Think More: Tuesday, May 26, 2026
Beijing’s Hand on Your Thermostat
Ian Oxnevad • Minding the Campus
A National Association of Scholars report traces how the University of California bound itself to Tsinghua University, a school flagged as a national-security risk, to help draft the climate mandates now written into state law. The yield: PG&E rates up 104% since 2015 and a regulatory regime built for Chinese manufacturers.
Silicon Valley Bought a Candidate. Voters Wouldn’t.
Billionaires from Sergey Brin to Joe Lonsdale poured millions into Matt Mahan’s run for governor, down to a Super Bowl ad. The San Jose mayor still cratered in single digits, lost his chief strategist, and watched his own super PAC refund Reed Hastings and fold. Money, it turns out, is not a message.
The Memo Garland’s DOJ Buried
John Solomon & Jerry Dunleavy • Just the News
Two days after the Mar-a-Lago raid, veteran DOJ fixer Patty Stemler emailed a colleague with “concerns”: did Trump not have authority to declassify? Garland had personally approved the search anyway. It is the second sign, after Kash Patel’s probable-cause disclosure, that the bureau’s own people doubted the case.
The Robes Start Throwing Punches
From a Florida opioid jury that dissolved into shouting and torn exhibits to Justices trading charges of bad faith from the bench, the judiciary now looks like everything else. The telling figure: 65% of Americans say they would follow conscience over a judge’s instruction. The shared norms are fraying fast.
A Governor Crashes a Federal Gate
New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill turned up unannounced at the Delaney Hall ICE facility on Memorial Day, demanded entry, and was refused. The distinction she waved away is the whole point: a state executive holds no authority over a federal detention center. The stunt was the message, and the message was contempt for it.
Jefferson’s Document Still Does the Work
Reviewing Michael Auslin’s National Treasure, Short shows how the Declaration’s preamble, not its complaints against George III, has haunted American history for the good. It marched with Washington, steeled Lincoln, irradiated the civil rights era. As the 250th nears, Auslin offers a patriotism grateful without being uncritical.
The Canonization of a Cancelled Host
As Colbert taped his last Late Show, the NPR-Times nexus eulogized a comic whose nightly audience had fallen from 3.1 million to 1.3 million as though burying a head of state. Masciotra’s point lands: while liberals high-fived over wisecracks, Republicans took the governing apparatus. The joke is on them.
Known But to God
Christopher Flannery • TomKlingenstein.com
Flannery’s annual Memorial Day meditation on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Since 1948 the Old Guard has kept its vigil every hour, in every weather, for a soldier no one can name. The instruction is in the unseen perfection: the Sentinels are most exacting when only God is watching.
Wisconsin Puts DEI on the Ballot
This November, Wisconsin voters decide an amendment barring state entities, public universities included, from discriminating or granting preferential treatment by race, sex, or ethnicity. Backed by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, it would write colorblind government into the state constitution. The Left calls the plain language a trick.
Newsom’s Railhead to Nowhere
Chris Bray • Tell Me How This Ends
Bray drove to the Central Valley site where Newsom declared high-speed rail’s “track-laying” milestone. He found an empty yard, a fence that simply ends, stranded concrete, and a sign declaring victory. The triumphant launch video was a “conceptual rendering.” At what point, he asks, do we just call it fraud?
