REALCLEARDEFENSE: Broken Windows at the Pentagon. “Rumsfeld grandly characterized his reforms as transformation; Hegseth humbly characterized his changes as common sense.”
Archive for 2025
October 16, 2025
WAIT, ALL THE BEST PEOPLE TOLD ME HAITI WAS A TROPICAL PARADISE: Doctors Without Borders permanently closes its emergency center in Haiti’s capital. “Doctors Without Borders said Wednesday that ongoing violence in the capital of Haiti has forced it to permanently close its Port-au-Prince emergency care center, which had been a key lifeline in a city now 90% controlled by gangs. More than 60% of the capital’s health facilities, including Haiti’s general hospital, are now shuttered or non-functioning because of the surge in gang violence.”
BREAKING, ER, UPDATED: UPDATED: John Bolton Indicted, Trump Reacts.
Look away from the computer for an hour, and what happens?
SPOILER: LABOUR DOESN’T CARE AND WILL CONTINUE TO GOVERN AS IT PLEASES.
The people of Britain want change! https://t.co/zKfGB1JFmv
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 16, 2025
ROGER KIMBALL: Trump inherited a weaponized justice system.
The press is full of caterwauling headlines about Trump’s “vindictive,” “weaponized” prosecutions. But if you step back, such imprecations ring hollow. For one thing, as the commentator “Cynical Publius” noted: “[Letitia] James charged Trump with nonsense; Trump charged James with a verifiable crime.” The same is true of [James] Comey. The same will be true of the rogues’ gallery of anti-Trumpists destined for the courts.
After she got done running for office on a platform of suing Trump and calling him “illegitimate,” James dusted off her oratory. “When powerful people cheat to get better loans,” she intoned, “it comes at the expense of hardworking people. Everyday Americans cannot lie to a bank to get a mortgage, and if they did, our government would throw the book at them. There simply cannot be different rules for different people.”
That was before it was revealed that James lied to a bank to get a lower interest rate on a mortgage.
Here is the moral of the story. Deterrence works only because there lurks in the background a credible threat of retaliation. Before Trump, Republicans were too lily-livered to mount any such threat. Would it be better if an incoming administration did not set about indicting its predecessors? Yes. Which is why the President’s vigorous effort to call to account those who waged lawfare against him is a necessary purgative. If vigorously pursued, it may just reset the conventions and courtesies of our political life.
Evergreen:
A DANGEROUS EXPERIMENT: How far can you drive the electric Cayenne on one charge? We found out, sort of.
ROUTINE BUT NEVER BORING: See SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch from Florida en route to landmark 500th booster landing.
This morning’s launch also marked the 130th Falcon 9 flight of 2025, which is “just two shy of the rocket’s single-year record, which was set in 2024.“
THE COCAINE RUNNER STUMBLES: Video Shows Mitch McConnell, 83, Collapse in Senate Office Building.
NEW: @SenMcConnell falls as he walks towards the Capitol for votes.
The video shows volunteers with the Sunrise Movement asking him about ICE. He doesn’t answer but then falls down.
Video Credit: Sunrise Movement pic.twitter.com/22dXP6Ocv5
— Jackie (@Jackie_Koppell) October 16, 2025
TWO SUSPECTS INDICTED ON FIRST ANTIFA-RELATED TERRORISM CHARGES IN TEXAS ICE ATTACK: “Two alleged Antifa members were indicted this week on terrorism-related charges in connection with a July 4 attack on an ICE facility in Texas. The case marks the first time the Department of Justice has brought Antifa-related terrorism charges against a defendant since President Trump classified the group as a terrorist organization weeks ago.”
IT’S MY THURSDAY ESSAY FOR VIP SUBSCRIBERS: From Anathema to Applause — What Changed for Trump?
If it seems like I’ve written so much — too much? — about the Middle East this last week, bear with me as we go once more unto the breach. But don’t worry, this week’s essay is only tangentially about Israel, Gaza, and President Donald Trump’s historic peace deal.
This is about the man who waged peace during his first term, and “never got no respect,” to crib a line from Rodney Dangerfield, and the man who waged peace in 2025 to thunderous applause from around the world.
Trump hasn’t changed, but something surely has.
“What, exactly?” is the question I’ve grappled with over the last few days.
Much more at the link.
FIND YOUR PHONE: Apple AirTag 4 Pack. #CommissionEarned
WHY IS COMCAST SUCH A CESSPIT OF RACISM AND HOMOPHOBIA? NBC Lays Off 150 “Journalists,” Sacking Its Black, Latinx, and Gay DEI Unites “NBC BLK,” “NBC Latino,” and “NBC OUT.”
THAT’S WHO THEY SEE AS THE ENEMY: California’s Latest “Gun Safety” Law Targets Legal Gun Owners, Not Criminals.
MAGA: Top Walmart exec says American manufacturing comeback is real and good for business. “Investing in U.S. manufacturing and U.S. operations, sure, it’s great for business, but it’s also great for employment. It’s great for jobs. It’s great for the country, and it helps us with our supply chain being flexible and dynamic.”
RECOMMENDED: 10 Reasons Venezuela Isn’t Nation-Building.
GET STRONGER: Twister Arm Trainer, Adjustable 5 Resistance Levels. #CommissionEarned
DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Dem governor in hot seat after whistleblower rips disturbing sentencing pattern for illegal child rapists.
WAS IT OVER WHEN THE ACCOUNTANTS BOMBED PEARL HARBOR?! What the Hell Happened to the Dems on CNN Last Night?
AOC says "rivers were on fire" because of corporations like Deloitte "pouring chemicals" into waterways.
Deloitte is an accounting, consulting, and tax services firm.
No idea what she's talking about. pic.twitter.com/mLX64nPnVk
— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) October 16, 2025
The former bartender is apparently still inventing exciting new ideas for cocktails:
"Air that is drinkable." – @AOC pic.twitter.com/ASqqlrVltd
— Steven Cheung (@StevenCheung47) October 16, 2025
Bernie Sanders was also operating at peak efficiency: Bernie Sanders IMMEDIATELY Regretted Asking CNN Town Hall Guy About Gov’t Shutdown Blame.
🔥Bernie got COOKED.
This guy just calmly smacked Bernie Sanders down in a single sentence.
BRUTAL. pic.twitter.com/BV1cgFEsip
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 16, 2025
Fortunately, one Democrat at a televised town hall last night was making a modicum of sense:
🚨 WOW! SEN. FETTERMAN (D): “I know and I love people who voted for President Trump. They are NOT fascists, they’re NOT Nazis, they’re NOT trying to destroy the Constitution!” pic.twitter.com/U9V0vzIzye
Can the rest of the party say this, please?
“[Charlie Kirk] is a father that…
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 16, 2025
In accordance with the prophecy:
Naturally of course, because he’s now making sense, the left wants the Fetterman to be roaming the Pennsylvania countryside alone:
Democrats thought it was awesome to have a scalloped potatoes brain in the Oval Office for four years but heaven forefend Senator Fetterman pivot to being something like a 1990’s Democrat.
— Corpo Scribe (@NightCityTimes) October 16, 2025
UPDATE: AOC confirms that the thing that the party’s propaganda arm isn’t happening is happening: ‘Every Person’ Deserves Coverage: AOC Backs Taxpayer-Funded Health Care for Illegal Immigrants.
More:
Bernie Sanders just said that Republicans are good at social media because Jeff Bezos owns X.
Biden 2.0? pic.twitter.com/ao8aTODvRu
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) October 16, 2025
MORE NUKES IS GOOD NUKES: Nuclear Energy Startup OKLO Has Insane $25 Billion Valuation.
BREAKING: Trump to Meet Putin Again.
OH, CANADA: Concordia tight-lipped on ‘kill them all’ post about ‘Zionists.’
Someone presenting themselves as a Montreal professor took to social media on the weekend to suggest a peculiar approach to dealing with “hardcore Zionists.” The advice: “Kill them all.”
The comment was made in response to a post on the Instagram account for Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME). That post features an image of McGill University, with text referring to a vote by the faculty association endorsing a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign against Israel: “BDS Victory: McGill Faculty Vote to Endorse the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel.”
One user, whose account appears to share a name with a Concordia University professor, commented: “My hardcore Zionist colleagues (kill them all, as they say) from the math department at McGill will roll on the floor tearing their shirts and screaming antisemitism. Well, as they do everyday.” The comment ends with three vomiting emojis.
National Post has chosen not to name the professor at this time because the university has refused to verify whether the person presenting themselves as a faculty member is employed by Concordia.
That’s the right thing for a paper like the National Post to do, but I take the university’s silence as a tacit admission that the professor is who he or she claims to be.