Wednesday's child is full of tabs ...
SHOCKING: Democrats quietly plan a “Napa Retreat,” two-day getaway (Oct. 13-14) at the five-star Hotel Yountville, with an evening wine tour and dinner at Staglin Family Vineyards’ wine caves, as the government braces for a shutdown tonight, per Politico.
— RedWave Press (@RedWave_Press) October 1, 2025
Senate Leader John… pic.twitter.com/iQV4b2OQSJ
Senate Leader John Thune: “They got to go raise money from a lot of rich, sort of left-wing billionaires.”
“If we put up a record of accomplishment and take it to the American people all the money in the world that they try and raise from the west coast is not going to matter.”
Ed: Say, remember when Bernie Sanders and AOC went on an anti-oligarch tour? Good times, good times. If you want to offer the worst optics of all time, kick off a government shutdown and then rub elbows with oligarchs at a five-star resort as federal workers start losing their paychecks. Who's running this show, anyway?
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John Hinderaker at Power Line: This is a key reason why there is not much enthusiasm for the shutdown among Democrats. Trump says he will take advantage of the shutdown to enact a reduction in force, laying off large but unspecified numbers of government workers. This is on top of the 100,000 who have just taken advantage of the administration’s deferred resignation program.
I also think most voters have seen enough “shutdown” drama to understand that it is much ado about very little. And the goals the Democrats are trying to achieve–another trillion dollars in spending, much of it on illegal aliens and fraudsters–are unpopular with most voters. So I don’t think Republicans fear being blamed for the shutdown.
Ed: I also don't think most voters care, based on the same history. This is inside-the-Beltway drama for now, and only matters to the extremely online and the deeply invested partisans. When it starts impacting more voters, that will change -- and Democrats will bear the brunt of the blame, both because the CR is still on the table to end it, and because their asks are ridiculous.
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🚨 BREAKING: OMB Director Russ Vought just CANCELED $8 BILLION in Green New Scam climate funding during the government shutdown for the following states
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 1, 2025
CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, MD, MA, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OR, VT, WA
LMAO!
Democrats screwed themselves over now! pic.twitter.com/9MdAHuygfz
Ed: Looks like Democrats forgot how shutdowns work. They just enabled DOGE On Steroids. This is Russ Vought's fantasy life. And it will only get worse from here.
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Politico: Vought has not publicly announced cuts that affected a state that backed Trump in 2024.
The moves reflect Trump’s intent to undermine programs benefiting Americans in blue-leaning states, while leaders from both parties work to negotiate a government funding agreement. Trump has suggested the shutdown could offer a pretense to cut programs he doesn’t like.
“We can get rid of a lot of things that we didn’t want, and they’d be Democrat things,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday ahead of the shutdown.
Ed: Expect to see a lot of Journ-O-List narratives about vengeance, nastiness, partisanship, and so on. Trump won't care, and neither will Vought. Republicans in Congress may get some pressure on the margins -- Republicans do get elected in these states occasionally too -- but the onus will be on the people who enabled this strategy from Trump and Vought. And by "people," I mean Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin, who got buffaloed into a johnson-measuring contest without the requisite amount of political Viagra.
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Proof that your taxpayer dollars were never necessary. https://t.co/qOuuZhhCuv
— Mark Davis (@MarkDavis) October 1, 2025
Ed: Exactly. Either compete in the marketplace or learn to code.
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Christopher Rufo in City Journal: For years, the Left had accused conservative intellectuals of fomenting “stochastic terrorism”—incendiary rhetoric that inspires violence. This accusation was used to purge conservatives from social media, and, during the Biden administration, contributed to the F.B.I.’s decision to monitor conservatives, including parents who opposed critical race theory. The Left sought to use the stochastic terrorism construction as an all-purpose censorship tool.
This year, the tables have turned. Donald Trump is in power and left-wing violence has surged. Even The Atlantic, which previously seconded the idea of stochastic terrorism, has now conceded that political violence from the Left outstrips that from the Right.
After studying several recent incidents of left-wing terrorism, I want to articulate some initial thoughts about what I call the “left-wing terror memeplex.” This system, in which left-wing narratives inspire decentralized acts of violence, has four elements: prestige narratives, radicalized memespaces, copycat models, and disturbed individuals.
Ed: This is well worth reading in its entirety and bookmarking it for later reference. Unfortunately, we will almost certainly need to reference this argument more than once in the coming months.
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Democrat Rep. Maxine Dexter, who voted to shut down the government says, “[Democrats] did not shut down the government” then acknowledges the Senate needs 60 votes to pass a federal funding bill — which Democrats voted against. pic.twitter.com/0DorsqwDAR
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 1, 2025
Ed: Any hope of intellectual honesty from Maxine Waters Dexter (update, corrected) is a recipe for disappointment. The conclusion that Democrats are driving this shutdown, however, is pretty difficult to avoid. They had the opportunity to vote for a clean CR and chose to filibuster it. When the shoe was on the other foot, Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) had no problem laying the blame on the GOP for refusing to support a clean CR. It's not even a close call, not even for a media industry totally invested in progressive narratives.
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NY Post: The chief executive of American Eagle Outfitters resisted pressure on social media to pull its provocative ad campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney — telling his charges to remain calm in the face of accusations that the brand was promoting racist and sexist tropes, according to a report.
In the weeks that followed, the campaign proved to be a hit — bringing in almost a million new customers to American Eagle between July and September, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Demand spiked for featured items: the Sweeney Cinched Waist denim jacket sold out in a day, and the Sydney Jean sold out in a week.
Ed: News flash: Sex sells. Also news flash: Acknowledging biological sex sells, too. We knew that AEO's campaign succeeded based on indirect evidence -- the stock price surge indicated fresh investor interest. Now we have direct evidence of new business on the basis of this ad campaign. The only person who could possibly be surprised by this outcome is Alissa Heinerscheid.
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Yes, Brian, that's how privately-funded things work. https://t.co/M14HJjVOBs
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) October 1, 2025
Ed: Welp ... yeah, that's embarrassing.
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John Ondrasik at Fox News: Over 3,900 film artists, including some of Hollywood’s most celebrated names, just signed a boycott of Israeli cinema institutions. They claim this is a principled stand. I call it what it is: a cowardly act that feeds antisemitism, punishes Jewish artists, and poisons the very spirit of creativity.
I am not Jewish. I don’t claim that heritage. But I don’t need to be Jewish to see right from wrong. Common sense alone tells us that when you single out the world’s one Jewish state, when you target its filmmakers and artists while ignoring brutal regimes across the globe, you are not standing for justice. You are standing for bigotry dressed up as virtue. You are empowering and legitimizing terrorists.
Art is supposed to transcend politics. It is supposed to give voice to the voiceless, shed light on the human condition, and create empathy across divides. But this boycott does the opposite. It silences. It excludes. It tells Israeli artists, "Your voice doesn’t belong." That is not art. That is discrimination. That is antisemitism. That is despicable.
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This is funnier than anything Jimmy Kimmel has done in 10 years, and the Democratic Party just put us through a national emergency over keeping his very, very, very necessary comedy on the air. Choke on it. https://t.co/Kf2Fo3ZuCp
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) October 1, 2025
Ed: Kimmel who?
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