Thursday's tabs have far to go ...
Senator Fetterman said leftists were wishing death threats or another stroke upon him after he voted with Republicans to re-open the government and then he falls and hits his face the next day. That is one crazy coincidence. pic.twitter.com/lfCFUo91Uk
— Diver 41 (Expose Them) (@ExposeDarkDeeds) November 13, 2025
Ed: It didn't take long for Bluesky progressives to prove Sen. John Fetterman correct, either.
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Blue Sky is an absolute cesspool right now in the wake of the news about John Fetterman's fall. pic.twitter.com/fNKhvXEGuQ
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) November 13, 2025
Ed: You had me at Bluesky, Steve. Sen. Fetterman had a V-fib event today, and took a hard fall. He's under observation but is recovering well, and is already joking about his facial injury on social media. We of course wish him well ... and we wish everyone else had enough sense to do so as well. Alas.
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Free Beacon: Immediately after "Martin explained that a full-time return to the office was necessary to ensure that information wasn't being siloed and that staff members would not miss out on time-sensitive decisions," employees began complaining, with remote workers sending "a flurry of thumbs-down emojis and other online expressions of discontent" on Zoom, the New York Times reported. Martin suggested that staff members who dislike the policy "should consider finding another job elsewhere," describing the move as a "'Band-Aid' that was overdue in being ripped off."
By the end of the day, the DNC employees' union, SEIU Local 500, blasted the decision, writing that "it was shocking to see the D.N.C. chair disregard staff's valid concerns on today's team call."
"D.N.C. staff worked extremely hard to support historic wins for Democrats up and down the ballot last Tuesday," the union's statement went on, "and this change feels especially callous considering the current economic conditions created by the Trump administration."
Ed: I think people can "blame" a few things on the Trump administration, but the five-day work week is not among them. As Karl Salzmann goes on to note, remote work isn't exactly making for robust results. The DNC is tanking badly on both fundraising and their burn rate this year in comparison to the GOP. Of course, the GOP isn't stuck with Kamala Harris' red ink from her 107-day campaign -- which raised $1.5 billion and still ended up in debt, without having won a single swing state.
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Seattle’s new mayor Katie Wilson: "We will not allow grocery chains to close stores at will" pic.twitter.com/YQUpJyWy0H
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) November 13, 2025
Ed: Just remember, the only socialist solution to socialism's failures is to socialism harder. F.A. Hayek exposed this pattern in 'The Road to Serfdom,' the book every urban voter needs to read and few ever do. "Food deserts" are created by government policies, especially regarding law enforcement and taxes. City governments cannot force grocery chains to keep stores open that are not profitable; wise mayors would work to create environments in which shop owners can thrive and be secure. Katie Wilson, who unfortunately won the mayoral race in Seattle, is a policy idiot.
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NY Times: New Jersey law enforcement officials on Thursday accused a man they said was a Mafia member of directing a multimillion-dollar criminal sports betting ring that involved student athletes running their own illegal electronic sports books.
Authorities said that Joseph M. (Little Joe) Perna, who they said was part of the Lucchese crime family, financed the operation, which they said had support from several relatives, including his son, Joseph R. Perna. In all, law enforcement authorities arrested and charged 14 people in the case. ...
One of those cases involved the systematic rigging of poker games in New York City that were run by the mob and attended by former N.B.A. athletes, who took a cut of the illegal proceeds, according to federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York.
Ed: Gee, how's that partnership with gambling working out for you, NBA? In fact, how has the proliferation of gambling in all areas of the US worked out? About as well as legalizing weed.
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I will not be intimidated by radical lunatics for doing my job. https://t.co/aeJiUjmV8d
— US Attorney Habba (@USAttyHabba) November 13, 2025
Ed: These are almost certainly not related. The federal case in this ring is being pursued by the US Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York. The New Jersey charges are being brought by the state. But still, it's yet another reminder of the risks run by our law enforcement officials, and it's not just the Mob that seeks retribution. And let's hope that the DoJ corrects whatever security lapse allowed this to happen in the first place.
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Chris Jacobs in the WSJ Opinion section: ObamaCare attempted to solve a real problem: Previously only individuals buying health coverage through an employer could do so on a pretax basis. The law’s exchanges subsidize many without an offer of “affordable” employer coverage. But its regulations also force families to buy coverage they don’t need and may not want, causing premiums to soar. Rates more than doubled in the law’s first four years, and continue to rise more sharply than employer plan premiums. The enhanced subsidies Congress enacted beginning in 2021, which premiums “free” for nearly half of enrollees, have encouraged massive fraud, as the Congressional Budget Office and others have documented.
The Trump administration’s HRA option provides a better way forward for many stuck in the ObamaCare morass. Workers whose businesses offer HRAs receive a free choice of insurance plans, a portable policy they can take with them from job to job, and a total tax savings (federal, state and payroll) that I estimate at 25% to 35% of the premium.
Ed: I wrote about the need for a "coherent, comprehensive alternative" to ObamaCare from Republicans earlier today. I've been writing about it for 16 years, in fact. Jacobs has the right idea, which Republicans did push in 2009-10 as the alternative, but it has yet to be put into a systematic plan to replace the ACA. Be sure to read the whole thing.
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This is bonkers. They have set annual rent increases at below cost growth, forever. https://t.co/Xhnc8YFnT8
— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) November 13, 2025
Ed: It's not bonkers. It's socialism. When this fails, and it will fail, the response from the socialists will be to socialist harder, as noted by Hayek and noted above as well. The issue with rent in Los Angeles is a lack of housing supply, created and exacerbated by government regulation and tax policies, not to mention zoning issues and public-use requirements. Electing a Fidelita like Karen Bass to solve this problem is like preventing fires by abolishing the fire department. Which, as it turns out, isn't too far off from what Bass actually did. Maybe the people of Los Angeles should be required to read "The Road to Serfdom" too.
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College Fix: Meritocracy is a modern “myth” that perpetuates inequality, blocks opportunity, and harms the common good, a professor argued during an Arizona State University event this month.
“Any idea that merit makes inequality deserved is a circle… merit isn’t a real virtue. It’s just an ideological conceit constructed to launder otherwise offensive inequalities,” Yale Law Professor Daniel Markovits said during the “Myth of Meritocracy” event.
Ed: I'm willing to concede that merit is largely mythical ... at Yale. And maybe at ASU too, if this is the quality of education they provide their students.
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It’s actually quite difficult and expensive to renounce US citizenship I’ve heard, but I think we should look into ways to offer a Jubilee year or something to make it easy and free and see if these people will put their money where their mouth is https://t.co/wmtbVoBoL9
— Enguerrand VII de Coucy (@ingelramdecoucy) November 13, 2025
Ed: Endorsed and seconded.
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ABC News: Congresswoman LaMonica McIver must face at least two of three federal charges accusing her of assaulting and impeding immigration officers outside a New Jersey detention center after federal judge on Thursday rejected her attempt to dismiss the case.
The New Jersey Democrat was charged with three counts of assaulting, resisting, impeding and interfering with federal officials following her May 9 visit to Delaney Hall, a privately owned, 1,000-bed facility in Newark that ICE uses as a detention center. ...
U.S. District Judge Jamel Semper turned down McIver's arguments that she is immune from prosecution under the Speech or Debate Clause.
"Impeding an arrest, whether lawful or unlawful, goes beyond any reasonable definition of oversight and, accordingly, exceeds the safe harbor of legislative immunity," Semper wrote in an order published Thursday.
Ed: For those keeping score, Judge Semper was appointed by Joe Biden in 2023. Semper had been a federal prosecutor for five years before his appointment. He's exactly correct, although I think he could have kept the third count in place for trial, too, on the same basis. Judge Semper is still mulling that one over.
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BREAKING: Newly released emails show Jeffrey Epstein thought Trump was one of the worst people he knew, with “not one decent cell in his body.”
— Democrats (@TheDemocrats) November 13, 2025
He went on to describe Trump with one word:
“Dangerous.” pic.twitter.com/kMyRwkgk8i
Ed: We have arrived at the "Democrats Endorse Notorious Underage Sex Trafficker As Reliable Analyst" stage of this fiasco. I truly did not have this on my bingo card, but ... here we are.
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.@ShanVenditti brought the grandkids to the White House and this adorableness happened https://t.co/WWta1tWOx9
— ZitoSalena (@ZitoSalena) November 13, 2025
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Ed: I'll be out the next two days. The Final Word will return on Monday. See you then!
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