The kids at the Thanksgiving card table

Manhattan Contrarian: "The BRICS Coalition Meets In India."

My comments:  China is the one country that seemed to have figured out how to make big gains on U.S. economic dominance; but in the most recent years, under the increasingly tight control of Xi, it has begun to move in reverse.  India has begun to move up some, and has a big opportunity for future gains if it can resist the temptation to tighten its regulations and impede business growth.  The rest of these countries are huge lost opportunities.  Russia under Putin has stagnated and continues to be dragged down by the failed Ukraine adventure.  South Africa is moving rapidly backwards as its racial spoils regime takes increasing control.  

So, Mr. Modi, you can complain all you want, but you will have a bigger role to play on the world stage when you decide to behave like a grown up country. 

As the author notes, these countries want to pretend they can band together and counterbalance the economic power of the United States but they're so beset by infighting and outfighting that the end result is a lot of grandstanding.  You guys are cute, look at you with your fiat currency nobody wants to use.  Adorable.

Out of time

Washington Post: "Supreme Court blocks sweeping mail ballot restrictions for midterm elections - The Trump administration had said its new restrictions were necessary to prevent fraud."

It sounds like most of the Justices didn't want to take up the question because it's too close to the midterm elections and any remediation couldn't be implemented in time.

He's alive!

Fox News: "McConnell returns after months-long absence for crucial vote."

Some people stay in politics way past their expiration date.

It's not just the United States

Kids are getting dumber in Germany too: "As test scores hit record lows, US and Germany chart opposite paths in education."

BERLIN — German education officials faced a conundrum this year all too familiar in the United States: Student test scores had been sliding for more than a decade, fueling calls for sweeping reforms.

One prominent education leader from Hamburg, arguing for reforms, recently described the country’s learning trajectory as an “inverted smiley face” with gains in the early 2000s followed by a decade of decline that began before the pandemic. The test scores of American students have followed much the same path, as have those of their peers across much of the world.

You can't blame Covid.  Much of these declines coincide with the widespread availability of smartphones and the rise of social media.  Schools tried to leverage technology and it just made things worse.  Now Massachusetts is following the lead of Mississippi and Louisiana.

Damn....

I finally got around to seeing the Bill Maher video everybody is talking about: "Bill Maher Zeroed in on the Biggest Moral Cowards Post-9/11. It's Exactly Who You Think."

Loser

That Park Place: "Jimmy Kimmel Reportedly Faces Massive Budget Cut to Keep ABC Show Alive."

He's lost his audience and now ABC wants Kimmel to lose 20% of his current budget.

Speaking of stupid and futile efforts

Washington Post: "These are the Trump investigations Democrats plan if they win in November - Democrats hope to retake control of the House, and to use that power to probe Trump’s business ventures, legal maneuvers and policies." 

They're still going on about that ballroom.

This won't happen

Red State: "DHS Drops a Wild Ilhan Omar Marriage Update — ‘We’ll Deport You’."

I feel like I've been listening to these allegations and deportation threats for a decade.  Ilhan is a deeply offensive person but - let's face it - she's not going to be deported.

Let's roll

The Corner: "The Extraordinary Courage of Ordinary People on 9/11." 

NPR deserved to be defunded

Here we go:

I know you are thinking "I really hate NPR so much" but I promise you that you don't even hate it close to enough. https://t.co/fITZpgf70l

— Jeremy Carl (@realJeremyCarl) September 9, 2026

I was listening to NPR this morning at 7am to see what they said about the anniversary of 9/11 and - as God is my witness - the top news story was about...illegal immigrants who had worked at Ground Zero.  Apparently they're the real heroes of 9/11 and, gosh darn it, we just won't grant them citizenship.

That outfit is beyond redemption.

Then everyone clapped

Townhall: "No One Believes Mark Kelly's Story About Getting a Letter From a Fellow Airline Passenger."

AWFLs destroy everything

Time to repeal the 19th Amendment:

And yet he's ahead in the polls

PJ Media: "Here’s Proof That James Talarico’s Campaign Is in BIG Trouble."

I don't pretend to know what's going on in Texas but Talarico appears to have more estrogen in his system than Beto O'Rourke.  These interviews he's granting are a way to get ahead of previous controversy by claiming "oh that's old news."

See if you can find the keyword in this story

City Journal: "How Did This Nigerian Chief Make Millions From Medicaid? - His company, California Home Health Agency, has billed the program for more than $30 million."

I also would have accepted "Minnesota." 

Won't somebody please think of the jihadi?

Gateway Pundit: "Resurfaced Abdul El-Sayed Comments: ‘9/11 Scarred Our Country in Profound Ways, But…’." 

Just like Covid, Sweden shows the way

PJ Media: "How to Virtually Eliminate Gang Violence With This One Weird Trick" - "So Sweden elected a conservative prime minister four years ago who promised to send criminal migrants back to their home countries, and you'll never believe what happened next." 

Never answer the question

Red State: "Michigan Sec. of State Is Asked If Illegal Aliens Are on Its Voter Rolls — Her Response Is Damning"

There is something very weird going on in the Democrat Party. Whenever a Democrat is asked a simple question about a basic thing, the boilerplate response is to dodge the issue or say nothing at all.

Yes, I've noticed, and it's the main reason why I've stopped watching the Sunday morning news shows.  I miss the days when Tim Russert would do research and then corner guests with their own words.  Now it's just verbal garbage and talking points.

Go woke, get broke

PJ Media: "S&P 100 Drops Nike: Formerly Disruptive Shoe Company Is Now Out of Fashion."

As somebody noted, Colin Kaepernick was Patient Zero of this brand decline.

He's mocking us

NY Post: "Mamdani hands symbolic 9/11 pen to lawyer who once represented al-Qaeda terrorist."

The easy excuse here is to say that nepo baby Mamdani doesn't know any better but what if he does?  What if it's a calculated FU to America?

Oh it would be wrong - oh so wrong - to assume bad intentions.  But.

Extra - "Mamdani and his radical-left crew are trying to downgrade the unspeakable tragedy of 9/11."

Accurate

 

State Of Massachusetts Declared Incompetent By Reason Of Insanity https://t.co/UadGKYACav

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) September 4, 2026

The ravings of an absolute loon

MSN: "Jane Fonda, 90, eviscerates MAGA Bros in furious speech."

Some samplings:

“They want to live forever, while they’re killing the rest of us,” she said. “Most of these guys—these tech bros and these oligarchs and billionaires—they feel that the laws that the rest of us live by don’t matter to them, including the laws of physics. Natural laws. They’re going to live forever.”

“Because these guys can’t have babies, they’ll create robots,” Fonda said. “That’ll be their babies, and they’ll just turn the rest of us into tradwives, who have a lot of babies too. Then they’ll take away the vote. Can you believe it? And we’re not going to stand for it.”

Elon Musk, famously, has 14 children.

These are the same nutjobs cosplaying "The Handmaid's Tale" about subjugated women wearing a male-imposed uniform who then turn around an put on a hijab without the slightest bit of self-awareness.

The wheel turns

David Mamet: "Futility - I don’t know if the United States will survive in a form recognizable to my generation."

The no-good brother-in-law, once lent money, will always come back for more; a Western world in upheaval will reliably savage the Jews; and communism, promulgated by the intellectually arrogant, will always appeal to the bored wealthy. They will use their money to inform their pets, the working class, of its grievances, and ride the wave to their moment of hegemony, when observant thugs will liquidate them.

Like Mamet, I feel we're refusing to learn the lessons of the past.