Amber Duke

Why conservatives fell out of love with Larry Hogan

Maryland state delegate Dan Cox, who was endorsed by former president Donald Trump, handily won the state's Republican gubernatorial primary on Tuesday. Cox's opponent was Kelly Shulz, the former Maryland commerce secretary who had the backing of her old boss, Governor Larry Hogan. Cox's victory confirms that despite Hogan's overall popularity — he has one of the highest gubernatorial approval ratings in the country — Republicans are no longer impressed by him. In fact, Hogan now polls better among Democrats than members of his own party. Why? Because for conservatives in Maryland, Hogan's two terms as governor were largely a betrayal.

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan (Getty Images)

Friends creator falls victim to white guilt

Friends creator Marta Kauffman is very, very sorry. No, not for forcing us to endure the exhausting decades-long debate over whether Friends or Seinfeld is a better sitcom (the show about nothing wins without question, obviously). Instead, Kauffman apologized to the woke mob for not being nearly three decades ahead of her time. The fun-sucking left has for years complained that Friends is *problematic*. The show, they whine, lacked diversity and mocked and trivialized issues such as fat-shaming and transphobia. Kauffman says she finally took these concerns to heart after the death of George Floyd because the incident forced her to reckon with the way she "bought into systemic racism." Gag.

Friends

Celebrating the Fourth in free Florida

For the first time in my adult life, I left Washington, DC for the Fourth of July holiday. Apparently this is a very popular move: locals usually prefer to escape the concrete jungle in favor of sunny shores, winding rivers, or, well, anywhere but here. Not me. Party hopping around the nation's capital before settling in at a secret spot away from all of the tourists to watch fireworks on the National Mall makes this one of my favorite days of the year. However, driven by both a desire to visit family and check out what everyone was raving about in our July magazine, this year I hopped on a southbound plane to the Sunshine State. The weekend took me from Tampa to Sarasota to Naples, experiencing all of the weird and wonderful that Florida has to offer.

Why we should doubt Cassidy Hutchinson

The January 6 Committee geared up to deliver a potential bombshell on Tuesday with emergency testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to chief of staff Mark Meadows. But like most of the attempts to take down former president Donald Trump — from Russian collusion hoaxes to slimy porn lawyers — Hutchinson's testimony quickly revealed itself as too good to be true. It quickly became clear that one of Hutchinson's most shocking claims was either misremembered or an outright lie. She claimed that Tony Ornato, White House deputy chief of staff for operations, and Bobby Engel, who headed Trump's security detail, told her that Trump had attempted to grab the steering wheel of a Secret Service vehicle to redirect it to the Capitol on January 6.

Cassidy Hutchinson testifies during the sixth hearing by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol (Getty Images)

Greg Abbott is right about open borders

The debate over President Joe Biden's immigration policies exploded again on Monday after news broke that more than forty migrants had been found dead in the back of a truck in Texas. Texas governor Greg Abbott blamed the deaths on Biden, tweeting, "These deaths are on Biden. They are a result of his deadly open border policies. They show the deadly consequence of his refusal to enforce the law." https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1541596214705135617 Thousands of Twitter users piled on Governor Abbott's tweet, arguing that if the border is really "open," then why did these migrants need to be smuggled across the border in the back of a truck?

federalism

Alison Roman joins the cancel brigade

Alison Roman is back on YouTube with a new video on making homemade smashburgers, including some very strong opinions on how to best dress the griddled patties: iceberg lettuce, thinly sliced onion, NO TOMATO, pickles and tons of mustard. Oh, and hold the fries: instead serve ’em up with a heaping side of cancel culture. In the middle of Roman's cheeky rant about her pickiness when it comes to burgers, the cookbook author and food vlogger declares that the bun has "got to be" a "potato roll." However, Roman never actually says the "potato roll" part — it's actually dubbed in via a text-to-speech robot. When Roman holds up the package of "perfect" potato rolls, the brand name is blurred. Why?

Biden’s energy hypocrisy

Joe Biden promised on the campaign trail in 2020 that he would "transition away from the oil industry,” convert to 100 percent "clean" energy by 2035, and "end fossil fuels.” Shortly after taking office, he started to make good on this pledge by suspending all new gas and oil leases on federal property and ending the Keystone XL pipeline. Now, faced with gas prices at a record high $5 per gallon and runaway inflation — aka the consequences of his own actions — Biden is looking for an off-ramp. Somehow, the Biden administration has decided it can still convince oil companies to ramp up domestic production in the short term while simultaneously promising to adhere to the president’s ambitious climate change goals in the long term.

U.S. President Joe Biden (Getty Images)

Obese TikTok star angry she can’t cripple a horse

A so-called TikTok "star" went viral this week after complaining to her more than 2 million followers that a ranch prohibited her from riding their horses because she was over the weight limit. Remi Bader, who describes herself as a "curve model" — a new term for plus-size models that sounds "nicer," says former model Anna Shillinglaw — claimed in a TikTok video that Deep Hollow Ranch in Montauk, New York, made her leave because she weighed more than 240 pounds. "I don't really need any opinions on this one," Bader said in response to commenters who noted that horses cannot carry humans above a certain weight without severe strain or injury. "It's the fact of how it wasn't advertised and how poorly it was handled. This was my experience not yours. ...

The NFL woke show marches on

The Washington Redskins — sorry, Football Team — sorry, Commanders — aren't letting a name change be the end of their ridiculous virtue signaling. Last week, the organization fined defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio $100,000 for expressing a completely benign political opinion about the January 6 Capitol riot. Del Rio first caught the attention of the woke scolds when he responded to a tweet about the January 6 committee hearings by the Brookings Institute's Norm Eisen. Eisen hasn't been shy about calling January 6 an "insurrection," and insists that former president Donald Trump is going to be charged with crimes for his alleged role in the Capitol riot. Del Rio asked why Eisen wasn't talking about "the summer of riots, looting, burning and the destruction of personal property.

Washington Commanders Defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio (Getty Images)

Of course they came for Brett Kavanaugh

Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen predicted Tuesday during a CNN interview that the upcoming midterm elections could be rife with violence, implying that Trump supporters were gearing up for a January 6 redux. Barely a day later, it was someone on his own side who attempted to exert political influence with deadly force. Nicholas John Roske, a 26-year-old man from California, was arrested and charged with attempted murder Wednesday after he showed up to Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh's home dressed in black and armed with a Glock 17 handgun, ammunition, a knife, zip ties, pepper spray, and duct tape. Roske, who was upset that the Supreme Court plans to overturn Roe v. Wade, found Kavanaugh's address online and arrived at his home in a taxi shortly after 1 a.m.

Abortion-rights advocates approach the home of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh (Getty Images)

Confirmed: Media Matters is a garbage place

Timothy Johnson, a "researcher" with Media Matters for America, announced Monday that he had left the organization after ten years — and apparently not on amicable terms. Johnson not only accused his former boss of covering for a sexual predator, but offered a rare mea culpa for his time with Media Matters. Maybe —  just maybe — he notes, the organization dedicated to using out-of-context quotes, spurious accusations, and old tweets to destroy the livelihoods of its political enemies is not the virtuous place he thought it to be. In a long tweet thread, Johnson claims that Media Matters editorial director Ben Dimiero knew for years that a male staff member was engaging in sexual misconduct but did nothing to stop him. He writes: This man suddenly resigned.

Why the left is after Ron Johnson

Senator Ron Johnson, the Republican from Wisconsin, is facing a relentless and coordinated smear campaign orchestrated by Democrats and the mainstream media. The reason why seems obvious. Johnson is running for re-election this midterm cycle and the Democratic Party has identified his seat as one they can flip. An article in the Hill noted that recent "controversies" have emboldened Democrats vying to replace Johnson, citing the "slew of negative headlines" against the incumbent senator. Most recently, the media made the claim that Senator Johnson had blamed school shootings on liberal indoctrination and wokeness in schools. As per usual, the establishment media failed to contextualize Johnson's remarks and instead chose to mock him because he didn't advocate for gun control.

Republican Senator from Wisconsin Ron Johnson (Getty Images)

Florida’s Covid numbers were obviously right all along

In the first year or so of the pandemic, the sane among us pointed to Florida as the best argument against strict lockdowns. Florida governor Ron DeSantis began the state’s first phase of reopening as early as April 2020 and declared all businesses open by September. Though critics declared him “DeathSantis” and media outlets flew drones over crowded beaches with ominous background music, Florida had some of the lowest Covid hospitalization and death rates in the entire country. Still, if you mentioned Florida's success, you would inevitably hear from some left-wing loudmouth that the numbers were cooked. It couldn't be possible to ignore the CDC, Dr. Anthony Fauci, New York governor Andrew Cuomo, Dr.

secession

Sorry State Farm: we’re boycotting now

State Farm learned the hard way that you don't come for people's kids. A leaked email released by Consumers Research on Monday revealed that the insurance company planned to mobilize its agents to indoctrinate children as young as five into woke gender theory. State Farm agents in Florida were told by a "corporate responsibility analyst" that the company is partnering with the GenderCool Project, the goal of which is to "increase representation of LGBTQ+ books and support our communities in having challenging, important and empowering conversations with children 5+." The analyst, who helpfully put his pronouns in his email signature, asked for agents to donate LGBTQ books to local schools, libraries, and community centers.

state farm

Will the White House delete its false tweet about vaccines?

The White House falsely claimed Thursday that there were no Covid-19 vaccines available when President Joe Biden took office in January 2021. "When President Biden took office, millions were unemployed and there was no vaccine available," the official White House account tweeted. In truth, the first vaccines were administered under the FDA's emergency-use authorization in mid-December of 2020. They were developed under the Trump administration's "Operation Warp Speed", a public-private partnership wherein the federal government invested billions of dollars into vaccine development and brokered a deal with pharmaceutical companies to purchase the vaccines once they were approved.

vaccinated

Ukraine vote shows Republicans still don’t get it

"I am 'Ultra MAGA'," House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik defiantly told a reporter Wednesday, "and I'm proud of it." Republicans should be embracing the badass nickname Biden bestowed upon them, just like Trump should accept being crowned the "great MAGA king." The only problem is that Stefanik is not "Ultra MAGA." Far from it. Just one day before Stefanik declared herself part of the cool kids' lunch table, she voted with 149 other tone-deaf Republicans to send an additional $40 billion in aid to Ukraine. Congress had already approved $13.6 billion in emergency spending after the Russian invasion back in March.

The abortion insurrection

Pro-abortion activists are proving themselves a greater threat to the country than a man smiling and carrying Speaker Nancy Pelosi's lectern through the Capitol building or a parent protesting at a local school board meeting. Yet the latter two have been treated far more harshly by the Biden administration because, well, they don't have the right politics. After a draft Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked to Politico last week, pro-abortion groups used intimidation and violence to try to retain the "right" to kill their unborn children. The prevailing theory is that the leak itself was done to mobilize opposition to the opinion and get the justices to change their minds.

Marchers hold up signs during a Mothers Day rally in support of Abortion (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Supermajority)

Exclusive: Pat McCrory appointee helps Biden restrict charter schools

A North Carolina school board member appointed by former Republican governor Pat McCrory appears to be backing the Biden administration on anti-school choice policies. McCrory, who is running for the open North Carolina Senate seat, appointed Eric Davis to the state school board in late 2014. Davis has been the school board chair since 2018. As The Spectator World reported in March, Davis was responsible for pushing Critical Race Theory in statewide education curricula, including approving a vote on teaching CRT to disabled pre-schoolers. He has referred to racism as a "social pandemic" and stated that "schools are not immune from these societal imperfections which diminish the education of every child in our state.

Taylor Lorenz attends VidCon 2019

Washington Post lies in defense of Taylor Lorenz

The Washington Post is defending a widely criticized article that "exposed" the creator of the viral Twitter account, "Libs of TikTok." The article, published Monday, was authored by tech reporter Taylor Lorenz, who has come under fire for her questionable journalistic ethics. Lorenz used information sourced by a former Twitter employee to reveal the identity of the Libs of TikTok account owner, who chose to operate the account anonymously and is otherwise a private citizen. The Post reporter even showed up to the home of the account owner's relatives and harassed a random Instagram user with a similar name, asserting that she was going to be "implicated as starting a hate campaign against LGBTQ people.

The Democrats’ twisted priorities on crime

Crime is on the rise in cities across America and the left is asleep at the wheel. Democrats are set to be routed in the upcoming midterm elections, but instead of getting onboard with tough-on-crime policies, they've focused their efforts on measures that are wildly out of touch with even their own voters. To start, Democrats have their pandemic lockdowns to thank for at least some of the crime crisis. Carjackings are up in cities, which experts attribute to teenagers who are not in school or extracurricular programs. James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University, said that the pandemic has given people too much free time, which can lead to an uptick in crime.

US President Joe Biden holds a 9mm pistol build kit (Getty Images)