Highlights of the week

 Don Surber

ITEM 1: On Wednesday, a judge said President Trump violated the First and Fifth amendments in kicking CNN, Politico and MS NOW out of the White House.

"Also on Wednesday, MS NOW reported FBI Director Kash Patel was in Russia for a secret meeting. He was at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, 5,000 miles from Moscow. Missed it by this much.

"ITEM 2: Minnesota’s Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan is running for the Senate. She tweeted, “My Ojibwe name is Gizhiiwewidamookwe, which means ‘Speaks in a Loud and Clear Voice Woman.’”

"I can see why she shortened it to Peggy.

"ITEM 3: ABC tweeted, “After years of political back-and-forth and several violent mishaps in Central Park, including one where a tourist lost their life in the summer, New York City is set to ban horse-drawn carriages in less than two years, officials announced Tuesday.”

"Illegal aliens continue to kill people but New York remains a sanctuary city. Maybe we can get Jose and Mohammed to pull tourists around Central Park in rickshaws." . . .

ITEM 21: AOC said, “Public colleges should be tuition free. They [Trump administrators] are attacking women’s ability to get an education! They don’t want women to go to college!”

"She said this while campaigning for Allahu Akbar El-Sayed who supports terrorists who don’t believe in sending girls to school."

After-Tax Take Home Income Is Still Up $2,000 Under Trump

 Unleash Prosperity  "Yesterday’s September inflation report checked in at 3.7% year-over-year, driven by higher prices at the pump. That makes six months in a row that the inflation rate has been not just higher than Fed target of 2%, but high enough to outpace wages.

"But wait. Those are before-tax incomes. If we adjust for the Trump tax cuts, most middle-income families still have rising real purchasing power.

"At this stage of the Biden presidency real wages were down nearly 5%.

Yale Bans Right Turns: The Latest Campus Safety Crisis

 These are those who think Hamas was the victim on that Oct 7th in Israel and will be burning our cities as they do in France. These are "our best and brightest"? TD

The American Spectator | USA News and Politics   

"In collaboration with the cities of Cambridge and Boston, it has vowed to remove all Right Turn and Left Turn signals from traffic lights on all Harvard-owned land, (estimated to be 90 percent of the acreage) of both municipalities."

"Yale University, in collaboration with the city of New Haven, has taken a preemptive step to head off the next round of campus protests. In response to an anonymous complaint, the university has announced that it will begin dismantling all Right Turn arrows in street lights in and around campus. President Maurie McInnis, a renowned art historian who regularly lectures about the hidden meaning of straight and crooked lines, was among the first to detect the threat. “Shapes are no less menacing than words or sentences,” said McInnis to worried parents of new Yale students, the first class that will never hear the word “merit” at Yale. “We have already abolished the ‘M-word’ from campus and expunged any form of tough questioning from the Yale curriculum,” said McInnis. “But we cannot rest on our laurels. Right turn arrows must go!”

"A majority of the Yale Corporation was quick to endorse McInnis’ position saying in a press release, “we applaud the decisive action of the President to keep our students safe and feeling good.” A dissenting group of board members released their own statement saying the President had not gone far enough, calling for the “camouflaging of all right hand arrows on road signs as well.” When asked what camouflaging they had in mind, one board member replied, “An arrow can be turned into a Swastika rather easily, thus keeping down costs for Yale and the city.” “And, of course, it’s an ancient symbol meaning ‘good fortune’ which is one of the guiding principles of our endowment,” the group added.

"Not to be outdone, some of Yale’s preening peer institutions announced their own initiatives. MIT president Sally Kornbluth announced that the storied technical institute would “henceforth prohibit all use or mention of the "Right-hand rule” (a mnemonic for relating magnetic field to current flow), saying the “close proximity of the words ‘Right’ and ‘Rule’ had apparently caused some MIT students to hide under their beds and eschew all bathing for a month. This reporter has not yet been able to independently verify that such behavior was unusual for MIT students. When President Kornbluth was challenged by reporters asking, “Without the Right Hand Rule, won’t MIT have to shut down its Math and Physics departments?” Kornbluth replied, “That depends on the context.” . . . More.

Disclaimer (as required by Yale): This article does not represent the views of Yale University or its administration or assigns.

Resurfaced Posts Reveal Talarico’s Father Mocked Crucifixion, Called GOP Women a ‘Strip Club’ Shift

 RedState

"Resurfaced posts from an X account that Democrat Texas Senate nominee James Talarico has publicly identified as belonging to his adoptive father, Mark Talarico, contain a series of remarks mocking Christianity and derogatory comments directed at Republican women.

"The posts create an awkward contrast for a candidate who has leaned heavily on his own religious credentials and spoken openly about his aspirations to become a preacher.

"Talarico has followed the account and interacted with it over several years, including a 2020 reply in which he wrote, “You taught me well, Pops!”

"In a separate 2022 exchange, he clarified that the person behind the profile was his adoptive father and described him as the “greatest man I’ve ever known.”

"This has been a theme for Talarico. 

“Nowadays our culture tells young men that greatness is tearing other people down, is trolling and owning and dominating. But my dad showed me what real greatness looks like," Talarico said at a rally, noting his father used to mow his elderly neighbor's lawn without being asked. "He inspired me to serve."

"Let's take a gander at what "real greatness" has been popping up on Mark Talarico's X account. Among them are several posts that openly mock Christianity.

"In a September 2023 exchange about the crucifixion, a user speculated about how Jesus might have been viewed if he had died in a different manner. A vile manner. Talarico replied that it would “definitely make for some interesting James Avery jewelry.” . .  More.

Quelle Surprise: France Is Burning and the Radical Network Behind the Violence Says the US Is Next

 RedState 

"At this point, however, pretending that the violence engulfing France right now is simply a spontaneous revolt by frustrated kids requires willfully ignoring an awful lot of adults who are waving their communist and "Palestinian" flags in the background."

Our diversity is our strength!

"Despite media efforts to spin the violence currently rampaging through France as a "student uprising" against subpar school conditions, a new report ties the chaos to 54 organizations and political movements. And of those 54 groups, only 16 are student or youth organizations; the other 38 are adult-led political, labor, activist, and ideological groups.

It became clear early on that this was no organic student-led protest, with far-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise party being tied to the rising unrest. Fox News Digital has now identified a smorgasbord of similar radical groups supporting the violence, including communist organizations, revolutionary socialists, labor unions, political parties, pro-Palestinian activists (of course), and international advocacy and media groups.

Only a handful of the groups, it turns out, have ties to students or young people.

Quelle surprise.

Fox reports that socialist and communist organizations have been working from early on to help amplify the students' original grievances into an astroturfed campaign against capitalism, the police, and military spending." . . . More.

Vance: France Riots a Result of Liberals 'Importing Third World' in Name of ‘Diversity and Compassion’  

Stop pretending the French riots are anything but an attack on civilization

 NY Post  

Foreign flags (Morocco, Algeria, “Palestine”) came out at the start; the crowds are mostly blacks and Arabs — overwhelmingly from Muslim immigrant communities, in other words.

"France is seeing its worst riots in decades — violence clearly aimed not simply at the ruling party, but at France itself — and the left-liberal establishment is still trying to blame a few bad apples.

"That’s true not just of President Emmanuel Macron, but of global media that claim it’s mainly about student grievances over budget cuts — at least one BBC article actually used the phrase “mostly peaceful protests.”

"This is nonsense: The street mobs haven’t been just (or even mostly) kids for weeks now, and the vandalism began in the first days; it was last month that “protesters” set a teacher on fire.

"Foreign flags (Morocco, Algeria, “Palestine”) came out at the start; the crowds are mostly blacks and Arabs — overwhelmingly from Muslim immigrant communities, in other words.

"And the political statements are obvious: Burning down historic town halls; smashing a statue of Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic.

"Synagogues ransacked and other targeting of Jews.

"Liberty isn’t leading these people, but a hatred for Western civilization itself.

"Leaders of that civilization who still insist on denial will either find themselves as former leaders, or “leading” a former civilization." . . . More.

During National Address to France President Macron Says He "Doesn't Know What is Going On" but He's Sure President Trump is to Blame  

. . . "Juan Carlos Girauta Vidal, a Spanish lawyer, writer, and Member of the European Parliament

“You did not listen to Israel — the vanguard of the West in the face of barbarism. You chose instead to condemn its right to self-defense, whitewash its terrorist enemies, deny the horrific crimes of October 7, and spread lies about genocide.

Today, those who are destroying European cities are waving the Palestinian flag.”" . . .

France's riots aren't protests — but an intifada in the heart of Europe

. . . "Paris and other cities are now awash with foreign flags as throngs of unassimilated youths scream their hatred for France itself.

“In the name of Allah, we can kill them all,” barked one masked thug, to the mob’s demented glee.

"We are witnessing something extraordinary: an intifada in the heart of Europe.

"Surely no one can now deny the lethal error of throwing open a nation’s borders to the world, while sacrificing the ideals of integration at the altar of multiculturalism." . . .

I hate to say ‘we told you’ but we kinda did, a lot, anyway rest in peace France, we’ll miss you 

With Trump anything is possible

Psychology Today  

"The core thesis of Sonnenfeld's book is that President Trump's approach to leadership is not impulsive. It is based on a structured approach that you may or may not agree with. We found it unexpectedly fascinating that Donald Trump the man can sometimes laugh at the Donald Trump persona he has created."

AfterMath - Home

. . . "In creating confusion, Trump leaves his audience without the attention span to focus on issues Trump wants them to avoid. Sonnenfeld cites Trump’s insistence that the Biden-Harris administration created an inflationary environment and caused the economy to drift downward—when inflation and downward drift actually began during the Trump administration. Trump was so relentless, Sonnenfeld notes, that the Harris campaign decided it wasn’t worth the time or money to refute him.

Trump the Man Versus Trump the Public Persona

"Sonnenfeld sees Donald Trump as having a public persona characterized by anger and resentment. He uses the persona to align with stakeholders who feel angry and resentful about their lives. False accusations about the election being stolen, for example, feed into their resentment and anger.

"Yet, says Sonnenfeld, Donald Trump “can be genuinely funny” and capable of “mocking his own outside public persona.” One of the few instances of Donald Trump mocking the Donald Trump persona surfaced in a 30-second television commercial for cozone.com, in which Trump seems to be poking fun at his deal-maker and womanizer personas." . . .More.

J. Sonnenfeld. Trump’s Ten Commandments: strategic lessons from the Trump leadership toolbox. New York, Simon & Schuster, 2026

What has Trump done?