Dear Weekend Jolter,
Jack Crowe here. If you read to the bottom of this newsletter last week, you’ll know that I have wrested control of this weekend’s dispatch from Judson Berger, who will be back next week.
Living in a city — especially a massive, teeming city like New York — means accepting that you will experience the consequences of public-policy decisions in an up-close-and-personal way. Occasionally, those consequences will reach out and touch you. Riding the New York City subway makes this dynamic plain in a way no other experience really can.
Every New Yorker knows the drill: you board a car, not one that looks empty — those seats are empty for a very good reason — you keep your head down, you don’t talk to anyone, and nine times out of ten, if you adhere to those simple rules, no one bothers you. As I’ve ridden the subway in the years since the pandemic, that nine-times-out-of-ten bar has started to slip.
Disorder is the inevitable consequence of the “benign” neglect that New Yorkers have come to expect from their leaders.
Jordan Neely, 30, did not deserve to die on the floor of the F train on Monday afternoon. He deserved to live in a society that recognizes when someone is incapable of caring for themselves and is willing to step in, even if that means using coercion, to place him in an environment where he’d be unable to hurt himself or others. Before he entered the subway for the last time, Neely had been arrested 42 times. Four of those arrests were for assault — and at the time of his death, Neely had an active warrant for allegedly assaulting a 67-year-old woman in 2021.
The details of Neely’s interactions with the criminal-justice system remain too opaque to determine whether District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s catch-and-release policies are to blame for the fact that he was on the subway this week. But at the very least, it seems clear that, if not in jail, he should have been in a mental-health facility.
According to Neely’s aunt, he’d struggled with mental-health issues for years — and Reddit posts uncovered by journalist Andy Ngo show that subway regulars had become frightened of him as far back as nine years ago, around the time he stopped being the charming Michael Jackson impersonator we’ve heard so much about from the media and became someone more menacing.
CNN, the New York Times, and a who’s who of progressive politicians have focused on Neely’s past life as an amiable subway performer, de-emphasizing the shape that Neely’s life had taken on in the years leading up to his death. Neely wasn’t performing when he died, he was screaming that he didn’t care if he died or went to jail. He was acting so erratically that when a 24-year-old Marine veteran decided to intervene and place him in a chokehold, another man on the car helped restrain his arms and, from what we can see and hear on video, no one in the car protested.
While the exact details of what led up to the encounter are not yet clear, we know enough to say with confidence that Neely did not die just “for being a passenger” on the subway, as New York governor Kathy Hochul claimed Thursday. Nor was it “very clear that he was not going to, you know, cause harm to these other people,” as Hochul went on to argue.
Perhaps the governor can be forgiven for not understanding how the average subway passenger tends to behave, given her upbringing in Buffalo. But at least Hochul supports Mayor Eric Adams’s plan to make it easier to involuntarily commit mentally ill homeless people who pose a threat to themselves or others — the kind of plan that, had it been in effect, may very well have taken Neely off the streets, sparing his life and sparing the man who subdued him a possible murder charge and a lifetime of guilt.
The other New York progressives who are busy crafting a simple morality tale about how and why Neely died — Public Advocate Juumane Williams, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and City Comptroller Brad Lander — have all spoken out against Adams’s effort, viewing any degree of coercion in dealing with mentally ill homeless people as fundamentally unjust.
Do not mistake their rhetoric, overflowing with compassion for Neely and righteous indignation toward the man placed in the unfortunate position of trying to subdue him, with leadership.
They failed Jordan Neely.
NAME. RANK. LINK.
EDITORIALS
Take notes, red states: Florida Bill Protects Public-Sector Workers
Not so fast, Fauci: Don’t Let Them Rewrite the Pandemic
ARTICLES
Caroline Downey: Bipolar Teen’s History of Abuse and Psychosis Didn’t Stop Docs From Prescribing Testosterone, Mastectomy
Brittany Bernstein: House Republicans Sound Alarm on Biden Executive Order That Will ‘Open the Regulatory Floodgates’
Brittany Bernstein: FBI Whistleblower Form Reveals ‘Criminal Scheme’ Involving Joe Biden, Foreign National, Comer Subpoena Claims
Charles C. W. Cooke: It’s Time to Call the Always-Trump Faction’s Bluff
Charles C. W. Cooke: The Trump & CNN Show Returns
Andrew C. McCarthy: E. Jean Carroll’s Lawyers Cleverly Undermine Trump’s ‘Locker Room Talk’ Defense to the Access Hollywood Tape
Andrew C. McCarthy: Tough Court Day in Arkansas Paternity Case for ‘Tapped-Out’ Hunter Biden and His High-Price Lawyers
Noah Rothman: The ‘Loneliness Epidemic’ We All Saw Coming
Jeff Zymeri: Wagner Chief to Pull Mercenaries Out of Bakhmut over Ammunition Dispute with Russian Military
Jeff Zymeri: HHS Demands Catholic Hospital Extinguish Living Flame in Chapel or Risk Losing Medicare Accreditation
Jim Geraghty: Did Ukraine Attempt a Drone Attack on the Kremlin, or Was It a Russian False Flag?
Jim Geraghty: The Trials of Woke Corporations and Those Who Oppose Them
Dan McLaughlin: Transgender Montana Legislator Loses Lawsuit against Censure
Jeff Blehar: How to Run against Trump: A Realist’s Notes
Christian Schneider: It’s Too Easy to Run for President
Rich Lowry: An Inconvenient Test
CAPITAL MATTERS
Johns Hopkins economics professor Stephen Hanke urges the Fed to wake up to the realities of the monetary supply: Memo to the Fed: Money Matters
LIGHTS. CAMERA. REVIEW.
Jim Geraghty laments the decline of the Star Wars franchise: May the Fourth . . . Be Better in Coming Years
Armond White pops “working man” Bruce Springsteen’s hypocritical balloon: Springsteen’s New ‘Glory Days’: Anthem of the Elite
EXCERPT ’EM IF YOU GOT ’EM
Jimmy Quinn will not rest until every American understands the profound threat that TikTok poses to our national security, culture of freedom of speech, and basic sanity. This week, his reporting put the lie to those who claim the app doesn’t do Beijing’s bidding by censoring disfavored users:
TikTok suspended the account of the Acton Institute after the libertarian think tank promoted multiple videos about Hong Kong pro-democracy icon Jimmy Lai and the Chinese Communist Party’s crackdown in the city, one of which racked up 2.3 million views. The suspension follows the temporary removal of a video that featured a former senior State Department official.
Acton’s director of communication and marketing, Eric Kohn, said on Twitter today that the suspension came yesterday “without notice or explanation.”
The Acton Institute recently produced a documentary about Lai, who was jailed in 2020 by Hong Kong’s authorities for his outspoken support of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. He is facing trial over charges that he violated the national-security law imposed on Hong Kong by the Chinese Communist Party that year.
Acton posted six videos featuring clips from the film, which collectively received more than 4 million views.
One of these videos was initially removed on April 21, Kohn told National Review. The minute-long clip, which remains available on YouTube, discussed the U.K.’s 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China, and it featured an interview in which Mary Kissel, a former senior State Department official, called the handover “Thatcher’s biggest mistake.”
Speaking of countering lies through solid, original reporting, Caroline Downey continues her valiant effort to expose the fraud that is “gender-affirming care” for kids. For the second installment of her Detransitioners series, Caroline interviewed Prisha Mosley, a young woman from North Carolina who was prescribed testosterone and had her breasts removed by “doctors” at the age of 17, despite her history of bipolar disorder, abuse, and psychosis. She has now returned to living as a woman but deals with the consequences of medical malpractice every day:
After showing her parents a PowerPoint to prove she was transgender, Mosley persuaded them to let her get a letter of recommendation from a WPATH specialist, one of whom advertised a $280 deal. With the letter signed and sealed, Mosley met with a gender therapist for 15 minutes.
Mosley said the therapist asked her leading questions like, “Do you get along better with boys?” and “Do you dislike your period?”
Her affirmative answers meant she was a boy, according to the therapist. The therapist put her parents in a Catch-22 when it came to her prognosis, she said.
“She was brutal to my parents. She asked them, ‘Would you rather have a dead daughter or a living son?’” Mosley said.
After the first appointment, the therapist said to come back when Mosley needed a letter of recommendation for “top surgery” and again for “bottom surgery.”
“I had no other choice. It was transition or suicide. I was totally convinced that I had a disease, and I had a boy brain and a girl body and that’s why I wanted to die all the time,” she said.
Mosley underwent an expensive process with the state to change her legal name. At 17 years old, she took her letter of recommendation to a pediatric endocrinologist and was prescribed testosterone. Every two weeks, she received injections in her barely 100-pound body.
At first, the hormone brought her immense bliss, she said. But then it all came crashing down.
“I’ll be honest. That period of euphoria that they talk about does exist. I thought that I was being healed and magic was happening, but I was high on drugs. Testosterone has a known confidence-boosting effect,” she said.
After the high faded, “it was a situation of chasing the dragon.” In earlier years, Mosley used opioids, she said. The peak feeling and withdrawal were the same with testosterone, she said. Ten days after every shot, she’d suffer lethargy, depression, loneliness, and aggression.
“I had serious rage. My dad would make me chop wood outside with an axe to get my rage out. I was never like that before. I was p**sed off all the time,” she said.
The first physical side effect of testosterone appeared in her genitals — a seldom discussed symptom colloquially referred to as “bottom growth” by online trans people.
“They told me that it was my penis growing and that I was turning into a man,” Mosley said. But really, the clitoris was growing past the clitoral hood to the point where it sticks out.
“You can’t even wear tight underwear because it’s abrasive and rubs against there. The clitoris has twice as many nerve endings as the penis,” she said. “It’s incredibly painful. It can’t be touched. It’s large, ugly. I have atypical genitals now.”
Remember when progressives assured us that no one was coming for our gas stoves? Well, New York governor Kathy Hochul is here to make the figments of our fevered right-wing imaginations a reality. Ryan Mills has the details:
Under pressure from environmentalists, New York lawmakers on Tuesday made their state the first in the nation to ban the use of natural gas and other fossil fuels for heating and cooking in most new buildings.
The ban on natural-gas appliances was part of a $229 billion state budget passed late Tuesday. The law requires all-electric appliances in new buildings shorter than seven stories by 2026 and in taller new construction by 2029.
The law does not affect existing buildings, and it exempts renovations. It also includes exceptions for a variety of new buildings, including hospitals, manufacturing facilities, and restaurants. But it does not allow cities or counties to opt out.
Democrats, who control the state Senate and Assembly, have faced intense pressure from environmental groups, who have taken aim at natural gas to combat climate change and indoor and outdoor air pollution. Earlier this year, controversy erupted after reports said the Biden administration’s Consumer Product Safety Commission was considering restrictions, and possibly a ban, on natural-gas stoves.
New York Republicans and industry leaders opposed the natural gas ban, saying that it would raise costs for consumers, stress the electrical grid, and have little environmental benefit. The ban is expected to face serious legal challenges.
“A first-in-the-nation, unconstitutional ban on natural gas hookups in new construction will drive up utility bills and increase housing costs,” state Senate minority leader Robert Ortt said in a prepared statement.
A pair of drones smashed into the Kremlin Wednesday morning. In classic fashion, Russia is blaming Ukraine and — by extension — the U.S. Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, are claiming it was a false-flag operation designed to stiffen the resolve of a war-weary population. Jim Geraghty analyzes the evidence on both sides of a highly consequential Russia–Ukraine whodunit:
Reasons to think it could be a genuine Ukrainian action:
One: The Ukrainians have proven to be willing to commit assassinations as part of their war effort. Back in October, the New York Times reported:
United States intelligence agencies believe parts of the Ukrainian government authorized the car bomb attack near Moscow in August that killed Daria Dugina, the daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist, an element of a covert campaign that U.S. officials fear could widen the conflict.
The United States took no part in the attack, either by providing intelligence or other assistance, officials said. American officials also said they were not aware of the operation ahead of time and would have opposed the killing had they been consulted. Afterward, American officials admonished Ukrainian officials over the assassination, they said.
For those who instinctively doubt the New York Times sources or the U.S. intelligence community, note this is an admission against interest. Neither the Biden administration nor the Times are likely to be eager to showcase that at least some factions within the Ukrainian government are the kind of people who use car bombs, aim to blow up a prominent Russian ultranationalist, and end up killing his 29-year-old daughter. Blowing up an unarmed civilian’s car is indeed a terrorist tactic.
Two: The Ukrainian have repeatedly demonstrated an ability to launch attacks against targets on Russian soil. In October, an explosion severely damaged the only bridge connecting the annexed Crimean Peninsula with the Russian mainland, hindering a key Russian supply route. In March, the Russian FSB office in the southern Russian city of Rostov, about 43 miles from the border with Ukraine, caught fire.
Three: The Ukrainians have repeatedly demonstrated an ability to launch drone attacks against targets on Russian soil, far from the Russian-Ukrainian border, and some not that far from Moscow. In December, three Russian soldiers were killed in two separate drone attacks at the Engels air base near the city of Saratov, far east of the war zone, and an air base in Ryazan, which is 115 miles southeast of Moscow. Saratov is at least 370 miles from the nearest Ukrainian-held territory, and Ryazan is about 500 miles from the Ukrainian border.
In March, the Washington Post calculated that “there have been at least 27 publicly reported drone attacks on high-value targets in Russia, primarily military bases, airfields and energy facilities. In some cases, drones crashed or were shot down before reaching their targets. At least three drones crashed near Astrakhan, a city close to the Caspian Sea near where Russia fires missiles into Ukraine.”
Note that it is possible there were other strikes or attempted strikes that the Russian government has managed to obscure. It is difficult for any journalist to get a full picture of national-security matters in Russia, as the imprisonment of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich demonstrates.
Four: The allegedly impenetrable Russian air-defense system has proven surprisingly vulnerable before. On May 28, 1987, 18-year-old West German private pilot Mathias Rust managed to fly his Reims Cessna 172P from Helsinki, Finland, to a spectacular landing in Moscow’s Red Square.
Five: It is particularly difficult to defend against drone attacks, which would make them a tempting option for the Ukrainians. They’re much cheaper than manned aircraft, they don’t risk the lives of pilots, they can be mistaken for birds on air-defense systems, and they’re relatively small targets for an anti-aircraft missile.
Reasons to doubt it is a genuine Ukrainian action and instead is a Russian false-flag operation:
One: Who benefits from a move like this? If you’re Ukraine, and you want Russia to stop attacking and invading, do you think blowing up a part of the Kremlin and killing Putin is going to make the Russian people want to end the war? Or will it make them even more determined to continue it? Even if the strike got extremely lucky and managed to kill Putin, wouldn’t Putin’s temporary successor, Mikhail Mishustin, or his long-term successor be extremely motivated to strike back hard at Ukraine for launching an attack right in the middle of the national capital?
Two: The Ukrainians almost certainly would have known Putin wasn’t there. It is apparently not much of a secret that when Vladimir Putin is in Moscow, he stays at a bunker in Novoe Ogarevo. (The architect shared the plans and blueprints with Western media.) If Western analysts in the private sector know this, Ukrainian intelligence knows this. Then again, it is possible this was a deliberate miss, meant to send a signal to Putin that the Ukrainians can attempt attacks on wherever he sleeps.
Three: Getting a drone over the Kremlin isn’t exactly easy. Just because it is difficult to defend against drone attacks, it doesn’t mean that the Russian military hasn’t poured considerable resources into defending the skies over Moscow.
Shout-Outs
Stephen Eide, at City Journal: A Representative Tragedy
Do No Harm founder Stanley Goldfarb, at the Free Press: How America’s Obsession with DEI Is Sabotaging Our Medical Schools
Khadeeja Saftar and David Benoit, at the Wall Street Journal: Jeffrey Epstein Documents, Part 2: Dinners With Lawrence Summers and Movie Screenings With Woody Allen
Ben Smith excerpts his new book Traffic in his recently begun publication, Semafor: When the Media Dinosaurs Learned to Open Doors