UPPERDATE! We're live now, so let's have at it!
UPDATE! We'll be going live in about fifteen minutes, so do get ready to fire off your questions via the comment form below. See you at the top of the hour. And to listen simply click the livestream feed.
It was The Mark Steyn Club's eighth birthday earlier this month, and I thank profoundly all those First Fortnight Founding Members who've opted to sign on for a ninth year. Steve writes from Manhattan:
Mark, I am thrilled to renew my status today as a First Fortnight Founding Member—and I am thankful that my procrastination 8 years ago didn't go to 15 days—which would have moved me iron the First Month category.
Phew, a narrow escape there, Steve. Nevertheless, we bear no grudge against our First Month johnnies-com-lately, and we hope, as May meanders to its close, that they too will want to do as Steve did.
Meanwhile, we gallop into our ninth year with another hour of questions from Steyn Clubbers around the planet on today's edition of our Clubland Q&A. The fun starts at 3pm North American Eastern - which is 8pm in the British Isles and 9pm in western and central Europe.
Lots going on around the world, most of it to do with the injustices of the so-called justice system:
~I am not a believer in "supreme" courts, for reasons the first four months of the Trump Administration have made plain. There is no good reason for a nation to mortgage its future to five judges, particularly of the low quality (save two exceptions) of America's current high court. I wrote about a particularly appalling decision from the Roberts bench last month, so I was pleased to see a judge of the lower court they screwed over file a delightful "concurrence" that's a massive up-yours to the Chief Justice:
As an inferior court, we're duty-bound to follow Supreme Court rulings—whether we agree with them or not. We don't have to like it. But we have to do it. So I concur in our order today expediting our consideration of this matter, as directed by the Supreme Court.
And with that he's off. Unlike Amy Phoney Barrett, he'll never be "elevated" to the Supreme Court. But, that being so, more judges should do this.
~In London, where the judges are just as bad, there is good news and bad news: the torments of Tommy Robinson are to end and he is to be released within the next few days; but Lucy Connolly's punishment is to continue, following the denial of her appeal by our Brit Wanker Judge of the Day. Lord Justice Holroyde has ruled that Mrs Connolly's sentence - eight months in gaol for every hour her all but unseen Tweet was visible - is not "manifestly excessive". And he should know about such things: after all, it's not as manifestly excessive as the sentence imposed on Rotherham's "Lord" Ahmed, the Labour peer convicted of raping a nine-year-old boy. That was totally manifestly excessive, so Lord Justice Holroyde cut it by three years and sprung the buggering baron from prison. Because he's in the club, and Lucy Connolly isn't.
~And worst of all from Germany, where, as in the good old days of both the Third Reich and the GDR, you're not permitted to leave without the say-so of the state. I wrote on Monday about the eight German citizens with no criminal records stopped from leaving the country to attend the Remigration conference near Milan. They were prevented from catching their flight by zee authorities and ordered to report to police multiple times a day, but instead snuck across the border and were greeted like heroes on stage in Italy.
So, naturally, upon return to their own country, they were immediately arrested:
Is Bomber Harris still around to level the present iteration of the German state?
Alas not. And yet I regard the totality of these headlines as modestly encouraging. On today's show, I'm happy to take your thoughts on the above or any of the other topics we've discussed in recent days.
Whether or not you're a member of The Mark Steyn Club, you can listen to our show live as it happens wherever you chance to be on this turbulent earth: Club membership is required only to ask a question. As much as we cherish the loyalty of our First Week Founding Members, we love to hear from brand new Steyn Clubbers. Among the additions to our ranks in recent days are newbies from around the globe - from Boston to Bulgaria, Wellington to Wokingham, Cairns to Kamloops. If you've joined upon the occasion of our eighth anniversary either for a full year or a see-how-it-goes experimental quarter, do shoot me a head-scratcher for today's show.
But, if you're not interested in joining, no worries, as they say in Oz: We seek no unwilling members - and as always the show is free to listen to, so we hope you'll want to tune in. So see you back here at 3pm North American Eastern - which is 8pm in London and Dublin, 9pm in Paris and Berlin, 10pm in Kiev and Moscow; half-past-ten in Teheran; midnight-forty-five in Kathmandu; 3am in Singapore and Honkers (sorry about that); 6am in Sydney and Melbourne; 8am in Auckland, and an even more civilised hour for the kippers and kedgeree in His Majesty's Dominions eastward across the Pacific, where you're so far ahead Michael E Mann's probably lost his appeal by now...