Author Archive: Ed Driscoll

October 28, 2025

THE FINAL DAYS OF MSNBC: Scott Jennings Lives Rent-Free in Lawrence O’Donnell’s Head As MSNBC Host Erupts on Air.

“And now CNN eagerly pays a Trump supporter to lie on CNN every day and night for Donald Trump,” O’Donnell said. “CNN did this during the first Trump presidential campaign and presidency. CNN regularly paid Trump supporters to lie about Trump on CNN.”

“But then CNN got a new head. The head of CNN for the last three years, hired by the Trump-supporting owner and operator of CNN, is an Englishman who thinks paying Scott Jennings to lie about Donald Trump* is money very well spent,” O’Donnell added. “Scott Jennings, who used to be an aide to Senator Mitch McConnell, was not always a rabid, lying Trump supporter.”

“When he first started appearing on television, he was capable of criticizing some of the more extreme Trump positions. But Scott Jennings figured out where the money is, and how he could get his own podcast, and decided to become the J.D. Vance of CNN,” O’Donnell continued. “Here’s how bad that television is that they make over there. The show that Scott Jennings frequents the most is on opposite this program. And that show, on a good night, gets half – half — of the audience of this show.”

“This program usually has an audience triple the size of the terrible, terrible television that Scott Jennings is delivering on the absurdly degraded version of CNN presided over by the man who thinks lying for Donald Trump on TV is an honorable pursuit and should be paid for by CNN,” O’Donnell concluded.

Hoo boy. There’s a lot to unpack there, huh?

Exit quote:

* Great moments in projection: Lawrence O’Donnell: “I am a socialist. I live to the extreme left, the extreme left of you mere liberals.” Perhaps that’s why in 2021, Politico Gushed: Lawrence O’Donnell ‘Riding High’ — As Biden’s Favorite Ring-Kisser.

In any case, depend upon it, sir – when a man knows his channel is about to clean house in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully: MSNBC Rebrand to MS NOW Taking Place on Nov. 15.

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll on Oct 28th, 2025

CLOWN NOSE ON? Stewart Gushes Over Mamdani In Pre-Election Puff Segment.

Late night comedy’s all-out effort to drag Zohran Mamdani across the finish line in New York City’s upcoming mayoral election continued on Monday on Comedy Central with its most direct bit of campaigning. The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart welcomed Mamdani to tell him how much “I love hearing” about his campaign and to claim that he has been surprised establishment Democrats have not fallen in line behind him.

Stewart insisted that he is not “blowing smoke,” but he clearly was, “And what I love hearing about this is, one of the things that has been so frustrating in our politics is so much of it has been defined over these last ten years as the negative case against someone, and finally—and I think this is not blowing smoke — I think you’ve made an affirmative case for people. I think the enthusiasm that they have for you is because you have made an affirmative case that’s not about protecting something that is going to be lost or a bad man that’s over there.”

How much smoke was Stewart blowing? This much:

I’m not at all sure if Robinson would have appreciated the compliment: When Jackie Robinson Voted for Nixon and Rebuked Malcolm X.

Posted at 1:35 pm by Ed Driscoll on Oct 28th, 2025

WHAT A STUPID QUESTION:

Did Jonathan Chait get a lobotomy?

I don’t think so, and whatever else he is, stupid is not an attribute I associated with him. So when I saw this tweet I about burst out laughing.

Chait is tweeting about Karine Jean-Pierre’s interview with The New Yorker, in which she demonstrates—once again—that anybody who suggested that she is a midwit has been far too generous. She cannot answer the  most basic questions without generating confusion–so much so that the woman who was hired to communicate for the President of the United States spent almost all her time trying to clear up misconceptions that she herself created.

Chait knows the answer, but believes he can’t say it, lest he be crucified by his fellow staffers at the Atlantic (see also: Williamson, Kevin) and by his fellow leftists on social media. We’ll know if his party wants to return from the wilderness when he’s able to verbalize why KJP was in the White House, and why Biden’s self-described “Politburo” believed they couldn’t remove her. (See also: Harris, Kamala.)

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll on Oct 28th, 2025

SAY, I’M BEGINNING TO BELIEVE THIS MAMDANI FELLA MAY HAVE JUST A TWINGE OF ANTISEMITISM TO HIM: Zohran Mamdani made vile, conspiracy-tinged statement tying NYPD to IDF, resurfaced video shows.

Mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani once made a vile, conspiracy-tinged statement tying the NYPD and the Israeli military, according to a shocking video that resurfaced Tuesday.

“We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF,” the Queens assemblyman said, referring to the Israel Defense Forces.

Mamdani made the comparison during the 2023 Democratic Socialists of America’s national convention, where he was the keynote speaker.

During a separate panel discussion titled “Socialist Internationalism: The Solution to the Crisis of Capitalism,” Mamdani said it was important to connect “hyperlocal” and “international issues” with residents.

“We are in a country where those connections abound. Especially in New York City, you have so many opportunities to make clear the ways in which that struggle over there is tied to capitalist interests over here,” he said..

“For anyone to care about these issues, we have to make them connected,” he continued. “We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF.”

Good and hard, Fun City:

Related: Imagine That — Actions Have Consequences.

If Zohran Mamdani is elected mayor of New York City, Republicans plan to highlight that fact in their midterm campaigns against Democratic lawmakers nationwide.

That entirely unremarkable observation is the subject of an item in Axios in which the GOP is accused of plotting to “weaponize” New York City Democrats’ voting preferences, which, we should observe, consists entirely of noticing them.

For years, says reporter Kate Santaliz in her scandalized dispatch, the GOP has made former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi into a “bogeywoman.” Her capacity to “rile up the base” was unrivaled. But with her diminished role, “GOP strategists are testing new symbols of the party’s left, and hope Mamdani will fill that void.”

Evergreen:

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll on Oct 28th, 2025

DISPATCHES FROM THE MEMORY HOLE:

And such ranting is Godwin-approved, alas: Yes, it’s okay to compare Trump to Hitler. Don’t let me stop you.

Scott Adams last month: Why Did People Think They Could Cheer Charlie Kirk’s Murder Without Consequences?

There are numerous stories of teachers and people associated with schools who are getting canceled—meaning fired—for saying horrible things: essentially being happy, or saying it was justified, that Charlie Kirk was assassinated. What do you think about that? People are losing their jobs all over the place.

Well, let me tell you the thing that is most shocking about that. The most shocking thing is that the people who spoke out that way believed they wouldn’t get fired. I think they were all surprised, which means they’ve been living entirely within a bubble in which they thought other people would agree with that. Are you kidding me?

They thought they were in the bubble of reality where—let’s say that Hitler was an American and he died—would you feel bad about saying, “Thank God Hitler died”? No, you wouldn’t, because you would assume that almost every single person would agree with you. So it would be easy to say that.

These people are saying it in public for the world to see, as if that’s what a normal person would think. How hypnotized would you have to be?

So, in my mind anyway—and I think I’ve said it online at least once—I think of these people as the “hypnotized Hitlerians.” You can drop the “hypnotized” if you need to. But the Hitlerians are people who live in this little world where they think Hitler actually came to power in the United States because so many bad people on the left have been saying that. People should know better.

They do. But since they believe it advances their goals, and don’t really care who it gets killed in the process, the DNC-MSM aren’t going to stop doing the “hypnotizing” anytime soon:

Posted at 7:45 am by Ed Driscoll on Oct 28th, 2025

October 27, 2025

TOO GOOD TO CHECK: Scott Jennings’ Days at CNN May Be Numbered.

Scott Jennings is easily the best thing that has happened to CNN. Unlike the faux conservatives the network usually hires, Jennings doesn’t join in with the rest of the network’s voices in trashing Trump and the GOP. He masterfully takes down the leftists on the panels he sits on and makes the segments he participates in watchable because they’re not just an echo chamber of left-wing talking points.

Well, according to a report from Semafor, Jennings may not be with CNN much longer. “CNN personality Scott Jennings visited Weiss this week at CBS’ New York headquarters,” the outlet reports. “A onetime Bush administration staffer, Jennings, as CNN’s primary defender of President Donald Trump, has elevated his profile by sparring nightly with Democrats on the network’s evening roundtable shows.”

* * * * * * * *

If Jennings does jump ship, it could be devastating for CNN, which has finally found someone willing to push back against the endless parade of liberal talking heads who dominate their panels. Since Jennings is a non-staff CNN contributor, he’s completely free to pursue opportunities elsewhere. A source familiar with the situation confirmed his ability to negotiate with other networks, and when asked about the possible move, a CNN spokesperson declined to comment. That silence speaks volumes about CNN’s concern over potentially losing their most effective conservative voice.

Make it happen, Bari.

Posted at 9:14 pm by Ed Driscoll on Oct 27th, 2025

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: WaPo trashes KJP’s Memoir. In her new book, Biden’s former press secretary lets Democrats have it.

Unsurprisingly, “Independent” is a fascinating book for all the wrong reasons. It was dated before it arrived at the printers, perhaps before it was even written; no doubt it will be studied by the historians and anthropologists of the future. Jean-Pierre is an artifact of an age that looks recent on paper but feels prehistoric in practice — the age of pantsuits, the word “empowerment,” the musical “Hamilton,” the cheap therapeutic entreaties to “work on yourself” and “lean in” to various corporate abysses. “Independent” is written in the outmoded register of one of those lawn signs proclaiming that “in this house, we believe kindness is everything,” which have been firmly planted, to no tangible electoral effect, since 2016.

Jean-Pierre is revealingly blinkered. She may represent the future of the Democratic Party, despite her notional disavowal of it. Like many younger Democrats, she came of age in the in-this-house era and made her name by embracing its symbolism and sensibility. Now, she has perhaps been advised by a team of pollsters and PR professionals to distance herself from a party that is rapidly hemorrhaging appeal and support. Yet, like her colleagues in the halls of Congress, she appears to have little authentic understanding of why her erstwhile party’s approval rating has cratered. The approach she opts for in this book — loudly declaring herself an independent in a futile effort to cleanse herself of the taint of her party, all while espousing the same old worldview in the same old tired tone — is one that will surely tempt many of her peers. The silver lining is that she has provided an object lesson in exactly what not to do. The question is whether the Democrats are capable of learning from her example.

Another opinion outlet that should be considered friendly turf for KJP pummels her as well: Karine Jean-Pierre’s MSNBC Meltdown: Smirking, Dodging, and Still No Apology for Slandering Hur.

Whom the Gods destroy, they first make Nixonian:

Posted at 8:45 pm by Ed Driscoll on Oct 27th, 2025

‘DAMN, IF HE ISN’T A DICTATOR:’ ABC News Claims Trump Not Leaving Ever.

Watching ABC News’s The View throughout October, one couldn’t help but think that their pearl clutching hyperventilation about President Trump supposedly trying to steal the midterms with the National Guard and the ballroom being evidence that he planned on holding onto power, were meant to incite another assassination attempt. On Monday’s show, they claimed that Trump was in fact a “dictator,” that he was planning on running again in 2028, and he was going to steal the election.

“Well, [Trump] told us he was going to be a dictator on day one and, damn, if he isn’t a dictator,” proclaimed ABC News moderator Whoopi Goldberg. Despite playing a soundbite of Trump denying that he was going to seek a third term because the people wouldn’t support him, Goldberg warned he was going to do it anyway and wanted to know if their audience was “going to let it happen[.]”

Damn if Trump isn’t a dictator – who’s doing a really lousy job of being one:

Posted at 8:30 pm by Ed Driscoll on Oct 27th, 2025

RIP: Jack DeJohnette, Renowned Jazz Drummer Who Played On Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, Dead at 83.

In 1969, DeJohnette replaced Tony Williams as drummer in Davis’ band just as the trumpeter was about to embark on his “electric period.” Joined by saxophonist Wayne Shorter, keyboardist Chick Corea and bassist Dave Holland, that formation with Davis was later dubbed the Lost Quintet as they never actually recorded in the studio together, but played a now-legendary run of European shows together, as captured on 2013’s Live in Europe 1969: The Bootleg Series Vol. 2.

In the studio, DeJohnette and a larger ensemble accompanied Davis as he began to explore the jazz-rock genre, resulting in albums like his 1970 masterpiece Bitches Brew and — later, after DeJohnette had already exited the group — Circle in the Round and Big Fun. DeJohnette also played on a portion of “Yesternow” off Jack Johnson, as well as Davis’ jazz-funk LP On the Corner, which marked DeJohnette’s last recordings with Davis.

Here’s my 2003 review of A Tribute to Jack Johnson, Davis’ seminal 1971 jazz-rock fusion recording.

Posted at 8:22 pm by Ed Driscoll on Oct 27th, 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

GOOD AND HARD, FUN CITY:

 

Posted at 4:45 pm by Ed Driscoll 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

BARI SLOWLY CLEANING THE AUGEAN STABLES: Bye-Bye John! The Worst of CBS Evening News Anchor Dickerson.

On Monday, CBS Evening News co-anchor John Dickerson announced he is leaving the network at the end of the year.

His departure may have something to do with the new CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, taking over. Dickerson’s resignation comes on the heels of a leftist CBS news producer quitting. Even though Weiss is a liberal, the fact that she isn’t all the way woke may be too much for Dickerson.

During his CBS tenure, Dickerson has been a hater of President Donald Trump and a cheerleader for Democrats like former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris.

Most recently, he cluelessly suggested that the “motive” of Charlie Kirk’s murderer was “elusive.”

The following are just some of the worst takes (via the MRC archives) from the soon-to-be ex-anchor:

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll on Oct 27th, 2025

DARK BRANDON IS BACK, BABY!

Darker than this? White House Christmas message to unvaccinated: You’re looking at a winter of death for yourselves and your families:

Darker than this? Biden Warns That MAGA Republicans Pose ‘Clear and Present Danger’ to Nation.

Flashback to 2012: Biden: Romney’s approach to financial regulation will ‘put y’all back in chains.’

And a flashback to 2011, when Biden called Tea Party members “terrorists.”

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll on Oct 27th, 2025

JOSH HAMMER: Louvre Heist Encapsulates a Western Culture That Will Not Defend Itself.

All across the continent, fertility rates have plummeted, and the Christianity that defined the civilization for two millennia is viewed as a quaint relic of a bygone era. The combination of modern European Union political and economic integration on the one hand, combined with imposed mass immigration from foreign (namely, Islamic) cultures on the other hand, has led to a place where sense of home and hearth is diminished — and along with it, community, meaning, and purpose.

In Britain, two Jews were killed following a synagogue attack by a Syrian immigrant on the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. In Germany — yes, Germany — Jews have already been advised for years against wearing a kippah head covering in public. More generally, Europeans’ personal happiness levels have seemingly gravitated away from church and children, the traditional sources of meaning, and toward a discomfiting positive correlation with the size of a nation’s welfare state.

The stunning Louvre museum heist earlier this week in Paris offers an uncanny encapsulation of the broader society-wide phenomenon. On Sunday, thieves disguised as construction workers stole, during broad daylight, eight pieces of the French crown jewels estimated to be worth roughly $100 million. And perhaps the most astonishing aspect of this real-life caper is this: As of this writing, the thieves have not been caught.*

The utterly humiliating inability of French authorities to either prevent the theft of the literal crown jewels or promptly arrest the perpetrators after the fact is the most poetic possible way to demonstrate a point that has come up in so many of my conversations this week: At best, European political and cultural elites have no interest in protecting and preserving their culture; and at worst, they have an interest in seeing that culture replaced root and branch.

Hammer asks, “Will there even be a Europe, in any cognizable sense of the term, a century from now?” As Mark Steyn warned twenty years ago, “There’ll probably still be a geographical area on the map marked as Italy or the Netherlands–probably–just as in Istanbul there’s still a building called St. Sophia’s Cathedral. But it’s not a cathedral; it’s merely a designation for a piece of real estate. Likewise, Italy and the Netherlands will merely be designations for real estate. The challenge for those who reckon Western civilization is on balance better than the alternatives is to figure out a way to save at least some parts of the West.”

* To give the gendarmes their due, initial arrests were reported yesterday: Suspects Arrested Over the Theft of Crown Jewels from Paris’ Louvre Museum.

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll on Oct 27th, 2025

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: Largest Federal Workers Union Urges Dems to Cave on Government Shutdown, Revealing Cracks in Coalition.

The nation’s largest federal workers’ union, the American Federation of Government Employees, is urging Democrats to concede the government shutdown fight and vote to reopen the government, revealing a significant fracture in the Democratic coalition as the shutdown nears the one-month mark.

The shutdown began 27 days ago after Democrats refused to back a clean government funding bill, demanding instead that Republicans extend temporary Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year. But AFGE, a major ally to the Democratic party which represents 820,000 federal and D.C. government workers, now says it’s time for the party to give up on its demands.

“It’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures, and no gamesmanship,” AFGE President Everett Kelley said in a Monday statement provided to NBC News.

“It’s time for our leaders to start focusing on how to solve problems for the American people, rather than on who is going to get the blame for a shutdown that Americans dislike,” Kelley said.

Over to you, Chuck.

Posted at 10:52 am by Ed Driscoll on Oct 27th, 2025

“FAR-RIGHT:” Javier Milei’s far-right party wins Argentina’s midterm elections.

Argentine President Javier Milei’s libertarian party has won a landslide victory in national midterm legislative elections, with voters backing his free-market reforms and deep austerity measures.

On Sunday, Mr Milei’s La Libertad Avanza party procured 40.8 per cent of the congressional votes, with more than 95% of ballots counted.

The center-left Peronist movement trailed behind with 31.6 percent of the votes.

The win should enable Mr Milei, a self-described anarcho-capitalist economist, to plough on with his radical overhaul of Argentina’s long-troubled economy – his campaign centres around downsizing the state and deregulating the economy. However, he will need to forge alliances in Congress with the center-right in order to pass legislation.

In 2023, Foreign Policy smeared Milei as “the World’s Latest Wannabe Fascist,” making him and Trump the only wannabe fascists who aim to downsize the state and deregulate the economy.

Posted at 7:14 am by Ed Driscoll on Oct 27th, 2025

October 26, 2025

SKYNET SMILES:

Posted at 2:45 pm by Ed Driscoll on Oct 26th, 2025
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