Archive for 2025

October 27, 2025

MARK STEYN: Big Apple, Big Allah.

I can’t decide whether this is the sort of ad you run when your internals show you’re done and you’ve got nothing to lose, or when it’s way closer than anyone ever expected and just needs one extra push:

What’s interesting is that in an ad playing up to every stereotype about Democrat client groups there’s no mention of what is Mr Mamdani’s most obvious glass-ceiling-shattering quality: his “Muslimness”, as Sir Keir Starmer’s working party on Islamophobia likes to say. Me twenty sodding years ago:

 You don’t need to fly jets into skyscrapers and kill thousands of people… The wimp state will bend over backwards to give you everything you want – including, eventually, the keys to those skyscrapers.

And so, in New York as in London and Minneapolis, it is proving. To the progressive mind, there is no legitimate basis on which to object to a hardcore jihad-chummy taqiyya Muslim taking over your city. Even a bloodsoaked homicidal sex-fiend like Cuomo can only object to the Islamicness super-covertly, by mocking the famous stupidity of New York Jews:

One should never underestimate the power of fear in politics. Just as white working-class English girls are expected to lie back and think of diversity, so too are moneyed Democrat power-brokers like Chuck Schumer.

Read the whole thing.

Speaking of fear and politics, in addition to the terrifying prospect of Mamdani likely becoming mayor of New York City next week, Cuomo’s ads are the dawn of a future where increasing numbers of political ads will be filled with uncanny valley-style AI slop. I know the former will likely be far worse, but the latter also presages a dreadful future.

Posted at 8:14 pm by Ed Driscoll on Oct 27th, 2025

CATS AND DOGS LIVING TOGETHER: Atari just resurrected its most potent foe in the console wars from 45 years ago, the Intellivision Spirit — $149 console comes with 45 games, was brought into the Atari fold through IP acquisition last year.

 

Atari’s promotional video, above, reminds viewers about “the First Console War,” back in the 1980s. More usefully, the video highlights the different strengths of each system. I remember the Mattel Intellivision was definitely more desirable for advanced graphics and sound when it came out, but it was newer, and more expensive… Now, in 2025, the Atari vs Mattel ‘war’ has been over for a long time, and the two rival systems are ‘friends,’ according to the promo video.

No word yet if Atari will be programming an AI George Plimpton to promote their new box, along the lines of Mattel’s original ads in the early 1980s:

Posted at 6:39 pm by Ed Driscoll on Oct 27th, 2025

THE BEST AND BRIGHTEST, BIDEN EDITION:

Exit quote: “(I know why she was picked.)”

Posted at 6:09 pm by Stephen Green on Oct 27th, 2025

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Dear Gavin: Oh Dear Lord PLEASE Run for President. “Here’s the thing you don’t and maybe can’t understand: Just because you’ve risen to the top of California politics doesn’t mean you’re ready for the national stage. California is a bubble. You are the boy who lived inside it for 58 years. National politics is a leaky Wuhan lab. Get the picture?”

Posted at 5:21 pm by Stephen Green on Oct 27th, 2025

DATING IN THE 21ST CENTURY: I Tried to Have Sex With AI Clive Owen. “I RECENTLY HEARD that a former friend was now heavily into an S/M relationship with Pedro Pascal. This was moderately surprising, as she’s a lesbian and he’s an AI chatbot, but what is fluidity for if not to explore previously untapped facets of ourselves? Let’s not get all rigid about identities. I decided I wanted in on this.”

Maybe we need red flag laws for AI and extremely neurotic, lonely people.

Posted at 4:50 pm by Stephen Green on Oct 27th, 2025

GOOD AND HARD, FUN CITY:

 

Posted at 4:45 pm by Ed Driscoll on Oct 27th, 2025

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: DOJ Asks Court to Vacate Man’s Conviction of ‘High Capacity’ Magazine Possession in Washington, DC. “But let’s not miss the forest for the trees here. No administration has ever acknowledged that magazine bans are unconstitutional before. This is absolutely unprecedented. We knew they took this position in civil cases based on their amicus briefs in the 7th and 3rd circuits, but this is further confirmation that they are also taking the same position even in criminal cases.”

Posted at 4:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds on Oct 27th, 2025

DRONE DEFENSE: Everything Old Is New Again. “With the widespread advent of drone warfare, a whole lot of air defense doctrine needs to be rewritten. Ground-To-Air interceptor missiles that were cost-effective for multi-million fighter planes aren’t for thousands upon thousands of cheap drones, some of which cost less than $1,000 a pop. Cheap kinetic kill shells, AKA ‘ack-ack,’ the mainstay of World War II, are making a comeback in a big way.”

I’m reminded of something then-CNO Admiral Mike Boorda said 30 years ago, lamenting the retirement of the Navy’s battleships: “It is nice occasionally if the target costs more than the bullet you shoot.”

Posted at 3:48 pm by Stephen Green on Oct 27th, 2025

IT’S AMAZING WHAT YOU CAN DO WHEN YOU TRY:

Trump got Portland to police itself… there really isn’t anything he can’t do.

Posted at 3:32 pm by Stephen Green on Oct 27th, 2025

DESPERATE AND DOWNWARDLY MOBILE:

It might be much simpler than even that: Mamdani isn’t just a lefty — he’s a young and trendy lefty.

Posted at 2:39 pm by Stephen Green on Oct 27th, 2025

COMING SOON, SENATOR SIDESHOW BOB?

In accordance with the prophecy:

Related: Graham Platner’s New Campaign Manager Quits After 4 Days.

Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner’s campaign manager is stepping down from his position after only days on the job, according to two people familiar with his plans…

“Graham is a dear friend,” Brown said in a statement to Axios. “I started this campaign Tuesday but found out Friday we have a baby on the way. Graham deserves someone who is 100% in on his race and we want to lean into this new experience as a family, so it was best we step back sooner than later so Graham can get the manager he deserves.”

This is a version of the candidate (or staffer) who suddenly decides to spend more time with his family, a classic way to exit the political stage which sounds folksy and noble but is in fact almost always cover for something shameful and embarrassing.

Exclusive video of how it all went down:

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll on Oct 27th, 2025

‘WE ARE NOT THE CRAZY ONES:’ AOC’s Fiery Mamdani Rally Shows the Left’s Delusion about America.

Last night’s Zohran Mamdani rally reflected the confidence of his movement that no compromise is needed with anyone even an inch to the right of the Democratic Socialists of America. Which may well be an accurate reading of where the New York City mayor’s race is headed. But it remains a fundamental misreading of America.

Shouting at the top of her lungs for 15 minutes, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez offered a purely red-meat speech in a rally that sought only to preach to the converted[.]

“We must remember in a time such as this,” AOC barked, “we are not the crazy ones. New York City, we are not the outlandish ones. New York City, they want us to think we are crazy. We are sane.” Just as it is never a good sign when you have to tell people that you’re not a witch or a secret Nazi, it’s typically not a good sign for the breadth of the appeal of your political movement when you have to deny being crazy. It is fitting that AOC paid tribute to Eugene V. Debs, who topped out at 5.99 percent of the national popular vote in 1912 (dropping to 3.41 percent in 1920 after they gave women the vote).

Based on her performance throughout 2019, it seems safe to say that AOC is indeed one of the crazy ones. But perhaps her mother had her tested:

Related: Left-wing ideas have wrecked Democrats’ brand, new report warns.

Democrats have badly weakened their party with left-leaning ideas and rhetoric, growing only with self-described “white liberals” while losing ground with other voters, according to a new center-left group’s report shared first with Semafor.

The group, called Welcome, consulted hundreds of thousands of voters over six months for its broad findings, including that 70% of voters think the Democratic Party is “out of touch.” Most voters, the group found, believe the party over-prioritizes issues like “protecting the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans,” and “fighting climate change” while not caring about “securing the border” or “lowering the rate of crime.” (Welcome began as a PAC in 2022, then founded a nonprofit with the same name for political research.)

Or to put things in visual terms:

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll on Oct 27th, 2025
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