November 9, 2025

POLICE OFFICER UNDER INVESTIGATION FOR CALLING A MAN A MAN:

Tucker, Georgia, is an eastern Atlanta suburb, located in the ultra-woke Dekalb County, so this story may not come as a surprise, but it’s infuriating a lot of people, so I thought I’d share.

It all started a few weeks ago with a man who identifies as a woman by the name of Sasha Swinson. He was at the Tucker-Reid H. Cofer Library, a place he claims he frequents regularly, and had just used the bathroom. The women’s bathroom. When he stepped outside, a DeKalb County police officer allegedly told him that he needed to use the men’s bathroom next time as there were women and young girls in the other. As you can imagine, that didn’t sit well with Swinson.

“I use the restroom, the women’s restroom, like I have been for months, if not years,” Swinson told local news outlets. “He says, ‘Excuse me, sir.’ So, misgendering me right away, just goes, ‘But you’re not a woman. That’s obvious.'”

In case you’re curious about just how obvious that was, here’s a video of Swinson enjoying his 15 minutes of fame as he complains about the situation. Even I didn’t expect that voice to come out that deep.

As George Orwell famously never said, “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

Posted at 2:45 pm by Ed Driscoll

BETHANY MANDEL: How do two privileged New Jersey teens get seduced by ISIS?

Two teenagers from one of New Jersey’s wealthiest suburbs were arrested this week for allegedly plotting to join ISIS and carry out mass killings of Jews.

According to federal prosecutors, Tomas Kaan Jimenez-Guzel and Milo Sedarat, both 19, both from Montclair, had stockpiled weapons, posed with an ISIS flag, and fantasized online about attacks on Jewish communities.

Sedarat, the son of a well-known poet, reportedly said he wanted to “execute 500 Jews” and “mow down” pro-Israel marchers in his hometown.

* * * * * * * *

A generation raised without faith or moral grounding is now desperately searching for something to fill the void.

And when that search happens in the digital wilderness, without fathers, pastors or teachers to guide them, it leads not to purpose, but to poison.

The Montclair jihadis aren’t just a security threat.

They’re a warning: When a society stops offering its young men meaning, something else will.

And what steps in to fill that emptiness may be worse than anything we dare to imagine.

As G.K. Chesterton famously never said, “When a man ceases to believe in God, it’s not that he believes in nothing, it’s that he’ll believe in anything.”

Posted at 2:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

FROM WALL STREET TO Y’ALL STREET: Escape from New York: Bankers flee Mamdani for Texas.

“Suddenly you’ll have an exodus of folks who are generating quite a bit of profit,” says investment banker Philip Blancato, chief executive of Wall Street firm Ladenburg Thalmann.

“It’s already happening, this is just going to accelerate it.”

In response, Wall Street’s top earners are turning to an unlikely corner of the country to shelter from Mamdani’s tax raid: Texas.

Or, more specifically, Dallas, where the booming financial district – nicknamed “Y’All Street” – benefits from a lower-tax, lower-regulation environment than New York.

For some, Mamdani’s new regime means Texas is on course to take New York’s crown as the financial capital of America.

“It’s hard to remain a financial capital when you despise capitalism. Cities run by people who have never run a business or met a payroll are killing their own proverbial golden goose,” says Chris Furlow, chief executive of the Texas Bankers Association.

Good and hard, Fun City. From yesterday’s Power Line Week in Pictures:

Posted at 1:44 pm by Ed Driscoll

OUCH:

Posted at 1:22 pm by Glenn Reynolds

ROGER KIMBALL: The Heritage Foundation’s Meltdown.

Is there anything left to say about the Heritage Foundation’s pre-Halloween melodrama? It was quite a scary show. I am confident that when Kevin Roberts, president of that venerable bastion of conservatism, got outside his morning egg on October 30, he had no inkling that his two-minute and thirty-nine-second video clip would precipitate a seismic detonation that would rock the foundation and monopolize the news cycle for days.

The main purpose of the video, Roberts said, was to reaffirm that the commentator Tucker Carlson “remains and always will be a close friend of the Heritage Foundation.” This came on the heels of Carlson’s long interview with Nick Fuentes, the obnoxious twenty-seven-year-old antisemitic scold who, among other things, idolizes Joseph Stalin and thinks that Adolf Hitler is “cool.”

Some prominent commentators defended Roberts; many denounced him. Roberts tried several times to walk back or apologize for his initial video. It didn’t work. The rhetoric of that first video (“globalist class,” “venomous coalition”) was impossible to sanitize. On November 5, Heritage’s regularly scheduled all-staff monthly meeting turned into an embarrassing extended struggle session. The world knows this because a video of the meeting (taped for the benefit of staffers who were out of town) was leaked and posted online, where it instantly became the object of obloquy and ridicule.

As of this writing, damage reports regarding the self-inflicted wound suffered by Heritage are still trickling in and being assessed. But even sympathetic commentators understand that the damage is serious. “After 40+ years,” ran the headline to one such column, “the Heritage Foundation is collapsing.” Perhaps that is precipitate or overstated; as of this writing, the tea leaves are still swirling. Still, there can be no doubt that there is trouble in paradise.

As Scott Johnson wrote at the end of last month, “It’s a time for choosing and the Heritage Foundation has chosen poorly.”

Indeed:

Posted at 1:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

HMM: Clinical trial suggests opioids unnecessary after wisdom tooth surgery. To be honest, I barely took any pain meds after mine were out. But it was a straightforward extraction under a local anesthetic. I took a codeine pill when I got home, and another when I went to bed, and then it was Advil all the way. But Helen had dental surgery several weeks ago, and she couldn’t sleep without opiates at night.

Posted at 1:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

RIP: Former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue dead at 84: Tributes pour in for exec who changed the face of the league.

Former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue has died at the age of 84, his family have announced.

Tagliabue reportedly died on Sunday morning in Chevy Chase, Maryland as a result of heart failure complicated by Parkinson’s disease. He leaves behind wife Chandler, son Drew and daughter Emily.

Tagliabue served as NFL commissioner between 1989 and 2006, when current incumbent Roger Goodell took over.

During Tagliabue’s 17-year stint as commissioner, the NFL experienced labor peace, saw skyrocketing television deals, construction of new stadiums across the nation, and expansion to the current 32-team makeup.

He also maneuvered the league through such crises and events as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans.

Despite those credentials that continued pro football’s surge to the top of American sports, it took until a special centennial class in 2020 for Tagliabue to be voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame after retiring in 2006.

Tagliabue wasn’t the second coming of Pete Rozelle, but the NFL’s product during his era was still pre-woke, and far more watchable than Goodell’s version of the sport.

Posted at 12:45 pm by Ed Driscoll

DISPATCHES FROM THE HOUSE OF STEPHANOPOULOS: Scott Bessent Flips Shutdown On Former Clinton Adviser George Stephanopoulos.

“The president continues to post about ending the filibuster,” Stephanopoulos began. “Is that the best way to end this shutdown right now? Is that what the administration position is?”

“No, George, the best way to do it — and look, you were involved in a lot of these in the ’90s. And you basically called the Republicans terrorists and, you know, you said that it is not the responsible party that keeps the government closed,” Bessent replied. “And so what we need is five brave moderate Democratic Senators to cross the aisle, because right now it is 52 to three — 52 to three — five Democrats can cross the aisle and reopen the government. That’s the best way to do it, George.”

“I can disagree with you about the history there,” Stephanopoulos said with a half smile. “We don’t have to get into a history lesson right now —”

“George —” Bessent tried to push back.

“Let’s talk about —” Stephanopoulos interrupted. “Let’s talk about what’s happening right now.”

“If you want, I’ve got all your quotes here,” Bessent offered.

“I’m sure you do, but let’s talk about the situation —” Stephanopoulos tried again.

“I read your book, so you got one purchase on Amazon this week,” Bessent quipped. “And that’s very much what you said.”

Much more like this please.

UPDATE: Rep. Gephardt spells out tax-cut plan.

In that vein, [Dick] Gephardt bitterly attacked incoming House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and his allies, calling them “trickle-down terrorists” and asserting that their legislative program was based on “division, exclusion and fear.”

—The Tampa Bay Times, December 14th, 1994.

And from Stephanopoulos himself:

Stephanopoulos: No one knew who would get blamed more for the shutdown, Democrats or Republicans. But there was more than the shutdown involved. First, there was also this threat that they would not extend the debt limit, that this was the big hammer that would force the president to accept whatever the Republicans wanted.

Our strategy was very simple. We couldn’t buckle, and we had to say that [Republicans] were blackmailing the country to get their way. In order to get their tax cut, they were willing to shut down the government, throw the country into default for the first time in its history and cut Medicare, Social Security, education and the environment just so they could get their way. And we were trying to say that they were basically terrorists, and it worked.

—“The Clinton Years,” Frontline, PBS, January 24th, 2001.

And more recently: Sources: Biden likened tea partiers to ‘terrorists.’

—The Politico, August 1st, 2011.

Posted at 12:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

MODERN FAMILY: Wow, the Kimmels Are Worse People Than I Thought.

Molly McNearney, Jimmy Kimmel’s wife and the co-head writer of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, just gave the world a front-row seat to what happens when politics becomes your entire personality.

* * * * * * * * *

McNearney admitted she feels “angry all the time” toward relatives who supported Trump’s election. Yet in the same breath, she claimed to feel “sympathy” for them, describing them as “deliberately misinformed.”

So they’re idiots who need her pity, but she’s also furious at them. Got it.

McNearney once proudly voted Republican and gave her dad a Rush Limbaugh tie. Then she moved to Los Angeless and became a brainwashed Hollywood liberal. Turns out fitting in beats independent thought.

“Part of me goes, ‘Don’t let politics get in the way,’ but to me, this isn’t politics. It’s truly values. And we just were not aligned anymore,” McNearney said.

Part of being a functioning human being is being able to deal with people who disagree with you. But apparently, that’s too much to ask from someone who thinks voting differently is a personal attack.

Greg Gutfeld has a question:

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

NOW IT CAN BE TOLD: Washington Post editorial says Mamdani ‘drops the mask’ after election win, offers ‘seething’ victory speech.

The Washington Post editorial board asserted that a “new era of class warfare has begun” in New York City after Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani won last week’s election — criticizing what it described as his “change in character” since the campaign.

In a Saturday editorial titled “Zohran Mamdani drops the mask,” the Post slammed the mayor-elect for his “seething” victory speech, arguing that Mamdani “abandoned his cool disposition” and showed the world what he really stands for.

The sub-headline warned, “The mayor-elect divides New Yorkers into two groups: the oppressed and their oppressors.”

“Across 23 angry minutes laced with identity politics and seething with resentment, Mamdani abandoned his cool disposition and made clear that his view of politics isn’t about unity. It isn’t about letting people build better lives for themselves. It is about identifying class enemies — from landlords who take advantage of tenants to ‘the bosses’ who exploit workers — and then crushing them,” the editorial board wrote. “His goal is not to increase wealth but to dole it out to favored groups. The word ‘growth’ didn’t appear in the speech, but President Donald Trump garnered eight mentions.”

* * * * * * * *

In conclusion, the Post argued that you don’t need a college degree to understand the impact that Mamdani will have on New York City — only a familiarity with the city’s history.

If only the Post had aggressive young reporters who could get ahead of a hot story like this!

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll

HELLO, SUCKERS:

(Classical reference in headline.)

Posted at 8:44 am by Ed Driscoll

FIVE ARRESTED AFTER PROTESTERS ALLEGEDLY FORCE WAY INTO TORONTO STUDENT GROUP EVENT WITH ISRAELI SOLDIERS:

Toronto police said a 21-year-old from Toronto was charged with obstruction of a peace officer, a 23-year-old from Toronto was charged with forcible entry and unlawful assembly, and a 29-year-old was arrested for obstruction and assault of a peace officer.

A Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) student group called Students Supporting Israel (SSI) said in social media posts that an off-campus event it organized was targeted.

Videos posted by the group show broken glass and people shouting.

A post on SSI’s Instagram page said protestors “forced their way” into the event that featured two Israeli soldiers as part of the national “Triggered: From Combat to Campus” tour.

It said one of the invited soldiers was injured in the incident from shattered glass.

Another TMU student group, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), said in a social media statement that students protesting the event “were grabbed, shoved, chased and thrown to the ground” by one of the soldiers.

The left screams “Globalize the Intifada.” Why should they be surprised when Israelis fight back throughout the globe?

Posted at 8:14 am by Ed Driscoll