Once I had a link and clicked the tab, soon turned out to be a pain in the ...
American an European friends,
— Thaïs d’Escufon (@ThaisEscufon) October 3, 2026
I’m so ashamed, but you need to see what France has become.
Don’t make the same mistakes we did.
The only peaceful solution is to send them back to their countries of origin they love so much.
We cannot coexist. It will be them, or us. pic.twitter.com/Rhq3lqGhub
Ed: "How did we get to this stage?" Thaïs wonders. Easy; we got sold out by the woke Left, who assured us that all cultures are morally equal and that Coexist bumper stickers reflected reality more than 1500 years of actual history. The same people shrieked about population bombs, then imported workers from unstable areas when fertility levels threatened their social safety-net programs. And until very recently, the US was headed down the exact same path.
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Don Surber: The Trumpification of the Western Hemisphere two centuries after President Monroe unveiled the Monroe Doctrine is a logical next step. Monroe and his secretary of state, John Quincy Adams, warned European monarchs to stay out of Latin America.
Trump and Marco Rubio are kicking out the communists and turning the whole hemisphere red—with the notable exceptions of Red Canada and Narco Mexico. ...
Corruption and communism go hand in glove. All the talk about the proletariat and controlling the means of production are blue smoke and mirrors designed to distract attention from the looting of the government by insiders.
So, is Trump winning Latin America and losing the country?
Ed: That's the question of the midterm cycle, no? In part, that's driven by success. Trump shut down the Biden Border Crisis so quickly and effectively and began forcing illegal aliens to flee that the problem is no longer as big a priority with voters. However, the rise of the DSA and the radicals nominated by Democrats require a disciplined focus by the GOP to highlight that danger as the electoral question this cycle.
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Democrats dug the hole you are mad about. The only thing they are promising is a return to the shovels. Or worse. My Sunday @CNN take https://t.co/XhwOjS49Dw
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) October 5, 2026
Ed: Via Twitchy. Both parts of Jennings' answer are relevant here, but the part about Paxton is particularly apt in light of my earlier post about his wife's endorsement of the GOP ticket. I got plenty of heat for supporting the ad and the message for a morally compromised candidate, but the alternative is the radical that wants to let doctors mutilate children for sex changes, force females to compete against males in athletics, and who will ally with Hasan Piker in the US Senate. Elections are choices, not fantasy leagues. Angela Paxton understands that, and she's the only person (other than their children) whose take on Paxton's personal failings matter.
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Ingrid Jacques at USA Today: The heated reaction to the Cornell allegations and the rush to judge the young men involved before they’ve had their day in court makes me fear the country has learned nothing about the dangers of simply “believing women.”
The woman at the center of this latest case, who conveniently gets to be “Jane Doe” while her alleged rapists are all named, caused an uproar when she filed a civil suit on Sept. 16 – nearly two years after the initial incident occurred. Her story has changed “dramatically” since she first told it in October 2024, according to Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten, who is reopening the case in light of the “new” information. ...
What’s most troubling in the Cornell allegations is that onlookers have already made up their minds about who is to blame.
From politicians to celebrities to TV and social media personalities, the accused (who’ve never been charged with a crime) may as well have been convicted.
Ed: Jacques lays out the facts of the case, which at the moment is still a civil lawsuit rather than a criminal complaint. No one has yet been charged in the case, and given the details of the vastly changed claims by the plaintiff, it seems unlikely that any charges will be filed – except for political theater. I'd add that there seem to be people jumping to conclusions in both directions, going beyond reasonable skepticism. The courts exist to sort through such claims; let's let the courts do their job.
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NY Times journo Michelle Cottle - before blaming Trump for the Cornell 7, of course - claims boys can't send pervy texts "no matter how drunk they are." She's admitting high levels of intoxication automatically absolve females of all agency and responsibility for their actions, but males in *the same condition* are ALWAYS accountable for theirs. https://t.co/e0J8sI68Lt
— Brittany Hughes (@RealBrittHughes) October 5, 2026
Ed: Yes, this is a huge double standard. And why would Trump be a factor at all here? Didn't this take place during the Biden Regency and its ridiculous double standards on Title IX enforcement?
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It should be pointed out that all of this is happening at one of the most left-wing colleges in the country, at an institution run exclusively by leftists, where almost all of the students are Democrats. https://t.co/C8Z7I4xnuz
— John Ocasio-Rodham Nolte (@NolteNC) October 5, 2026
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Sally Satel at The Free Press: For years, the American Psychological Association has had a problem it has been unable or unwilling to address, summed up by Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) as a “persistent and pernicious pattern of antisemitism.”
Now, a bipartisan federal advisory committee to the U.S. Department of Education has decided to do something about it. Late last month it recommended, in a 7 to 4 vote, that the federal government suspend its recognition of the APA’s accrediting arm, its Commission on Accreditation (APA-CoA).
The current accreditor of 1,320 professional education and training programs at the master’s, doctoral, doctoral internship, and postdoctoral residency level in psychology, the APA-CoA has an important hand shaping the standards and best practices of trainees at a time when the standing of higher education has drawn widespread skepticism.
Ed: Having these professional associations conduct accreditation reviews made sense when they remained purely professional associations. The APA long ago became a progressive activist organization, just like the ABA has become in the legal profession. We need to wrest education away from the activists, and this is one important step in doing so.
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NEW: DECLASSIFIED FBI Probe "PLASMIC ECHO" - Appears to use FBI investigative tool known as a "Pen Register" to target phone calls of then campaign manager @SusieWiles47 - Allegedly tracked nearly two dozen defense attorneys, five journalists, @FLOTUS, political advisers including @FBIDirectorKash - Administration official characterizes as "intrusive tactics" by special counsel Jack Smith team - Probe laid groundwork for classified records case against President Trump Pen Register Trap and Trace or PRTT - Surveillance tool collects non-content routing data - Phone numbers dialed or received - Call times and duration Two Scenarios - Used for criminal and national security investigations - lower standard than probable-cause warrant Potential Violations - First (Freedom of Speech) and Fourth Amendments (unreasonable search and seizure) NOTE: Former Senior FBI agent says it looks like a classic FBI "tickle the wire" operation. After FBI agents contact Wiles, the bureau tracks phone calls to identify who she immediately contacts "On 10 April 2023, FBI WFO (Washington Field Office) reviewed WILES's telephonic activity to determine contacts of interest on the date of her FBI interview." Declassified records via @WhiteHouse transparency task force
— Catherine Herridge (@C__Herridge) October 5, 2026
Ed: Again via Twitchy, be sure to click through and read it all. Herridge always does excellent and reliable work, which is why pre-Bari Weiss CBS News cut her loose. Just to note: 'pen register' records do not include the substance of these phone calls and texts, but only the contact information of the parties to the communication. Still, this looks very much like spying on political opponents of the administration, since Wiles had nothing at all to do with either of Smith's official probes of Trump, which were smelly enough on their own.
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NY Post: LA’s “mansion tax,” sold to Angelenos as a way to tax the rich and boost housing, has instead blocked the building of 9,100 homes, wiped out 16,650 full-time construction jobs and cost $452 million in revenue.
A damning new report says the tax, officially known as United to House LA, or ULA — has had a negative impact on the city’s high-end and multi-family real estate markets and collected less than half what it was expected to generate to tackle the city’s housing crisis.
The ULA was expected to raise about $900 million a year, or $2.7 billion over its first three years. Instead, it brought in about $1.2 billion. ...
New research has documented a significant hit to high-value property sales and housing development since ULA took effect in 2023.
The tax also wiped out the equivalent of 16,650 full-time construction jobs and cost government agencies $452 million in lost revenue, according to RAND.
And the City has barely touched the cash, spending just $114 million as of May — less than 10% of the money raised. The City Council voted 13-0 last Tuesday, Raman included, to put a record $466.6 million toward affordable housing, with $324 million of that — nearly 70% — coming from ULA.
Ed: That's the most revealing part of the entire scheme. LA's socialist regime kneecapped builders and killed construction jobs to supposedly support affordable housing, but the city ended up sitting on the money instead. This is what happens with every "soak the rich" scheme ever tried. It just redistributes the capital to bureaucrats and commissars while everyone else loses. Thanks to a keen-eyed VIP Platinum member who passed this along over the weekend.
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Keith Ellison is framing himself as a crime-fighting superhero. He needs a name to go with the persona. Elliot Less. (Hat tip @AguyinMinnesota).
— Mitch "The Wałęsa Project" Berg 🇺🇸🇳🇴🇪🇪🇦🇷 (@mitchpberg) October 5, 2026
Ed: "Inspector Clouseau" was apparently taken.
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Shipwreckedcrew: All indications — and I mean all — point towards a SCOTUS decision that takes Judge Murphy and the First Circuit to the woodshed on this issue. Six Justices have signaled multiple times over 16 months that the procedures being used by the Trump DHS for third country removals are legally and constitutionally sufficient as they have allowed the removals to continue notwithstanding Judge Murphy’s repeated efforts to create procedural barriers where Congress elected to not do so
The Court could elect to resolve the case on the jurisdictional issue and go no further. It would be entirely acceptable under the Court’s practice and jurisprudence to say district court judges like Judge Murphy have been excluded by Congress from inserting themselves into the mechanics of the removal process after a Final Order of Removal has been entered. Such a ruling COULD provide a basis for the Court to go no further — to avoid dealing with the nature of “due process” under the Fifth Amendment that an illegal alien is entitled to.
That is a key question at the center of other immigration cases the Court has now agreed to hear.
Ed: This is a good curtain-raiser for today's start of the new SCOTUS term. I suspect that the court may want to go broader at this point, since its usual incremental approach has left too much room for mischief in the lower courts. Be sure to read it all.
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Star Dem-backer Debra Messing endorses GOP's Bruce Blakeman for NY governor: 'What we need' https://t.co/hNZqZNBO4k https://t.co/mXPpjzTtWq
— New York Post (@nypost) October 5, 2026
Ed: Hmmmm. The times, they are a-changing, or at least they may be.
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NY Times: Iran’s national security adviser has warned that the rapidly deteriorating economy has plunged the country into one of the most difficult periods in its history.
Mohsen Rezaei, Iran’s top security official, made the rare admission on Saturday at a high-level government meeting about how to stabilize the economy after more than seven months of war.
Iran’s currency, the rial, has plummeted since the United States and Israel launched the war on Iran in February. The decline has accelerated sharply in recent weeks, since the United States ratcheted up sanctions and enforced a naval blockade. That has made imports more expensive and deepened a longstanding cost of living crisis that sparked nationwide protests last December that the security forces crushed with deadly force....
In recent days, government and private sector employees, including nurses and teachers, have taken to social media to say they were quitting their jobs because their salaries could no longer support them. Iranian local media has reported that retired government employees have held protests in the past few weeks because they said they had not received their full pensions.
Ed: Stay the course. The regime is running out of money, and with it, running out of loyalty to a brittle military dictatorship in the guise of divine authority.
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Funny how the @nytimes and @BBC never seem to break these stories.
— John Ondrasik (@johnondrasik) October 4, 2026
Ed: Funny indeed.
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Saturday's lyric: "Sugar Sugar" by The Archies. Here's how we first heard it back in the day ...
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