Dude totally called it

October 11th: "Senator John Kennedy recently said that he believes Schumer will ask eight Democrats in the Senate to vote to end the filibuster to extricate him from this stupid standoff."

PJ Media: "Sen. Kennedy Perfectly Called How the Shutdown Would End Weeks Ago." 

These "renegade" Democrats were chosen carefully: "And, the Democrats who crossed over to reopen the government were not exactly profiles in courage. Every single one of them either plans to retire or won’t face voters for years." 

This is a crazy story

Red State: "The End Is Near. Tehran Faces Evacuation As Water Supplies Reach Zero and the City Sinks Into the Desert."

They're (nearly) out of water and the depleted aquifers are causing Tehran to sink at a rate of about 5 inches/year.  That's a lot! 

Invest in popcorn futures

 

is there a more perfect portrait of the average mamdani voter than “I arrived thinking everything would be free” https://t.co/7jxFLx2sBR

— Mike Solana (@micsolana) November 8, 2025

Good

PJ Media: "Thune Will Keep the Senate in Session Until a Funding Deal Is Struck." 

The decline of Aaron Sorkin

The Continental Congress: "What Would it Look Like for Hollywood to Moderate its Politics?" - "I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait for the Variety op-ed assuring me that “no, really, The Social Reckoning is not a left-wing movie, you fascist dope.” 

They had 38 days to write something down

Twitchy: "A Fuming Chuck Schumer Did NOT Like a GOP Senator's Questions About His Proposal So He STORMED OFF."

This is incredibly telling: the Democrats haven't even written down the ransom note to re-open the government.  It's another "we need to pass it to find out what's in it" proposal.  Clown show.

Scope creep

NY Times: "The Sierra Club Embraced Social Justice. Then It Tore Itself Apart. - The environmental group gave up its singular focus on climate change for a broader agenda. The ensuing internal strife left it weakened as it takes on the Trump administration."

Instead of focusing on the environment, the Sierra Club went woke then broke.

You can vote your way into socialism but you have to shoot your way out

Washington Post editorial: "Zohran Mamdani drops the mask - The mayor-elect divides New Yorkers into two groups: the oppressed and their oppressors."

Across 23 angry minutes laced with identity politics and seething with resentment, Mamdani abandoned his cool disposition and made clear that his view of politics isn’t about unity. It isn’t about letting people build better lives for themselves. It is about identifying class enemies — from landlords who take advantage of tenants to “the bosses” who exploit workers — and then crushing them. His goal is not to increase wealth but to dole it out to favored groups. The word “growth” didn’t appear in the speech, but President Donald Trump garnered eight mentions.

People’s lives, in Mamdani’s world, can be improved only by government: “We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve, and no concern too small for it to care about.” The crowd cheered, of course, but a thinking person might wonder whether it’s good for the institution that has a monopoly on violence to insist that nothing is beyond its purview.

As the editorial concludes, Mandani won among newcomers and the "educated" while long-time New Yorkers were skeptical of his promise of free stuff and his message of victimhood. 

Conjunction junction, what's your function?

I saw this video today and, man, what a rush of nostalgia.  At the risk of dating myself, "Schoolhouse Rock" was the defining learning experience for Generation X.

So sexy

Outkick: "Sydney Sweeney Turns On America With Something Bigger Than Her Boobs."

Jim Treacher: "Sydney Sweeney Rejects the Premise." 

Never give these clowns an inch because it will never be enough.

Republicans lose the messaging war

Byron York in the Washington Examiner: "Fighting the government-closing Democratic filibuster."

If they do press on, if they do keep the government closed, Democrats will be acting with confidence that comes from a number of polls that show more people blame Republicans for the shutdown than blame the Democrats, who actually caused the impasse. Two polls out just before the election, one from the Washington Post and the other from NBC News, both found that more people blamed Republicans for the shutdown than blamed Democrats.

That seems odd, given the plain facts of the case: Democrats are filibustering the government-opening bill. But it makes more sense after looking at media coverage of the standoff. In a new report, the Media Research Center’s NewsBusters studied broadcast newscasts for October and noted that “the big three broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) have hammered both congressional Republicans and President Trump with a wall of negative shutdown coverage, while largely shielding Democrats from blame for the now-historic gridlock.”

This is maddening.  Of course the mainstream media was going to cover for the Democrats!  Have Republicans forgotten all the alternative media skills that won the last election?  Go on podcasts, flood social media, hold daily press briefings.  For heaven's sake, stop depending on the media to play fair. 

At least we can still laugh

 

Zohran Mamdani Horrified To Discover He Now Has A Job https://t.co/wvmNh6NjJ8 pic.twitter.com/MHYO3AiqCT

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) November 5, 2025

The song remains the same

I saw this story linked through Real Clear Politics and knew it would yet the latest rehash of the same tired "solutions" to fix Social Security.  Washington Monthly: "How Democrats Can Save Social Security—and Win Elections."

Spoiler alert: it was.  Here comes raising the income cap, once more with feeling is taxing financial transactions and capital gains, stop me if you've heard about means-testing again.  These remedies are at the heart of every single "fix" for Social Security and there's nothing new under the sun.

Social Security is supposed to be a universal system with benefits proportional to what people paid into the system.  The Left insists on turning it into a welfare program and will not offer any solutions that do not lead to that end.

Blue states hiding their SNAP rolls

PJ Media: "I'm Sorry, But HOW MANY Illegals Get Food Stamps?"

Lots.

Illegal immigration in England

Spiked: "A stabbing in suburbia - The senseless murder in Uxbridge demands a reckoning on illegal migration."

You may have noticed… it is never the elites who pay the price for their own feckless virtue-signalling. Poor and working-class communities have borne the brunt of the small-boats crisis, simply because the hotels and rental properties are cheaper there. One analysis found that a quarter of all asylum seekers housed by the Home Office had been placed in just 10 local authorities, nine of which are among the most impoverished in the country. Illegal migration is a class issue. The bin man slain on a once-safe street is perhaps the grimmest symbol of this.

Sacrifices need to be made...by you.

It's "clown nose off" time

"How did we get to this terrible state?" asked the guy who set the standard.

Extra - Hollywood in Toto: "Jon Stewart Betrays 9/11 Work with Fawning Mamdani Interview"

"How did we get here?" lamented the navigator https://t.co/Uf1QT1wALw

— jimtreacher.substack.com (@jtLOL) November 1, 2025

If only *somebody* had warned us this would happen

Remember when Obama said Republicans would stop calling the Affordable* Care Act "Obamacare" once it became successful?  I 'member.

Boston Globe: "A $33,000 increase for a Vermont family? Obamacare marketplace insurance prices slated to skyrocket."  

It's a shame nobody warned Americans that the individual mandate was unworkable and the resulting insurance pools would not have enough healthy, young participants to make it economically viable.  If only.

* not affordable.

Extra - Washington Post: "The unaffordability of Obamacare comes home to roost - ACA subsidies are a Band-Aid for a fundamentally broken health care system." 

Tiresome

Red State: "Michelle Obama Takes Victimhood As Currency to Another Level in Latest Interview."

Good heavens.  I'm old enough to remember the absolute tongue-bath given to the Obamas by the mainstream media, Hollywood phonies, and a huge chunk of the public.  Michelle Obama is the Meghan Markle of first ladies.