Greetings! Looks like Pete “Hairgel” Hegseth picked a bad year to quit drinking. How employable will he be when he’s bounced from the Pentagon? A show on OAN seems about the best he can expect...The American Conservative has an editorial explaining why it declined the invitation to be part of Hegseth's Pentagon press pool under new draconian rules.  Here’s the key line: “We are not in the stenography business”...What’s the freest state in the country? It’s New Hampshire, according to the Canada-based Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom of North America index.  South Dakota and Florida rank just below the “Live Free or Die” state. New York comes in last on the Fraser list. The rankings are based on government spending, taxes, among other factors. WND has the details.... Democrats won the 43-day federal government shutdown.  So says the Wall Street Journal’s Neera Tanden. “Democrats couldn’t have planned for the horrific way Mr. Trump responded by inflicting as much pain as possible on the American people,” she opines...Weekend Watch: For all you eggheads and intellectual wannabees, Netflix has dropped the documentary The New Yorker at 100. I’m not sure how a look back at the magazine’s 100-year-history can be stuffed into 96-minutes. However, I’m eager to watch, simply to be reminded of all the extraordinary journalism, literature and cartoons The New Yorker has published, including a 2022 Talk of the Town piece about yours truly!...If you keep reading, I’ll keep Righting. Howard

Greetings! Pillow fight? Wacky right-wing firebrand and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has filed paperwork signaling a possible run for governor of Minnesota in 2026. That would put the outspoken election-denier on a potential collision course with MAGA world piñata Governor Tim Walz. Big League Politics breathlessly describes Lindell’s ambitions as “trigger(ing) a political earthquake”...The White House has unveiled a media bias portal designed to reveal what it considers the most biased mainstream media reporting.  Leaving aside the inflammatory content it posts, the site is a confusing and poorly designed data dump of various grudges the Trump administration has against legacy media outlets...Dept. of Sticks & Stones: Trump called Colorado’s Gov. Jared Polis a “sleazebag” in a late-night Truth Social rant. POTUS is peeved because the Dem governor wouldn’t let convicted felon Tina Peters out of jail.  The election conspiracy theorist was sentenced to nine years in prison after she “helped Trump supporters access confidential data about the 2020 presidential election,” according to Fox31 in Denver....It’s about time! The editors of the National Review are questioning the constitutionality of the Trump administration's Caribbean boat strikes that have resulted in scores of deaths....Just in time for the skiing season: Check out this book – High Attitude. How Woke Liberals Ruined Aspen. It’s written by Glenn Beaton who publishes the conservative media outlet The Aspen Beat...Just learned a new word today: AWFL.  It stands for affluent, white, female, liberal.  Depending on your point of view, the acronym is either awfully clever or awfully divisive. Victory Girls uses the term in this article about Pete Hegseth...If you keep reading, I’ll keep Righting.  Howard