daner

“pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field” - Edmund Burke

[Ron DeSantis @RonDeSantis]

It was great to see so many foreigners enjoy themselves in the US and have positive reactions to Americans.

But some of this was sad because it was clear that many had absurd preconceived notions due to mass media in their countries, especially in Europe.

Like Mark Twain said, those who don’t read newspapers are uninformed; those who do are misinformed.

[Billy Binion @billybinion]

Most data centers use the same amount of water—or less—than an average large office building. Meanwhile, they're helping lower electricity costs by financing new power generation. The hysteria over AI data centers is going to age very, very poorly.

[Frank J. Fleming @IMAO_]

Too much focus is on the bad economic results of socialism and not enough focus on how at its core it is an evil, anti-freedom philosophy.

[Ron DeSantis @RonDeSantis]

Yet another example of an American institution being corrupted by ideology.

[Mark Hemingway @Heminator]

I’m sorry, but the fact Democrat DAs are freeing illegals who commit violent crimes and governors are pardoning *convicted child molesters* to keep them from being deported seems to be a far, far bigger public safety problem than anything ICE is doing.

[Liza Libes @pensandpoison]

I really admire @rosehorowitch and have been following her work on the decline of literature over the past two years now. But @TheAtlantic is (purposely?) withholding a very important piece of the puzzle: English departments themselves simply no longer teach literature.

For the the past few decades, English departments across the country have been treating literary education as a vehicle for the promotion of far leftist ideologies, and, of course, no one is going to care about literature if they believe that the purpose of reading fiction is to promote radical gender ideology.

Elite English departments across the country guide the perception of the cultural milieu amongst the general public. If the world's most elite universities are telling students that Shakespeare writes about transgenderism or that Jane Austen is complicit in imperialist expansion, then these ideas not only seep into high school English classrooms but also affect the next generations of readers. I, too, would have no interest in reading Shakespeare if I were told that the Bard writes about queer desire.

But this is precisely what's happening in English departments across the country, and no one wants to talk about how much it's affecting our country's general decline in literacy.

If we want to restore the love of literature and to inspire people to read again, then we must teach classic literature as an art form—as a means of exploring the human condition rather than as a vehicle for political change. If future generations understand the beauty of literature once again, then maybe we'll create a civilization whose citizens love reading once more.

[John Ondrasik @johnondrasik]

The reason the @nytimes can practice gross journalist malpractice, like they did to Lyndsey, is because they know there will be no consequences, from their company, from their media peers, and from their subscribers. In fact, protecting Democrats is how you climb the ladder.

[Enguerrand VII de Coucy @ingelramdecoucy]

Important point to keep harping on here. The most centrist of centrist Republicans Susan Collins was deemed an Actual Hitler in comparison to Platner by the entire mainstream of the Democratic Party because, despite their high rhetoric, literally all that matters to them is power

[Rodger Sherman @rodger]

fireworks outside the visiting team hotels all night.... extreme heat and storms interrupting games ... unprecedented, suspicious administrative ruling undoing a suspension ...

sorry world you're on CONCACAF turf now. these concacolors don't run baby

[Benjamin Domenech @bdomenech]

“Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men too — great enough to give fame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory.

“They loved their country better than their own private interests; and, though this is not the highest form of human excellence, all will concede that it is a rare virtue, and that when it is exhibited, it ought to command respect. He who will, intelligently, lay down his life for his country, is a man whom it is not in human nature to despise. Your fathers staked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, on the cause of their country. In their admiration of liberty, they lost sight of all other interests.

“They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. They were quiet men; but they did not shrink from agitating against oppression. They showed forbearance; but that they knew its limits. They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. With them, nothing was “settled” that was not right. With them, justice, liberty and humanity were “final;” not slavery and oppression. You may well cherish the memory of such men. They were great in their day and generation. Their solid manhood stands out the more as we contrast it with these degenerate times.

“How circumspect, exact and proportionate were all their movements! How unlike the politicians of an hour! Their statesmanship looked beyond the passing moment, and stretched away in strength into the distant future. They seized upon eternal principles, and set a glorious example in their defense. Mark them!

“Fully appreciating the hardship to be encountered, firmly believing in the right of their cause, honorably inviting the scrutiny of an on-looking world, reverently appealing to heaven to attest their sincerity, soundly comprehending the solemn responsibility they were about to assume, wisely measuring the terrible odds against them, your fathers, the fathers of this republic, did, most deliberately, under the inspiration of a glorious patriotism, and with a sublime faith in the great principles of justice and freedom, lay deep the corner-stone of the national superstructure, which has risen and still rises in grandeur around you.

“Of this fundamental work, this day is the anniversary. Our eyes are met with demonstrations of joyous enthusiasm. Banners and pennants wave exultingly on the breeze. The din of business, too, is hushed. Even Mammon seems to have quitted his grasp on this day. The ear-piercing fife and the stirring drum unite their accents with the ascending peal of a thousand church bells. Prayers are made, hymns are sung, and sermons are preached in honor of this day; while the quick martial tramp of a great and multitudinous nation, echoed back by all the hills, valleys and mountains of a vast continent, bespeak the occasion one of thrilling and universal interest — a nation’s jubilee.”

- Frederick Douglass

[Dr. Alexander S. Burns @KKriegeBlog]

In the 2010s I was frustrated that we never got any Revolutionary media that equaled HBO’s John Adams.

On our 250th anniversary, I’m just happy that it was made.

[Ron DeSantis @RonDeSantis]

The approval of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress on the 4th of July, 1776 represented the ultimate political gamble.

The American revolutionaries were fighting against the world’s most powerful country, and the vast majority of colonists in America either opposed or were indifferent to independence.

While the odds were slim, the consequences for failure were severe. All 56 men who later signed the Declaration faced an assured death by hanging were the Revolution to fail.

And they had a lot to lose. The leaders of the Revolution were generally wealthy and influential in the colonies.

But they had suffered what Jefferson called a “long train of abuses” over the previous decade, and believed that failure to take a stand would lead to the destruction of their liberty.

So when they pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor, they meant it.

The Declaration was the ultimate political line in the sand: rights are God-given, not government-granted; government is legitimate only upon the consent of the governed; and government’s purpose is to safeguard the natural rights of the people.

What began as a conservative rebellion seeking the preservation of traditional English rights evolved into a political revolution that laid the foundation for the rise of the greatest republic in history — and that produced transformational consequences around the world.

We as Americans in 2026 are inheritors of this legacy of liberty and the beneficiaries of the courage, wisdom and dedication of the Founding Fathers.

We can acknowledge that our society and nation face a lot of problems. Whether there will be an America 500 celebration may very well depend on how this generation of Americans tackle these challenges.

But there can be no doubt that we are fortunate to be citizens of this republic. And we have a small group of patriots, who took a risky stand 250 years ago, to thank for that.

Happy America 250!

[Ron DeSantis @RonDeSantis]

Compare Calvin Coolidge on America’s 150th anniversary:

“It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers."

[Will Ricciardella @WillRicci]

The Romney comparison tells you everything here. He should be embarrassed.

Romney did not run a Reagan campaign. He ran a George H.W. Bush-style establishment campaign: managerial, technocratic, donor-class, and defensive about the very free-market case Reagan made morally.

Reagan was not a spreadsheet Republican. He was an insurgent against inflation, stagnation, Soviet expansion, price controls, high taxes, and national decline.

The establishment despised him.

Romney lost because he sounded like the system’s accountant.

Reagan won because he offered a governing alternative after the system failed.

If your “case study” for Reaganism is Mitt Romney, you don’t understand Reaganism or the conservative movement.

You’re repeating the neo-isolationist and populist caricature of Reagan because it’s easier to attack than the real thing.

[Colin Wright @SwipeWright]

In his interview with @christopherrufo, @ezraklein conceded that there was "way too much speech policing" and "cancellation" during the Great Awokening.

But he hasn't apologized for his central role in it.

In 2017, Klein launched a massive cancellation campaign against Sam Harris for interviewing @charlesmurray on his podcast about race and IQ.

Klein accused Harris of spreading and platforming "junk science," "race science," and even rehabilitating "America's most ancient justification for bigotry and racial inequality."

In a conversation with Harris, Klein implicitly accused him of racism after tallying all of Harris' podcast guests and noting that only 2 out of 120 were black. He then admonished Harris for not "doing shows with people like Ibram Kendi...who really study how race and these ideas interact with American life and policy."

I remember that time vividly. The cancellation campaign against Harris led by Klein was immense and relentless.

Klein was one of the central figures who "tried to make the arguments unhaveable." It didn't just "happen" and it wasn't just "people" who did this—Klein himself was a field marshal.

If Harris had been a university professor instead of an independently-funded podcaster at the time, Klein's cancellation attempt would have likely been successful in permanently destroying Harris' career and livelihood.

Klein's behavior was absolutely grotesque.

I'll never forget what he did, nor will I ever forgive him for it.

[Bonchie @bonchieredstate]

Brother, you had her on speed dial for years, constantly giving her information. You gave her three sit-down interviews for this book alone.

And that’s after you got burned doing the same thing with Bob Woodward.

At some point, it’s your fault for never learning.

[Manz🌪 @ManzTrades]

United States + Iran War Hours of Operation:

Monday: Closed
Tuesday: Closed
Wednesday: Closed
Thursday: Closed
Friday: Open at 4PM EST.
Saturday: Open
Sunday: Closed by 5PM EST.

[Brent Money @brentmoney]

“We are NOT a Christian nation!”
“Separation of church and state!”
“Benjamin Franklin was a deist!”

On this date, June 28, 1787, Benjamin Franklin delivered his famous “Prayer Speech” at the Constitutional Convention.

This is the one where Franklin, amid deadlocks and frustrations in the Convention, implored the delegates to begin sessions with prayer, acknowledging human limitations and seeking divine assistance. Here is the full transcript (from James Madison’s notes and standard historical sources, with minor spelling normalizations for readability):

Mr. President:
The small progress we have made after four or five weeks close attendance & continual reasonings with each other—our different sentiments on almost every question, several of the last producing as many noes as ays, is methinks a melancholy proof of the imperfection of the Human Understanding. We indeed seem to feel our own want of political wisdom, since we have been running about in search of it. We have gone back to ancient history for models of government, and examined the different forms of those Republics which having been formed with the seeds of their own dissolution now no longer exist. And we have viewed modern states all round Europe, but find none of their Constitutions suitable to our circumstances.
In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings? In the beginning of the Contest with G. Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection.—Our prayers, Sir, were heard, & they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending providence in our favor. To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance?

I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth—that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that “except the Lord build the House they labour in vain that build it.” I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and byword down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing Governments by Human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest.
I therefore beg leave to move—that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested to officiate in that service.

[1776 Live @250YearsAgoLive]

Thomas Jefferson submits the final draft of his Declaration of Independence to Continental Congress.

[Bridget Phetasy @BridgetPhetasy]

when communists try to hide behind “democratic socialism”