“THE AVERAGE SQUATTER HAS NO MELEE EXPERIENCE.” Meet the sword-wielding man hired to kick squatters out of empty Oakland homes.

ROGER KIMBALL: Federal judges crave the spotlight: In case after case, judges ruled to stymie the executive branch for one main reason.

Some of these injunctions and temporary restraining orders are still pending. Many, perhaps most, have been resolved by the Supreme Court in ways that favor the Trump administration, not always categorically but usually by affirming the broad scope of executive power envisioned by Article II of the Constitution. “The executive Power,” quoth that magisterial document, “shall be vested in a president of the United States of America.” “A president,” mind you, a single one. Not a president and hundreds of district court judges.

The rousing start to Article II of the Constitution is neatly put, isn’t it? But those judges took it as a challenge. Trump is an affront to what every right-thinking, i.e., left-leaning, person believes. He wants to make America more prosperous, freer and more secure than it has become in the hands of Democrats and other disciples of hegemonic bureaucracy.

He moved quickly to secure the border. Can you believe it? He is deporting scads of people who are here illegally. Outrageous. He outlawed the racist practice of DEI throughout the federal government and made federal funds contingent upon ending the scam. Horrible. He thinks that the military should be an institution specializing in fighting wars, not promoting “social justice.” Clearly he must be stopped.

Like many pro-Trump commentators, I have weighed in early and often on this legal-political charade. It is a legal charade because what we have witnessed since Trump took office again in January 2025 has been a mind-boggling misuse and hypertrophy of judicial power. Whoever would have thought that a lowly district court judge (there are some 700 of them) would successfully arrogate to himself the authority to tell the President what executive agencies he should pay for and which he should close?

The judiciary has substantially undermined its legitimacy in the past several years. It will not end well.

ROGER SIMON ON THE TENNESSEE SPECIAL ELECTION: “GOP leadership in Tennessee and elsewhere better not be complacent. . . . Regarding the passivity, it’s not the voters who are passive so much as the Republican leadership, starting at the top. This is true of several red states, but definitely of Tennessee. (Neighboring Georgia is worse.) The local GOP, with a few exceptions, never got in gear to seriously win this election against the target-rich Behn until the last couple of weeks. The Democrats had been going full tilt for a long while. Don’t blame the GOP voters.”

THE ENEMY WITHIN: Minneapolis mayor suggests he won’t cooperate with federal law enforcement while speaking Somali.

DON SURBER: No room for Third Worlders. “America is full up. It is closing time for Chinese spies, Somalian fraudsters, Mexican welfare queens, Haitian cat eaters, Afghanistan assassins, Muslim terrorists, European anti-Semites, Venezuelan drug-runners, Nigerian princes, Palestinian protesters and filthy French fifth columnists. This is America’s last call for alcohol. Like the bartender always says, you don’t have to go home, but you just can’t stay here.”

ABOLISH THE TSA: 12 years ago today, this column was the most popular item on the entire USA Today site.

GOOD: An anti-woke counter-revolution is sweeping through the media: From Hollywood to the newsroom, the hegemony of the ‘progressives’ is finally faltering.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE:

Like many parents, my wife and I remember the early 2020s as a time when schools descended into hyperpoliticized groupthink. We also learned that the frustrating on-again-off-again COVID shutdowns offered a silver lining — they gave us the opportunity to compare school with homeschool. Or at least our first attempts at it.

Even the frustrating period of “virtual learning” came with some upside. Parents got to peer inside schools, often for the first time. When my wife and I peered inside, we didn’t like what we saw. We’ve been a homeschool family ever since.

Smart.

THE GOP IS THE MULTIRACIAL PARTY OF THE WORKING CLASS. THE DEMS ARE THE PARTY OF AWFLS, BILLIONAIRES, AND DEPENDENTS.

My biggest takeaway from visiting Del Rio, TX, where I’m sure neither of these white ladies who brunch have ever been, was not how many border agents are Hispanic, but how much the local Hispanic community supports them. They should really go there. https://t.co/x99JyCGyZk

— David Marcus (@BlueBoxDave) December 2, 2025

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: AI is Destroying the University, and Learning Itself.

Universities were already dysfunctional and losing prestige. This is just accelerating the trend.

SEDUCTIVE AI: Bride weds AI-groom she created using ChatGPT in dual real-life and virtual reality ceremony.

I ONLY KNOW HER VIA SOCIAL MEDIA, BUT WE HAVE SOME MUTUAL FRIENDS WITH JANNA ABRAHAM, and her new PreservePress clothing site is now live. Not too late to order for Christmas. Or even Hanukkah.

OPEN THREAD: Tuesday’s groovy.

PEOPLE ARE CALLING THE TN-7 RACE FOR MATT VAN EPPS, but Aftyn Behn was in the lead for a while and it’s still closer than it should have been. With her views and history she should be in the single digits.

UPDATE: Tennessee’s 7th District Special Election. “Victory for Behn, a progressive some dubbed the “AOC of Tennessee,” was once unthinkable in a district President Trump won by 22 points just last year. Despite her record of backing controversial policies, including transgender surgeries for minors, defunding the police, and even saying she hates Nashville, the very city she sought to represent, her support surged into the margin of error, leaving a tight race for today’s election. Her near-upset could have flipped a deep-red seat for the first time in more than four decades, validating Democrats’ new strategy and signaling a dark warning for Republicans heading into the 2026 midterms.”

Helen and I watched an AppleTV show called Physical, set in the early 1980s. The protagonist’s husband, a lefty Democrat, was running for state Senate and thought he might win because his poll watchers reported a lot of voters in Birkenstocks. Then a whole fleet of buses showed up, full of conservatively dressed Mormons who put his Republican Mormon opponent over the top. Dems have built their turnout apparatus, but the GOP — especially in my rather complacent state — hasn’t built a system to deliver its equivalent of the busloads of Mormons. It needs to get going on that, pronto.

#RESISTANCE:

Northern Ireland Protestants force pro-Palestinians to retreat. Sinn Fein in Belfast thought it was a good idea to fly the Palestinian flag outside City Hall, it has provoked violent scenes.

The flag has been taken down. pic.twitter.com/4nqpTO3Szk

— David Atherton (@DaveAtherton20) December 2, 2025

I ALWAYS EXPECTED THIS: 1st European to fly to the moon will be German.

HAHA:

pic.twitter.com/G4hymaa00k

— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) December 2, 2025

WE DON’T JUST NEED MORE ANTIBIOTICS, WE NEED MORE ANTIFUNGALS: Common Infection Is Rapidly Becoming Resistant to Drugs, Scientists Warn.

SCIENCE MARCHES ON: New Tech Slashes Kelp Production Costs by a Staggering 85%.

THAT’S THE SPIRIT:

We’re going to wipe out your institutions and if you think you’re going to somehow convince us that fighting back violates our principles, you’re going to have a very sad time of it. https://t.co/XZNmOkwudt

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) December 1, 2025

JONATHAN HAIDT, CALL YOUR OFFICE: Kids with smartphones by age 12 are at higher risk of health issues, study finds.

TECHNOLOGY MISSION CREEP: 4 Everyday Car Features That Turned Out to Be Too Smart for Their Own Good.

NARRATOR: IT WAS, IN FACT, HIM. ‘That’s Not Him’: Miami Mom Denies Her Son Invaded the Home Where He Was Shot and Killed.

IMMIGRATION: Roman military helped bring cats to Europe.

SPACE: Arianespace sends South Korean satellite into Earth orbit.