| Reince Priebus, Sith Lord. Vanity Fair has a delightful (profanity laced) interview with Anthony Scaramucci about his brief tenure in the White house. Mooch's take on Washington is so wrong, it's laughable: “I want you to imagine the worst person that you’ve met on Wall Street, the most ruthless and the most diabolical,” he told me. “That’s the best person in Washington. That’s the Eagle Scout of Washington.” Maryland attorney general to waste taxpayer dollars in doomed high-profile lawsuit. Joining other high-tax states, Maryland's attorney general Brian Frosh is suing the federal government for... changing federal tax law. This is a laughable suit that will certainly lose. Maryland's Republican governor Larry Hogan gets it, saying: “I have no idea what the legality of that is... I don’t think it has much of a chance.” Wonder if Frosh has any interest in higher office? Time will tell. Phil? Phil Connors? Biiiing! Do check out this parody of Groundhog Day from Reason starring the talented Andrew Heaton (a longtime friend). It's a "horrifyingly relevant parody about a cycle that never stops." We're only making plans for Nigel. We only want what's best for him. The internet was sad about the death of a lonely bird named Nigel, who tried for years to woo a concrete bird conservationists made to attract birds back to an island. But not everyone! Nicole Serratore spoke ill of the dead bird, depicting him as an icon of rape culture. Charlotte Allen's dystopian future. Frequent contributor Charlotte Allen could have told you that California's bullet train was a boondoggle. In fact, she wrote for us on it. Over the weekend, the Los Angeles Times showed how right she was: What happened to Hook is a part of a painful spectacle up and down the Central Valley. The California High-Speed Rail Authority now owns more than 1,272 parcels stretching from Madera to south of Wasco, a 119-mile corridor of abandoned commercial buildings, vacant lots, dying orchards, boarded up homes and construction sites. Some day it may be the path for a gleaming bullet train system, but today much of it is an eyesore and a magnet for criminal activity that is affecting the surrounding areas. It has put stress on already hard-luck communities that grapple with poverty, homelessness and crime. Some day... Some day.. Cloning crayfish? Move over Dolly the sheep, crayfish are now cloning themselves. What's worse? They're invasive: Scientists quickly realized the marbled crayfish were not just in German aquariums. The self-replicating creatures were out in the wild, and they were aggressive invaders. “Every single one has the ability to reproduce. Every single one could start a new population,” says Zen Faulkes, a crustacean researcher at the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley who keeps a map of marbled crayfish invasions. You can easily buy marbled crayfish online (though they are now banned in the European Union and some U.S. states). The species has shown up in the wild in Germany, Italy, Slovakia, Sweden, Japan, and Madagascar. “We’re being invaded by an army of clones,” says Faulkes. Looks like the Asian Carp might have some competition! However, at least the crayfish aren't able to jump out of the water and seriously injure boaters. They're just gross. Save the date! Join us at the 2018 Weekly Standard Summit. This May 17-20 at the historic Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs, join Stephen F. Hayes, Fred Barnes, and Michael Warren and special guests Bret Bauer and A.B. Stoddard as they discuss the future of American politics. Book your tickets now. —Jim Swift, Deputy Online Editor Please feel free to send us comments, thoughts and links to [email protected]. -30- | 