More Election Rumors and Innuendoes

—Disinformation Expert Ace

Please take a seat and brace yourselves: staffers for the Muskily Heterosexual Group Sex Fetish Enthusiast James Talarico say his "moderation" is all fake and will disappear at 11:59 PM Central Time tonight.

The James O'Keefe Media Group just dropped a hidden video filmed in my neck of the woods, and it reveals that his staffers know his entire moderate stance is a sham:

"James [Talarico], he's not going middle."

"He's [Talarico] definitely going to play the middle ground because he's in Texas. but he is a lot more progressive on it [abortion]."

"Don't put too much stock into border security comments..."He [Talarico] and I have spoken about these issues."

"He [Talarico] probably said that to try to make himself appear more centrist. He's very liberal...but we've got to get elected, so we can do something."

Texas U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico's girlfriend, Brianna Menard, was identified by her father, Matt Menard, during an undercover conversation in which he and Williamson County Democratic Chair Kim Collins Gilby separately cast doubt on Talarico's recent moderate messaging on border security, immigration, and transgender surgeries for minors.

Menard, who claims to communicate with Talarico weekly and has personally discussed immigration policies with Talarico. Insisting James Talarico remains a progressive, opposes ICE's immigration enforcement tactics, and supports a pathway to citizenship for everyone.

Jewish voters are fed up with Jihad-curious Democrats?

For much of the last century, the Democratic Party has enjoyed ironclad support from Jewish Americans, especially in New York. As recently as 2006, exit polls from the New York governor's race showed 87 percent of the Jewish population voting Democratic.

But more recently, the seemingly unthinkable has happened. Though still likely to support Democrats, Jewish voters in the state have become more open to supporting Republicans -- a trend that has picked up steam following Hamas's terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

...

Much of the drift away from Democrats has come from Zionist Jews, who fear that the party's growing opposition to Israel is a betrayal of the Jewish community and can lead to antisemitic acts. At the same time, there are younger and more progressive Jews in New York who are frustrated with the reluctance of most Democratic leaders to take meaningful action against Israel.

Taken together, the agitation could eventually spell trouble for Democrats.

...

Asked in late October 2018 which party they wanted to control Congress, 76 percent of likely Jewish voters in New York said Democrats, while 23 percent said Republicans. When asked the same question last month, 61 percent of likely Jewish voters in the state said that Democrats should control Congress and 30 percent said Republicans.

Don't worry, though. The NYT proudly posted a list of Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed's many, many Jewish supporters, which included famous Rabbinical Scholar "Jack Mehoff."

saying they would back Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed for Senate included the unfortunate moniker "Jack Mehoff."

The Times initially reported Sept. 17 on the letter, which it said was signed by "more than 500 people who identify as Jewish leaders or voters" in the Mitten State and insisted that El-Sayed is "clearly the better choice for Jews."

The story included a link to a public Google Doc managed by a group calling itself Michigan Jews for Democracy.

Mehoff appears at No. 403 on the alphabetical list, which was also promoted by the El-Sayed campaign the same day the Times published its story.

Records reviewed by The Post lists someone named Jack Mehoff as living on campus at Michigan State University in East Lansing.

A university spokesman told The Post he could "confirm that MSU does not have a record (past or present) of that particular individual attending the university."

Jack Mehoff, capital fellow. I see him sometimes in shul. He sometimes joins the cantor and Heywood Jablowmi for a schvitz. He's a leader in our local Real People Who Totally Exist Club.

Leftwing f*ckery in Texas:

RNC Election Integrity @RNCVoteProtect

🚨 TEXAS VOTERS: ONCE YOU CHECK IN, DO NOT LEAVE UNTIL YOU HAVE CAST YOUR BALLOT.

The RNC identified reports in multiple counties of voters checking in, encountering issues when trying to vote, and then being told to come back later. This is NOT CORRECT.

We immediately escalated this to the Secretary of State, who is reinforcing the proper procedures with counties.

CHECKED IN? STAY UNTIL YOUR VOTE IS CAST. Report concerns

DataRepublican (small r) @DataRepublican

52m

On a same-time snapshot, Florida is over 100K votes ahead than on Election Day 2024.

Overall, Florida is currently at a D+4 shift relative to 2024.

Eesh. I mean, we have a lot of room in Florida, but not so in other districtrs.

Nevada had a sluggish start, but is ramping up quickly in the rurals, the same places where FL is surging. Lombardo will still have a tough fight, but CD-2 should be a retain.

If these 2 states represent a pattern for rural turnouts nationwide, this means good things for KS, IA, ME. Then it'd come down to OH and possibly MI/TX for Senate control.

I don't see clear evidence of TX pointing in one direction or another yet. The error margins cross right where Paxton needs to be in my models. Just stay in line and vote.

Walter Kirn @walterkirn

One BIG thing I learned behind the scenes in 2024 when Kamala was supposedly "tied with" or "slightly ahead" of Trump is that there are many powerful figures right now who know how things are going to come out. They're just not telling you. Not in any direct way. But you can start to infer it from the subtleties of their behavior.

Walter Kirn
@walterkirn

14m

I was shown that it has a lot to do with movement from unlikely to vote to likely to vote.

Dustin Grage
@GrageDustin

🚨 BREAKING: Hennepin County officials have confirmed that the poll worker wearing the blood-spattered T-shirt depicting Charlie Kirk is real.

The poll worker was sent home, but told they could return if they changed their shirt.

Excuse me, HOW was this individual not fired on the spot? Why are they being given an opportunity to return to their post?

This is actually insane.

This post at Townhall is four hours old now, but she claims that Republican turnout is high in some states. Not just in Florida, where it's huge, but also in Nevada and Arizona as well.

My respect for the predictions of the prediction markets is about the same as most people's respect for media polls, but, if you care...

Hillary Clinton's Chief Conspiracy Theorist Marc Elias Receives DOJ Letter Informing Him He Is a CRIMINAL TARGET
20 Other Democrat Criminals Targeted

—Disinformation Expert Ace

Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh

44m

🚨 WOW! MARC ELIAS reportedly just got a CRIMINAL TARGET LETTER after his firm was involved in cheating Alaska's elections with the fake Dan Sullivan

That's in addition to nearly 20 OTHER DEMOCRATS receiving the same letter.

CHARGES POSSIBLE: Donor fraud and conspiracy

It's clear that AG Todd Blanche is NOT letting this go 🔥

Trump is not going to let Alaska's Senate seat be stolen.

The Researcher @listen_2learn

The bigger revelation from the Alaska episode isn't just that a decoy candidate was recruited. It's that lawyers from Marc Elias's law firm who were apparently involved in the scheme were also involved in the subsequent lawsuits aimed at challenging or suppressing the fallout.

I think the overlap between those orchestrating the operation and those litigating its aftermath deserves far more scrutiny than it's receiving.

Hans Mahncke
@HansMahncke

Because nobody was ever held accountable for Russiagate, the original lawfare operation, the whole machinery has only grown more brazen and sophisticated.

Marc Elias used the fake Steele dossier to push Russia collusion smears. In Alaska, his firm has taken the same playbook a step further, engineering a dirty trick and then turning to the courts to protect the result of that scheme.

Imagine Elias commissioning the Steele dossier and then marching straight into court, waving it around as evidence and demanding that a judge give legal force to the lies he had manufactured (back then, he used the FBI for that purpose, but now he simply cuts out the middleman and does it himself).

That's what happens when nobody is ever held accountable. They learn that there is no price to pay, so they keep escalating, growing bolder and more ruthless with every operation. And why wouldn't they? They've been taught that they can get away with anything.

I linked part of this recap by Jonathan Turley in the last post, but it belongs here:

Elias was the general counsel to the Clinton presidential campaign when it secretly funded the infamous Steele Dossier and pushed the false Alfa Bank conspiracy theory. (His fellow Perkins Coie partner, Michael Sussmann, was later indicted but acquitted for making a false statement to the FBI.)

Clinton campaign officials lied to reporters during the 2016 campaign, denying any involvement in the Steele Dossier. Journalists discovered the truth after the election -- that the Clinton campaign had hidden payments for the dossier as "legal fees" among the $5.6 million paid to Perkins Coie. New York Times reporter Ken Vogel said that when he tried to report the story, Elias "pushed back vigorously, saying 'You (or your sources) are wrong.'"

Times reporter Maggie Haberman later observed that "Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and with sanctimony, for a year." The Federal Election Commission ultimately sanctioned the Clinton campaign for the subterfuge.

While raising money as the self-proclaimed defenders of democracy, Elias's group has been involved in gerrymandering and efforts criticized as seeking to invalidate Republican votes, including unsuccessful efforts to challenge Democratic electoral losses.

...

Now, Elias's group is linked to the decoy scandal in Alaska, which allegedly aimed to make voters cast mistaken ballots. What distinguishes lawyers involved in this type of voter disruption is less their talent as their willingness. There are simply some things that most lawyers will not do.

Election Day News

—Disinformation Expert Ace

Jonathan Turley:

Marc Elias is back. The notorious Democratic lawyer who played a critical role in the 2016 Russia hoax is again in the news. His law firm has been identified by the New York Times as part of the expanding scandal involving Democratic effort to confuse voters in Alaska with a decoy candidate named Daniel J. Sullivan.

For those familiar with Elias's checkered history, this is a case of rounding up the usual suspects.

The scandal involving Democratic candidate Mary Peltola has quickly snowballed this week. A New York Times blockbuster investigative report quotes former staff who claim she knew of a cynical effort by her own campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to confuse voters by recruiting and fielding a decoy "Dan Sullivan" candidate in the race against incumbent Sen. Daniel S. Sullivan (R-Alaska). State and federal investigations are now unfolding, with dozens of federal subpoenas raining down on Alaska.

The effort to get voters to cast mistaken ballots is grossly unethical and, even in these rage-filled times, a uniquely disgraceful scheme. Peltola and the Democratic Party had long denied any involvement in the other Sullivan's candidacy. So when the Times produced evidence that she allegedly knew, and that Democratic staffers and lawyers had been deeply involved from the beginning, many of us were surprised -- that is, until the name "Marc Elias" emerged. Then it made more sense.

The Elias Law Group was already in the news this election cycle for threatening reporters with defamation lawsuits if they kept asking questions about the health of former Gov. Roy Cooper, the Democratic nominee for Senate in North Carolina. Earlier, Elias caused a stir during an unsuccessful Democratic gerrymandering effort, raising the idea that Democratic leaders could abolish the entire Virginia government after courts blocked their attempted radical redistricting plan.

The fact that figures such as Peltola and Cooper wanted to be associated with any law firm headed by Elias is itself an indictment of their judgment and standards.

Despite his losses in cases such as National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission, Elias is still a favorite of many on the left thanks to his aggression and partisan fervor. The controversies that make him notorious to many make him popular with others.

Ryan Fournier @RyanAFournier

1h
UNREAL: Ballots in key battleground Westchester, NY aren't fitting into scanners, and the Dem County Exec says he has "no idea" why!
Total incompetence or election interference? STAY IN LINE!

Some are saying the slots the thick paper is supposed to be fed into were deliberately tightened to block them.

Jay Gatling
@apinionsvary

3h

HOCHUL'S "WRONG SIZE PAPER" EXCUSE: WESTCHESTER'S MACHINES BREAK ON THE ONE DAY MOST REPUBLICANS VOTE!

Ballot scanners at polling sites across Westchester County have been rejecting ballots since the polls opened at 6 AM. Westchester has about 1 million residents and roughly 680,000 registered voters.

That includes about 132,000 registered Republicans, 7,400 Conservatives, and 186,000 voters who aren't enrolled in any party.

County Executive Ken Jenkins called it a "county-wide issue at all of the polling locations."

The Board of Elections blamed the "thickness" of the paper, then quietly took that word out.

Governor Hochul says it could be the "wrong size paper" and could take hours to fix.

Here's why this matters: Democrats tend to vote early and by mail. Republicans show up on Election Day. So when the machines break on Election Day, the people stuck in long lines and delays are mostly Republican voters.

Some will have to get back to work.

Some will give up and go home.

Every one of them is a vote that didn't get cast.

All of this is happening with Governor Hochul on the ballot and the Lawler race on the line.

That's a very convenient coincidence for Democrats.

Westchester, don't let them win by wearing you out. Stay in line, fill out your ballot, and make sure it goes into the orange emergency bag.

Bill Melugin @BillMelugin_

4h

NEW: Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) announces new prosecutions of non-citizens accused of voting illegally, including an Uzbek national in Wyoming who falsely attested to be a US citizen & voted, but was caught after the state began participating in the federal SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements) program to cross reference voter rolls against DHS databases.

The Uzbek man, Maksim Shakirov, has now pleaded guilty to voting as an alien and is scheduled to be sentenced in January.

HSI is also announcing the arrest of a Dominican non-citizen woman, Rosanny Fabre Villa, for illegally voting in Pennsylvania in the 2024 election, as well as the sentencing of a French national, Eliezer Kadoch, who pleaded guilty to illegally voting in the 2020, 2022, and 2024 elections in New Jersey. Feds say he also falsely claimed in a 2023 application for US citizenship that he had never voted or claimed US citizenship. He will now have to perform 50 hours of community service, pay a $1,000 fine, and be on probation for one year.

Nick Sortor @nicksortor

31m

🚨 NEW: A Kansas polling place RAN OUT of ballots this morning after the county delivered only 10 PERCENT of the ballots needed

By 8am, voters were being TURNED AWAY. It took over an HOUR AND A HALF for more ballots to be delivered.

How does this even happen?!

Is this good?

DataRepublican (small r) @DataRepublican

5h

I have minute snapshots from Florida Election Day 2024.

As of the latest data pull, we are exceeding same-snapshot margins compared to 2024 - literal Presidential turnout on a midterms.

And it's accelerating - in one ten minute pull, we pulled ahead of 2024 by 5,000 votes.

An incredible last-minute turnaround in Florida. This is the kind of performance we need to sustain across the country.

Go vote!

Benny Johnson
@bennyjohnson
Are you sitting down?

Republicans are currently showing signs of PRESIDENTIAL-LEVEL midterms turnout already on Election Day

Scott Presler reveals data from across the country showing incredible early results.

Republicans are set to flip Broward county in Florida from blue to red.

Montgomery County, Texas is BEATING Presidential level turnout this morning.

Lines are out the door at the polls in Wisconsin.

Democrats in Pennsylvania are leaving some 120,000 ballots on the table.

Republicans are showing up on Election Day.

Supposedly, polls predicted a 22 point Democrat blowout in Guam.

Instead, the Republican won narrowly:

Deranged Alcoholic Femcel Hillary Clinton and the High-Calorie Cretins of The View Say That Trump Will #Hack the Election Using Mind Control

—Disinformation Expert Ace

This doesn't sound like confidence to me.

Nicholas Fondacaro @NickFondacaro

ABC's "bona fide news program" The View brings on Hillary Clinton and Kara Swisher to push a slew of conspiracy theories about how the midterms could be stolen.
They predict:

-ICE will confront people at the polls

-Use the Justice Department and U.S. Marshals Service in a nefarious way

-The election results will be hacked and changed (teed up by Sunny Hostin)

-Use peoples Social Security numbers to manipulate their thoughts

Nicholas Fondacaro at Newsbusters:

he View cast was so confident that the midterms were going to be a blow out for Democrats, that they spent part of their Monday show priming the pump for Democratic losses with conspiracies about how Republicans were going to steal elections across the countries. Teed up by the ABC "bona fide news program" co-hosts, two-time presidential failure Hillary Clinton and leftist tech podcaster Kara Swisher spewed a slew of election theft conspiracies from intimidation, to hacking and changing results, to mind control via Social Security Numbers.

Yeah, you read that last one correctly.

"If the votes don't go his way, which we suspect they may not, will the President try to steal this election or will our systems hold?" wondered co-host Sunny Hostin, who was one of the people who claimed Trump stole the 2016 election.

Clinton claimed she had lead "war room scenarios with big groups of people to get everybody to think about the most unthinkable" ways for President Trump to steal the midterms. "Because you know, with Trump, you've got to get out of your comfort zone and say, 'well, what is the craziest thing that somebody could try to do?' and get prepared for it," she declared.

Her opening salvo was the usual assertion that Trump was going to send ICE agents to polling places across America to intimidate voters:

CLINTON: You know, having ICE or others show up and just be standing there, staring at people, you know, looking threatening to voters coming in to vote.

But you know, I do think that people are tougher than that.

GOLDBERG: Oh yeah.

[Crosstalk in agreement]

Of course, there weren't enough ICE agents to do that and there would be nothing for voters to be afraid of. They even admitted it wouldn't be intimidating.

Swisher, Clinton's podcast co-host, jumped into claim the Justice Department and U.S. Marshal Service would be used in some unexplained nefarious way. Hostin chimed in again to get Swisher to briefly warn that the election results would be hacked and presumably changed:

SWISHER: Trying all manner of attempts. Because they still control the Justice Department. They still control the Federal Marshal Service. They still control the House --

HOSTIN: And what about hacking?

SWISHER: And hacking.

This was essentially a flashback to the liberal media's greatest hoax ever, erroneously telling Americans "Russia hacked the election" in 2016, giving the false impression that results were changed to give Trump the victory.

Their craziest claim would come shortly thereafter.

Clinton tagged back in, argued that Social Security information "was literally stolen" by DOGE, and would somehow be used to mentally control voters into doing what they wanted:

If you have, in private hands, the Social Security information of every American, just as an example, which is one of the things that was alleged, that was literally stolen from the Social Security administration. I don't know if that happened, but people from inside said that it was. And that's under the control of people like Elon Musk, we need a government, and I would argue, starting in January with a new Congress, to begin to hold these people accountable. They can't get away with manipulating the data to try to influence decisions.

Attempting to give Clinton's craziness more validity, Swisher claimed it would be assured since A.I. would be involved: "Especially with A.I. And this data has never been compiled. There's a reason it's siloed in the government. If you could bring it together with A.I., there's all manner of crazy scenarios. And as crazy as you want to get."

At no point did the co-hosts of ABC's purported "bona fide news program" question these assertions or push back in any way. In fact, they were teeing them up.

Videos at the link.

Ilhan Nur Said Elmi Wrote, In Her Certficate for Her Marriage to Her Brother, That Her Given Name Was "Elmi"

—Disinformation Expert Ace

But then she crossed it out and falsified it as "Omar."

Deport this rancid walking crime spree in a burka.

Confused much?

Rep. Ilhan Omar apparently didn't know what her name was when applying in 2009 for a Minnesota marriage license to her alleged brother Ahmed Elmi, according to the document obtained by The Post.

A certified copy from the Hennepin County, Minn., government shows that the Democratic congresswoman's surname was initially written as Omar, before being crossed out and replaced with Elmi. A final edit reverted it back to Omar.

The revisions are potentially significant as the Justice Department investigates whether Omar fraudulently gained US citizenship in 2000 by failing to use her accurate legal name and birthdate.

The ongoing case builds on a probe into whether the Somalia-born politician committed immigration fraud by marrying Elmi, a British citizen who describes himself as gay.

"I'm not a Gay Pirate," Ahmad Elmi said,
while posing in his Gay Pirate Hijab

The Justice Department referred to Omar in a court filing last week as "Congresswoman Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar."

A source familiar with the investigation previously told The Post that authorities believe Omar is not the congresswoman's "real" name, meaning she was born with the last name of Elmi, just like her alleged brother-husband.

The marriage certificate application -- dated Feb. 12, 2009 -- is a potentially significant piece of evidence, though not necessarily dispositive.

The government form also asks whether the bride and groom are related to each other by blood or adoption. The couple attested they were not.

Omar's office did not respond to The Post's requests for comment on the file.

It's unclear who filled out the application, but it appears to have been written with just one person's handwriting.

Unlike the Justice Department's recent reference to Omar's alleged true name, the initial revision was written as "Ilhan Omar Elmi," rather than Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, and potentially could indicate indecision about a post-marital name change.

...

"The whole thing was a joke. The marriage was a fraudulent marriage, brazenly fraudulent," [Scott Johnson of Powerline and Alpha News] added. "They didn't take it seriously. It was entered into for a fraudulent purpose."

AJ Kern, a former Minnesota congressional candidate who has dug into Omar's immigration records and discrepancies about her birthdate, said the evidence keeps piling up.

"I think it's pretty clear she married her brother and committed immigration fraud," Kern told The Post.

The bigger issue is having a non-citizen in office, she said.

"If the evidence seems to be pointing to the fact that she never obtained citizenship, Congress is failing to do their job. If we've had a foreign nationalist occupying a seat in Congress, that's a problem," Kern said.

Trump Will End the $3.8 Billion Per Year of Military Aid to Israel by Year's End;
Counterintuitively, Is This the Best Outcome for the US and Israel?

—Disinformation Expert Ace

The US will stop the payment of military aid to Israel. It will, however, continue authorizing the sale of key US weapons systems to its ally.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that the U.S. would stop sending military aid to Israel by the end of the year.

Trump told "Fox & Friends" that Israel is in a position to purchase its own weapons and doesn't need the U.S. to fund them.

The U.S. provides $4 billion per year in military aid, Trump said, and he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had discussed terminating the funding for years. He said that the idea originated with Netanyahu.

"They don't need it. Israel is a very thriving country," Trump said.

It's actually $3.8 billion per year.

Why would Netanyahu favor an end to US military aid to Israel?

It makes no sense.

Or does it?

Although this may seem to be a sop to the J.D. Vance/Tucker Carlson Groyper pseudoconservatives -- and I imagine it is at least partly that -- it might not be such a bad deal for Israel at all.

Pro-Israel, right-leaning Jews have argued that the US should end aid to Israel -- because the aid is used by antisemites like Tucker Carlson to bash Jews, and because the money comes with very thick strings.

Presidents like Obama and Biden have used the threat of withdrawing the aid to demand that Israel not strike back against the Democrat Party's terrorist allies.

Jacob Siegel and Liel Leibovitz for Tablet, itself a Jewish commentary magazine:

End U.S. Aid to Israel America's manipulation of the Jewish state is endangering Israel and American Jews

July 16, 2023

Two years ago, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez famously wept in Congress after changing her vote on funding Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system from "no" to "present." The New York Times said that the incident showed progressive members of "the Squad" "caught between their principles and the still powerful pro-Israel voices in their party, such as influential lobbyists and rabbis." (The line was later removed with no correction.) In People magazine, the congresswoman's procedural maneuver to avoid voting was appreciated for its pathos: "Ocasio-Cortez Opens Up About Israel Iron Dome Vote That Left Her in Tears: 'Yes, I Wept.'" In the end, the resolution passed the House 420-9.

The Iron Dome is, of course, an entirely defensive anti-missile system which the Totally Not Antisemitic or Pro-Hamas Democrats hate because it stops 90% of Hamas and Hezbollah and Iranian missiles from hitting the Jewish population centers they're aimed at.

The Skwad and other terrorist-promoting antisemites want those missiles to kill Jews so that Hezballah and Hamas and Iran will be able to extract ransoms from Jews.

Ocasio-Cortez's bit of Kabuki theater fit neatly into the premade mythology of a domineering Israel lobby, popularized by academic John Mearsheimer, whose views are experiencing a burst of popularity in isolationist corners of the right. His central claim--that America has been pressured by an all-powerful, determined ethnoreligious lobby into acting against its own interests--is made explicit in references to "influential lobbyists and rabbis," in Rep. Ilhan Omar's tweets that U.S. support for Israel is "all about the Benjamins," and in graphics like The New York Times' infamous "Jew-tracker" that policed support for Barack Obama's Iran deal according to the religion of members of Congress.

Belief in the mythic power of "the lobby" rests on a common article of faith that is shared by Israel's loudest critics and most fervent supporters--namely, that U.S. military aid forms the cornerstone of the "special relationship" between the two nations, and that this aid is a gift that powerfully benefits Israel. Cutting off Israel's D.C. cash pipeline, it's assumed, would dramatically alter the balance of power in the Middle East: in one scenario by endangering Israel's security, and in another by forcing its recalcitrant leaders to accept the enlightened proposals of Western policymakers.

While this fantasy version of the U.S.-Israeli relationship is useful for stirring up emotions and demonstrating partisan loyalties, it does more to flatter the self-importance of Israel-aid opponents and supporters alike than it does to describe an increasingly warped reality, in which Israel ends up sacrificing far more value in return for the nearly $4 billion it annually receives from Washington. That's because nearly all military aid to Israel--other than loan guarantees, which cost Washington nothing, the U.S. gives Israel no other kind of aid--consists of credits that go directly from the Pentagon to U.S. weapons manufacturers.

In return, American payouts undermine Israel's domestic defense industry, weaken its economy, and compromise the country's autonomy--giving Washington veto power over everything from Israeli weapons sales to diplomatic and military strategy. When Washington meddles directly in Israel's domestic affairs, as it does often these days, Israeli leaders who have lobbied for these payments--including current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu--are simply reaping the rewards of their own penny-wise, pound-foolish efforts.

...

It's no wonder that one well-known regional expert we consulted, who served in high security-related positions in the U.S. government, was horrified when we proposed ending American aid to Israel. When we asked which of our arguments were overstated or mistaken, this person answered: "None of them. But my job is to represent the American interest. Aid to Israel is the biggest bargain we have on our books. Ending it would be a disaster for us. I just don't see who it benefits."

...

Ending aid would not mean the end of the U.S.-Israeli military alliance, intelligence sharing, trade, or any mutual affinity between the countries. Rather, it would allow both sides to see what each is getting in return for what. In the words of retired IDF Major General Gershon Hacohen: "Once we are not economically dependent on them, the partnership can flourish on its own merits."

...

Formal U.S. military aid to Israel, as opposed to loans and cash-on-delivery arms sales, started in 1979, when the Carter administration offered it as a carrot to get Israel to agree to withdraw from all of Sinai as part of a peace deal with Egypt. The same deal provided a comparable sum of U.S. military aid and arms to Egypt, for many years the second-largest recipient of U.S. foreign military financing after Israel. Notably, the aid to Egypt was given despite the country's displaying no capacity to deploy military force outside its own borders--the goal being to achieve a rough form of U.S.-brokered parity between the two recent foes.

Tucker Carlson never objects to paying off Egypt. I suppose he might, because the money is intended as a bribe to avoid hostilities against Isreal, and he would like every Muslim country to attack Israel.

But he and the other antisemites JD Vance insists on courting never bring up Egypt or all the other countries on the American dole, because they want to make the claim that the US is dominated by "ZOG," the Zionist Occupational Government, and bringing up the fact that the US sprays money around like P. Diddy at a Baby Oil Freak-Off would damage their bison-skulled propaganda efforts.

The writers note that Obama's promise of aid to Israel, $3.8 billion per year for ten years, was only made so that he had the power to restrain Israel from attacking his close ally, Iran:

..

In reality, the MOU advanced Obama's goal of paying lip service to Israeli fears while constraining future Israeli actions, in line with a new American strategic architecture in which the interests of traditional allies like Israel and Saudi Arabia would be "balanced" with those of their mortal enemy, Iran. It deepened Israel's reliance on U.S. arms and military spending, while extending Washington's reach into Israel's domestic affairs. Paradoxically, the "most generous" package ever was an instrument to downgrade the U.S. commitment to Israel. The MOU purchased both influence over Israel and the acquiescence of American Jews who were expected, in the face of such public generosity, to go along with the White House policy of strengthening Iran, while upholding the narrative that Obama was Israel's "best friend."

...

Last week, President Biden authorized the military to deploy up to 3,000 reservists to Europe in support of Ukraine's war effort. There are, at present, an undisclosed number of American troops operating in Ukraine alongside the other 80-some countries where the U.S. has forces stationed. By contrast, no American soldier or pilot has ever risked their lives for Israel, and no American missile or aircraft has ever flown in Israel's defense. Such are the myths and realities of "the lobby."

Another point the authors make is that by requiring Israel to buy American missiles and weapons with the aid, it necessarily -- and possibly intentionally -- starves Israel's own vital domestic industry from cash.

And that means that someone like Obama and Biden can blackmail Israel with the threat to withhold providing the American anti-missile missiles that keeps Israel cities from being destroyed.

In addition, US supplies of the Patriot missile are currently small, partly because we're sending so many to Ukraine and also shooting off a lot of them to protect our own bases from Iranian attacks. Other countries like Israel simply can't afford to be dependent on US anti-missile defenses, because the US, of course, may reprioritize delivery of the missiles to other countries (like Ukraine) or just need to use so many of them ourselves that we have few to send to overseas clients.

...

Cut the stranglehold of aid. Let America pursue its interests. Let Israel, too, follow its own interests, which sometimes align with those of Washington and sometimes don't. If Israelis think it will ensure their security to decapitate the Iranian regime, or give the Golan Heights on a platter to Bashar Assad, or develop their own homemade fighter plane and sell it to India or Saudi Arabia, let them go ahead. And let American Jews who care about being Jewish focus on observance and learning their people's history, instead of pimping for Lockheed Martin. If the commitment to Israel is deeper than mere political fashion, if it is more than a secularized idolatry, then it's time to prove it--by smashing the ideological idols of America's Israel debate.

Will this appease the rapid Nazi and cryptoislamist Tuq'r Qarlson? No, of course not; he and his allies on the Skwad will shift their attacks from aid to Israel to weapons sales to Israel paid for with Israel's money, period.

It will certainly be clarifying. And that is itself a good thing.

What I Saw at the Trump Rally in Salina, Kansas 1 November 2026 [NaCly Dog]

—Open Blogger

This was President Trumps 30th rally in 32 days. It was his final rally before the election. Trump has been in Kansas before, in Topeka , and also in Wichita for this election cycle. The initial rally was scheduled for Saturday. It was canceled. After questions from the press, the Rally was moved to Sunday. This was Trump’s second Rally of the day. He had an earlier Rally in Iowa.

There was no problem getting to the remote parking place, but we arrived 8 hours before Trump’s speech, and a full 3 hours before doors opened. My widowed friend and I did pass by 10 protesters on the way through the outer security perimeter. We passed street vendors selling Trump memorabilia, and especially hats. School busses took us through more security checkpoints. Once off the bus we walked to a serpentine holding line next to a hanger. 10,000 tickets were downloaded for a venue of 7,000 seats.

The crowd was a mix of all ages, from a few babes in arms, a number of young people, and many in their 60s to older. There was a large number of red Trump hats in view, with funny to respectful t-shirts and attire.

The line was a collection of high trust, good people. We were with some long-married
couples, one married for 52 years, and a middle-school math teacher at a local Catholic school. One couple brought a disposable chair and were very gracious to share with others in need of rest. There had been a roar when the four engine Boeing 747-800 Air Force 1 landed and taxied near the waiting crowd.

One person stood out in the line, in a black suit with a black Trump hat, and a cell phone with an external power pack. I talked to him, figuring his formal dress marked him as European. He was a Romanian member of their Parliament. His mission was to contact the 1.4 million Romanian-Americans to get them to vote for Trump. He had spent 2 months traveling all over the US. On Election Day, he will be near Mar-a-Lago. Thanks to some commenters, I could knowledgeably discuss recent Polish and French events, and the specific Romanian shenanigans. His take was Trump is ensuring the continuation of Western Civilization, and is the last barrier to barbarism. “The US is the hope of the world.”

We were in line for 4 and a half hours. After the doors opened, it took an additional hour and a half to get to a professional security screening. TSA should be so good. Our tickets were not collected, but I am pretty certain face-recognition software was in use, from all the cameras. We sat near the fence line, and I could see the personnel ramps for both doors of AF-1 and people moving inside.

Security was both viable and quiet. I noticed helicopter air cover, and then special police drones with blue flashing lights. Lots more Secret Service were around, as well as three types of local police. No police snipers were seen by me. Secret Service agents were roaming the crowd all the time.

We had an excellent sight-line to the open rostrum, protected on the sides and back by bulletproof glass. The Kansas City Chiefs game was on a large Jumbotron. With the Chiefs having a strong lead, the Jumbotron went silent.

Senator Marshall, on the ballot, and then Senator Moran came out to pitch the crowd to vote. Some policy was discussed, but mostly the negatives of opponents were mentioned. Then the Gubernatorial candidate Ty Masterson made his pitch, as did the incumbent State Attorney general (Kris Kobach, a personal favorite of the crowd and me), my Congressman, and another. All gave strong speeches, with policy to favor Kansans and denouncing the Left, their actions, and the DEM opponents, with specifics.

They left, and we waited for President Trump. He was still in Iowa at the other rally. The game came back on, and then toe-tapping rock music was played using two separate banks of 8 very large speakers. Hearing damage was possible. I could feel the bass compress my ribs and go from the ground to my femur. I was too close. We were outdoors, with bleacher seats behind the President and on the rear. Some people had to stand or squat.

There were 4 food vendors there, and the prices would make an airport blush. Two pork cheeseburgers and two waters was $46. The caps were taken off as they handed you the water, so some manual dexterity was needed.

The Chiefs lost the game, darkness descended, and we waited, being pounded by the music. Then the speakers crackled “Air Force 1 to Salina Tower, permission to do a low pass over the large crowd?” “Permission Granted.” “In sight.” Over our heads came a Boeing 757 in AF-1 livery. The plane landed and I noticed a long line of vehicles, headed by the Beast limo, head for the aircraft. They blocked any sight lines from the crowd to the deplaning group. We
could see people moving off the plane, but lighting was low. Eye of the Tiger music pounded us as the group left AF-1.

Trump came out to a frenzied crowd an hour and a half after the posted time. His voice was a tad raspy. But he talked about his achievements, with many big numbers. He talked about the good of tariffs and manufacturing, and seemed very proud of getting lower drug prices. He also said this was his last rally. Before the election. He worked the crowd very well, saying he wanted to go on after the Kansas City Chiefs game was over and praised the coach (Andy Reid) and QB Mahomes. He said he was sad they lost. When the President came out, there were a lot of vigilant and visible protection.

He urged us to vote. He spoke highly of Senator Marshall, and invited him up to speak. Then he praised Kris Kobach, and got him to talk. Later he asked the Secretary of Agriculture to speak to the farmers and ranchers.

After telling how he bullied France to help with his drug pricing, he called for Rubio to come up. Three times he said that Rubio is getting too popular. Twice he finished with “I’ll have to fire him.” My take was this was a sigh of high approval, and I moved Rubio into the status of heir apparent. VP JD Vance was mentioned once. I noticed three people that spoke talked of him calling them after midnight and before 6 AM. One said his wife was going to call Melania if it happened again.

He highlighted the threat to gun ownership several times, and there was a show of hands of gun owners. Practically the entire crowd raised their hand. Much more than when Veterans were asked to stand, or when ranchers and farmers were asked to raise hands.

Trump demonstrated a high energy level. He did not want to quit with such an enthusiastic crowd. He mentioned the fake news only three times. Without heat. Like they were sad puppies. As an aside, every time I passed the cordoned off press area, I wore my biggest sneer possible.

I had one protester shout at the President right behind where I was seated. I swirled around and got out of my chair in one movement. A look at my face, and she flipped me off with both hands, while backing up. A nearby Salina Police Sgt. passed me and led her away.

President Trump was having fun, had some sly humor, but he was dead serious that we needed to vote. He was like a priest, and I saw him evoke God and the many good pastors in his life, like Billy Graham and Norman Vincent Peale. He even pitched the book The Power of Positive Thinking. I got the feeling he was trying to pass on to a new generation what made him great, like a proud granddad to a grandchild.

We both had a great time. The school busses made for a quick exit, and clear traffic home.

Mid-Morning Art Thread

—CBD

Fin du travail
Jules Breton

The Morning Report — 11/3 /26

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning kids. And so today is Election Day. As we have been discussing for at least the past couple of weeks if not longer, the direction if not the ultimate fate of whatever remnants of America as founded that still remain is at stake. I know that the phrase "the most important election of our lives" is trotted out every two to four years, but perhaps it's my no longer being a kid as well as facing some critical medical issues that has done more to focus my mind on things than otherwise might've been the case, but given the state of the world, our nation, history and who and what we are dealing with makes the stakes pretty obvious regardless of what your own personal situation might be.

Well the events/stories leading up to today has meant things going on elsewhere have taken a backseat. One such story that has particular cromulence for today's results is a potential coup d'etat going on in Poland.

. . . France – along with many of its neighbors – faces the specter of a species of revolution that may end up replacing Western freedoms with some hideous hodgepodge of Communism and sharia law. In Warsaw, too, this past weekend, people began taking to the streets in large numbers. But the Polish crisis could not be hardly different from the one afflicting Western Europe. In Paris and elsewhere, governments that have slavishly followed the EU’s globalist-minded directives instead of attending to the needs of their own people are paying the price for it. In Warsaw, on Friday, a group of five judges who had been appointed by parliament but not yet sworn in by the president, Karol Nawrocki, occupied the building of the Constitutional Tribunal, whereupon one of them, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, illegitimately and peremptorily removed the court’s president and deputy leader, appointed herself to take their place, and ordered the court building surrounded by police.

Let's see, "replacing Western freedoms with some hideous hodgepodge of Communism and sharia law" Now doesn't that have a familiar ring to it right here at home, especially today. Meanwhile he may not be in Warsaw, but depending on how things shake out there, he might not make it back. Not alive anyway.

Polish member of the European Parliament warned Americans against voting for Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections, arguing that socialism could threaten their freedoms and lead the country down a similar path Poland experienced under communist rule. Dominik Tarczynski delivered the warning during an appearance on Fox News’ Saturday in America as he discussed political unrest in Europe and the dangers of socialism. “Socialism is death, slavery, lack of any freedoms. Please don’t do it. Don’t go through 70 years of occupation like Poland did,” Tarczynski warned.

Preach it brother! But they're that is they'll be wielding the whips having us build a White Sea Canal back to the 12th Century!

It took the human race thousands of years of suffering under tyranny and slavery to arrive at the Age of Enlightenment, 1685–1815, during which the absolute powers of spiritual despots and monarchs were overthrown in favor of the construction of constitutions of common law and declarations of human rights, including the rights to one’s own thought, faith, and expression; the rights of property; and the right to pursue personal happiness through freedom of enterprise. The citizens became the sovereign, and the government became the servant. These societal compacts of law wrought an unprecedented change in human fortunes toward individual liberty and societal harmony. The era gave birth to an explosion of artistic expression, scientific discovery, and industrial invention, culminating in most of the benefits we enjoy in our modern age

I recently came across a news item that made me reflect on our strange political environment —always a painful experience.
Bernie Sanders, the ancient socialist senator from Vermont, delivered a tirade against artificial intelligence, claiming that it had provided the tools for unscrupulous hackers to break into unauthorized bank accounts.
Even as he railed about an “evisceration of our privacy rights,” Sanders introduced legislation to “ban artificial superintelligence and temporarily pause advanced AI development.”
. . . Progressives want to pause data centers today because they killed off nuclear power decades ago — a chain of causation that can lead, quite literally, to the dark ages.
The best illustration of the horror of change and lack of forward-thinking by this sect can be found in their favorite means of transportation: trains and bicycles.
I mean, these are 19th-century technologies: the first steam-powered locomotive made its appearance in 1804 while the bicycle was invented in 1817.

Nevertheless, progressives spend enormous amounts of taxpayers’ money to promote these comfy old machines.

The socialist mayor of Paris, France, spent hundreds of millions of euros and destroyed her perfect city to install bike lanes. . . The socialist craves a return to the communal womb — to a society as unchanging and dogmatic as anything experienced by our medieval ancestors.

The dream is of Utopia, but what you get is Cuba, a place where the population is too hungry and too cowed to worry much about data centers.

That, in brief, is my complaint and concern about progressive conservatism of the Bernie Sanders kind. . . But by confusing their hopes with reality, progressives have tumbled into a fallacy and seem determined to drag us there with them.

Like Goethe’s Faust, they believe they can “pause” society in a perfect moment of universal harmony and sustainable prosperity.
That way lies damnation.Human societies are dynamic, complex systems, assembled through a historic process of trial and error and always adapting to changed conditions.
They can’t be paused, any more than one can pause a Cat 5 hurricane — but they can be made maladaptive, contradictory, and ultimately self-destructive.We are no exception.

Although this is quite a good piece, the author attributes way too much altruism on the evil Commies when all they want to do is exert absolute, total and permanent control on society, period, end of story,

And on that note, I invite you to peruse the Politics and associated links to try and read the tea leaves.

And of course GET OUT AND VOTE, LIKE THERE'S NO TOMORROW because depending on the outcome, there might not be one, at least not the one we had wished for, or more accurately worked our asses off and sweated bullets for... and in some cases like Ashli Babbit and Charlie Kirk as well as some of our ancestors who survived socialism in th third world and Nazi occupied Europe, took bullets for.

On that note, as always I nevertheless bid you all to have a good day,

and say a prayer for our sacred nation and society that we carry on regardless of today's outcome, and that Leftism and Islam one day soon are returned to the fiery pit from which they slithered.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• "Socialism is death, slavery, lack of any freedoms. Please don’t do it. Don’t go through 70 years of occupation like Poland did."
  Polish member of EU parliament warns Americans that voting Democrat may lead to '70 years of occupation'
  
• Bernie Sanders, the ancient socialist senator from Vermont, delivered a tirade against artificial intelligence, claiming that it had provided the tools for unscrupulous hackers to break into unauthorized bank accounts. . . When one delves into the matter, a pattern emerges. . . The socialist craves a return to the communal womb — to a society as unchanging and dogmatic as anything experienced by our medieval ancestors.The dream is of Utopia, but what you get is Cuba, a place where the population is too hungry and too cowed to worry much about data centers.
  Progressives stand against progress — AI, data centers, cars, nuclear power, anything that would make our lives better

Daily Tech News 3 November 2026

—Pixy Misa

• Yes we have no frozen bananas, part the two: Hackers have hit supermarket freezers across Belgium and Sweden, turning up the defrosting units, pushing temperatures up to 50C and destroying food. (Tom's Hardware)
  
  And Ireland, Estonia, and the Netherlands as well.

  "We've been working all night and morning to disconnect the affected units from the network."

  Wut.

  CEO Stephan Moelans said that while the company has been working "very hard" to protect its fridges against the vulnerability, physical modifications to its units are required. The company says switching units to a secure internet connection is the simplest solution in the meantime, a measure carried out by most of its customers in the wake of the France attack.

  It seems at least that this attack is on a smaller scale because many companies notice eventually if you keep stealing their wallets.
  
  
  

Monday Night ONT - November 2, 2026 [TRex]

—Open Blogger

Good evening Horde. Welcome to the Monday overnight thread. The bar is open and the refrigerator has been freshly re-stocked with Rootbeer.

Welcome to the Monday night ONT which means vintage overnight fun and games. Pull up a chair and join the fun. Good will offerings of amusing puns are encouraged. Be nice to your fellow commenters and AoS contributors. Pants are optional. This ONT is a Tucker, Candace, Megyn, and Bill Kristol free zone. Fauci is fair game.

[Top photo: Frostop Rootbeer stand, Sandy, Utah. The chain folded in the early 1980s.]

***

The Monday ONT has dialed up the wayback machine with very random results.

***

A-1 taxi in Laredo, Texas - 1982. The company is still operating but at a different location. It claims to be one of the longest-running taxi companies in the area. The building on the photo was on Farragut Street, but there is no evidence it still exists.

***

The Ace of Clubs Lounge on Route 90 in Lake Charles, Louisiana - 1979 (not to be confused with the Ace of Spades Club ONT). No evidence the Ace of Clubs still exists (at this location or otherwise nearby) or that the building remains.

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Octopus Car Wash was a chain in Minneapolis ("many hands to serve you"). This location was likely on University Avenue, near the St. Paul border. All locations are closed and the plastic octopus mascots were sold off. There is a current business in Minneapolis called Octopus Car Wash & Detail center that is not related, but trying to echo the former namesake.

Anyone ever seen (or have) one of the original octopus mascots?

***

The Clown Motel is still operating at 521 N Main St in Tonopah, Nevada.

The motel opened in 1985, founded by siblings Leroy and Leona David. They built it next to the historic Old Tonopah Cemetery (established around 1901) as a tribute to their late father, Clarence David. Clarence, a miner who died in the 1942 Belmont Mine fire, had collected more than 150 clown figurines and statues.

It has different ownership but still operates as "America's Scariest Motel" with 31 basic rooms, ghost-hunting gear rentals and a gift shop and clown museum.

Exact photo date unknown, but believed to be post-2019.

***

"Dinosaurland" was likely an advertisement for the region rather than a specific location by that name. No evidence this billboard still exists but this photo was taken in 1991 on Route 40 near Vernal, Utah.

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Jumer's Castle Lodge, 117 N. Western Ave. in Peoria, Illinois - 1980. The building is still standing but no longer operates as the original Bavarian themed hotel and restaurant.

James Jumer opened the Lodge (with restaurant and lounge) around 1970 on the site of the former Kramer's Drive-In. The Jumer's chain expanded to several locations in Illinois and Iowa but filed for bankruptcy in 1999.

The original architecture has been preserved and the location is now an assisted living facility.

***

Beauty Shop, Browning, Montana - 1987. Believed to be on the Blackfeet Reservation but specific location unknown.

Beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.

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Main Street, Columbus Junction Iowa - 2003.

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Spot Cleaners at 2701 Madison Street, Seattle, WA - 1980. Both the business and building are long gone.

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Union League, 140 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA - 1905.

The club was founded in 1862 as a patriotic society supporting the Union and Abraham Lincoln. The clubhouse was completed in 1865 and remains the organization's headquarters. There have been renovation and expansions but the building largely looks the same today.

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One of roughly 20 themed fiberglass corn statues created in 2015 for the Community Corn Project by the Vinton Guild of Fine Arts. Benton County, Iowa. Still exists on the city hall grounds at the intersection of 2nd Avenue and East 4th Street.

***

Weekly commenter stats for week of 11-01-2026

AoSHQ Commenter Statistics:
Posts : 87
Comments : 26515
Unique hashes : 1389

Top 10 commenters:
1 [711 comments] 'TheJamesMadison, precisely framed and deadpan with Wes Anderson' [100.98 posts/day]
2 [696 comments] 'whig'
3 [525 comments] 'jim (in Kalifornia)'
4 [516 comments] 'Sponge - F*ck Cancer'
5 [476 comments] 'JackStraw'
6 [456 comments] 'polynikes'
7 [410 comments] 'Blonde Morticia'
8 [372 comments] 'Anonosaurus Wrecks, Where's My Cookie?'
9 [363 comments] 'Axeman'
10 [355 comments] 'Oldcat'

Top 10 sockpuppeteers:
1 [173 names] 'Out Of Ideas' [24.57 unique names/day]
2 [106 names] 'Don't Be Jealous'
3 [57 names] '88C+u'
4 [54 names] 'Polls are for strippers'
5 [52 names] 'Duncanthrax'
6 [38 names] 'Count de Monet'
7 [36 names] 'I gotta ask'
8 [35 names] 'Shaking my head'
9 [35 names] 'mikeski'
10 [27 names] 'Helena Handbasket'

***

You want music in your ONT? Are you thirsty?

***

The Monday ONT is brought to you by A&W Rootbeer and that frosty mug taste:

***

If you write in TRex during any voting for any office, please send notice and a description of the potential position to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com for administrative handling and tracking. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Close it up

Making New Friends Cafe

—Disinformation Expert Ace

Venice in the fog

Adopting a senior pittie who had languished in the shelter for almost two years.

Dog brings her mom a treat every time the mom takes a bath.

Rescue lab's favorite game is diving and bringing up big rocks from the lake bottom.

Building apartment complexes for squirrels.

Elephant invites himself to a human's pool.

Baby seal jumps on boat to escape from a whole pod of killer whales.

Taking a golden to his first baseball game. He's a Red Sox fan so the curse of The Bambino be upon him.

Getting a weinerdog puppy for your weinerdog.

Livestock guardian dog puppy seems to be attempting to herd a two year old girl.

You shall not pass: Raccoons attempt to intimidate a cat but the cat just gives them the thousand-yard stare. Does not move at all. He merely waits, and calculates.

Quick Hits

—Disinformation Expert Ace

Whomst could have seen this coming?

Bill Melugin @BillMelugin_

EXCLUSIVE: A Honduran illegal alien who was arrested by ICE in Minnesota during Operation Metro Surge, issued a deportation order, then ordered released from ICE detention by a Clinton-appointed federal judge on "due process" grounds has now been arrested & charged w/ raping a woman in her Minnesota home while working as a handyman after his release. Police say the rape was captured on the woman's internal home surveillance video.

Authorities in Ramsey County, MN have charged 42-year-old MARCOTULIO MELENDEZ DIAZ with felony 1st degree criminal sexual penetration w/ coercion. According to the criminal complaint, on October 11th, MELENDEZ DIAZ allegedly overpowered and repeatedly raped the female victim in her own home in Mounds View, MN against her will while working as a handyman, and the assault was captured on the woman's internal home surveillance system video. He is in custody on $150,000 bond and will face up to 30 years in prison if convicted. ICE has placed a detainer on him.

ICE sources tell FOX that MELENDEZ DIAZ was initially caught and released at the Texas border by the Biden administration in April 2024. ICE arrested him in Minnesota in January 2026 during Operation Metro Surge and transferred him to ICE detention in Texas where he initially crossed the border illegally. An immigration judge issued him a deportation order on 3/30/2026 and MELENDEZ DIAZ appealed. But on 8/7/2026, a federal judge in the Western District of Texas, Judge Orlando L. Garcia (Clinton appointee) ordered MELENDEZ DIAZ released from ICE custody and granted his habeas petition on grounds of "due process", and MELENDEZ DIAZ made his way back to Minnesota.

The Board of Immigration Appeals then rejected MELENDEZ DIAZ's appeal on 10/9/2026 and issued him a final deportation order, and two days later, police say he raped the Minnesota woman in her home.

Frustrated ICE sources say this alleged rape would have never happened if MELENDEZ DIAZ had remained in ICE custody.

I've reached out to Judge Garcia's office & courtroom deputy for comment.

Pro-terrorist antiamerican communist and adulterer Democrat Sen. Chris Murphy has suffered a stroke.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., is "awake and alert" after being hospitalized for a stroke over the weekend, the New York Times reported, citing his chief of staff.

He was attending a hockey game when he suffered the stroke.

Thoughts and prayers. Well, thoughts anyway.

The Daily Kos governor of Connecticut slapped a reporter's phone from her hand when the communist was asked a question he didn't like. See, all of these fairies and pussies are tough guys now.

But Trump's so crude and aggressive! He SHREDZZZ NORMZZZ!

Churchgoers say that Haley Stevens' endorsement of Mike Rogers might change their votes.

"We can't stand with hate. We can't stand with Hasan Piker," Stevens told reporters after the morning service. "All I can do is lead with love and integrity."

...

"When young Jewish women have to hide their Star of Davids to walk across the University of Michigan campus, we have gone too far. When young men have to wear ball caps over their yarmulkes, for being Jewish, we have gone too far," Rogers said. "This is more a statement about standing together against hate and the future of this state and this country than it is anything else."

Church attendees told the Free Beacon that they were encouraged to see the display of bipartisanship at the service and that it might even change some votes.

"I thought [the joint appearance] was interesting. It could be taken as bipartisan, people working together on both sides, Democrat and Republican. That could be a good thing," the first churchgoer said. "But it also could be a dig [that] elevates the tension," she added.

Another woman leaving the church said she hadn't "made up her mind yet" on the election, but was "very pleased that [Rogers] did stay for the whole service."

"We do have a lot of candidates who come when they're running for something, and he did stay for the whole service," she said. "So I appreciate that."

David Hogg 🟧 @davidhogg111

If you supported Haley Stevens now is your time to speak out, denounce her as the Republican she is and apologize for supporting a traitor.

Femboy terrorist mouthpiece Wajahat Ali warns that if Michigan doesn't "elect" the Muslim Brotherhood Candidate Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, peaceful Mulsims will resort to terrorism in response:

Wajahat Ali @WajahatAli

Nov 1

If, God forbid, Abdul loses, this will be a watershed moment in Democratic politics.

The fire will rise.

It's over.

People will be radicalized against corporate, pro-Israel Dems. There will be a reckoning.

If, when, he wins, it will be a watershed moment.

And that reckoning will still come.

Laura Loomer @LauraLoomer

If the Trump administration and our@FBIDirectorKash doesn't conduct a raid on the home of @WajahatAli and his entire mosque by tomorrow at 10 am EST, then we will know we are a conquered country.

Muslims should not be allowed to make these types of brazen threats of Jihad.

Asked if Palestine has the right to a homeland, the Five Foot Five Fedayeen Fireplug answered immediately and simply: "Yes."

Asked if Israel has the right to a homeland, he said "Yes, but... Israel will have to accept" conditions he doesn't spell out, but which, in another answer, seem to be that Israel will have to accept that Palestinians have the right not just to Gaza and the West Bank but all of Israel.

So yes, Israel can exist, so long as it is actually Arab-dominated Palestine.

CBS: “Does Palestine have the right to exist?”

EL-SAYED: “Yes”

CBS: “Does Israel have the right to exist?”

EL-SAYED: “So, uh, yes, if there is a shared understanding…"

CBS: "Wait, you said-"

EL-SAYED: "Lemme just..." https://t.co/Ypqt0r6a38

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) November 2, 2026

Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed (and how I pray to the Lord I never have to write that name again after tomorrow, except in a post-mortem (and you can take that as you wish)) says that boys should be allowed to wag their pickles in front of girls in changing rooms because we have the internet now and you can see anything you want to see so obviously young girls should be forced to look at weirdo's cocks against their consent.

It's just the "free flow of information," you know.

.@AbdulElSayed says it’s ok for MEN to be in girl’s locker rooms.

Why?

“Well because they are going to find out about it on the internet anyway”

Completely unacceptable. https://t.co/eXeh70kkeP

— Mike Rogers (@MikeRogersForMI) November 2, 2026

DOUTHAT: What is taught in school? What happens with transgender kids on sports teams and so on, right? Like, these are places where rights are in conflict. Right? What do you think happens there?

EL-SAYED: I don't know if that's actually true. I think we manufacture these social issues, because here's the thing about it. Ross, you have an iPhone in your pocket, probably. Or is it iPhone or Samsung? You have a phone in your pocket, right?

DOUTHAT: Yeah.

EL-SAYED: You can get access to everything and anything in the whole world, all the world's information in your pocket. The notion, somehow, that you are going to prevent your child from being exposed to something that you may find disagreeable, and that that is going to be because of school, is so profoundly outdated.

So what you're saying is that it's okay to f*** nine year old girls because porn exists?

Because, of course, you have all the information, and they have all the information. So here's the thing about it. I think it's really important for us to recognize that the free flow of information is actually a beautiful thing.

It's really important. And the most important thing you can do is not try to protect a person from seeing a thing. It's about trying to make sure you coach your kid through the world that you are engaging with them and saying, 'here's what I believe, here's what you may see in the world, you get to make your choices about who you're going to be in the world.' But that's going to require us to make do with the fact that, like, the internet is a real thing, and this debate about, like, quote-unquote what's taught in the classroom, I think has been made into a cultural flashpoint, because a lot of the folks who want to make this a topic of conversation don't want to be talking about the real issues that we face.

Rich Lowry @RichLowry

In trying to minimize the wrong of girls being exposed to male genitalia in locker rooms, AES proves much, too much.

He advances an argument that would mean adults never trying to protect kids from *anything*, since they can be exposed, in theory, to whatever it is on the internet at any time.

What is supposed to be a clever defense of the indefensible turns out to be one of the most sweeping, and stupid, arguments we've ever heard for trans radicalism

Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed rejects, get this, the two state solution and argues that Palestinians' have a "right to self-determination" over all of Israel.

But remember, all he wants to talk about is "affordability" and health care, right?

Remember when Abdul was trying to pretend to care about prices and health care, not whether or not Israel has a right to exist or if he and his family have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood? He was lying the whole time, it's all he cares about. https://t.co/0jBKR6teq6

— Derek Hunter (@derekahunter) November 2, 2026

The Bee:

Kraft marketing department: ::huge bong hit:: Now heat me out...

— Physics Geek (@physicsgeek) November 2, 2026

Close it up

Polls Are Made for Strippers and They Get Greasy and Slippery Around Closing Time

—Disinformation Expert Ace

The New York Times admits that Republicans are 30% less likely to respond to polls at all.

And if a group disfavored by the media party refuses to answer at such high rates -- what is the skew within that group? That is, among the Republicans who do answer, is it the case that Republicans voting Democrat are the most likely "Republicans" to answer a leftwing pollster's questions?

I don't know. Seems likely to me, though.

Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh

🚨 UPDATE: New York Times just warned their blue wave final midterm polls are being flooded by white Democrats, with white Republicans answering **LESS THAN 2020**

"The persistence of this kind of nonresponse bias introduces the risk of a systematic polling error like those in 2016 or 2020."

"This cycle, Democrats are once again responding to Times/Siena polls at a much higher rate than Republicans. Across these final battleground polls, registered white Democrats were about 30 percent likelier to take the poll than registered white Republicans. That's actually a bit higher than in the final polls in 2020."

Show up.

Make their worst fears come true.

I suppose it's also possible that Republicans aren't answering pollsters' phone calls because we're dispirited or ashamed of our votes for Trump -- but, of course, pollsters also predicted big wins for Democrats in 2024. NBC claimed that Kamala Harris would smoke Trump by 5 points.

CNN's Harry Enten has been warning Democrats that the polls routinely, persistently, systematically overstate Democrat vote-share by around 3.5% in every single election, and if you adjust current poll figures to reflect that, suddenly Democrat gains in the Senate vanish into gas like yesteday's chalupa from Brian Stelter's colon.

c Abbenante @EricAbbenante

Oct 30

Harry Enten looks over the 'spooky data' for the Democrats heading into the 2026 midterms:

Harry Enten: "They need to win in states that Donald John Trump didn't just win two years ago, but won by double digits.

Senate flips in states that the party lost by ten or more points in the last presidential election.

The number is 0 since 2011.

There have been times in which the polls actually suggested, hey, Republicans might actually lose in some of these Trump won states. And then it didn't happen. And we've seen it happen time and in time out.

GOP has beat the final Senate poll average by 4.1 points in states Trump won in the prior presidential election.

So if the past polling errors hold in these Trump one states, then all of a sudden Republicans are able to hold on to the United States Senate and with ease."

Wave goodbye, to the blue wave.

Communist front-group NBC has a poll that shows Republicans with a higher approval rating than Democrats, and higher approval on most of the main issues of the campaign, but you wouldn't know that from NBC's headline:

NBC News @NBCNews

A new national NBC News poll finds key groups that boosted Trump in 2024 are shifting toward Democrats ahead of Tuesday's elections.

What they mean is that some left-leaning groups that shifted towards Trump in 2024 are now shifting back to the Democrats.

Which is what I'd expect, and it is a problem.

But here's what they're not highlighting:

The Coup In Poland

—Disinformation Expert Ace

The globalists launched another coup.

When the right took power, they installed judges they liked, which the left could not abide.

This entire coup is a dry run for what they plan in America -- take over the courts, pack them with leftists who will rubber-stamp every authoritarian measure the left decrees.

Crisis began with right-wing victory, court control

The Constitutional Tribunal is responsible for checking the compatibility of laws, policies and international agreements with the national constitution.

It has been a major bone of contention between the current pro-European government and the main opposition party, national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS).

PiS drastically transformed the country's justice system after winning election in 2015, including establishing political control over top courts such as the Constitutional Tribunal and the Supreme Court. This was done in part by cancelling the appointments of judges selected by the previous government and choosing its own.

Back in 2016, opponents of Law and Justice protested outside the building shouting "Democracy!" and "Constitution!"

The European Union's top court ruled in December 2025 that the Constitutional Tribunal was not "independent and impartial," because of politicized appointments made by the since-defeated Law and Justice government. The EU withheld billions of euros in funds to Poland during the nationalist PiS-led governments of 2015 to 2023, saying their judiciary reforms had subverted democratic checks and balances.

And when leftists dominated the courts, they were of course "independent and impartial," according to the EU.

Pro-EU government promises to reform court

After Donald Tusk's pro-European coalition took office ​in 2023, it pledged to restore the rule of law and reform the court.

Yes, "reform" of the same kind Democrats are vowing for the US.

But President Karol Nawrocki, a Law and Justice ally, has acted to thwart those ⁠efforts since his election as president in 2025. Earlier this year, Nawrocki refused to swear in several judges nominated by parliament.

Which I assume he has the power to do.

Meanwhile, the tribunal's chief judge, Bogdan Swieczkowski, a former deputy justice minister in the Law and Justice administration, declined to seat judges elected by the current parliamentary majority.

So to "save democracy," they stripped duly elected and appointed officials of their offices.

Sound familiar?

A statement appeared on the tribunal's website on Friday saying Swieczkowski had been suspended. "Restoring the rule of law is our obligation," Prime Minister Tusk wrote on X on Friday evening. "After years of lawlessness under PiS this is a difficult process, sometimes painful and it requires decisive action. There is no other way."

Eggs must be broken for omelets to be made.

"I am certain that the Constitutional Tribunal will function as it ​should," he said in a televised speech. "Also, independently of me and in line with the constitution.

"The task of the executive branch, and therefore mine, is to ensure its ​safety and working conditions, and I intend to fulfil my duty."

To ensure "safety" I have to assume all powers of a dictator.

Again: Sound familiar?

A Polish MEP explains:

I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸
@ImMeme0

Oct 31

Polish MEP Dominik Tarczyński is explaining what is happening right now at Poland's Constitutional Tribunal, calling it nothing less than a COUP D'ÉTAT!

"In Poland, we have a liberal-left government led by Donald Tusk, who is the Prime Minister. What is happening right now with the Constitutional Tribunal is that they want to take it over and fill it with their own people.

Why? Because they want to get rid of the Polish currency, bring us into the eurozone, and eliminate our secure borders. They are being pushed by the Germans, who want to spread the burden of illegal migration and send migrants to Poland.

First of all, the Polish złoty is our constitutionally protected currency. They have to change the Constitution to replace it, and without the Constitutional Tribunal, they cannot do that.

>b?So, number one, they want to get rid of our currency and force us to adopt the euro and join the eurozone. Then they want to take our gold reserves, the largest in the European Union, to Frankfurt, to the European Central Bank, which is a German-based institution.

They also want to open our borders. And they want to make sure that when they lose the next elections, which are coming next year, the Constitutional Tribunal will be unable to do anything to stop their actions or reverse what they have done.

There are many more reasons, but I want you to understand one thing: they are under German influence. They are globalists, and we are fighting not just for Poland, but for Europe.

Be like Poland. Be strong. Our nation is strong, and we are going to win this fight!"

The Objective and Completely Unbiased Media Attacks Haley Stevens for Not Endorsing the Candidate They Totally Aren't Supporting

—Disinformation Expert Ace

The Democrats are considering stripping Haley Stevens of all congressional powers she might owe to the party.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Monday indicated that Democrats would consider their "next steps" on Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., when lawmakers return to Washington after the midterm elections.

Stevens earned near-universal condemnation from Democrats this weekend after she broke ranks to endorse former Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., to represent the Wolverine State in the Senate. Rogers is facing Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed, who narrowly defeated Stevens in the party primary.

"We will have a discussion about appropriate next steps upon our return," Jeffries told Politico on Monday. "Haley Stevens made a terrible decision, blindsided everyone and isolated herself from the House Democratic Caucus."

Democrat propagandist Anderson Cooper shed any pretense of being a journalist and just attacked Stevens for flip-flopping, as she had earlier (begrudgingly) endorsed Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed.

Stevens kept explaining why she had changed her position, but the Objective and Neutral Journalist Who Supports Women just kept interrupting and talking over her and re-asking the same question-- why did you change your mind? -- with a tone that suggested maybe it must be just because of her menses.

Cooper repeatedly rejected her explanation that it was about Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed's open embrace of anti-semitic tropes and influencers. Cooper's too smart to buy that convenient story.

In No One Is Above the Law News, Democrat Operative and Flake John Bolton Learns No One Is Above the Law

—Disinformation Expert Ace

He has pled guilty to illegal retention of classified information. He will pay a $2.25 million fine, forfeit his federal pension, and could spend 60 months in prison.

But, of course, a plea deal means prosecutors have agreed to recommend far less than that, and probably zero time at all.

Deep Leaks @DeepLeaksHQ

15h

IT'S OFFICIAL: John Bolton is now a FELON after pleading GUILTY to unlawful retention of national defense information

He and his mustache have agreed to pay a $2.25 MILLION fine, face up to 60 MONTHS in prison, and forfeit his pension.

"As Mr. Bolton just admitted, he put our national security at grave risk in violation of the law," the DOJ said

Give him all 60 months!

Naturalized Violent Insurrectionist Isa Lemgruber Casahuga, aka "Baby Pamper," Who Celebrated and Giggled Over the Vile Public Execution of Charlie Kirk to One of His Friends and Coworkers, Now Fake "Apologizes"

—Disinformation Expert Ace

A refresher about this evil Immigrant Whore:

Congresswoman Who Lost to Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed in Primary Endorses Mike Rogers, Condemns the Muslim Brotherhood-Linked Antisemite's Hate

—Disinformation Expert Ace

Democrats are condemning her, ejecting her from the party, and claiming she's just a sore loser.

But, as Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed observed after one of his cousins shot children to death at a Jewish school: "Hurt people do hurt people."

Democrat Congresswoman had planned to rally with Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed and Democrat racial gang-leader James Clyburn on Sunday. She had one demand for her re-endorsement of Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed: She wanted him to reject Hasan Piker's Nepo Uncle Chunk Uggo's antisemetic ad claiming that bananas and eggs cost more because Jews are stealing them to make bombs out of them to kill innocent non-terrorist Gazans.

Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed refused this minor reparative step. The Very Online Left condemns Trump for refusing to apologize or compromise, but they imitate him like Japanese girls used to imitate Gwen Stefani.

Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed then said she wasn't welcome at the "unity" rally and did not share Democrat Party pro-terrorist "values."

So she announced she would not be part of the "unity" rally.

Daniel Friedman @DanFriedman81

18h

Haley Stevens was going to do a Democratic unity rally with Abdul El-Sayed and James Clyburn where she was going to encourage her supporters, many of whom have serious reservations about El-Sayed, to vote for him.

This was very important for El-Sayed, because Stevens is popular among Jewish and black Michigan Democrats and Clyburn is an icon among black voters nationwide. El-Sayed has weakness with both of these groups and needs to shore them up going into election day.

Stevens's condition was that he make an unambiguous, unqualified condemnation of the antisemitic rhetoric his friends, supporters and surrogates have been using, including in ads run in Michigan.

El-Sayed refused to do this, and instead asked Stevens not to appear at the event. At that point, Stevens realized that he was not interested in unity with her or her supporters and that she could no longer support him for Senate.

El-Sayed is an antisemite. He is friends with antisemites Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur. He will not condemn them. He will not condemn the awful things they say.

He has had multiple opportunities to condemn their hateful rhetoric, and he always says: "He is not part of a campaign, nobody speaks for me but me, and I'm not here to talk about that."

That's not good enough. If that is how a Republican talked about Nick Fuentes or Richard Spencer, it would be the biggest controversy in the race. The fact that so many Democrats are willing to tolerate this from Abdul El-Sayed is an indictment of the entire party.

There is no coalition that can include both the Jewish Democratic members of Temple Israel and supporters of the Hezbollah terrorist who tried to murder their preschool children. Abdul El-Sayed made a decision about who he wanted in his tent.

Haley Stevens was late to realize it, but it is admirable that she finally decided to be an upstander instead of a bystander. No Nazis in the US Senate.

And then Stevens went further: She endorsed Republican Mike Rogers, first online, and then later at press conference.

I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today. https://t.co/pQgfSBuhOJ

— Haley Stevens (@HaleyforMI) November 1, 2026

She appeared with Rogers and was attacked as "a traitor" by Democrats who find such demonizing language too crude for their sophisticated dick-port mouths.

BREAKING: Protester Disrupts Haley Stevens and Mike Rogers Press Conference

Just minutes after Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens endorsed Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan's Senate race, a protester reportedly interrupted their press conference, repeatedly shouting, "Haley Stevens is a traitor!"

According to accounts from the scene, staff quickly ended the event and escorted both politicians away as the commotion unfolded.

— Bruce Snyder (@realBruceSnyder) November 1, 2026

Democrats always support women's choices so of course they all accepted Haley Stevens' choice and applauded her for it.

Just kidding, they kicked her out of the party entirely. Here's the chairman of the Michigan Democrat Party excommunicating this kaffir apostate for not embracing Allah:

Matt Whitlock @MattWhitlock

Every liberal influencer and talking head saying "Haley Stevens calling out antisemitism just ENDED her political career in the Democrat party..."

Says a lot more about the Democrat party than Haley Stevens.

Noted Feminist Who Supports Women James Carville likened Haley Stevens to a "used condom" because he supports women and they choices they make except if they make a choice contrary to his own.

No "Liz Cheney Heroine Glow-Up" for Haley!

This you? :) https://t.co/gZcTsI6jhw

— The🐰FOO (@PolitiBunny) November 2, 2026

Bad Hombre @Badhombre

18h

Haley Stevens, who voted with Joe Biden 97.5% of the time and with Trump only 6% of the time was excommunicated from the Democrat Party today because she wouldn't go through the humiliation ritual of donning the hijab like Peggy Flanagan and Kathy Hochul, nor would she endorse a guy with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood whose friends think America deserved 9/11 and who can't bring himself to denounce the IRGC.

Graham Platner who is a rapist with an infatuation for Nazism and sending nudes to underage girls on Kik while jerking off in a port-a-potty was not kicked out of the party.

If you're a registered Democrat holding out hope that there's going to be some great revival and return to the party of JFK, stop wasting your time. Your party is captive by terrorists, low IQ foreigners, illegal aliens, and people who hate this country and everything it stands for. It's gone. It's not coming back. Just leave it.

Democrats are taking it well. Enjoy -- after this insane leftist bitch physically attacks multiple people, a cop finally wrestles her to the ground.

At which point, she whines and complains that he's attacking her.

Of course.

BREAKING: Abdul El-Sayed supporters are now attacking people at a free speech event in Michigan. https://t.co/uBehhR6FNb

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) November 1, 2026

Eric Daughtery @EricLDaugh

BREAKING: A psychotic Abdul El Sayed supporter just VIOLENTLY TACKLED a young Jewish girl after the girl said, "If she were walking around in Iran like this, what would happen to her?"

JUST as Haley Stevens endorses Mike Rogers.

*Lunges at her*

"F**ing get over here, btch!"

The cop then MANHANDLED her.

LOCK HER UP. These people are VIOLENT and DERANGED

This is going to surge in America unless we defeat them on Tuesday

There's more to this story -- the media's attempt to brand Haley Stevens as a crazy traitor.

But I'll talk about that in a later post.

Which you probably already saw a lot of because I stupidly posted this draft in the sidebar.

Happy Monday!

Close it up

THE MORNING RANT: A Little Good News Regarding the Business of Petroleum

—Buck Throckmorton

Valero to Purchase and Restart a Shuttered Texas Refinery

Although the inflation-adjusted price of gasoline in America is virtually unchanged over the past two decades, it is higher than where it was before the flow of Iranian oil was cut off to global markets. Also contributing to the problem of elevated fuel prices is the lack of refining capacity in the United States. This is especially true regarding diesel. The carbon hysteria of the past few decades, along with Democrat administrations’ war on petroleum has dissuaded capital investment in new refineries.

With that background, there was some great news announced this past week – Texas-based Valero Energy is purchasing a mothballed refinery in Houston.

The refinery had previously been operated by Dutch chemical company Lyondell, but in obedience to the E.U.’s anti-carbon “net zero” obsession, Lyondell shut the plant down after announcing its closure in 2022. The puppet-masters of the Biden administration were so passionately anti-petroleum that mothballing the refinery was also a way for Lyondell to help gain regulatory favor for its ongoing U.S. chemical operations.

“Valero to Buy, Restart Idled Texas Refinery as Fuel Rallies” [Bloomberg – 10/30/2026]

The pure-play oil refiner plans to restart 165,000 barrels of daily light, sweet crude processing capacity by the end of 2027 at the former LyondellBasell Industries NV facility, according to a press release Friday. The $320.5 million deal with Lyondell is expected to close by the end of the year, Valero said. The plant sits adjacent to a Valero refinery that’s capable of processing more than 200,000 barrels of oil each day.

This refinery can produce diesel and jet fuel in addition to gasoline. Production will re-start in 2027.

BP’s CEO on Renewables Debacle: “We Have Not Been Careful Stewards of Shareholder Capital”

Meanwhile, another European petroleum corporation that tried to pivot into being a “clean” energy company is taking a massive write-down on that failed endeavor. Fortunately for British Petroleum, its traditional refining is producing solid profit to help offset the losses from its pretend-energy division.

“BP Flags Up to $4.5 Billion in Impairments as Refining Margins Jump” [Yahoo Finance – 10/13/2026]

BP expects to take between $3 billion and $4.5 billion in post-tax impairment charges in the third quarter of 2026, primarily related to its energy transition businesses, even as stronger refining margins provide a significant earnings boost.

To abide with the edicts of the European state religion (The Sustainable Organic Church of the Carbon Apocalypse), BP had even started to claim that its initials stood for “Beyond Petroleum.” BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 was during the time that BP was promoting itself as being “beyond petroleum.” What this revealed is that the anti-carbon activists running BP were distracted by the “renewables” nonsense and had become indifferent to responsibly running a petroleum company.

With BP taking this new $4.5 billion write-off for failed “renewables” projects, its current CEO, Meg O’Neill, is acknowledging that “We have not been careful stewards of shareholder capital.”

While Ms. O’Neill has a regrettable history of voicing support for Net Zero goals, she has also hedged on timelines, as well as the practicality of reducing carbon output without natural gas. It would be so refreshing if oil company executives would start fully and unabashedly advocating for the product their industry produces, rather than pandering to enviro-communist politicians who want to eliminate the companies they head.

Other Stuff I’m Writing About

My latest piece at the The American Spectator has been published. “Repeated Ethical Shortcomings at Instacart Hamper the Task of Those Defending Capitalism” discusses Instacart’s persistent ethical transgressions, including:

• Illegal hiring practices that exclude U.S. citizens.

• Surveillance pricing that charges customers different amounts for the exact same product from the same store.

• The use of unvetted, sub-contract labor.

Those of us who defend the prosperity brought about by free markets have always had our work cut out for us, because socialists promise “free everything” by the confiscation of others’ wealth. To make our economic case, we need businesses to operate as good corporate citizens, consistent with America’s historic culture of being a high-trust society. The motivation for a corporation to refrain from deceptive trade practices should not be the fear of legal consequences. Ethical behavior should be the default. Similarly, non-exploitative employment practices should be the expectation of Western capitalism, not something that must be compelled.

This piece is not behind a paywall. I’d be honored if you’d give it a read.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]