November 13, 2026

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: What Do You Mean He Stole a Second School Bus? “It’s time for your much-needed break from the serious news, and this week, we’ll learn just how easy it is to get caught stealing your second school bus, where not to pump your diesel, and what it’s like to be number two in Michigan.”

Posted at 4:23 pm by Stephen Green

UM…:

Details coming in now: FAA issues nationwide ground stop due to ‘extraordinary circumstances.’

The FAA issued an extremely rare nationwide ground stop at all airports due to “extraordinary circumstances” and “reasons of safety.”

The big picture: An air traffic control advisory posted Friday afternoon reads: “All departing traffic should remain ground stopped until further notice.”

“Inbound international flights will be managed on a case by case basis.”
What they’re saying: The FAA did not immediately respond to Axios’ request for comment.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

Another post indicated the stop should end before Starship Flight 15’s launch window opens, but according to Grok, the stop doesn’t apply to launches.

UPDATE (From Ed): FAA issues nationwide ground stop due to ‘extraordinary circumstances.’

The Federal Aviation Administration late Friday afternoon issued a nationwide “ground stop,” affecting flights across the country.

The FAA issued the advisory after a reported equipment outage affecting airports across the US: “National ground stop,” the advisory read.

The agency said the stop was due to “extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.”

According to Kentucky CBS affiliate WKYT: Air traffic communication issues being blamed for FAA nationwide ground stop for all flights. “The last time there was a nationwide ground stop in January of 2023 when a pilot notification system went down. Prior to that, the last time a nationwide ground stop was issued was after the September 11, 2001 attacks.”

Posted at 4:14 pm by Stephen Green

STEPHEN MILLER: What If JD Vance Doesn’t Run?

What if JD Vance sees another coming wave, and decides he’s up against destiny and reality, and decides to simply sit out 2028, and come back rejuvenated in 2032? That decision then opens a field for candidates such as Marco Rubio, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, or Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee-Sanders, or even a Mike Pence and Chris Christie, as well as a challenge from the right in Marjorie Taylor Greene or Thomas Massie running on an “America First” MAGA betrayal campaign that could make some noise, backed by powerful media allies like Tucker Carlson or Megyn Kelly.

But it also raises greater questions about who fills the Trump endorsement lane. The question isn’t so much about who would run absent a Vance campaign, but rather who would fill the Vance-lane and void. Does Donald Trump Jr., a friend and confidant of Vance and the son of the president, entertain a campaign? Does Pete Hegseth enter the fray? A Vance exit likely creates a MAGA vacuum, as everyone jockeys for a post-Trump electorate, and what that looks like right now is anyone’s guess and likely signals a white flag coming from the Trump White House for a party where heir apparents are somewhat successful. The blame game engulfing the political Right and how Vance navigates the rubble of the midterms will answer several questions over the coming months, but as of now, there are no easy answers, and there is no easy path for him.

Will Iran be sorted out by 2028? What will the economy be like? How much Dem infighting will we see in the next two years? How many impeachment hearings will there be? Will there be a black swan event on the scale of 9/11, the 2008 financial crisis, or Covid? It seems far too premature to wargame 2028, though as Miller writes, as of right now, “The Democrats have the wind at their backs, and they know that whoever comes out of a vicious, brutal primary will have a decent chance at the White House.”

Posted at 4:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

JUST WHEN I THINK WE MIGHT NOT BE IN A BUBBLE, I SEE A STORY LIKE THIS ONE: OpenAI Is Sustaining Enormous Losses. “The ChatGPT maker told investors Tuesday that its operating losses in the third quarter topped $10.9 billion, up from $10.1 billion in the previous one. That’s striking because the company actually grew its revenue by around 50 percent from the second to the third quarter, per the The Wall Street Journal, though it wasn’t enough to offset its astonishing expenses — illustrating just how steep of a gap it still has to close to achieve profitability.”

Then again: “The AI business behind Grok – which SpaceX has now renamed Super Intelligence – has become SpaceX’s biggest business. In Q3 2026 it generated $7.56 billion of revenue, nearly triple the previous quarter and around nine times the same quarter last year, and swung to an operating profit of $431 million.”

Posted at 3:52 pm by Stephen Green

WE HAVE AN 11 CARRIER NAVY IN A 20 CARRIER WORLD: USS George H.W. Bush Deployment Could Last an Entire Year, Navy Officials Warn.

As of Thursday, the Bush has been at sea for 226 days, and the Navy reportedly told families earlier this month that the mission could stretch to March 2027. On Monday, during a “town hall” meeting at Naval Station Norfolk, US Navy officials told around 500 family members of the USS George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group (CSG-10) that their loved ones would not be returning home for the holidays, according to an audio recording made public by MS NOW.

The US Navy has already extended CSG-10’s deployment twice. US Navy leaders were candid that families should prepare for “a worst-case scenario of a yearlong deployment”—a forecast which, if accurate, would give the Bush the longest continuous deployment of any aircraft carrier in US Navy service.

Classical reference in the headline.

Posted at 2:50 pm by Stephen Green

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: Hakeem Jeffries faces protesters at Democrats’ What’s Next conference.

Protesters inside the room at Democrats’ “What’s Next’ conference in Denver screamed at House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., in protest today as he participated in an interview on stage about the party’s agenda.

First, a protester yelled that she was “scared for her future” and yelled, “When is it time for a Green New Deal? When is it time for Medicare for All?” Several protesters seemed to join in.

Other attendees chanted Jeffries’ name. He’s expected to be elected the first Black speaker of the House in the new year, with Democrats taking the majority.

Jeffries continued speaking amid the shouts from the audience. Another protester also yelled, “You are a f—— liar!'” The person appeared to be shouting about impeachment.

Isn’t it too late for a New New Green New Deal? The proponents of the original old Green New Deal assure me that mankind has less than five years to go:

Posted at 2:40 pm by Ed Driscoll

DISPATCHES FROM AL-BRIṬĀNIYĀ:

Posted at 2:34 pm by Stephen Green

MY OUTLOOK IS WORKING, KUDOS TO THE UT IT DEPARTMENT. But here’s the latest:

Posted at 2:31 pm by Glenn Reynolds

CONGRESS MAY WANT A WORD HERE: Hegseth seeks to elevate top SOF civilian to service-secretary equivalent.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is seeking to upgrade the powers of the department’s top special operations civilian role to the equivalent of a service secretary, a move that would radically shape the power of the special forces community inside the military.

“Despite [its] contribution to the Joint Force and our Nation, resourcing for SOF remains behind current operational and force posture,” Hegseth wrote in a new memo, released today but dated Nov. 2. “It is time for a bold, foundational change.”

The overall goal of the memo is to elevate the assistant secretary of defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict (ASD-SOLIC), a role currently held by Derrick Anderson, to a new role of undersecretary of strategic services (OSS). The question of whether SOF should have its own military department has been bandied about over the years, but has never gathered much steam in Congress, where members have instead focused on enhancing the SOLIC office and give special acquisition authorities to US Special Operations Command.

The memo outlines a number of changes Hegseth would like to see, but they break down into effectively two buckets: the changes that need congressional support to happen, and those that can be done internally right now.

Does this mean that Jack Ryan is out of a job?

 

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

OUCH: Vance Lost His Iran Talks Because He Became a Figure of Ridicule in Tehran.

“Losing gambler energy, can’t walk away from the table,” wrote Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. “Boss is prepping the next war phase while America teeters on an Israel-First cliff. Skip the TED talk. Why not say this to your boss?”

“Losing gambler energy” and “skip the TED talk” are not what you want to hear publicly from your negotiating partner. Just to remind ourselves how besotted with the Iranians Vance had become, here’s how Vance described the state of play back in June:

“One of the interesting things about what’s happened just over the last few months is that our relationship with Iran has fundamentally transformed.”

Specifically, Vance said, that means “you see people, both the hard liners but also the more political people, saying our relationship with the United States over the past 47 years has been a mistake. Let’s turn over a new leaf.”

There are no other leaves in Tehran.

Posted at 1:48 pm by Stephen Green

RON DESANTIS SEPARATES HIMSELF FROM LEGACY GOP WITH ATTACK ON “CORPORATISM:”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has come out swinging since the Republican wipeout in the midterm elections. I hope this is because he’s laying the groundwork for a 2028 presidential bid, since he is one of the few national Republicans in tune with heartland Americans. Among the topics he is discussing is the problem of “corporatism,” and how the back-scratching, crony capitalism that exists between government and many corporations repels conservative voters, while also fueling the popularity of socialism among non-conservatives.

Here are some quotes from Gov. DeSantis, as documented in a NY Post article titled “DeSantis says ‘corporatist Republicans’ drive young voters toward socialism after GOP’s midterm disaster”:

“Young people have a very positive view of socialism compared to capitalism. The question is, why is that?”

“Some of it is the education in our universities. But I think a big part of that is, what they’re comparing is not free enterprise versus socialism. What they’re comparing is how government gets involved in business, and you have crony capitalism.”

“The best kind of indirect supporters of socialism are some of these corporatist Republicans who propagate these crony policies.”

“If it’s cronyism versus socialism, there’s going to be enough people who are going to choose socialism.”

Gov. DeSantis’ attack on corporatism is welcome and politically necessary.

I have been pounding on the issue of crony capitalism and corporate misbehavior for years, not because I’m anti-business, but because I’m anti-socialism. Like the great Malcolm Forbes (who embraced the nickname “The Capitalist Tool”, I am trying to shame companies that give capitalism a bad name, because they actually empower the enemies of economic freedom.

Flashback to 2009: Obama and the Reawakening of Corporatism.

Today, some American conservatives will argue that we never put aside the corporatism of the U.S. during the New Deal. They can point to any number of initiatives, from Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society to Richard Nixon’s wage and price controls, as evidence of continued drift. Progressives, by contrast, will argue that America has been governed over that same time by a corporatist regime of big business conspiring with government against the middle and lower classes so that only the rich benefit.

The facts belie both versions. If corporations have been running our economy for their own purposes, or in tandem with big government, they haven’t been doing an awfully good job of protecting their interests, considering how quickly U.S. firms rise and fall and how the Fortune 500 turns over. And if only the rich are getting richer someone needs to tell Bill Gates, a kid from a middle class background with no college degree, or Warren Buffett, who grew up working in his grandfather’s grocery store, that they need to return the billions they’ve somehow acquired to the Rockefellers, the Astors, the Vanderbilts and other once-rich families whose fortunes have long been in decline.

Still, great economic dislocations bring out the corporatist, which is why we now have a government board overseeing General Motors, and the Treasury Department has issued the first car warranty program in its history. It’s why some banks were pressured to accept bailout money they didn’t need and have been pressured not to return it to get out from under federal micromanagement. And it’s why the federal stimulus package contains such chestnuts as money to build out our broadband infrastructure, which comes with all sorts of strings attached by the Federal Communications Commission, because we somehow can’t rely on our phone, cable or internet companies to provide customers with the bandwidth they demand in networks that will suit our economy.

How did the Obama-era crony corporatism work out? President Obama’s Taxpayer-Backed Green Energy Failures.

Posted at 1:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

YES, WE KNEW ALL ALONG:

Posted at 1:32 pm by Stephen Green

XI’S GOTTA HAVE IT! Greta Thunberg’s Next Big Thing.

The Pax Silica initiative has been underway for about a year. The U.S. State Department has announced an AI supply chain credentialing platform with Panama’s ports and customs authorities and a partnership with Stanford University to develop an advanced manufacturing curriculum that educational institutions across Pax Silica economies can adopt and deliver in their own classrooms.

In a second term that has featured far too many counterproductive and petty spats with our long-term allies, Pax Silica increases our cooperation with allies. In an administration that is far too hostile to international trade, this is an effort to build international supply chains with countries we trust and with which we have shared values — or at least more shared values than we have with the PRC. In an administration that has usually been at war with higher education, this is using some of the best minds at some of America’s most respected schools to help ensure America’s businesses in the AI supply chain are resilient and adaptable. And it addresses one of our most serious strategic vulnerabilities. It is a win-win-win-win.

You know who Pax Silica is bad for? The People’s Republic of China.

The Philippines — a country with good reason to fear Chinese aggression and coercion — was the 13th country to join the Pax Silica initiative, and back in April, the Philippine government unveiled big plans to turn their country into a key hub for manufacturing facilities key to AI development:

As part of the country’s commitment, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) has allocated a 4,000-acre lot in New Clark City to serve as a Pax Silica Coordination Office where technology firms, research institutions, and government agencies can converge to build a robust AI ecosystem, accelerate innovation, attract high-value investments.

Strategically located within the Luzon Economic Corridor, the Coordination Office is the first of its kind to be established under Pax Silica. It is being designated as a “Golden Node,” a new model for AI-native investment acceleration hubs.

“The Golden Node is not about recreating the factories of the last century. It is about building the manufacturing ecosystems of the next century — AI-native from day one, anchored in the rule of law, and integrated into a network of trusted nations that will define global supply chain resilience for decades to come,” U.S. Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg said in a separate statement.

Guess who’s leading the charge against Philippine participation in Pax Silica?

The same person who roared with laughter over the dupes still slavishly aping her original big thing: Greta Thunberg Laughs at Climate Protesters Following in Her Footsteps.

And wants you to forget how her grifting all began: Greta Thunberg deletes 2018 tweet saying world will end in 2023 after world does not end.

—The Post Millennial, March 11th, 2023.

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

BUYERS’ REMORSE: Susan Collins’ Departure Leaves Maine Worried About Federal Funding. “Collins chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee. Between that and decades spent building valuable connections, Collins delivered for Maine, bringing piles of money to the cash-poor state. Now all of that is going away, and some people are just beginning to realize this.”

It’s almost as though people would be better off voting with their brains instead of their feelz.

Posted at 12:46 pm by Stephen Green