In The Shadow Of Mt Hollywood

For the past couple of days, I've been hearing clips, quotes, and soundbites of Tucker Carlson's remarks at the Turning Point USA 2025 Student Action Summit that's wrapping up today in Tampa. Oddly, I'm having a hard time finding YouTube segments carrying his specific remarks or any sort of written transcript, but I do see references to his complaints that, for instance, they've gotten men out of women's sports, but homeless people are still sleeping on sidewalks, so nothing really good has happened, or something like that. The best I've been able to come up with is a five-hour YouTube of the whole first night, which is embedded above. Tucker's presentation starts at 4:15. The first thing that struck me was his annoying high-pitched giggle. But then he got right into Epstein -- it's wrong to say it happened a long time ago, it shouldn't be a big deal. That wasn't what he voted for, and he almost never votes. His argument implies that he vote...

JUST IN: FBI deputy director Dan Bongino took the day off after "clashing" with AG Pam Bondi at the White House over the Epstein files, according to Axios. The alleged fight erupted after a 10-hour video was released with a minute missing. Some "insiders" believed Bongino quit;… pic.twitter.com/mDo8RdOTWA — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 11, 2025 Yesterday morning, Sundance posted at Conservative Treehouse : For a significant -albeit unknown- portion of President Trump’s support base, the case against Jeffrey Epstein was/is a strong part of how they positioned their MAGA support. That coalition is now furious and threatening to withdraw support for President Trump on all other policy areas. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche affirmed today the conclusions within the DOJ/FBI memo about the Epstein matter are factually the conclusions shared by all leadership within the Dept of Justice and FBI. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy ...

Alan Dershowiotz is now claiming, of all things, that Jeffrey Epstein did in fact have a "client list" , that he's seen it, but he's bound by confidentiality not to reveal who's on it. This goes to the question of what in fact is a "client list". The link says, "A new FBI, DOJ memo released on Sunday concluded Jeffrey Epstein did not have a client list that he used for blackmail." This strikes me as a key distinction. According to CNN , The search for explosive deep-state secrets hidden inside the federal Epstein investigation began coming apart weeks into the second Trump administration. By mid-March, as hundreds of FBI agents were ordered to work overnights and weekends to review thousands of pages and hours of video from the investigation, there were no bombshells in the files. It became clear that officials had no reason to change the conclusion reached under Attorney General William Barr, who had himself reviewed...

At The Hill : Senate Republicans fear Elon Musk’s beef with President Trump could become a wild-card factor that could cost them seats in 2026 if Musk follows through on his threat to create a new political party to compete with the GOP. GOP lawmakers note that third-party candidates have swung presidential and Senate races in the past and worry that Musk’s bid to establish an “America Party” is likely to peel off more Republicans than Democratic voters in key races. First, I think "Senate Republicans" overrate the performance of third-party candidates. most recently John Anderson in 1980 and Ross Perot in 1992. According to Wikipedia , Although the Carter campaign feared Anderson could be a spoiler, Anderson's campaign turned out to be "simply another option" for frustrated voters who had already decided not to back Carter for another term. Polls found that around 37% of Anderson voters favored Reag...

I've long been skeptical, most recently here in 2023 , that Jeffrey Epstein was running a blackmail operation, or indeed that he was a spy. Only in James Bond thrillers do spies draw attention to themselves. Beyond that, by the time of his death in 2019, he had been yestersday's news for more than a decade. Whether it was a sweetheart deal or not, his 2008 guilty plea to two sex offenses severely cramped his style. His Lolita Express plane had been grounded since 2016. The continuing allegations from MAGA that Attorney General Bondi has been covering for the deep state are based in some measure on the idea that Epstein was highly successful as a blackmailer, with tapes of high-ranking people to prove it, and her failure to release any such tapes or incriminating evidence like a client list just proves those allegations. The problem is that Epstein's heyday was certainly before 2008, almost 20 years ago at this point, and most such names, even if they existed on an actu...

Last month I looked at the objections of just war theorists , especially the neo-Thomist philosopher Edward Feser, to President Trump's threats against Iran in the runup to the raid on its nuclear sites. The fact that the raid proved closely targeted and didn't lead to further US involvement seems so far to have kept Prof Feser from expressing further objections. But I keep running into scriptural problems that make me wonder if just war theorists have all the answers. For instance, just this past Sunday's gospel reading, Luke 10: 1-12, 17-20 contains a reference to Sodom and Gomorrah, which I've compared in the link to the destruction of a nuclear attack: 8 And into what city soever you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. 9 And heal the sick that are therein, and say to them: The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. 10 But into whatsoever city you enter, and they receive you not, going forth into...

As I did yesterday, I keep saying that Elon Musk's main problem is with the boards of directors for each of his companies. With everything he's done since November, he's been digging himself a deeper and deeper hole. Yesterday in an interview with Dana Bash, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said , BASH: He (Musk) announced this weekend that he is starting a new political party. Does this worry the Trump Administration? BESSENT: Look, the principles of DOGE were popular. If you looked at the polling, Elon was not. The Boards of Directors at his various companies wanted him to come back and run his companies, which he is better at than anyone. So, I imagine those Board of Directors did not like this announcement yesterday and will be encouraging him to focus on his business activities, not his political activities, It's worth revisiting a story from a month ago that reported a physical altercation between Musk and Bessent : ...