The Guardian, a Voice of Proglodyte Dreams everywhere.

What is ‘ultra-processed food’? Well, that depends on who you ask. Kinda like ‘climate change’ and all of the other left-wing handwringers. Usually, though, like ‘racism’, ‘sexism’, ‘misogyny’, etc., it’s used as a rhetorical stick to beat people (and products) that one doesn’t like, “such as ready meals, cereals, protein bars, fizzy drinks and fast food.” (This from the people who want us to eat insects and vegetarian ‘meat’.)

Feel free to use it yourself.

Of course, ‘ready meals’ are what hipsters call ‘street food’. See how the changing the name changes the political correctness? Don’t you wish you could do that?

‘Cereals’ have been the basis of human diet since humans took up agriculture 12,000 years ago.

‘Protein bars’ are deliberately manufactured to serve a specific purpose, like preserved foods. Nobody forces you (or deceives you) into eating protein bars.

‘Fizzy drinks’ (I think here is meant ‘carbonated drinks’) were originally invented to mimic the natural carbonation in mineral waters. So the next time you see a proglodyte hipster sucking down a Perrier, feel free to assume moral superiority. (Champagne—and other sparkling wines—is also a ‘fizzy drink’, and has been since the Romans. Can’t blame Our Degenerate Modern Times (or Trump) for that.

“Fast food”? Tell the Chinese to get rid of their woks, then, the swine.

The Economist, a Voice of the Crust.

By some reckonings, nicotine is as addictive as cocaine. It has led legions to a slow death by cigarette. Increasingly, however, people consume nicotine on its own. Nicotine vapes and oral pouches have soared in popularity; the global vaping market is expected to grow to $47.5bn in 2028, up from $22.5bn in 2022. But is nicotine simply a compound on which people are hooked or does it offer some kind of benefit?

Nicotine is much less harmful than the tobacco that naturally contains it. It has never been found to cause cancer. Nor does it cause other smokers’ diseases such as emphysema. But it is, of course, strongly linked with why smokers smoke at all. Beyond avoiding nicotine-induced withdrawal symptoms, such as irritability and anxiety, many say they smoke to “stay focused”. This has led scientists to consider whether nicotine might directly influence people’s ability to think.

In 2010 researchers at America’s National Institutes of Health pooled the results of 41 trials on nicotine’s cognitive effects. Participants were either given a placebo or nicotine (though a few used tobacco, not pure nicotine). They found that a nicotine hit had “significant positive effects” on attention and memory.

This mental sharpening arises because nicotine is a stimulant. It prods neurons to release brain chemicals called neurotransmitters, including dopamine, glutamate, noradrenaline and serotonin. These promote alertness, learning, memory and motor control. Brain-scan studies also show that nicotine’s stimulating properties increase blood flow to parts of the brain involved in thinking, such as the prefrontal cortex and the thalamus.

In addition to improving short-term memory, nicotine also suppresses appetite, which is why so many models and actresses smoke.

My Brother the Socialist became a regular cigarette smoker in college, as many people do. Most, however, pick it up as adolescents, because ‘cool’. I’ve never met anyone who picked up the smoking habit after age 20.

Steve Graham.

Tech Turns Faultless Two-Dollar Item into $250 Nightmare

I have good news for people who are justly upset with Ford for making keys ridiculously expensive, fragile, easy for hackers to copy, and hard for owners to copy.

Electronic keys are stupid. The electronic key boom is just one more example of engineers doing things they can, but should not, do. It demonstrates a total lack of common sense.

I have two fobs covered with buttons I don’t really need. They lock and unlock the doors. Don’t need. They open and shut the hatch. Don’t need. I think one of them will start the engine, but I don’t know, because…don’t need. There is also a button to set off the alarm, and that’s nice when I forget where I parked at Walmart, but truthfully…don’t need.

These keys are easy to duplicate. Easy for you and me? No. Easy for punk car thieves. They see you walking to your car. They watch you raise your fob. Then they use a machine to capture the signal. Later, they use it to get into your car. A 15-year-old moron who can’t read and write can do this, but you aren’t allowed to go to a hardware store and have your key copied electronically, like you could copy, oh, EVERY key made before engineers lost their minds.

Read it.

Jewish groups and government officials are condemning an incident at a recent interfaith event held on the campus of the City College of New York, at which a Muslim leader reportedly led a student walkout against the Hillel director after saying he refused to be “sitting next to a Zionist.”

The incident took place last week and was first reported Wednesday by the Times of Israel, which obtained a recording of the event hosted by the college’s Office of Student Inclusion Initiatives.

The imam let loose a series of remarks about Shariah law and “the filthy rich” before stating, “I came here to this event not knowing that I would be sitting next to a Zionist and this is something I’m not going to accept. My people are being killed right now in Gaza.”

He then added, “If you’re a Muslim, out of strength and dignity, I ask you to exit this room immediately.” Roughly 100 Muslim students followed him out the door, according to the report, and the chaplain hosting the event expressed disbelief.

“This is not dialogue — it is harassment,” the Anti-Defamation League’s New York chapter wrote on the social network X. The chapter’s director Scott Richman called the incident “a truly disgusting display of raw antisemitism not only by the imam but by the huge crowd of people there for an interfaith event who followed him out the door because a Jew was present.”

Power Line.

Palestinan Authority President-For-Life Mahmoud Abbas has long rewarded the murder of Israelis with the pay-for-slay program administered by the PA’s so-called Martyrs Fund. The fund paid regular stipends to families of terrorists imprisoned or killed by the Israel Defense Forces for their acts. “Martyrdom” by the killing of innocent Israelis was to be rewarded. The payments were supposedly terminated earlier this yeaar, but I would subject that supposition in this context to the eternal law of trust-but-verify or serious doubt.

The fake civil rigths group known as CAIR seems to have been inspired by the pay-for-slay program. The New York Post’s Isabel Vincent reports “Muslim group CAIR cutting $1,000 checks for anti-Israel agitators who have been disciplined by colleges.” Vincent’s story credits the report compiling evidence unearthed by the Network Contagion Research Institute and the Intelligent Advocacy Network with bringing the CAIR program to light.

It all makes perfect sense when you understand that CAIR is a terrorist front group and it is rewarding the terrorist supporters who have made their presence felt on campas in a criminal kind of way. And it is also a kind of clue, not that we need much help in that department with CAIR.

Read it.

A major trial of alleged members of the far-left extremist group known as the ‘Hammer Gang’ (Hammerbande) is set to begin Tuesday at the Higher Regional Court in Dresden.

Among the defendants are the group’s leaders, Johann Guntermann and Paul M., who face charges of membership in or support of a far-left criminal organization as well as attempted murder. The trial had been postponed several times, with the latest delay due to the unavailability of the defense.

Guntermann, long identified as a key figure in the gang alongside Lina Engel, is accused of carrying out violent attacks in Germany and Budapest. Several left-wing extremists allegedly attacked innocent passers-by in Budapest, targeting people they assumed had taken part in a right-wing memorial march. Victims were bludgeoned with hammers and telescopic batons, with some sustaining life-threatening injuries.

The gang has a documented history of violence, including a series of hammer attacks between 2018 and 2020 in Leipzig, Wurzen, and Eisenach. In May 2023, Lina Engel and three other members were convicted by the Dresden Higher Regional Court for violent assaults and sentenced to more than five years in prison.

The Foundry.

Even Obamacare supporters now admit their health plan has failed. Despite promises of decreasing premiums, the sad truth has come to light. Over ten years in, Obamacare has become part of the problem, not the solution. Premiums keep rising, deductibles skyrocketed, enrollees have fewer choices than before, and plans have become more restrictive.

While more subsidies might mask some of those premium increases, they do nothing to solve Obamacare’s other problems. The reality? Health care costs are increasing across the board. What’s needed now is a plan to make American health care affordable again—not just to hand out more government subsidies to more people, but to make health care less expensive and more accessible for all Americans.

President Donald Trump’s instincts are right, both on fixing Obamacare and on making the overall health system more affordable for everyone.

Read it.

Austria’s government has approved a draft law to ban Islamic headscarves for girls up to the age of 14, with the measure scheduled to come into force in schools from the 2026 academic year. The Council of Ministers signed off on the proposal on Wednesday, ahead of a parliamentary vote expected in December.

The ban will apply to all forms of Islamic head coverings—including the hijab and the burqa—across the entire school premises, including lessons, breaks, and sports activities. Schools would be required to hold meetings with pupils and parents after repeated violations, with further cases reported to child and youth welfare services. Parents could face fines of €150 to €800 or up to two weeks in prison in severe cases.

Read it.

On Thursday, November 20, the Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg opened to the quiet chimes of a nearby church bell, less than a year after a car-ramming attack killed six people and wounded hundreds.

Heavy concrete blocks painted in festive green and red lined the perimeter of the market—part of extensive new security measures introduced at Christmas markets across Germany.

The Foundry.

In the last two years, taxpayers spent $524 million in food stamp payments mostly for fast-food restaurants, according to data from the office of Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa.

Of that, about 90%—or $475.2 million—was spent at fast-food restaurants in California from June 2023 through May 2025, according to Ernst’s office.

Ernst, who regularly calls out government waste, is the chairwoman of the Senate DOGE Caucus, short for Department of Government Efficiency—an office within the White House that has targeted spending reductions.

Read it.

Europe has a housing crisis. In almost 40% of major European cities, houses are no longer affordable—meaning that the average income cannot cover rent or mortgage payments. In 47% of cities, housing is considered “at risk” of becoming unaffordable. And in just 14%, the housing market remains at an affordable level. The cause for this is at once highly complex and frustratingly simple—there aren’t enough homes.

In 76% of European metropolises, the main driver for rising prices is that demand exceeds supply. This can be partially blamed on high construction costs—something that 71% of cities flag as a major barrier to affordability. Third is land availability, a factor noted by 60% of cities. Housing, obviously, cannot be built if there is nowhere to build it.

There is one thread that runs through all these complaints—environmental regulations. Demand is outpacing supply because developments are being held up by ludicrous laws, on both a national and European Union level, that prioritise trees, animals, and even barren scrubland over human flourishing. These rules place immense burdens on developers and ring-fence land that could otherwise be used for much-needed housing and vital infrastructure.

Read it.

Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency says recent Hamas terror plots foiled in Europe were planned in Qatar, with investigators also examining possible links to operatives in Turkey.

The revelation comes after a lengthy investigation, carried out alongside European authorities, that uncovered weapons caches and led to the arrest of terror suspects. The weapons were “intended for use by Hamas cells to harm innocent civilians on command.”

Earlier this month, German authorities arrested a 39-year-old British man suspected of working with Hamas members in Germany who were allegedly plotting attacks on Jewish targets. His Berlin contact, German citizen Abed Al G., was among three alleged Hamas “foreign operatives” detained in October while attempting to procure weapons for attacks. Prosecutors say he received five handguns and ammunition, which he then transported to Vienna for storage.

Read it.

A 19-year-old Syrian went on trial in Berlin on Thursday, November 20th, for a knife attack in February on a Spanish tourist at the city’s Holocaust memorial.

The suspect, partially named as Wassim Al M., is accused of intending to target a person of Jewish faith. He allegedly inflicted a more than five-inch (12.7cm) cut to the victim’s throat.

Prosecutors told the court that Wassim Al M. had internalized Islamic State ideology, rejected Western values and viewed the attack as part of a “holy war against infidels.”

He reportedly shouted “Allahu akbar” during the assault and had traveled from Leipzig to carry out the attack.

Read it.

A Syrian culture-enricher violently attacked a number of people in Dresden while yelling “Allahu Akhbar”. As a result of his actions he was arrested by police and… Yep, you guessed it: he was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric institution.

A police spokesperson said: “The political statements have nothing to do with the man’s apparent psychological symptoms.” Oh, really? And how do you know that? Telepathy?

For some unknown reason, fervent belief in Islamic ideology seems to correlate strongly with mental illness. Funny about that.

The following video features the sardonic reactions of witnesses to the arrest of the Syrian loony. The spectators seem to understand intuitively that the perp is going to be described as having psychological problems.

Read it.

Both on Sunday’s Velshi show and on Tuesday’s Morning Joe on MS NOW, the claim was repeated that only 16 illegal aliens arrested in Chicago out of over 600 were dangerous criminals even though more than 1,100 who were already deported were not covered in that calculation.

On his eponymous Sunday morning show, Ali Velshi compared liberal activists defending illegal aliens from deportation to the Civil Rights Movement as he spoke with frequent guests — Fordham University’s Christina Greer and New York City comptroller Brad Lander.

Read it.

Exploding violence in Germany has long been tied to mass immigration, as the statistics clearly show, and German train stations are becoming another perfect illustration of this worrying trend.

The number of violent crimes at Berlin central station in 2024 has tripled compared to 2019, which was the last year before the coronavirus crisis. In Cologne, violent crime has grown 70 percent in the same timeframe, according to Welt newspaper.

Those are just two cities, but the same trend is seen everywhere.

Read it.

Asking prices for UK homes declined more steeply than expected in November, down 1.8% on a monthly basis – the biggest fall in prices for this time of year since 2012.

Interestingly, alongside UK government budget anxiety, Rightmove pointed to “the decade-high number of homes available for sale” and resulting downward price pressure, mostly affecting the higher end of the property ladder.

Read it.

Federal officials say Akhror Bozorov, a 31-year-old wanted terrorist from Uzbekistan, illegally entered the US in February 2023, was released by the Biden administration, and later obtained both work authorization and a commercial truck driver’s license in Pennsylvania, according to the NY Post.

He was arrested in Kansas this month while working as a trucker, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin condemned the sequence of events, saying, “Not only was Akhror Bozorov — a wanted terrorist — released into the country by the Biden administration, but … he was also given a commercial driver’s license by Governor [Josh] Shapiro’s Pennsylvania,” adding, “This should go without saying, but terrorist illegal aliens should not be operating 18-wheelers on America’s highways.”

Read it.

Democrat Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida has been indicted on charges accusing her of stealing $5 million in federal disaster funds and using some of the money to aid her 2021 campaign, the Justice Department said Wednesday.

The Democrat is accused of stealing Federal Emergency Management Agency overpayments that her family healthcare company had received through a federally funded COVID-19 vaccination staffing contract, federal prosecutors said.

A portion of the money was then funneled to support her campaign through candidate contributions, prosecutors allege.

Yet another corrupt black female Democrat politician.

Read it.

A feud inside the federal judiciary burst into public view this week after a U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit judge accused his colleague of blatant misconduct in the ruling that blocked Texas’ newly drawn, Republican-leaning congressional map.

In a blistering 104-page dissent released Wednesday, U.S. Circuit Judge Jerry Smith — a former President Ronald Reagan appointee with nearly four decades on the bench — charged District Judge Jeffrey Brown, a 2019 Trump appointee, with what he called “pernicious judicial misbehavior” and the most “outrageous conduct” he has ever witnessed in his career.

The majority opinion, authored by Brown and joined by another judge, an Obama appointee, in a 2-1 vote, halted Texas’ 2025 House redistricting plan on the grounds that challengers were “likely to prove at trial” that the state engineered a racially gerrymandered map.

I know Jerry Smith. He is very smart and has a low bullshit tolerance level.

Newsbusters.

Sunny Hostin, the staunchly racist co-host of ABC News’s The Views, was on a roll this week between declaring on Monday’s show that America was “founded” on “racism and slavery;” then doubling down on Tuesday’s edition of their Behind the Table podcast, saying “this country still is sickened” with such things.

In a bitter rant during Monday’s show, reacting to former First Lady Michelle Obama’s comments attacking America for not electing a woman yet, Hostin gave her take “as an afro-Latina” lashing out at America as racist:

If you include all of the anti-white racism, she’s probably correct.

Democrats Explicitly Tell Spy Agencies, Military To Disobey Trump (IJR)

Trump Attacks Another Female Reporter After ‘Piggy’ Rant (Farrah Tomazin/The Daily Beast)

Trump again threatens ABC’s broadcast license, this time over Epstein questions (Irie Sentner/Politico)

Trump’s Justice Department may have accidentally handed Democrats five House seats (Ian Millhiser/Vox)

Trump faces criticism for referring to female Bloomberg reporter as ‘piggy’ (Jeremy Barr/The Guardian)  My, what a surprise. (The reporter in question has been snubbed by Trump before. Apparently she refuses to let him finish a sentence before she asks another accusation-disguised-as-a-question.)

Trump’s Scheme to Give the GOP Extra House Seats Just Blew Up in His Face (Mark Joseph Stern/Slate)  They hope.

ICE and CBP Officers Face Unprecedented Surge in Vehicle Ramming Attacks (Department of Homeland Security)

Slotkin Leads Dems Urging Troops to Disobey Trump

Trump Meets Business Partner In the Oval Office (Russ Choma/Mother Jones)

Federal appeals court rejects Trump’s ‘meritless’ case against CNN (Brian Stelter/CNN)

The Charlie Kirk purge: How 600 Americans were punished in a pro-Trump crackdown (Reuters)

The White House Gold Rush Is On (Jamelle Bouie/New York Times)

Trump’s Plot to Rig 2026 Is Falling Apart, and Boy Is He Mad About It (New Republic)

Brutal New Poll Shows Just How Badly Donald Trump Is Tanking On Epstein And The Economy (Reuters)

Trump Was Working With Putin The Entire Time (Phillips P. OBrien/Phillips’s Newsletter)

Kimmel, Chieng See Ulterior Motives In Trump’s MBS Meeting

Oregon City Declares State of Emergency Over ICE

This Is All John Roberts’ Fault (Mother Jones)

Trump’s anti-climate agenda could result in 1.3m more deaths globally, analysis finds (Sharon Lerner/The Guardian)

The Epstein Saga Has Only Just Begun (The Bulwark)  I’d hate to see how long it takes before the end gets here.

“What Has Become Of Us”: Rosie O’Donnell May Have Just Handed Trump A Golden Defamation Lawsuit

Nearly all immigrants detained in Trump Chicago raid had no criminal conviction (Roque Planas/The Guardian)  They keep repeating that as if it mastters. If they are here illegally, they are felons. It doesn’t require a ‘criminal conviction’ to arrest them and deport them.

Trump is in Full Retreat (Jennifer Rubin/The Contrarian)  Jennifer Rubin sniffs her own farts.

19 Clips of Trump Demeaning Female Reporters in Last Few Months (Ron Filipkowski/Meidas+)

Rep. Ro Khanna cracks the MAGA coalition over the Epstein files (Sahil Kapur/NBC News)  Who?

Snapshot: Trump Excuses Murder and Blames the Victim (Steven Beschloss/America, America)

OMITTED: Networks Avoid Democrat Video Calling for Military Personnel to Disobey Orders

Anxiety Over Trump’s Crackdown Alters Life for Many Immigrants, Poll Finds (New York Times)  Wow, what an amazing insight.

A Top Republican Wanted to Reclaim Congress’ Spending Authority. The White House Stopped Him. (Oriana González/NOTUS)

ABC Colleagues, Fellow Libs Rush to Mary Bruce’s Defense After Trump Tussle  The Crust takes care of its children.

Dems Aim to Curb Donors as Trump Builds New WH Ballroom  Goodness, there’s a dog in that manger. Wonder what he’s doing there.

Appeals Court Halts Limits on Immigration Agents’ Response to Chicago Protests

Honor and Shame in the Era of Trump and Epstein (Robert Reich)  Clinton fossil Robert Reich loses his shit.

Head Twister! CNN Actually Admits ‘Trump Is Right: He Lowered Some of Your Costs’

Trump shrugged off Khashoggi’s killing. This is a new low (Jodie Ginsberg/The Guardian)

Gretchen Carlson: Trump treatment of female reporters ‘despicable’ (Dominick Mastrangelo/The Hill)  And their treatment of him is equally despicable.

Read it.

India plans to include castes in its upcoming census for the first time since 1931 and it is causing a polarizing discussion in the country. While opponents say that castes are an outdated social construct that India should move beyond instead of legitimize, proponents argue that the country will be better off having more information about modern-day caste membership as it can be used to better steer equality initiatives often based on caste.

Data from the National Family Health Survey by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare conducted between 2019 and 2021 shows that three quarters of Indians name themselves as members of castes that are eligable for reservations, a term for affirmative action programs. Among them are 22 percent of the Indian population describing themselves as Scheduled Caste, also known as Dalits or Untouchables, which are identified as such in the Indian Constitution. A further 42 percent count themselves as part of a group called Other Backward Class, which combines disadvantaged castes not listed in the Constitution. On top of these are 10 percent of the Indian population who are members of Scheduled Tribes, on average the most underpriviledged people in today’s India.

This leaves only less than a quarter of Indians who are part of the so-called upper castes, while 5 percent of Indians claimed no caste or tribe membership. However, lines of wealth and economic hardship have blurred in India and are diverging from caste membership. While almost half of Scheduled Tribe members fell into India’s lowest wealth distribution quintile, this number stood at one quarter for Scheduled Caste, 16 percent for Other Backward Class and 11 percent for those not falling into these categories.

Read it.

There have been over 500,000 layoffs in the tech industry since 2022 and recent computer science graduates face a greater unemployment rate in their field than America’s average unemployment rate, Kevin Lynn, the executive director of the Institute for Sound Public Policy, explained during a Heritage Foundation event Wednesday. The H-1B visa program is largely to blame, according to Lynn.

“The H-1B visa program is by far the largest computer sciences guest worker program in existence,” according to Lynn.

In 2023, 134,000 American citizens graduated from computer science programs. That same year, 121,000 foreign workers entered the U.S. to work computer jobs, and among those, 75,000 were in the H-1B visa program, Lynn said.

Since the creation of the H-1B visa program in 1990, the “quantity and the quality of the jobs for computer and engineering professions have suffered greatly for Americans,” Lynn said.

Read it.

A recent case in Sweden has posed the question of whether someone born male who identifies as a woman should have access to a women-only gym.

A key issue is whether such requests can coexist with the safety and privacy needs of women who rely on female-only spaces.

The incident took place at Tjejernas Athena, a women’s gym in Norrköping that has operated for 40 years and has only one changing room. In December 2023, a so-called transgender woman—born male but living socially as a woman and undergoing hormone treatment—asked to join the gym. He had not undergone genital surgery, according to information the gym received at the time.

The Foundry.

Advocates of transgender medical interventions euphemistically referred to as “gender-affirming care” often seek to silence critics, rather than engaging in a debate on the science—and one of the authors of the Department of Health and Human Services’ report on the issue says he thinks he knows why.

HHS published a review of the evidence regarding medical transition for minors in May, finding “extremely weak evidence” for any benefits from “gender-affirming care.” HHS sought peer review, submitting its report to medical professionals and pro-transgender health associations. Yet two of the three pro-transgender groups HHS approached refused to engage, and the remaining organization appeared not to have read the full report.

The back-and-forth appears in a supplement to the final review, published Tuesday.

“HHS offered the leading organizations advocating for these treatments an opportunity to have their experts participate in a rigorous peer-review process and point out whether the review might have made errors or omissions,” Leor Sapir, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and one of the review’s nine contributors, told The Daily Signal. “As the supplement clearly shows, no such errors or omissions could be identified.”

“Perhaps that’s why advocates of these controversial drugs and surgeries prefer to silence critics and engage in smear campaigns,” he added.

The Foundry.

Lawfare has grown to be a huge problem. If a set of activists cannot win an election or get a favorable bill passed, they find and run to a sympathetic court. An additional emerging form of lawfare has now taken root in America: local governments and states suing domestic energy producers over their alleged role in climate change. These campaigns are sold as accountability, but they also threaten the strategic foundation of American foreign policy.

Energy is not just another sector of the economy. It is the engine of diplomacy and the backbone of military power. Retired Gen. Richard B. Myers and retired Adm. Michael G. Mullen recently reminded the Supreme Court that petroleum products supplied by American companies “have been critical to national security, military preparedness, and combat missions.” They stressed that “achieving energy security is a prerequisite for national security” and warned that unilaterally stripping the United States of higher-performing fossil fuels would “weaken our armed forces while relatively strengthening those of our adversaries.”

That warning should resonate far beyond the courtroom. America’s diplomatic leverage depends on affordable and reliable energy. Yet climate litigation and new climate superfund schemes attempt to regulate global emissions through a patchwork of state liability theories.

Read it.

Attendance at Orthodox churches around the U.S. has seen a dramatic increase in conservative young men drawn to a more rigorous practice of Christianity, reports The New York Times.

“In the whole history of the Orthodox Church in America, this has never been seen,” the Very Rev. Andrew Damick, an Antiochian Orthodox priest and author in Eastern Pennsylvania, told the news outlet. “This is new ground for everyone.”

Orthodox Christians belong to the family of Eastern Orthodox Churches, one of the three main branches of global Christianity (alongside Roman Catholicism and Protestantism). The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second-largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 220 to 260 million adherents.

The religion has been present in the United States since the late 18th century and today represents a small but historically significant branch of Christianity, with roughly 1 million to 1.2 million adherents across various Eastern Orthodox jurisdictions, according to the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops’ most recent estimates.

Hint: The quasi-masculine Boss Babe has no place in the Orthodox Church.

UPDATE: Orthodox Church Pews Are Overflowing With Converts (Ruth Graham/New York Times)

Read it.

Maryland has awarded $6 million to We Our Us, a nonprofit led by Antoine Burton, who owes more than $200,000 in federal and state tax liens dating back to 2017, according to investigative reporting by Fox 45 Baltimore. The situation has renewed concerns about how officials vet organizations receiving major public funding.

Gov. Wes Moore approved the $6.1 million Department of Juvenile Services contract to “engage justice-involved youth in Baltimore City.” The award came shortly after Moore praised Baltimore’s community partnerships, saying, “We know that partnership produces progress, and there’s no better case study than Baltimore.”

Burton, who owes $176,000 to the IRS and $32,000 to Maryland, told Spotlight on Maryland he has a plan to resolve his liens: “Right now, that’s something that’s being disputed… there’s a team that’s in place to make sure that funds are facilitated properly.” He did not provide any documents.

DJS said the nonprofit is in good standing with the state and has received $815,398 since 2023 through the Thrive Academy. It has not yet billed the state for the new $6 million contract. Gov. Moore’s office and DJS did not say whether they were aware of Burton’s liens before granting the award.

I suspect that he’s a black Democrat had a lot to do with it.

Read it.

Boise Mayor Lauren McLean is facing criticism for issuing a statement that did not reference immigration after an 8-year-old girl was killed by a man identified by federal authorities as an illegal alien.

The Blaze reported that young Mora Gerety was attempting to cross a Boise street when she was struck and killed by a pickup truck.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement identified the driver as Elvin Ramos-Caballero, a Honduran national who officials said is in the country illegally.

The election for Mayor of Boise is technically non-partisam but Lauren MacLean is a registered Democrat.

Newsbusters.

Former MSNBC host Chris Matthews appeared on CNN News Central on Tuesday afternoon to hawk his latest book worshiping the Kennedys, but the appearance turned into an embarrassing outing as two of his broad proclamations about contemporary politics turned out to be wildly false. Between claiming the Senate was going to stymie the release of the Epstein files and suggesting the Washington Post never criticized the Saudi crown price visiting the White House, Matthews’ assertions were blown up in his face by CNN journalists.

Read it.

Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., was the lone House member to vote against the measure compelling release of thousands of unclassified documents tied to Jeffrey Epstein, insisting the bill remains dangerously flawed despite overwhelming bipartisan support.

Higgins said he has been a “principled ‘NO'” from the start, arguing the legislation “abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure” and threatens to expose innocent people swept into past investigations.

“As written, this bill reveals and injures thousands of innocent people — witnesses, family members, people who provided alibis,” Higgins said in a statement on X. “Released to a rabid media, it will absolutely result in innocent people being hurt. Not by my vote.”

Gee,  I wonder what could have happened in 2020 to cause the number of SNAP recipients to spike upward?

Politico, a Voice of the Crust.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations on Tuesday threatened to sue Texas Gov. Greg Abbott after his office announced he had classified it as a foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organization.

CAIR, which bills itself as the country’s largest Muslim advocacy organization, accused the Texas governor of seeking to capitalize on rising Islamophobic sentiment. Robert S. McCaw, the organization’s director of government affairs, sent Abbott a letter claiming he lacks the authority to “unilaterally declare any Americans or American institutions terrorist groups.”

Really? Look at the name. “American-Islamic Relations” Apparently they believe that Americans and Muslims are two different things; there are no organizations concerned with “American-American Relations”. Muslims are, by definition, Muslims first and Americans (at best) second. Ask any Muslim. Go ahead. We’ll wait.

Read it.

Ha-Joon Chang recently wrote an article in the Financial Times criticising the state of economic education, which drew considerable attention. What went almost unnoticed, however, was a letter published in response. Surprisingly, one of the most prominent Austrian economists, Mario Rizzo, agreed with Chang. He wrote:

“Recently, I had a chance to look at some exams in undergraduate economics courses, including the first course, generally called ‘Principles.’ What I saw was disturbing. The students were given, mainly or only, problem sets of a completely mathematical nature. The emphasis was on mechanical problem-solving. There were no questions involving critical reflection on the ideas or frameworks taught.”

What explains this unlikely agreement between two economists from opposite schools of thought? The simple answer is that there is something wrong with economic education. But the deeper problem lies not in what is taught, but how it is taught.

No, the problem is the entire concept of the ‘field’. Like psychology, economics pretends to be a science whereas it’s actually a new form of astrology.

The foundation of Real Science is mensurability and predictability. Complex systems like the human personality and a large economy are only partially measurable and only statistically predictable. If you drop a rock, you can measure how fast it falls and how far it falls; you can predict how far and how fast it will fall and be right every single time. If you try to measure an ‘economy’, or predict what it will do, you can only quantify a very limited portion and you can only make predictions in terms of probabilities.

Ask an economist what his field is all about and he will say, “Production, distribution, and trade.” WRONG. “Economics” deals with production and distribution only to the extent that what is produced or distributed is traded. If I cut down a tree, cut it into boards, and make myself a workbench, economics has nothing to say about it: it cannot be measured, nor can it be predicted, because no part of it was traded. If I give that workbench to my brother-in-law, economics has nothing to say about it: it cannot be measured, nor can it be predicted, because no part of it was traded. ECONOMICS DEALS ONLY WITH TRADE, and production/distribution only as things produced/distributed are traded.

Consider the classic tool of ‘economics, the famous supply and demand curves. Those deal only with trade, as made plain by the fact that one of the dimensions of the graph is price, a thing that only has importance in trade. If the price of widgets rises from A to B, the number of widgets people are willing to buy will drop from X to Y. Who is offering those widgets? Economics can’t say. Who is buying those widgets? Economics can’t say. It can only say that in general when the price goes up the amount sold (TRADED) goes down. When the price goes up but the number sold (TRADED) stays the same, economics can’t tell you WHY; all it can do is some hand-waving about “inelastic demand”, which is another way of saying “We don’t know.”

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Nearly three months after the New York Times revealed that the Gates Foundation had decided to sever ties with philanthropic advisor Arabella Advisors, which engineered a sprawling “dark money” network of nonprofit entities, including the New Venture Fund (NVF), Sixteen Thirty Fund, Hopewell Fund, and Windward Fund, that continues to wage color-revolution-style operations against President Trump in an effort to crush the populist movement through the protest-industrial complex, there is news that the powerful far-left philanthropic consulting firm that handles money for rogue progressive billionaires or their foundations is being rolled into a new vehicle.

Watch it.

Tim Poole does a deep dive.

Verbum sapienti sat est.

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Iodized salt is so commonplace in the U.S. today that you may never have given the additive a second thought. But new research finds that humble iodine has played a substantial role in cognitive improvements seen across the American population in the 20th century.

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Similarly, Galaxy owner Mark had his device stolen by a thief riding an e-bike.
Mark says, “I saw him stop, look at my phone, then throw it on the floor. He cycled off and I retrieved my phone.”
Another funny story highlights Simon, who had an unusually friendly stranger (and would-be thief) drop all interest in him after Simon pulled out his phone.
This led Simon to realize that his chance encounter was part of a potential mugging. “[Simon] overhead the would-be thief explaining to his apparent accomplice why they were giving up: “Phone’s dead, innit.””
As noted by John Gruber at Daring Fireball, iPhone-Android ownership in the UK is about 50-50. But clearly, at least because of high resale value, the iPhone remains a lot more desirable.

Trump Has the Look of the Weak Horse; People Are Acting Accordingly (Josh Marshall/Talking Points Memo)  Difficult to square with the fact that he’s spent the year putting Democrat faces in the toilet and flushing it. Progs really live in an alternate universe.

Sanford grandfather, born in refugee camp, nabbed by ICE after 70 years in U.S. (Jeffrey Schweers/Orlando Sentinel)  What part of i’llegal immigrant’ do these people not understand?

Trump slashed spending on clinical trials. The toll is starting to become clear. (Allyson Chiu/Washington Post)  Because, as we all know, clinical trials are TOTALLY the responsibility of the Federal government—and the Federal taxpayer.

Pence group rips Trump’s drug pricing plan in new ad campaign (Nathaniel Weixel/The Hill)

High Hamburger Prices? White House Blames Biden and Migrants. (Alan Rappeport/New York Times)

Trump Threatens Latin America But Leaves US Strategy Unclear (Bloomberg) God forbid we should have a strategy without broadcasting it to the world.

Trump says he would be ‘OK’ launching strikes in Mexico to fight drug smuggling (Raquel Coronell Uribe/NBC News)  So would I.

Trump revives policy penalizing immigrants for using safety net programs (Alice Miranda Ollstein/Politico)  No, I don’t believe that.

Trump says he won’t rule out sending troops into Venezuela (Washington Post)

Appeals Court Halts DOT Restrictions On Commercial Driver’s Licenses For Illegals

Ecuador voters rebuke pro-Trump president (Financial Times)

Donald Trump Snaps at Female Reporter Who Asks About Epstein Files: ‘Quiet Piggy’ (Meredith Kile/People)  I wonder how long he’s wanted to say that?

New Yorker: Trump Occupies ‘Negative Space’ in Epstein Files (As In Nothing There)

Exclusive: Trump DHS Plans Immigration Raids on Churches Over Holidays (John Keough/This Week in Worcester)

OMISSION: Elitist News Media HIDE Shocking New Trump Shooter Details

EXCLUSIVE: How the Trump administration sparked a health crisis for ICE detainees (Judd Legum/Popular Information)

Why Trump can never win on Epstein (Politico)  Because the entire Narrative Meedia is going to beat this dead horse until he leaves office.

Judge Upholds New York Law Barring Immigration Agents From Courthouses

Trump’s team tried to walk back these false claims. He won’t let them (Daniel Dale/CNN)

Trump Threatens To Cancel World Cup In Seattle After Election Of ‘Communist’ Mayor

‘We Have To Just Keep Doing It’: Amanpour and Stewart Hail Anti-Trump Activism

The New Russiagate: Networks Bury Trump With Over 800 Minutes on Epstein

Oversight: Dems Caught Red-Handed in Epstein Hoax

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A damning study complete with an interactive map has revealed that UK police arrested nearly 10,000 people in 2024 for “grossly offensive” social media posts—equivalent to 30 arrests every single day—while knife crime, burglary, and sexual offences go unsolved.

This Orwellian crackdown, driven by vague “communications” laws, has turned Britain into an international embarrassment, with forces devoting more manpower to policing opinions than protecting citizens.

Compiled from Freedom of Information requests to 39 police forces, the data shows 9,700 arrests in 2024 alone under the Communications Act 2003 and Malicious Communications Act 1988.

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The Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday it is redefining the scope of the nation’s bedrock clean water law to limit the wetlands it covers, building on a Supreme Court decision two years ago that removed federal protections for significant areas.

When finalized, the new “Waters of the United States” rule will ensure that federal jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act is focused on relatively permanent, standing or continuously flowing bodies of water, such as streams, oceans, rivers and lakes, along with wetlands that are connected to such bodies of water, the EPA said.

The new rule will help accelerate economic prosperity while protecting vital water resources, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said at a news conference at agency headquarters. The rule will fully implement the direction provided by the Supreme Court in a case known as Sackett v. EPA, he said. The 2023 ruling sharply limited the federal government’s authority to police water pollution into certain wetlands, and boosted property rights over concerns about clean water in a ruling in favor of an Idaho couple who sought to build a house near a lake.

Long time coming,  but glad to see it.

Read it.

And other statists.

Pope Leo Doesn’t Want to Be the Anti-Trump. But He Is. (David French/New York Times)

Epstein’s emails are the end of America as they ruined it (Will Bunch/The Philadelphia Inquirer)  Will Bunch loses his shit.

Gregory Bovino is exactly who E.B. White — author of ‘Charlotte’s Web’ — warned us about (Chris Geidner/Law Dork)

Granddaughter of ‘Charlotte’s Web’ author criticizes use of book title in DHS immigration crackdown operation (CNN) Boy, they’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel for headlines.

On MS NOW, Schlossberg Calls RFK Jr. ‘Dangerous,’ ‘A Rabid Dog’  Yeah, I have uncles that I felt that way about.

How a tech billionaire philanthropist got caught between Trump and San Francisco (Lisa Bonos/Washington Post)

Indiana Republican called out by Trump on redistricting is swatted (Adam Wren/Politico)

Sen. Shaheen: Trump Venezuela Push Risks US Readiness

‘This Is Corruption’: ’60 Minutes’ Reports Trump Pardoned Binance Boss After He ‘Enriched’ Crypto Business Tied to Trump Family (Sean James/Mediaite)

The Crypto Industry’s $28 Billion in ‘Dirty Money’ (New York Times)

Trump’s investigation into Epstein ties to political foes might be ‘smokescreen’, Republican says (Marina Dunbar/The Guardian)  Republican says! That proves it!

Trump’s message to MAGA (Politico)  More important, of course, is Politico’s messae to Trump.

Why Trump can’t make the Epstein scandal go away (Paul Waldman/Public Notice)  Ummm, because the Narrative Media are propping it up? That’s just a guess, you understand….

The Unraveling of the Justice Department (New York Times)

The toxic culture behind the right’s civil war (Zack Beauchamp/Vox)

Trump’s Epstein Humiliation Grows (William Kristol/The Bulwark)  In his dreams.

Trump defends Tucker Carlson for interviewing white nationalist Fuentes (Amy B Wang/Washington Post)

Trump’s biggest tell is the policy he doesn’t talk about (Derek Thompson/The Argument)  More mind-readers in the Narrative Media.

The ‘Easy Way’ to Crush the Mainstream Media (Gilad Edelman/The Atlantic)  Whose turn is it to be the victim?

150 Years Of Data Destroy Democrat Dogma On Tariffs: Fed Study Finds They Lower, Not Raise, Inflation

Dems to Try Peg Their Housing Crisis on Trump in ’26

The Supreme Court made a horrible mistake when it gave Trump absolute power (William S. Becker/The Hill)  Which, of course, it didn’t.

Democrats eye housing affordability as next weapon against Trump (Washington Post)

‘He got tired of me winning’: How Thomas Massie outmaneuvered Trump on Epstein (Meredith Lee Hill/Politico)

As Trump Looks for Distraction on Epstein, Justice Dept. Rushes to His Aid (Glenn Thrush/New York Times)

ICE Air’s Sloppy, Dangerous Deportation Flights (Gillian Brockell/American Prospect)

We need to talk about JD (Thor Benson/madness)

Joy Behar: Trump Incited Threats With ‘Traitor’ Chide, But She Used It Against Him

Trump, Border Patrol Retreat in Failure from Chicago (Garrett M. Graff/Doomsday Scenario)

Networks Bemoan ‘Fear,’ ‘Rising Tensions’ in Charlotte Over ICE Raids

The Foundry.

A new report from the University of California, San Diego has ignited a viral conversation on social media, because it demonstrates the alarming lack of preparation among incoming freshmen for college-level math courses.

Produced by UCSD’s Senate-Administration Working Group on Admissions, the report found the university “has experienced a steep decline in the academic preparation of its entering first-year students—particularly in mathematics.”

The UCSD employs a testing and placement system to assign incoming freshmen to the appropriate mathematics course based on their backgrounds. This process ensures that students meet the requirements for their chosen majors. In 2016, the placement test identified fewer than 100 students—approximately 1% of the incoming cohort—who needed to take a remedial math class to address gaps in their high school math knowledge.

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One of Jimmy Carter’s famous failures.

majority of registered voters support closing the Department of Education after learning more about what President Donald Trump’s proposal entails, according to a new poll commissioned by the Yes Every Kid Foundation.

When asked about terminating the Education Department, 51% opposed the plan in the absence of other details, while 38% supported it.

But when provided with more information about the proposal, such as folding important elements of the department into other federal agencies and preserving K-12 funding, the numbers flipped — 56% said they were in favor of shuttering the department, compared to 30% who were opposed.