Mike Gallagher

Thursday

Scott Jennings

My top 2024 takeaways by Scott Jennings, CNN’s ‘Black Sheep’

New York "Black Sheep.” Not a nickname I expected, but my friends and family get a kick out of the Daily Mail’s moniker for me following a series of viral CNN moments. It’s more accurate than “Lonely Scott,” which Bill Maher applied after watching our network’s coverage of the Democratic National Convention. I am anything but lonely these days. In the wee hours following Donald Trump’s win over Kamala Harris, I impatiently wait my turn on CNN to explain what happened.

scott jennings

Tuesday

Spectator Editorial

Is the West ready to face the challenges of advancing technology?

The theme of this month’s edition is technology. The advancement of space exploration, defense technologies, artificial intelligence and the like should excite us. Yet the geopolitical issues they present are great and Western governments seem ill-prepared to grapple with them. Watch any congressional hearing where a crusty congressman tries to keep pace with Silicon Valley’s top autists if you need further evidence — and read Spencer A. Klavan’s analysis of the high-skill but low-status rejects uniting into a formidable social class on p.12. The Silent Generation and boomers simply cannot keep up. The Space Race is back on, as tycoons seek to cash in on the final frontier.

space technology
TikTok
Ben Domenech

The fight to curtail TikTok’s US influence

One hundred and twenty minutes. That’s how much time more than 40 percent of American children spent on TikTok every day last year. The app, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, worms its way into the minds of young people to an extraordinary degree, dwarfing their use of Instagram, Facebook, Twitter/X and Snapchat. And when word went out that the House of Representatives was seriously considering forcing a sale to peel the app away from the power of the Chinese Communist Party, TikTok fired back by weaponizing the same children against Congress — driving a deluge of confused phone calls to Capitol Hill, including some where teens threatened to commit suicide if the vote went forward.

Wednesday

The Spectator

Ritzy DC neighborhood sees yet more crime

A studio apartment at the upscale Illume apartments in DC’s Navy Yard neighborhood currently rents for $1,747 a month. The complex boasts rooftop pools, “luxe quartz countertops with modern tile backsplashes” and the chance to “pamper your pup at Luna’s pet spa.” Not mentioned on its sleekly designed website: “escaping gunmen running through the courtyard.”“We have been informed by the police that there is an armed suspect in the area,” the building emailed residents Tuesday afternoon. “We strongly advise all residents to stay inside their home with the door locked until further notice.”A statement from the Capitol Police said, “Our patrol officers spotted a vehicle that was connected to a previous shooting that occurred in MPD’s 2nd District.

Thursday

Newt Gingrich and Peter Schweizer

Gingrich and Schweizer: the US Senate should join the House in divesting in TikTok

Last Wednesday, the House overwhelming passed HR-7521 — Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act by a bipartisan vote of 352-65.  With more than two-thirds of the House coming together to support this bill, the Senate must bring it to a vote this week. President Joe Biden has already signaled he will sign the bill if the Senate passes it. If signed into law, the legislation would require Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest in the platform within six months, or face being shut down in the United States.

tiktok

Wednesday

Ben Domenech

Congress is a very silly place

The news that China Select Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher won’t run for reelection in his safe Wisconsin district may have surprised Washington, but it’s a decision that has been apparent for some time. The thirty-nine-year-old Marine veteran, touted by China hawks and Republican leadership as a rising star, is naturally frustrated by an utterly broken institution in the House. But it also serves as a warning shot to Republicans about what could come next. If you’re in the position of being a chairman — Gallagher is the youngest of them — even an utterly dysfunctional chamber can still allow you to do some meaningful work in the committee. But if Democrats retake the House in 2024, being in the minority is a completely different animal.

mike gallagher congress

Friday

Cockburn

Seb Gorka, MAGA exile

It looks like Sebastian Gorka has been booted from the MAGA movement. The self-proclaimed “dragon of Budapest” first raised eyebrows a few weeks ago when he needled Human Events editor Jack Posobiec for suggesting the FBI had planted pipe bombs at the RNC and DNC on January 6. Posobiec had pointed out that the recovered bombs looked awfully similar to those used in FBI training. “Right Jack. Because are soooooo many different types of plumber’s end caps out there,” Gorka snarked. On his show he then made a point of rehashing Posobiec’s absurd Pizzagate allegations.Now, Gorka has really kicked the hornet’s nest by not-so-subtly accusing journalist Tucker Carlson of being an “agent of the Kremlin” for choosing to interview Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Friday

Oliver Wiseman

Trump is in uncharted territory

Given that Donald Trump’s legal trouble has been the political equivalent of background noise for more than half a decade, it’s easy to see why many will shrug at the news of the former president’s indictment in the classified documents case.  “America is stuck in Trump legal groundhog day,” argued Freddy Gray on the site this morning. Also writing for The Spectator, Jacob Heilbrunn suggests that, contrary to the indictment marking a “uniquely contentious time in American history,” the country “may simply greet [Trump’s] indictment with a yawn.”  Those betting against Trump’s ability to shake off whatever charges he faces, to move on from the latest scandal miraculously unscathed, have lost a lot of money over the years.

Thursday

John Pietro

A Chinese wargame in the halls of Congress

The House Select Committee on the CCP held a wargame Wednesday evening where members played the role of the US in a showdown with Beijing over Taiwan. As Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher said after the event, “We are well within the window of maximum danger for a [CCP] invasion of Taiwan, and yesterday’s wargame stressed the need to take action to deter CCP aggression and arm Taiwan to the teeth before any crisis begins.” The results of the game were — as Gallagher predicted in his opening statement — “sobering.”  A source close to the Committee told The Spectator that a critical lesson taken by participants was that deterrence must be the top priority.

xi jinping wang huning wargame militarizing IP china