should decide who gets to be in the press pool.
— The Megyn Kelly Show (@MegynKellyShow) February 27, 2025
Watch below, and download:https://t.co/CV2E6LDuux pic.twitter.com/tsvn1msDd6
Ed: This is a bit NSFW on language, but it's a very good discussion about the nuances of the WHCA controversy. Megyn has sympathy for both sides of the debate, but not much for the WHCA's hysteria over the change.
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Throughout the Biden years, government employment and related sectors, notably in health services, have emerged as the only consistently growing high-wage sectors, a pattern evident both in the last month of his administration and Trump’s first. In contrast, material sectors, like manufacturing and mining, have slumped. In the first three years of Biden’s presidency, the ranks of government workers, at all levels, expanded by 1.5million. In 2024, the federal government reached its highest worker count in two decades. President Biden’s budget for 2025, signed in March last year, envisaged total spending to be more than 60 per cent higher than it was in 2019. ...
DOGE is upsetting this apple cart. But it’s more than just paid government workers who are threatened. The Musk-led effort has revealed the degree of largesse granted to mostly progressive non-profits, often closely associated with Democratic politicians. Big beneficiaries include the ever-agitated Stacey Abrams, or the wife of Rhode Island senator Sheldon Whitehouse. The rise of the clerisy has also been bolstered by progressive billionaires and their spouses, or ex-spouses, who don’t have to worry about economic realities, acting much like aristocratic patrons of the church of yore.
Ed: Joel Kotkin's essay is a great read, and the 'clerisy' label very much applies. The same people who are weeping at the thought of accountability really do think they should be sheltered from it despite getting paid by taxpayers. They don't see themselves as public servants as much as public shepherds, and they don't much like the idea of being held accountable by the sheep.
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.@BretBaier responds to comments from @chucktodd: "I don't know what promoted Chuck to do that. I have an interview to do with the U.K. Prime Minister today. So, I don't know what he's doing." pic.twitter.com/t4gCYSF1T3
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 27, 2025
Ed: Maybe Todd has too much time on his hands. Baier handled it with class, though.
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I’ve not had a lot of love for Tapper, but I have had respect for him up to this point. I only ever had him pegged as a sycophant Democrat apologist, but not as a liar. This new book has put a decisive end to whatever vestiges of respect anyone ever had for Tapper.
But it’s more than that. Tapper’s book marks the final nail in the coffin of the mainstream, legacy press. Conservative Americans have known for years that the legacy media is hopelessly biased and corrupt. The broader spectrum of Americans began to see the questionable practices during Trump’s New York trial. That mugshot made a lot of people- people who previously had not been paying attention -think twice. At the very least, some eyebrows were raised.
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NEW: JD Vance calls out UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to his face for infringing on free speech, says he will talk to him about it at lunch.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 27, 2025
“I said what I said…”
“There have been infringements on free speech that actually impact not just the British… but also impact… pic.twitter.com/IF88SA1sSX
Ed: I'm glad Vance is not backing down. Whatever Starmer said here, the EU and the UK have most definitely attempted to enforce their censorship rules on American platforms globally, and that needs to end.
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Mexico on Thursday extradited 29 alleged drug traffickers to the United States, its government announced, as it faces mounting pressure from US President Donald Trump to tackle fentanyl smuggling.
The mass extradition comes as Mexico seeks a deal with Washington to avoid being hit with tariffs that Trump has linked to illegal migration and flows of the deadly drug fentanyl.
Ed: Remember the joke, 'The beatings will continue until morale improves'? Well, tariffs will continue until security improves and countries stop tariffing American products. Claudia Sheinbaum refuses to get that message, which is why Trump keeps sending it again. It's worth noting that it took these threats to finally get Mexico to extradite 'veteran drug trafficker Rafael Caro Quintero,' who tortured and murdered DEA agent Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena.
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Pres. Trump was asked if U.K. Prime Minister Starmer had persuaded him to not impose tariffs on the U.K. during their talks.
— ABC News (@ABC) February 27, 2025
"He tried," Trump joked, adding that he believes "there is a good chance where we can end up with a real trade deal, where the tariffs aren't necessary." pic.twitter.com/9EwOEEDydA
Ed: Perhaps the message has gotten through today, eh?
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The takeaway for the viewer is there is no systemic problem, no insidious deep state, no immovable force of power shaping the country against its will. In Zero Day, the masses are bad, overly polarized, and too shortsighted to see how necessary it is for Mullen to wipe his ass with the Constitution in pursuit of finding truth and restoring normalcy. All America really needs is a principled moderate to tell hard truths and give a good speech—which Mullen does, in true West Wing fashion, at several points throughout the series.
Basically, this show might be the most obvious example of regime propaganda I’ve ever come across. I was shocked at how swampy its politics were—until I realized it was co-created by a former head of NBC and a former national security reporter for The New York Times. This perhaps accounts for its establishment politics and its overly libidinal Tucker Carlson torture scenes. Ratings jealousy manifests in all sorts of ways. Who knows, maybe next season they’ll have De Niro waterboarding a stand-in for Elon Musk.
Ed: I hadn't heard about 'Zero Day' before now, despite having a Netflix account and often accessing it. I wonder whether it will compete with 'Emilia Perez' for least-watched didactic this month. Anyway, read all of River Page's take, and then avoid it like the plague.
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🚨 WHOA: @megynkelly just TORE INTO RACHEL MADDOW!
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) February 27, 2025
🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/84O4a8IfbR
Ed: One last fun clip of Megyn Kelly about progressive sanctimony and hypocrisy.
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