Mike Lee’s Reckless, Feckless Deadline
Mike Lee’s Reckless, Feckless Deadline
Plus, Four Problems with Jim Jordan’s New Charm Offensive
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New from Me: Mike Lee’s Reckless, Feckless Deadline for Japan.
On the last Saturday in May 2021, a California man named Ridge Alkonis took a day trip to Mount Fuji with his wife, three young children, and Australian labradoodle. They hiked in the springtime air for a few hours before getting back in their vehicle and driving home along Japan’s National Route 469. As the road curved through the countryside, the vehicle swerved: “I felt my body get weak, and my car drifted out of the lane, but I was able to quickly correct it,” Alkonis recalled. But five minutes later, while he was talking with his oldest daughter, the car veered again—this time off the road and into the parking lot of a small soba noodles restaurant in the Yamamiya district on the outskirts of Fujinomiya.
Alkonis’s wife and children screamed as the vehicle, moving at about 25 miles per hour, collided with several other cars and struck a 53-year-old Japanese woman, her 54-year-old husband, and her 85-year-old mother. The husband and mother both died.
Alkonis, who was then 33, was arrested at the scene, and the terrible incident instantly took on an international importance, as he is a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy—a weapons officer aboard the destroyer USS Benfold at Yokosuka Naval Base, one of the seven U.S. military bases on Mainland Japan. He was sentenced to three years in prison in October 2021, lost an appeal, and began serving his sentence last summer.
It wouldn’t have mattered how Biden had handled the balloon — Republicans would have said he was weak. Plus, the art of donning an AR-15 pin to trigger the libs, and Elon Musk is amplifying Russian propaganda. Will Saletan’s back with Charlie Sykes for Charlie and Will Monday.
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DENNIS AFTERGUT: Four Problems with Jim Jordan’s New Charm Offensive.
On Saturday, CNN reported that MAGA Republican Jim Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and its new Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, is working to “boost his credibility.”
The gist was that Jordan, now that he wields a gavel, wants to shed his reputation for bare-knuckled partisanship. His “allies have gone out of their way in recent weeks,” the article notes, to claim that Jordan “wants to take a more methodical approach in turning up the heat on his primary target.”
What are the supposed indicators of his methodical approach? He will be giving Democrats 24-hour notice before he issues subpoenas. And he is making media appearances on networks other than Fox.
🚨OVERTIME 🚨
Happy Monday! Hopefully our friends in TX and MA are thawing out, and I pray that you’re not getting the cold that’s going around… it’s a doozy!
Hidden Tribes… A study of America’s polarized landscape.
The Democrat… Who could take down Kyrsten Sinema.
CRT, abortion, and Mastodon! Join our friends at Connor’s Forum for an enlightening conversation.
Through the looking glass, darkly. The Federalist has some revised history making conspiracy theories awesome and totally normal.
We still have to reform entitlements… Because the math doesn’t lie. Politicians, however, do!
“My opponents might be right, my allies might be wrong… and justice may require that I change my mind.” Check out David French’s debut column at the NY Times.
And… scene! Vote for me for my third term so I can limit future Senators to two. That’s the Ted Cruz advantage Texans want. Working theory: Cruz knows that his Democratic colleagues are more effective than he is.
White Noise… seemingly comes to life in eastern Ohio, not far from where the film based on Don DeLillo’s novel was shot. In a weird twist of fate, my request for the book came through at the library just today.
Meanwhile, in Scotland… Golfers are up in arms about changes to the Swilcan Bridge, and the St Andrews Links Trust just blinked.
Food fight! The far-right Uihleins are sparring about the future of the GOP.
Live free or die… NH Donut mural edition.
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