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Video: Robert Spencer on the CVS podcast

Video: Robert Spencer on the CVS podcast
CVS is short for “Catholic vs.,” and has nothing to do with the pharmacy. This was a genial and wide-ranging personal conversation with a man with whom I disagree on a great deal, but we were still able to be civil, which is rare these days. Get The Church and the Pope here.

Podcast: The 3WHH, Eye-Bleach Edition

(Steven Hayward)

This episode has everything: a how-to guerilla guide to improving your McDonald’s hamburger experience; a spirited discussion of the Alabama Supreme Court decision that defines frozen embryos as persons (I think the media is willfully misreporting the decision—John is not so sure); those crazy new presidential rankings from political scientists—and even some soft-core porn!

Say what?

Well, it turns out that that Judge Arthur Engoron, who oversaw Trump’s alleged fraud trial in New York City, apparently has a case of Anthony Weiner envy, and posted some rather racy locker room pics of himself some years back. And right in the middle of our discussion Lucretia flashed the pictures up on the Zoom screen, sending John and me rushing for some eye-bleach. There must be something in the bottled water Manhattan Democrats drink. (And doesn’t Engoron sound like the name of a dwarve or elve who goes bad in Lord of the Rings?)

In any case, we do finally get around to a new segment of the 3WHH, where we note three articles from the last week for what they can tell us about something. John chose those stupid presidential rankings; Lucretia chose an MSNBC articlefrom leftist columnist Paul Waldman that unwittingly admits that everything conservatives say about the administrative state is completely true; and I picked Karol Markowitz’s NY Post column reflecting on how recent social science that ratifies the conservative view that two-parent families are the best way to raise children is so controversial with the left, which is no surprise. (Honorable mention to a parallel column on the same subject by Mark Judge in the Washington Examiner.)

So listen here or from our hosts at Ricochet. But have your eye-bleach for your mind’s eye at the ready.

Podcast Switcheroo

(Steven Hayward)

There is no Three Whisky Happy Hour podcast this week, because we practiced a bit of “settler colonialism” by occupying the flagship Ricochet podcast yesterday and expelling the pervious residents.

Well not literally. Rob Long and Peter Robinson were both away, so the producers asked the 3WHH crew to fill in for the whole hour. And hoo-boy, with James Lileks in charge of the discussion, the sparks flew on immigration, as we successfully flushed out and scolded John “Open Borders” Yoo. The comment thread there is taking off like a Starlink rocket launch, but if you’re not a Ricochet member, you can use the comment thread here as usual.

Ricochet calls the episode “Drunken Monkey Business” on account of the whisky reviews we offer at the end, and you’ll definitely want to listen all the way to the very end to take in the daring high seas tale of Lileks “urinating” on a certain former National Review writer. (We also covered some of the latest Trump legal news, the Gaza War, and the hysteria over “Christian nationalism.”

Podcast: The 3WHH, Normalizing Dishonesty Edition

(Steven Hayward)

Lucretia hosts this week’s episode, which we recorded in the morning over coffee instead of whisky because travel schedules prevented the normal and proper Friday evening happy hour, and guess what? We’re even worse without whisky!

Among the news and issues treated this week: Why Biden isn’t FDR (he’s not even Harry Truman); why this was the worst SOTU (Lucretia offers a different acronym) speech ever; whether there are signs of life for the GOP in California after all; how immigration and abortion are playing out in the campaign cycle so far; how to think about the Supreme Court decision in the Colorado case dealing with Trump’s eligibility for the ballot (hint—it ain’t over till it’s over); and finally, can Harvard be serious in asking for a government bailout? The unifying theme here is galloping dishonesty, which is being normalized more and more every day.

Our articles of the week are (from me): Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s classic essay “Defining Deviancy Down,” newly salient in an age of truth-denying euphemisms like “justice-involved youth” and “newcomers” instead of “migrants” (which was a substitute for “illegal alien”); Lucretia ponders the challenges of Alex Berenson’s Substack article on new threats to free speech; and John draws our attention to the original 14th Amendment article from Baude and Paulson that brought us to the Supreme Court steps earlier this week, plus responses (also here) that got overlooked at the time, now largely vindicated. (I wondered whether Baude and Paulson were a rope-a-dope set up to make liberals look stupid and induce still more MSNBC primal screams.)

As always, listen here, or from our hosts at Ricochet.

Podcast: The 3WHH—With a Twist!

(Steven Hayward)

This week’s episode could be mistaken for the Three Martini Happy Hour, because this week’s installment comes with a tangy twist. John Yoo is away this week, so we brought in a ringer to take his place: Prof. Hadley Arkes! Thus this episode become a Positivism-Free Zone, in which we review the deepest ground of the natural law unencumbered by John’s usual alarums, excursions, and errors.

The episode comes in three parts: Hadley made some news yesterday, celebrating the retirement of the noted Notre Dame Law professor Gerard V. Bradley, who will be joining Hadley at the James Wilson Institute on Natural Law and the American Founding.

Gerard V. Bradley

From there Hadley proceeds to answering the question that we’ve been kicking around ever since the Dobbs decision, namely, just how should pro-life politicians break out of their self-imposed muteness about abortion. Hadley has the strategy.

Finally, we spend some time toward the end getting down some of Hadley’s “origin story” that brought him to Leo Strauss’s classroom at the University of Chicago back in the 1960s, and key friendships made along the way—especially our late friend and unsung hero Michael Uhlmann.

Note: We had some internet glitches while recording this episode that weren’t easily edited or smoothed over, so we ask listeners’ indulgence with these hiccups, in return for which we’re presenting this installment ad-free.

As usual, listen here, or at our hosts at Ricochet when it goes live there.

Senator Vows to Go Down ‘Screaming and Fighting’ in Mayorkas Impeachment Battle

Two months ago, the House voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Next week, the Senate will receive the two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is expected to dismiss the charges just as quickly as he receives them. 

“Schumer is going to table it,” Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., predicts of the impeachment articles.

The articles were originally expected to be delivered to the Senate on Wednesday, but some Senate Republicans asked House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to delay the delivery until next week. Fox News reported that the benefit of delaying the delivery of the articles is to allows more time for debate without the time restraint of the coming weekend.

Schumer has not indicated he plans to change his position on the articles of impeachment if they arrive next week instead of Wednesday.

If Schumer does dismisses the charges against Mayorkas, it will be a historic first, according to Marshall. 

“This has never happened before,” the Kansas lawmaker said, adding that there have “been 21 impeachment trials over on the House side. Four of those, the person died [or] they resigned, but 17 of them still had the person in office when those impeachment articles were delivered, and every one of those was followed through with the trial. Again, this is so toxic that Chuck Schumer is going to table it. That’s certainly what it looks like, but we’re going to go down screaming and fighting,” Marshall says.

The Republican-controlled House voted 214 to 213 on a party-line vote to impeach Mayorkas on Feb. 13 after a failed attempt a week prior. 

The House’s first article alleges that the homeland security secretary has failed to secure America’s border and enforce immigration laws, instead executing policies that incentivize illegal immigration.   

The House’s second article of impeachment contends that Mayorkas is in breach of the public trust and knowingly has made false statements to Congress and the American people. 

Marshall joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss the Senate’s expected course of action on the articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, and to explain what course of action remains for conservative lawmakers seeking to secure America’s borders. 

Listen to the podcast below: 

The post Senator Vows to Go Down ‘Screaming and Fighting’ in Mayorkas Impeachment Battle appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Breitbart News Daily Podcast Ep. 518: Trump Attorney Jesse Binnall on the Trump Trials

Trump attorney Jesse Binnall gives an insider’s take on the state of play in former President Donald Trump’s court cases, including the so-called “hush money” trial underway this week in New York City.

The post Breitbart News Daily Podcast Ep. 518: Trump Attorney Jesse Binnall on the Trump Trials appeared first on Breitbart.

Why Speaker Johnson’s Job Is on the Line After House Votes $60 Billion for Ukraine

The House passed a four-bill $95 billion foreign aid package over the weekend that includes $60 billion in additional aid for Ukraine. The bill could cost House Speaker Mike Johnson his job. 

The aid package passed in a 311-112 vote with the unanimous support of Democrats and 101 Republicans voting in favor of the bill.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., threatened to introduce a motion to remove Johnson, R-La., from his position as speaker if he brought the funding for Ukraine to the House floor for a vote. 

“I think she’s looking at the totality of what’s come across the floor over the past few months, and she is expressing extreme disappointment with that,” Ryan Walker, executive vice president of Heritage Action for America, says of Greene. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation, of which Heritage Action is the grassroots arm.)

Greene left Washington at the end of last week without introducing the motion to vacate the speaker but said during an interview Sunday on Fox News that she still planned to try to oust Johnson. 

Mike Johnson’s speakership is over,” Greene said on “Sunday Morning Futures,” adding, “He needs to do the right thing—to resign and allow us to move forward in a controlled process. If he doesn’t do so, he will be vacated.” 

Less than one year after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted from the role, Capitol Hill is bracing for the potential of another speakership battle when Congress returns to Washington next week. 

Walker joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to explain the reason for the sharp divide in Congress over the foreign aid package and the likelihood Johnson will face removal as speaker. Walker also explains where Congress is getting the money to send to Ukraine. 

Listen to the podcast below:

The post Why Speaker Johnson’s Job Is on the Line After House Votes $60 Billion for Ukraine appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Ohio Attorney General Breaks Down Leftist Legal ‘Trick’ to Block GOP Efforts to Protect Kids

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is not going to allow one lone judge to dictate whether the children of Ohio are protected from “transgender” surgeries and hormones, he shared in an interview with The Daily Signal.

Yost asked the state’s Supreme Court to intervene after Judge Michael Holbrook issued a temporary restraining order for House Bill 68, the Saving Ohio Adolescents From Experimentation, or SAFE, Act, on Tuesday.

That law bars physicians from performing “transgender reassignment” surgeries on children and from prescribing cross-sex hormones or drugs to block children’s puberty. It also would allow students to sue if they are deprived of a fair playing field in sports due to transgender activism (such as a boy who “identifies” as a girl playing on a girls’ volleyball team) and would protect parents’ rights to raise their children according to their biological sex.

A supermajority of Republican lawmakers voted to override Gov. Mike DeWine’s controversial veto of the bill in January, and before Holbrook blocked it, it was scheduled to go into effect on April 24.

On Monday, Yost, the Medical Board of Ohio, and the state of Ohio filed an emergency motion for a writ of prohibition, asking that Holbrook be ordered to modify his temporary restraining order to “comply with Ohio statutory and procedural limitations.”

The Ohio attorney general discussed the move and what he hopes will ensue from here in an interview with The Daily Signal.

“This is actually a trick that the Left has been using for a long time,” he explained. “Go to court with a couple of sympathetic plaintiffs, get a court order restraining the law from applying to anybody anywhere, and then use it to avoid majority rule and democratic processes that we have here in America.”

“It’s contrary to the law, it’s a misuse of the judicial process, and its fundamentally anti-Democratic,” he said.

Listen to the interview below:

The post Ohio Attorney General Breaks Down Leftist Legal ‘Trick’ to Block GOP Efforts to Protect Kids appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Breitbart News Daily Podcast Ep. 525: Sebastian Gorka on Trump's Legal Fights

Dr. Sebastian Gorka, a former strategist to President Donald Trump and host of “America First,” joins host Mike Slater to give an update on the ongoing Trump legal fights.

The post Breitbart News Daily Podcast Ep. 525: Sebastian Gorka on Trump’s Legal Fights appeared first on Breitbart.

Arabella Network’s Leftist ‘Dark Money’ Influence Expanding, Author Reveals

The left-wing Arabella Advisors network has raked in more money than either of the two major political parties and affects almost every element of public policy and elections, argues Scott Walter, president of the Capital Research Center, a Washington-based investigative think tank. 

Walter’s new book “Arabella: The Dark Money Network of Leftist Billionaires Secretly Transforming America” shows that in the 2020 election cycle, Arabella Advisors’ nonprofits took in $2.4 billion. That’s $1 billion more than the combined fundraising of the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee.

That amount rose to $3 billion in the 2022 election cycle, Walter says. Moreover, he adds, nothing on the Right comes close to competing. 

“Arabella does not discriminate. It is working on arcane regulatory issues … but it also is running Facebook ads, attacking certain congressional candidates and boosting others. It plays in environmental issues. It plays in abortion issues. It plays in election policy,” Walter says on “The Daily Signal Podcast.”

Walter is set to testify Tuesday before the House Natural Resources Committee about what he calls “left-wing dark money [used] to influence environmental policy.”

“Arabella also continues to be very active in the environmental policy area in all sorts of ways,” he adds.

Arabella-backed organizations have been involved in battles over abortion and Supreme Court nominations and advocated that biological males compete in women’s sports. 

Walter’s book details how two Arabella-aligned groups, the Center for Secure and Modern Elections and the Institute for Responsive Government, are involved in shaping election policy at the local level. 

He notes that an Arabella-sponsored group funded by billionaire financier George Soros helped formulate the Biden administration’s recent change in Title IX policy to make it easier for biological males to compete in girls’ scholastic sports. 

“That was plotted through a highly secretive group in the Arabella network, funded entirely with Soros money,” Walter said. “Governing for Impact, which they started in 2019, two years before the Biden administration was even sworn in. And they worked with Harvard Law School folks to do very sophisticated legal strategy memos of how to overturn dozens of regulations in the federal government, the most famous being Title IX.”

What’s differentiates Arabella from other major donors on the Left is the level of secrecy, Walter says. The network is more secretive than most nonprofits financed by Soros and his family, he says. 

“We have tracked the institutional donors, and we can tell you that for almost all of the Arabella nonprofits, Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, which provides donor-advised funds to wealthy people, is the largest,” Walter said. He added, “Other really big donors to the Arabella network have [included Microsoft co-founder] Bill Gates. He is one of the largest, mostly through his foundation. [Facebook founder] Mark Zuckerberg has given tens of millions, mostly for criminal justice reform—quote unquote—[that results in] letting criminals back on the streets.”

A spokesperson for Arabella Advisors didn’t respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment for this report.  

Listen to Walter outline Arabella’s reach in a discussion of his book in the podcast below: 

The post Arabella Network’s Leftist ‘Dark Money’ Influence Expanding, Author Reveals appeared first on The Daily Signal.

NATO Boss Chides Member States For Not Sending Weapons to Ukraine Faster

NATO countries haven´t delivered what they promised to Ukraine in time, the alliance´s chief said, allowing Russia to press its advantage.

The post NATO Boss Chides Member States For Not Sending Weapons to Ukraine Faster appeared first on Breitbart.

Breitbart News Daily Podcast Ep. 528: Sen. Tom Cotton on Campus Anti-Israel Protesters

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) joins host Mike Slater to discuss his call for the police or National Guard to be brought in to stop the anti-Israel war protesters at George Washington University.

The post Breitbart News Daily Podcast Ep. 528: Sen. Tom Cotton on Campus Anti-Israel Protesters appeared first on Breitbart.

October 7 Victims Sue 'Students for Justice in Palestine': 'Propaganda Arm' of Hamas in U.S.

A lawsuit filed this week by seven Israeli victims of the Hamas terror attack of October 7, 2023, alleges that American groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine, active in many campus protests, is a propaganda front for Hamas.

The post October 7 Victims Sue ‘Students for Justice in Palestine’: ‘Propaganda Arm’ of Hamas in U.S. appeared first on Breitbart.

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