Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks at a news briefing at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., August 18, 2021. (Yuri Gripas/Reuters) Democratic Senator Robert Menendez, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, warned Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that he may issue a subpoena demanding his testimony after the Pentagon chief refused to attend a congressional

Jamie Horning raises a sign to protest against the coronavirus vaccine mandates at Summa Health Hospital in Akron, Ohio, August 16, 2021. (Stephen Zenner/Reuters) On the menu today: Hospitals, nursing homes, police forces, firehouses, and prisons are left to grapple with the ramifications of the Biden administration’s decision to require businesses with more than 100

Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Dec. 03, 2018 (Jabin Botsford/Reuters) A crowd of activists marched on the home of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on Monday night in protest of his decision to reject a challenge to Texas’ new law allowing private citizens to sue providers

Lake Forest School District 115 school board meeting, September 13, 2021. (Screengrab via LFHS Info/YouTube) Members of an Illinois school board voted unanimously on Monday night to adjourn a meeting of the board until a later date after a community member refused to wear a mask during a heated public-comment portion of the meeting.  More

Afghan refugees wait to board buses that will take them to a processing center after arriving at Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Va., September 2, 2021. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters) The CDC has reportedly recommended that Afghan evacuees being processed at U.S. military bases overseas be tested and vaccinated for measles — an undertaking that would delay

California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks at an event in Delano, Calif., March 31, 2021; Larry Elder at the 2016 FreedomFest in Las Vegas, Nev. (Mandel Ngan/Reuters, Gage Skidmore) Former President Trump claimed on Monday that the California governor recall election would likely be “rigged.” “Does anybody really believe that the California Recall Election isn’t rigged?”

(NR Staff) Last week, Charles C. W. Cooke wrote a column calling on President Biden to scrap the COVID-19-related travel ban. Specifically, he advised: Nix it. End it. Bring it to a close. Relegate it to history. Send it six feet under. Arrange its termination. Dispatch it. Dispose of it. Eliminate it. Fit it with

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy delivers remarks at the White House in Washington, D.C., July 15, 2021. (Tom Brenner/Reuters) Since President Biden unilaterally declared a vaccine mandate for private businesses with 100 or more employees, many legal scholars have challenged the constitutionality and practicality of the order, claiming it both exceeds his executive authority and is

Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, April 23, 2021 (Erin Schaff/Reuters) Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer brushed off progressives’ demands that he retire to make room for a new nominee while the Democratic Party still holds power in the White House and Senate. During an appearance on Fox News Sunday, the 83-year-old justice said, “I didn’t retire

Sen. Bernie Sanders, (D-VT) questions former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm during a hearing to examine her nomination to be Secretary of Energy on Capitol Hill, January 27, 2021. (Graeme Jennings/Pool via Reuters) After passing with bipartisan support in the Senate, the Biden-backed $1 trillion infrastructure bill is in limbo, as Democrats in the House of

(Elena Mitskevich/Getty Images) Be skeptical of the ‘Neo’ conservatives who believe in the false supremacy of their digital worlds. NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE E arlier this week, we got a trailer for this December’s The Matrix: Resurrections, a sequel in the franchise started by 1999’s The Matrix. The first movie’s basic premise — reality is an

Dr. Anthony Fauci testifies before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in Washington, D.C., July 20, 2021. (Scott Applewhite/Reuters) Dr. Anthony Fauci suggested on Friday that President Biden’s sweeping new vaccine mandate for private businesses is a “moderate” measure. Critics are calling it unconstitutional and strategically ill-advised. During an appearance on CNN, Fauci

A pump jack operates in the Permian Basin oil and natural gas production area near Midland, Texas, August 23, 2018 (Nick Oxford/Reuters) The week of September 6, 2021: Soaring natural-gas prices, woke capital, employment, and much more In last week’s Capital Letter, I quoted from an article by CNBC’s Kelly Evans in which she noted

An American flag flies near the base of the destroyed World Trade Center in New York City, September 11, 2001. (Peter Morgan/Reuters) The events of that day must be remembered, not whitewashed or sanitized for those who lack contemporary memories of them. We swore we would never forget. Twenty years ago this week, we watched

The entrance to the New York Times Building in New York, June 29, 2021 (Brent Buterbaugh) 2017—In a New York Times interview just days after his retirement from the Seventh Circuit, Reagan appointee Richard A. Posner provides a candid description of his lawless “pragmatism”: “I pay very little attention to legal rules, statutes, constitutional provisions,”

Environmentalists demonstration near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, during the 2015 World Climate Change Conference. (Mal Langsdon/Reuters) When COVID finally fades, how will the new authoritarianism that the public-health emergency enabled, be retained? By turning global warming/climate change into the next major public-health emergency. And the good news from our would-be overlords’ perspective, is

A view of Manhattan, N.Y., near sunset on September 11, 2001. (Brad Rickerby/Reuters) Recently, while sorting through the accumulated detritus of my life, I discovered a notebook I had used as a third-grader, in the fall of 2001. It included an assignment that took the form of a weekend journal. “On Saturday, I had my

In considering President Biden’s proposed OSHA vaccine mandate, it should be possible to distinguish intention from mode of action. I think it’s very important that more people get vaccinated against Covid-19. And while it seems to me that offering people some financial or other enticement for getting vaccinated would be a better way to help

Students wearing protective masks arrive for classes on the first day of school in Miami-Dade County amid the coronavirus pandemic at Barbara Goleman Senior High School in Miami, Fla., August 23, 2021. (Marco Bello/Reuters) Following the cues of President Joe Biden, the civil-rights arm of the Department of Education has launched a probe into Florida’s

President Joe Biden gestures delivers remarks on the administration’s continued drawdown efforts in Afghanistan in the East Room at the White House, July 8, 2021. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters) In response to ‘You Forced Me to Do It’ Is an Argument Against the Law First, let me say: It’s nice to be back here, if only for

A doctor holds a stethoscope in the Intensive Care Unit at the Melun-Senart hospital near Paris, France, October 30, 2020. (Benoit Tessier/Reuters) Yesterday was World Suicide Prevention Day. You didn’t hear about it? If so, that’s pretty typical, which is why I call this annual event, “Invisible Suicide Prevention Day.” Once again, the obligatory official

Federal Reserve building is pictured in Washington, D.C., August 22, 2018. (Chris Wattie/Reuters) Prices paid to U.S. producers for final demand goods and services jumped in August at a rate that exceeded projections and amounted to the largest annual increase on record. The producer price index (PPI) rose 0.7 percent from the prior month and 8.3

President Joe Biden discusses his ‘Build Back Better’ agenda at the White House, August 11, 2021. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters) In mid-October 2020, in an ABC News town hall in Pennsylvania in the heat of the presidential campaign, Joe Biden was asked by George Stephanopoulos about imposing a vaccine mandate. He said there wasn’t authority to enforce

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the Delta variant and his administration’s efforts to increase vaccinations from the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., September 9, 2021. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) President Biden has a dilemma. He was elected on a promise to “shut down the virus,” but eight months into his presidency,

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the Delta variant and his administration’s efforts to increase vaccinations from the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., September 9, 2021. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) President Biden is so rigorous about sticking to (slowly) reading off his prompter and ducking reporters’ questions that everything in his messaging

President Joe Biden delivers remarks in honor of labor unions in the East Room at the White House, September 8, 2021. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) President Biden announced that his administration would develop rules to compel large companies to mandate coronavirus vaccines for employees and to require weekly negative test results for any unvaccinated workers. The rules

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland attends a news conference at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., June 25, 2021. (Ken Cedeno/Reuters) The Biden administration plans to sue Texas as early as this week over the Lone Star state’s new law that prohibits abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, according to reports. The

David Chipman testifies during a House Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, September 25, 2019. (Leah Millis/Reuters) Joe Biden’s bad summer gets worse. Per Politico, the president is planning to withdraw his nominee to head up the ATF, David Chipman: The White House is planning to withdraw David Chipman’s nomination to lead the Bureau of Alcohol,

House Republicans who oppose mask mandates wait to enter the Senate chamber after marching as a group to highlight different coronavirus disease mask rules between the House and Senate sides of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., July 29, 2021. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters) Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) and Chip Roy (R., Texas) have been

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield addresses the United Nations Security Council regarding the situation in Afghanistan at the United Nations in New York City, August 16, 2021. (Andrew Kelly/Reuters) U.N. ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield diminishes America’s moral authority. That’s good news for China. NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE P resident Biden has pledged to compete vigorously against authoritarian regimes