HOW FEMINIST IDEOLOGY CREATES LONELINESS: Virgil Walker contends Western Civilization is shivering in the cold left by the destruction of the traditional home, thus depriving men and women of their most rewarding and satisfying roles as human beings.

SOMETHING ABOUT MADISON’S THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION: For one thing, President James Madison issued his Thanksgiving Proclamation in March, not November. But there’s something else unusual about it that is worth contemplating on this solemn and joyous day.

WHEN WILL ENOUGH BE ENOUGH FOR AMERICA? Today’s vicious terrorist attack in the nation’s capital should focus everybody’s mind on the reality that more such attacks are all but certain. I’ve been away from Substack for awhile, but this day cries out for courage, common sense and a willingness to face cold, hard, terrifying facts.

THANK YOU, ELON MUSK FOR THE X LOCATOR: Did you know the Times of Gaza, which has a huge following on the Internet, is actually based nowhere near the embattled sliver of land formerly controlled by Hamas. Richard Pollock has much more on the significance of the availability of a site locator feature on X.

EARMARKS HELPED REOPEN GOVERNMENT: Yes, Congress voted to reopen the federal government November 12, but did you know the same measure also contained more than 800 earmarks? Excuse me …. I meant to say Congressionally Directed Spending.

50-YEAR MORTGAGE DOA AMONG HILL AIDES: Their average age is 27, so many of the 12,000+ congressional aides working on Capitol Hill would in other years been among those buying their first home with a mortgage. But the proposal floated recently by President Donald Trump is going nowhere with Hill aides, according to the latest survey of opinion among this tremendously influential but almost invisible group.

WHY ARE YOUNG MEN DROPPING OUT OF THE JOB MARKET? New data analyzed by the Institute for Family Studies (IFS) shows a sharp decline in the amount of time GenZers spending with friends, as well as a worrisome drop in the workforce participation rate among GenZ men. Oh, and the data further shows AI romance isn’t the thing among GenZers one might think from reading the MSM.

REICH SHOWS, AGAIN, WHY NOBODY LISTENS TO HIM ANYMORE: There was a time when Robert Reich was actually somebody who had something relevant to tell the nation. But it’s been all irrelevance since being Bill Clinton’s Labor Secretary. That said, according to Issues & Insights, Reich’s latest Substack mutterings about the sh-tty Trump economy merit a response. And it’s a doozy!

YES, PREMIUMS ARE EXPLODING: But those huge Obamacare hikes are more proof — as if more were needed — that the health insurance program is a rotting failure. More here from The Washington Stand.

HEARD OF THE NEW SHALE REVOLUTION? As is so often the case, Rod Martin is looking way ahead and pointing out the latest example of American technology working at its best when allowed to do so by a (mostly) free market.

Here’s a taste of why Martin sees the U.S. set to become an energy colossus beyond anything the Saudis ever dreamed of achieving:

“This new shale revolution doesn’t just pad Exxon’s quarterly numbers. It locks in America’s structural energy advantage. Our cost curve moves down and out. Our reserve base, in practical economic terms, grows. Our role as the world’s swing producer — in both oil and gas — becomes impossible to dislodge.”

CHUY GARCIA AND THE CAREER POLITICIAN MODEL: Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-Ill.) got into Congress in 2018 when his predecessor favorably rigged the process. Now, Garcia just chose his successor by pulling the same stunt. Check out my latest at The Washington Stand on why the Founders are likely spinning in their graves.

OMG: New Heartland Institute/Rasmussen Survey shows huge support among younger voters for Democratic Socialist in the Oval Office in 2028. Does anybody know if Babylon Bee has secretly taken over HI/RS?

KIMMEL BACK, DISNEY DOWN: Maybe bringing late-night Lefty Jimmy Kimmel back after a week-long storm of outrage from his political friends and allies wasn’t such a good idea.

MAYBE TRUMP REALLY IS SMARTER: Rod Martin describes in illuminating detail how America’s Chief Executive is steadily taking apart Russia’s “Near Abroad” strategic defense perimeter.

86% OF COVID TEST POSITIVES WEREN’T: That’s the conclusion of a new peer-reviewed study in Germany that found 86 percent of the positive Covid test results in the 2020-2021 period were in fact negative, according to Nicholas Hulscher on Focal Point. This news will be studiously ignored by the Mainstream Media and I have to admit having some questions, too, but at the very least, the test should be widely scrutinized and discussed.

HILL AIDES SAY DEMS BIG SHUTDOWN LOSERS: Almost half, 48 percent, of all the responding congressional aides point to the Democratic party as the biggest loser in the 42-day shutdown that started on October 1, according to the latest CNCT Capitol Pulse survey. Democratic Senate aides represented 56 percent of those agreeing their party lost big-time.

WHAT ABOUT MANDAMI’S JEWISH SUPPORTERS? Remember Hirsh Apfelbaum? Probably not. He changed his name to Grigori Zinoviev. Lenin appointed him to head the Soviet Comintern, but then years later, Stalin put him through a show trial and had him shot.

This was after Apfelbaum/Zinoviev had served the Soviet revolution loyally for decades. Richard Pollock, who knows from his own experiences, all about the lies, deceptions and hypocrisies of the radical Left, has a word of caution for his fellow Jews who are embracing today’s communists.

HOW MANY MEMORIES CAN YOU HOLD IN YOUR HAND? What’s your five favorite memories? You know they exist, but you can’t measure their length or height or depth because they aren’t material. So at the very least, that tells us the material universe is not “all there is.” J. Warner Wallace of Cold-Case Christianity addresses the implications on HillFaith.

WHY SCHUMER’S SHUTDOWN KILLS OBAMACARE: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) calculated that shutting down the federal government was the key to preserving those Biden-era “temporary” tax subsidies that are scheduled to end December 31. Check out my report in this morning’s Washington Stand on why Schumer is getting the exact opposite result.

WOOD WIDE WEB: No, that is not a typo, it refers to the Wood Wide Web, which has to do with mushrooms. Some mushroom can be eaten, others will produce a high and still others will leave you like that Yankee soldier Clint Eastwood portrayed in “Beguiled.” But it’s the mushrooms’ incredible network below ground that is the focus of a fascinating and lavishly produced video from the John 10:10 Project/Illustra Media this morning on HillFaith.

MOST HILL AIDES FAVOR FILIBUSTER: In something of a shocker, four-fifths of congressional aides interviewed expressed support for preserving the Senate filibuster. The big majority was evident among aides representing both major political parties, according to HillFaith.

ERNST BILL CLAWS BACK $65 BILLION: It’s quite possible the Covid relief spending was the biggest boondoggle ever, but Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) introduced a bill today requiring the return to the Treasury of $65 billion that remains unspent.

ELON’S GROKOPEDIA TO REPLACE WIKIPEDIA: Science & Culture’s Denyse O’Leary took a close look at the new Grokopedia and came away quite impressed with the new digital clearinghouse of all human knowledge.

DICKENS AND THE 2025 VOTING: Speaking of the outcome of Tuesday’s voting, Family Research Council (FRC) Chairman Tony Perkins recalls Scrooge’s haunted question to the last spirit:

“In ‘A Christmas Carol,’ Ebenezer Scrooge meets the final spirit — the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come — and is terrified by the vision of his own lonely death. Realizing the horror of what he’s seeing, he pleads with the Spirit for hope as he asks the question that pierces through time:

“’Are these the shadows of things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be only?’

“That is one of the most profound moments in Dickens’s story, and it captures the central moral truth — that the future is not fixed. Repentance and moral renewal can alter destiny. Tuesday’s election results may be shadows of things to come, but they don’t have to be.”

Put otherwise, there is nothing inevitable about a Democrat sweep in 2026 unless Americans who know better, allow it to be. Reminds me of Charles Krauthammer’s fine lecture a decade ago entitled “Decline is a Choice.”

WHY BE SURPRISED BY DEMS TDS TANTRUM? The always brutally frank guys at Issues & Insights (I&I) contend nobody should be surprised that blue majorities in NYC, New Jersey and Virginia turned out en masse to protest Trump:

“In New Jersey and Virginia, the Republican candidates did worse than Donald Trump just one year ago. And in Virginia, Democrats picked up at least 10 seats in the state legislature.

“New York elected its most radical mayor in its history. Californians voted by an almost 3-to-1 margin to redraw the state’s districts to squeeze out five more seats for Democrats. All of these elections had one thing in common – they were akin to a primal scream about President Donald Trump.”

That said, what the 2025 election results do make clear, according to I&I, is that Republicans better get their voter turnout act together in time for the 2026 mid-term election because if they don’t, the last two years of Trump’s second term will be an unending parade of investigations, impeachments, trials and repeals.

To which I would add: Repealing the Senate filibuster now in order to re-open the government and complete enactment of the Trump agenda, but then failing to keep Congress in GOP hands will guarantee that agenda’s quick execution by the new Democratic majority in 2027.