Crazyland Digest

a variety of quick updates

A bunch of quick hits, here.

First, I’ve previously described the quasi-Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski in…not enormously flattering terms, let’s say, and she has once again shown her remarkably poor judgment and character. Yesterday, the Senate confirmed the nomination of the retired Navy officer Hung Cao to be Under Secretary of the Navy, but it did so mostly along party lines. Murkowski was the one alleged Republican who voted against Cao’s confirmation, explaining through her staff that she “has concerns about his past statements and conduct.”

Idiotically, in the same story that last quote comes from, NPR reports on Cao’s controversial background like this: “His opposition to diversity in recruitment fits with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s war on wokeness.” Oh my goodness, a literal Vietnamese immigrant is opposed to diversity! How…remarkable…that he must despise himself? Or something?

Cao is, of course, a proponent of merit, and said last year that the military should recruit and advance fierce and capable warriors who are willing to “rip out their own guts, eat them, and ask for seconds.” Oh no, that’s being mean.

Hung Cao is a badass, and he’ll do just fine: “He was commissioned as a Special Operations Officer (Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Deep Sea Diving) from the United States Naval Academy, and he served with Special Operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia…Hung received his Master’s degree in physics from the Naval Postgraduate School, and fellowships at MIT and Harvard.” So unqualified. For crying out loud.

Lisa Murkowski, grow a capacity for shame at some point.

Second, SB 771, the constitutionally untenable California bill to impose million-dollar fines on social media companies for allowing hate speech and meanness on their platforms, has been sitting on Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk since September 22, and he still hasn’t acted on it, or offered the slightest public hint about his views regarding the thing. A real portrait in political courage. He has until October 12 to sign the bill, or to veto it. In the absence of action by that date, the bill becomes law without his signature.

Third, I recently wrote about the arrest of Des Moines school superintendent Ian Roberts as an illegal alien, and I said that the story would “ripen like a peach on a tree.” It’s ripening. A search of his home by the ATF turned up a bunch of guns, which an illegal immigrant isn’t supposed to have, and he’s been charged with a felony for the guns. Meanwhile, his interesting work history has been spilling out, and his academic credentials mostly turn out to be fake. Gasp!

Fourth, a glorious new example of what leftists mean when they denounce fascism:

Personal liberties, a classic fascist theme.

Fifth, Chelsea Clinton has a new podcast, and in her first episode she — wait for it! — debunks misinformation about seed oils and vaccines. Anti-vaxxers very bad, experts say, making extraordinarily fresh claims. My plan was to listen to it so I could make fun of it, but it turned out to be so crushingly dull and obvious that I just turned it off after a few minutes. This is almost certainly the last time I will ever mention the existence of Chelsea Clinton, or of her podcast. It was like listening to nothing.

And finally, don’t miss this post from Keely Covello about recent developments in California agricultural policy:

California plan seeks to redistribute prime farmland in the name of "equity"

The draft state report she describes is available here, and it goes Full Khmer Rouge: Too many white farmers own farms, so farms should be bought by the state so they can be redistributed to “priority producers.” Some land can be held by the state, the report suggests, and then leased on preferential terms to preferred groups, or transferred at no cost to the ownership of farmers from state-preferred groups. You know, for fairness. California is run by people who have never even tripped over a history book.

Anyway, Newsom 2028! To fight Trump’s authoritarianism, of course. Personal liberty is fascism, and the hero who’s fighting against authoritarianism leads the state that wants to emulate Hugo Chavez. We’re doing great.