G’Day, mates, and welcome to Sunday, May 31, 2026. Among other things, today is National Parrot Day. It’s Trinity Sunday (always the Sunday after Pentecost), National Macaroon Day, National Smile Day, and National Meditation Day.
1621: Former Lord Chancellor of England Francis Bacon is imprisoned for corruption in the Tower of London for one or two nights until released by King James I
1634: The colony of Massachusetts Bay annexes Maine Colony
1790: U.S. copyright law enacted
1836: HMS Beagle anchors in Simon’s Bay, Cape of Good Hope
1879: Madison Square Garden opens in New York, named after President James Madison
1885: Dr. John Harvey Kellogg of Battle Creek, Mich., files a patent for “flaked cereal, and process of making same”
1889: Johnstown Flood; 2,209 die in Johnstown, Pa., when the South Fork Dam, located on the Little Conemaugh River, fails
1907: Taxis first begin operating in New York City
1911: RMS Titanic launched in Belfast
1937: First quadruplets to finish college (Baylor University)
1940: British Major General Bernard Montgomery leaves Dunkirk
1955: U.S. Supreme Court orders school integration “with all deliberate speed”
Starting today, I’m going to reformat the Birthday listings, putting the names in bold for easier skimming. Let me know what you think.
Birthdays Today Include: Walt Whitman, poet (Leaves of Grass) and volunteer nurse during the Civil War; Emily Bissell, welfare worker and founder of Christmas Seals; John Ringling, circus owner, one of the seven Ringling brothers (Ringling Bros. World’s Greatest Shows); Fred Allen, comedian; Norman Vincent Peale, clergyman, broadcaster (The Art of Living), and author (The Power of Positive Thinking); Don Ameche, actor (Cocoon, Trading Places); Clint Eastwood, actor and director (A Fistful of Dollars; Dirty Harry films; Play Misty for Me); Johnny Paycheck, country singer (“Take This Job and Shove It”); Peter Yarrow, folk singer-songwriter (Peter, Paul & Mary – “Puff (The Magic Dragon)”); Joe Namath, Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback; John Bonham, Led Zeppelin drummer; Jim Vallance, Canadian songwriter, arranger and producer (Bryan Adams – “Cuts Like a Knife”; “Heaven”; “Summer of ’69”); Neil Dorfsman, Grammy Award-winning sound engineer and record producer (Dire Straits, Bruce Hornsby, Sting); Tommy Emmanuel, acoustic guitarist (“Stevie’s Blues”); Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary (2010-26); and Brooke Shields, model, actress (The Blue Lagoon; Suddenly Susan).
If today’s your day too, Happy Birthday, all day.
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I’m a fan of Victor Davis Hanson. So when I caught him on Salem News Channel’s The Scott Jennings Show, I sat up and paid close attention. He came out sharp from the start, this time targeting the left’s drift toward anti-Semitism.
In this interview, Hanson makes a point worth sitting with, even if it stings a little: anti-Semitism used to be the right’s ugly problem, and the left knew it. They used it in their campaigns years ago. Hollywood—back when Hollywood actually stood for something—made films like Gentleman’s Agreement, Cast a Giant Shadow, and Exodus precisely to shame it out of existence. The liberals were the good guys on this one. Mazel tov.
The key word there is “were.” That era is so thoroughly over that it’s almost quaint to remember it. Consider this: Is anyone showing those titles on the national TV networks anymore? Even Schindler’s List seems to have fallen out of favor, despite cleaning up at the Oscars in the year of its release.
Somehow, while nobody was minding the store, anti-Semitism packed its bags, crossed the aisle, and made itself perfectly comfortable on the progressive left—where it now gets dressed up in the language of “decolonization” and “resistance” and applauded at faculty meetings. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: The left these days acts like the only problem they have with Hitler is that he didn’t finish the job. If I had predicted that situation years ago, I’d have been chased off every publication I’ve written for, then and since. These days, it’s an undeniable status quo.
Meanwhile, on the right, a few prominent figures like Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens have performed their own remarkable ideological journey, arriving at a place curiously cozy with Islamist anti-Zionism. Congratulations are due to everyone involved, apparently.
[/sarcasm]
The net result is that genuine, bipartisan opposition to anti-Semitism has essentially ceased to exist as a meaningful political force in this country. It’s remarkable that I’m forced to write that kind of comment. Certainly, 40 years ago, I’d not have had to even consider it. But the ever-power-hungry left had to latch onto anti-Semitic views because of there being a largish untapped font of votes … buried under the anti-Semitic non-thought coming out of our schools.
Enter MAGA—which, whatever you think of it, has been one of the few political forces not running interference for Jew-hatred from either direction. And if you want to understand why the institutional left has developed what can only be described as a frothing-at-the-mouth, rabid, and clinical obsession with destroying that movement, well—there’s your answer. It has very little to do with democracy, and rather a lot to do with who’s still willing to say certain obvious things out loud.
Things like, for example, the fact that on October 7 the real victim was Israel. That point would have been obvious to any observer 40 years ago. Not anymore, apparently.
Let’s talk about what’s actually fueling the ideological rot in American higher education and, in turn, political discourse, because nobody seems to want to say it plainly: we’re being bought.
Qatar — a tiny Gulf emirate that also happens to host Hamas leadership and a Taliban diplomatic office — has somehow managed to shovel nearly $8 billion into American universities. And our prestigious institutions of higher learning have been more than happy to hold out their hands.
Saudi Arabia is right behind them, followed by the UAE and Kuwait, all generously “investing” in the schools that shape America’s foreign policy elite. How thoughtful of them.
Oh, but don’t worry — most of this money comes with absolutely no strings attached. We know this because the donors told us so, by which I mean they told us nothing at all. Over $10.7 billion — more than 70% of these foreign donations — was reported with zero stated purpose. None. And somehow that raised almost no alarm bells at the universities cashing the checks.
Then there are the genuinely insulting-to-our-intelligence transactions, like Qatar sending Cornell University eight identical gifts of $99,999,999 each. Not $100 million — $99,999,999. Eight times. Structuring donations to stay just under a round number has a name in financial crime circles. In academia, apparently, it’s just called “fundraising.”
Federal law technically requires universities to disclose foreign gifts over $250,000. But compliance has been, let’s say, “inconsistent” — which is a very polite way of saying that schools have been looking the other way while foreign governments quietly purchase influence over the institutions training America’s next generation of leaders. The results of that training can be seen on the streets of Newark, N.J., in front of Delaney Hall, among other places.
Just billions in untraceable petrodollars flowing into the ivory tower with no questions asked and no answers given. The political implications of this can’t be ignored.
Hanson then makes a striking observation: no major Democratic candidate could walk into a primary today for any congressional seat and declare strong support for Israel. That tells you everything about how dramatically Democratic Party politics have shifted.
As an aside, it also suggests why someone like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is a non-starter for a presidential run. Left-wing leaders now encourage or tolerate anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism outright, normalizing it across progressive circles. Shapiro, who is Jewish, has no chance at all in that environment, certainly not in a Democrat party primary.
Another example, as Jennings points out, a leading Democrat in the Democratic primary for the United States Senate in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, is even suggesting Israel has no right to exist. Welcome to today’s Democrat party.
I’m quite sure I’ll get serious pushback on this, but to me, the greatest unsolved mystery of our era—surpassing dark matter, the Bermuda Triangle, and why anyone still uses Internet Explorer—is why Jewish people keep voting Democrat. It strikes me as nonsensical, and as a kind of social suicide. It is a self-destructive action I doubt I will ever fathom.
No doubt in my mind that I’ll have much more to say about this in future columns, given the trends I’ve pointed out here. But I beg you, please spare my inbox from explanations about how Democrats are against discrimination. It’s a “no sale” right at the outset, and the proof is right in front of all of us.
Thought for the day: So, after all the fraud that’s been uncovered about government assistance funds, Medicaid, and child care (learing center), the left is now complaining about the comparatively minuscule anti-weaponization fund? Distraction, anyone?
VIP members, hit the heart on the lower left and leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you.
Be careful today. Do not deprive those closest to you of you.
I’ll see you here tomorrow.
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