You would think that six games in the Launching Pad and Wrigley Field would have seen Dave Winfield, Jim Northrup, and Dave Kingman jacking homers in all directions, but unfortunately the Bravos and Cubs have some tough pitchers, and we finished the week 1-5, which may just be enough to knock out us out of the running for the last playoff spot. Our only win was courtesy of Jim Kaat, who held the Cubs to four runs while our boys got three runs off Jerry Koosman before going ham on Jack Aker for six more and also sneaking an unearned run past Goose Gossage. Final score, 10-4 Senators. Our next series is at home against the hapless A’s, then it’s a short road trip to Cincinnati (1-2) before we finish up at home against the Twins (4-5). We’re 74-79, a few points behind the 73-77 Royals, so these last three series are going to decide if we’re in or out of the playoffs. Ceterum autem censeo Silicon Valley et Hamas delendam sunt.
For a decade or so now, I’ve been using that headline — a literary allusion to the famous 1970 article in which Hunter S. Thompson pioneered “Gonzo journalism” — in posts about elite academia. The decadence and depravity are mainly a function of the liberal hegemony on these campuses, where Republicans are so scarce among the faculty and administration as to be nearly non-existent. This is true not only at the Ivy League schools, but also at all the other most prestigious private colleges and universities (Stanford, Northwestern, Duke, etc.) and even at the more selective state schools like Cal-Berkeley and the University of North Carolina. Insofar as any institution of higher education is regarded as “elite,” it is characterized by a vehement commitment to leftism, which excludes not only conservatives from employment, but even silences dissent by moderate and pragmatic liberals. The experience of former Clinton administration official Lawrence Summers, who was driven out of the presidency of Harvard University for questioning the “diversity” rationale in tenure decisions, shows that not even card-carrying Democrats are safe in such environments.
In March of last year, about two months after President Trump returned to the White House, I traveled to Washington for a meeting of American education scholars. The opening panel focused — appropriately enough — on Trump’s threats to university funding, free speech on campus, and more. Then it was time for questions, and I raised my hand. I said that I agreed with all the critiques of Trump, but I also wondered what those of us who work in higher education might have done — or not done — to bring about this awful moment. Could we use it to look in the mirror, I asked, and not just to circle the wagons?
Dead silence. Then another member of the audience spoke up. “I just wanted to say that I was deeply offended by Professor Zimmerman’s use of the term ‘circle the wagons,’ which connotes a hateful history of Native American displacement and genocide,” she said, as I remember it. More awkward silence. Finally, the moderator of the panel interjected with something along the lines of: “Thank you for reminding us that we need to be careful in the language that we use to describe others.” So the panel began with a diatribe about Donald Trump’s assault on free speech and it concluded with a warning to watch our words. . . .
You can and should read the whole thing. Zimmerman has located the exact source of the problem, i.e., that the Left now dominates higher education so completely that those inside the campus bubble can’t even see what the problems are, much less think constructively about possible solutions. When Zimmerman urged his colleagues to consider a moment of self-reflection — to ask them to consider how they had helped create the threat represented by the Trump administration — his question was met with a sermon about how “circle the wagons” was offensive.
Although the Left’s hegemonic domination of academia is now worse than ever, it is not new. Seventy-five years ago, when William F. Buckley Jr. published God and Man at Yale, liberalism was already so prevalent on campus that Buckley’s critique was met with furious denunciations. Yale trustee Frank Ashburn, writing in the Saturday Review, said of Buckley’s work: “The book is one which has the glow and appeal of a fiery cross on a hillside at night. There will undoubtedly be robed figures who gather to it, but the hoods will not be academic. They will cover the face.”
To compare Buckley’s book to a Ku Klux Klan rally was outrageous and insulting, but such is ever the fate of anyone courageous enough to speak out against institutionalized liberalism. One wonders what deranged insults are now flooding into Professor Zimmerman’s email inbox after he dared write the truth in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
“Not much has been written about The Ibogaine Effect as a serious factor in the Presidential Campaign, but toward the end of the Wisconsin primary race — about a week before the vote — word leaked out that some of Muskie’s top advisors had called in a Brazilian doctor who was said to be treating the candidate with ‘some kind of strange drug’ that nobody in the press corps had ever heard of. . . . I immediately recognized The Ibogaine Effect — from Muskie’s tearful breakdown on the flatbed truck in New Hampshire, the delusions and altered thinking that characterized his campaign in Florida, and finally the condition of ‘total rage’ that gripped him in Wisconsin. There was no doubt about it: The Man from Maine had turned to massive doses of Ibogaine as a last resort. The only remaining question was ‘when did he start?'”
— Hunter S. Thompson
You have to understand the background of that campaign to understand why Hunter S. Thompson thought it would be funny to invent a rumor that a U.S. Senator was addicted to ibogaine. First of all, Thompson hated Hubert Humphrey like God hates sin, and in 1968, Ed Muskie had been Humphrey’s vice presidential running mate on the Democratic ticket that lost to Richard Nixon. For reasons that were never adequately explained at the time, and which seem ridiculous in hindsight, the media pundits and Democratic Party power brokers decided in advance of the 1972 campaign that Muskie was the front-runner, the man to beat. Thompson had other ideas, playing his hunch that the anti-war left wing (which had chased LBJ out the White House with their votes for Eugene McCarthy in the 1968 New Hampshire primary) would play a decisive role in the Democratic primaries. So at the very start of the 1972 campaign, Thompson was nearly the only national reporter covering South Dakota Sen. George McGovern on the trail in New Hampshire.
The very idea of Rolling Stone sending a correspondent to cover the presidential campaign was weird, at the time, and Thompson’s eccentricities were notorious enough that his hunch about McGovern’s chances didn’t get much credit from other reporters on the campaign trail, and yet in the end he was vindicated — especially in regard to his contempt for the “mainstream” consensus front-runner Ed Muskie. Once McGovern won the Wisconsin primary in April, Muskie’s campaign was in disarray and the party bosses who wanted to stop McGovern shifted their support to Humphrey in a desperate bid to keep the peace freaks from taking over the Democratic Party. I’ve always figured Thompson’s riff about Muskie being an ibogaine addict was his way of kicking the doomed loser while he was down. Anyway, today Stephen Green at Instapundit called attention to a story from CBS News:
Trump to sign executive order on psychedelic drug used abroad to treat PTSD A psychedelic used in some countries to treat post-traumatic stress disorder is expected to get a closer examination from the federal government on its safety and effectiveness, sources told CBS News.
The White House is drafting an executive order that would signal the Trump administration’s willingness to further U.S. research into a drug called ibogaine. Ibogaine, a naturally occurring compound from a shrub native to Africa, is used to treat depression, anxiety, addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder and brain trauma.
Because it’s illegal in the United States, Americans have been traveling to unregulated clinics, often in Mexico or the Caribbean, to take the drug.
The Trump administration doesn’t plan to reclassify the drug for medical use at this time — it will remain a Schedule I drug. President Trump intends to sign the executive order as soon as this week, two of the sources said.
White House spokespeople didn’t immediately comment.
The action on ibogaine is meant to open the door to federal funding for further research on its effectiveness with PTSD and traumatic brain injuries, especially among veterans, several sources said.
“60 Minutes” last year covered a group of nine U.S. veterans who traveled to a remote village near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, for a week-long psychedelic retreat to deal with intrusive memories. Texas has made a big push to study ibogaine. Gov. Greg Abbott last year signed a bill approving $50 million for research.
Trump officials said the medical research into ibogaine is in an early phase, but the administration wants to help determine whether it’s “snake oil” or a legitimate treatment, one official said.
As a Schedule I substance, ibogaine is currently grouped by the Drug Enforcement Administration alongside heroin, ecstasy and other drugs that have “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” . . .
Researchers say ibogaine could eventually fill a gap in addiction treatment, particularly for opioid dependence, but more large-scale clinical trials are needed before it can be considered safe or effective for any condition.
The scientific evidence behind the drug so far consists mostly of small observational studies and open-label trials. Only one double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial has been completed. More advanced trials are just now getting underway.
The most serious risk is to the heart. Ibogaine can cause dangerous heart rhythm disturbances, which can be fatal. A review in 2023 of 24 studies involving 705 people found that while ibogaine appeared to reduce withdrawal symptoms and craving, toxicity to the heart and risk of death were “worrying.” At least 27 people have died after taking ibogaine, the 2023 report showed.
In a small study of 30 veterans who received ibogaine paired with intravenous magnesium to protect the heart, no serious cardiac events were reported. The study, which was published last July by Stanford Medicine, found that the drug safely reduces post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression in veterans when combined with magnesium to protect the heart.
Going with the PTSD angle, are we? Yeah, give me a prescription, because Alabama lost four games last season, and the emotional trauma was real. But it’s just crazy how ibogaine, a drug that almost nobody had heard of when Hunter S. Thompson wrote about it in 1972, is now getting serious attention from the Trump administration. We live in Gonzo times, and when the going gets weird, the weird vote Republican.
Because I’m a native of Atlanta, I’m old enough to remember when DeKalb County was nice — affluent, prestigious, even. But the DeKalb County of 40 or 50 years ago has ceased to exist, and the only white people who live there now are those too stupid to understand their imminent peril. Hence the complaint from Mandy to local WXIA-TV:
A DeKalb County woman says her calls to 911 went unanswered after she became trapped in a chaotic street takeover, raising concerns about emergency response times in the area.
The incident happened just after 6 p.m. Saturday at the intersection of Chamblee Tucker and Alton roads, where tire marks still remain from cars spinning in the roadway.
Mandy said she was on her way to a friend’s house when she suddenly found herself surrounded by cars doing donuts and crowds of teenagers filling the intersection. “I am blocked in, and I am absolutely terrified,” she said.
She described a scene of cars spinning recklessly while some people in the crowd appeared to be holding weapons and setting off fireworks.
“Just seeing teenagers brandishing weapons and shooting off fireworks… it was crazy,” Mandy said.
With no way to leave, she called 911 for help. She said she stayed on the line for about a minute but never reached a dispatcher.
“I was on the phone for maybe a minute. Nobody picked up,” she said.
Mandy said the takeover continued for 20 to 30 minutes without any police response. By the time she was able to leave and make it home safely, she received a text message from DeKalb County 911 asking if she needed a callback — nearly 45 minutes after her initial call.
“This was about 45 minutes after I tried calling them. I was already safe at home,” she said.
She said her experience reflects a broader concern, noting that others have shared similar stories about difficulty reaching emergency services in DeKalb County.
“If you were in a real emergency, I can’t even imagine the desperation and panic,” Mandy said. “You should be able to rely on 911.”
DeKalb County officials did not provide a direct response about this specific incident. However, police said officers did respond to the scene, though those involved had already fled.
County leaders have previously acknowledged staffing shortages within the 911 system and say they are working on improvements, including the potential use of new technology to better manage high call volumes.
For residents like Mandy, the lingering question remains whether help will be there when it’s needed most.
The area where this happened was in Chamblee, north of the Atlanta campus of Mercer University, and south of the junction of I-85 and I-285. It’s a neighborhood known as Embry Hills which, 70 years ago, was nothing but farmland. Then in 1957, three brothers — Jack, James and Neal Embry — purchased 600 acres and built more than 700 homes in a planned development. It’s still the same place physically, with brick ranch houses on tree-shaded half-acre lots, but demographic changes have completely altered the social environment. Reading about Mandy, who “was on her way to a friend’s house,” my thought was: What kind of friend do you have in that neighborhood, lady? Pardon me for the suspicion that Mandy was on her way to score an ounce of weed.
As recently as 1980, DeKalb County was still 70% white, but today fewer than 30% of the county’s residents are white. In the 2024 election, Kamala Harris got 82% of the vote in DeKalb County. To answer the question, “How bad is DeKalb County?” it is only necessary to point out that Kamala Harris got a higher percentage of the vote there than she did in San Francisco, California — it’s that bad. It is therefore not in the least surprising that motorists driving through DeKalb County on a Saturday afternoon would find their way blocked by gun-wielding gangs of feral teenagers, and that their calls to 911 went unanswered.
As dangerous as Embry Hills may be, however, at least it’s on the north side of DeKalb County. About 15 miles south of there — dear God, it’s Mogadishu down around Flat Shoals Road:
Woman killed in DeKalb shooting spree was a federal employee, DHS says
A U.S. Department of Homeland Security employee was one of two women killed during this week’s DeKalb County shooting spree that injured a third person, the federal agency confirmed Wednesday. Lauren Bullis, 40, was walking her dog in a residential area off Flat Shoals Road just north of I-285 when she was fatally shot and stabbed Monday, DeKalb police said. DHS confirmed Bullis worked in multiple roles at the Office of Inspector General, including as an auditor in the Office of Audits and as a team leader in the Office of Innovation.
“Beyond her professional accomplishments, Lauren was a bright spot for so many of the DHS community. She brought warmth, kindness, and a genuine sense of care to her colleagues each day,” said a DHS statement provided to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “She was the kind of person who made others feel valued and supported, and her presence will be deeply missed.” Olaolukitan Adon Abel, 26, was arrested in connection with Bullis’ death as well as the earlier fatal shooting of another woman and the injury of a man, law enforcement said. He faces two counts of murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime.
He remains in the DeKalb jail. Court records do not yet list his attorney, and Abel waived his first appearance hearing Tuesday.
He was born in the United Kingdom and became a naturalized citizen in 2022, according to DHS.
DeKalb police have said they are trying to determine if Abel knew the victims. Brookhaven police confirmed the man, wounded while sleeping in front of a grocery store, was randomly attacked. Bullis was an avid runner who participated in the 2026 Publix Atlanta Marathon, the Atlanta Track Club said. Spokesperson Natalie Cabanas said the track club was saddened to hear about her death, though she added the staff did not know her personally.
Supporters launched a GoFundMe campaign for Bullis’ husband that had raised nearly $10,000 by noon Wednesday.
According to an arrest warrant, Bullis was walking her dog just before 7 a.m. when Abel passed her in a silver Volkswagen Jetta and shortly after attacked her.
Officials said she was the last of three to be shot during the alleged spree, which began around 12:50 a.m. when a woman was shot 14 times outside a Checkers restaurant on Wesley Chapel Road. She was identified by the county’s medical examiner’s office as 31-year-old Prianna Weathers.
Soon after, around 2 a.m., Brookhaven police officers received a call about a man shot in front of a Kroger at the Cherokee Plaza along Peachtree Road.
Abel was arrested Monday afternoon in Troup County.
DHS, in its statement, touted President Donald Trump’s immigration efforts since the Joe Biden administration “to ensure individuals with criminal histories and who otherwise lack good moral character do not attain citizenship.” The agency cited increased efforts to vet immigration applications. Abel has prior convictions in Savannah and California, but they came after he became a citizen, court documents show.
In June, he pleaded guilty in a Chatham County courtroom to four counts of sexual battery. He was subsequently sentenced to probation, banned from entering Savannah for four years and ordered to obtain a psychosexual social evaluation, documents show.
The charges stemmed from four instances where Abel “intentionally” touched “the intimate parts” of four women without their consent on April 20, 2025, according to court documents.
In total, five sexual assault calls came in within nearly an hour involving a suspect matching the same description, and four victims wanted to press charges, an incident report from the Savannah Police Department says. During his arrest in Savannah, officers found a knife in Abel’s sweatshirt pocket, police said. In October 2024, Abel was convicted in California. According to court records out of San Diego County, he pleaded guilty to felony assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm on a police officer or firefighter and felony vandalism. He was sentenced to probation.
ABC is the first network to report on the heinous murder of Lauren Bullis, a DHS employee, at the hands of a questionably naturalized U.K native with a criminal record. pic.twitter.com/ZmBjjvrVJD
The southern end of DeKalb County is a no-go zone for white people, and most Georgians wouldn’t even drive through the area on I-285 if they could avoid it. There is a lot of outrage from right-wingers over the fact that the Biden administration let Olaolukitan Adon Abel into the country, but what puzzles me is why Lauren Bullis felt safe living in that neighborhood, much less walking her dog on the street.
That is a 200-gram firework “cake,” a multi-shot repeater that shoots 20 aerial bursts in about 24 seconds. We just ordered a case of 18 of those — $154.90 wholesale, but with the 25% Early Bird discount, we paid just $116.18 to add 360 shots into our Fourth of July finale.
After publishing the “Big Yellow Button” post Sunday morning, I left it “sticky” at the top of the page for three days, and am grateful to everyone who hit the tip jar to contribute to our purchase of eight cases of fireworks — including 168 mortar shells and two beautiful zig-zag cakes called “High Stepper” that fire 200 shots in 25 seconds:
Among the contributors was a young Virginian named Jonathan, who attended last year’s show and helped with the final set-up. Thanks also to Mr. McCartney; Robert in Oak Brook, Illinois; Charles in Teaneck, New Jersey; and Mr. Schmidt in San Francisco. Gary sent $25 and the message, “Make it spectacular!” (We will!) Mr. Yoder from Pennsylvania contributed, as did Mr. Dodge and Mr. Miller, both of them from the good part of Maryland. Mr. Heath from Texas kicked in, as did Mr. Spear, who shared that he enjoys reading updates about my Army son. Cheryl gave the patriotic sum of $17.76, as did William and Irvin, both of whom expressed their admiration for Mrs. McCain (and her bikini).
Finally, we got $25 and a message (“Blow shit up. Buy McBurgers.”) from someone named Kevin in Nye County, Nevada. Seems suspicious.
Anyway, the order has been placed and will be picked up tomorrow or Friday by one of my sons and, perhaps you might ask, “Is this enough fireworks?” Friends, there is no such thing as “enough fireworks.” Eight cases is a nice start, but with the clock ticking down to the 4th of July — a mere 80 days away now — we continue our quest to acquire the quantity of pyrotechnical awesomeness required to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our independence. By the way, all of y’all are invited to come see the show in Berkeley County, West Virginia; if you’ll be in the vicinity, be sure to get in touch. Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far to our celebration, and to our other readers, I once more remind you that the Five Most Important Words in the English Language are:
