DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Zohran Mamdani: The Far Left’s New Anti-Gun Golden Boy.

The corporate press is branding him as a “visionary reformer,” but gun owners can see what’s coming: another smooth-talking radical working to erode freedom, one executive order at a time. But Mamdani’s platform reads like a wish list for Everytown, Giffords, and the rest of the billionaire-funded gun-confiscation machine.

He has already called for a nationwide ban on so-called “assault rifles.” And, as a New York State Assembly member, Mamdani voted in favor of red flag gun confiscation laws, and a ban on civilian body armor. He voted to require disclosure of social media accounts for those applying for handgun licenses. He also voted to require a license to not just carry, but to own a firearm, something far more restrictive than nearly every state in the country.

But probably the most damning statement came from a 2022 tweet when Mamdni said the quiet part out loud: “We need to ban all guns,” making it that just like the rest of the gun confiscation lobby, he actually wants you fully disarmed.

None of this is news, and New Yorkers voted for it.

JUST ISSUE DIRECTIVE 10-289:

Seattle’s new mayor Katie Wilson: "We will not allow grocery chains to close stores at will" pic.twitter.com/YQUpJyWy0H

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) November 13, 2025

THAT WAS LOVELY: Trump’s ‘Really Kind’ Act Following Death of Ozzy Osbourne Leaves His Widow in Tears.

HMM: The sharks are circling UK PM Keir Starmer as crunch points loom.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is looking increasingly vulnerable this week amid mounting speculation that he could face a leadership challenge after the Autumn Budget later in November.

Economists expect Starmer’s right-hand in the Treasury, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, will be forced to break Labour Party manifesto pledges not to raise taxes on workers when she unveils her fiscal plans in the budget on Nov. 26.

Reeves finds herself in an unenviable position as she tries to fill a fiscal black hole caused by Labour spending pledges, U-turns on reform spending cuts and her own rules on limiting borrowing.

Raising taxes on working people is likely to upset not only voters, who have expressed disappointment with Starmer’s leadership since Labour’s landslide election win in July 2024, but also prominent members of the PM’s top team in the Cabinet.

The BBC reported Wednesday that there are a number of high-profile names — and Starmer allies — are being circulated as potential replacements for the PM if a leadership challenge is mounted, including Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.

Even a successful challenge to Starmer wouldn’t amount to rearranging the Titanic’s deck chairs.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Jasmine Crockett Is Totally Down With the Ritz-Carlton Struggle. “Maybe she’s the Democrats’ most effective messenger because she spreads the horse manure around better than any of her colleagues. That’s quite an achievement if you think about it. Being disingenuous is a way of political life among the Democrats. Cynics would say that all politicians are like that but, trust me, it’s a dark art form with the Dems.”

TOO IMMATURE FOR COLLEGE: Students paint over pro-life message, threaten to ‘pee on the floor’ at U. Mary Washington event.

I’m on the leadership team of Students for Life of America’s University of Mary Washington chapter. Throughout the weeks leading up to that event, our flyers advertising it were frequently taken down by other students.

In light of that, we focused on a longer lasting way of getting our message out: The Spirit Rock, a boulder on a high-traffic route on campus that clubs recognized by UMW’s Office of Student Engagement and Activities can paint to advertise their upcoming events.

UMW Students for Life initially painted the Spirit Rock on Saturday. However, the rock was painted over with non-latex paint that night by a group of people. The use of non-latex paint on the Spirit Rock is against school policy.

UMW Students for Life repainted the rock the next day. Within hours, however, our chapter president debated a group of students who decided it needed to be spray-painted a second time.

A clip of that debate was posted on Davis’s Instagram, which received over 4,600 likes at the time of this writing.

In the video, one of the spray-painters said, “If someone I care about wants to get an abortion, I will stick a coat hanger up them if they want me to.”

That’s the first protest I’m aware of in favor of coat-hanger abortions.

ICYMI: Patel Just Scored a Big Win With China.

PARTY LIKE IT’S 1939: Germany’s rearmament upends Europe’s power balance.

For decades, the European Union ran on an unspoken understanding: Germany handled the money, France handled the military. Now, the tables are turning.

As Germany aims to become Europe’s predominant military power, the political balance is shifting. In France, there’s a scramble to stay relevant, while in Poland, Germany’s rearmament is stirring old ghosts and creating a sense that a Berlin-Warsaw alliance might be the most effective way to keep Russia at bay.

“Everywhere I go in the world, from the Baltics to Asia, people are asking Germany to take on more responsibility,” said Christoph Schmid, a German Social Democratic lawmaker on the Bundestag’s defense committee. “The expectation is that Germany will finally step up and match its economic weight with defense power.”

A Germany with Europe’s largest army, equipped with cutting edge tanks, missiles and jets, is a far cry from the shambolic Bundeswehr derided for its low morale and outdated equipment. That military power is tied to political and economic heft — and Europe will have to adapt to a dominant Germany.

But you have to read halfway through the long-ish report to get to this: “The main caveat is whether German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will manage to fill the Bundeswehr’s personnel gaps.”

That’s one helluva caveat.

SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE IS IN A RECLINER, LISTENING TO SMOOTH JAZZ: Elitist Hypocrite Jasmine Crockett’s List of Luxury Expenditures.

UM, CHANGE? Apple To Replace Own Crappy AI With Google’s Crappy AI “Naturally, right after I post about how crappy Google’s AI is, Apple decides that it’s going to replace it’s own crappy AI with Google’s theoretically less crappy version.”

GAME CHANGER? Kash Patel Just Scored a Big Win With China.

KEEP AN EYE ON THIS ONE: Minnesota, Where It’s Easy to Claim Your Support for Gun Bans is a Product of ‘Bipartisanship.’

PRESSTITUTES: NPR/PBS and Now the BBC: The Problem of Government-Funded Media.

BLUE ON BLUE: ‘No Kings’ activist group Indivisible will only support Dem Senate candidates that call to cancel Chuck Schumer.

Indivisible has announced that they are targeting Schumer as a single-issue. They say that the “two criteria for Indivisible’s support” are for Senate candidates, to oppose Schumer as Majority Leader and for every Democratic primary candidate to make “a clear commitment to abandon the status quo of feckless leadership, and use every tool available to fight MAGA attacks on our communities, our health, and our democracy.”

“Chuck Schumer and a critical mass of Senate Democrats surrendered,” said Indivisible’s Ezra Levin. “For nearly six weeks, Republicans held the government hostage while threatening health care, food assistance, and basic services for millions of Americans. In these six weeks of the shutdown, Democrats had their best election night in over a decade, polls showed Republicans were losing this shutdown fight, and their base turned out for the largest protest in modern U.S. history with a resounding rejection of Trump and Republicans.”

If Levin’s name sounds familiar, it might be because I wrote about him and his wife earlier this year: There’s Something Very Suspicious Going on With Those Tesla Protests.

Indivisible Project’s parent organization — more on that in a moment — was founded and is run by the husband-wife team of Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin. Greenberg is your typical NGO type — nice upbringing, good schools, brief Capitol Hill career (with Tom Perriello [D-Va.] and at State). She followed up with the creation of an online anti-Trump publication called “Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda,” and the establishment of the Indivisible Civics organization.

While DataRepublican doesn’t show Indivisible Civics receiving any taxpayer money, it has received $5,424,005 from somewhere, with about half of those funds going to wages and salaries and another 10% to benefits.

But here’s where it gets fun. The fine print disclaimer at the bottom of the since-deleted signup page reads, “Indivisible.org is a joint website of Indivisible Project and Indivisible Action. Indivisible Project is a registered 501(c)(4). Indivisible Action is a Hybrid Polítical Action Committee. They are separate organizations.”

That’s legalese for “the parent organization (Indivisible Civics aka Indivisible.org) is legally and financially shielded from any stupid stuff people do with the money and encouragement of the new organization (Indivisible Project).” But again, money is fungible — so wink-wink, nudge-nudge, comrade.

Back in the ’80s, we called that “plausible deniability.”

And now they’re going after Schumer. Pop plenty of corn.

REDACT THIS:

Why did Democrats cover up the name when the Estate didn't redact it in the redacted documents provided to the committee?

It's because this victim, Virginia Giuffre, publicly said that she never witnessed wrongdoing by President Trump.

Democrats are trying to create a fake… https://t.co/vd7gw3kJl0

— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) November 12, 2025

More from Bonchie:

And the other emails are 1) Epstein admitting Trump booted them, and 2) Michael Wolff suggesting blackmail over flying on the plane.

I know I criticize Trump sometimes (a lot the last day), but I do so out of honesty.

And the honest answer is people are misleading with these. https://t.co/lat89guXTd

— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) November 12, 2025

Looks like a cheap effort at distracting the base from Schumer’s shutdown cave.

EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Johnny Can’t Add, but He’s Getting a College Degree.

SAVING THE PLANET, ONE CLEARCUT AT A TIME: Brazil carves through Amazon rainforest for new highway to ferry global climate conference elites.

“We’re looking at eight miles of a virgin tropical Amazon rainforest were clear cut there, so that they could put in this highway to allow the private jets and to allow all the SUVs and limousines of all the world leaders and celebrities that are pumping in here the next two weeks, they could have a freer time getting around the city,” Marc Morano, Director of Communications for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow, told the Just the News, No Noise TV show.

CFACT promotes a “positive, alternative voice” on the environment and advocates for market forces and technological innovation to overcome environmental challenges. “So they had to cut, in other words, they had to cut the forest down so they could bring more people to show…you can’t make these kinds of absurdities up,” he added.

Even those on the other side of the climate debate spectrum, slammed the move.

Probably because they couldn’t afford to go.

HE’S EVERYWHERE: Trump Joins the World of Sports. Democrats Most Hurt.

BUT ALL THE BEST PEOPLE ASSURED ME THAT THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT MADE INSURANCE, YOU KNOW, MORE AFFORDABLE: Jeffries, Democrats will offer 3-year extension of ObamaCare subsidies.

UGH: Using Your Credit Card at the Checkout Is Set to Get a Lot More Complicated.

A settlement between Visa, Mastercard and U.S. merchants announced this week could usher in a new era of tiered pricing at the register, giving businesses more power to charge fees depending on the credit card you use. The agreement comes after a two-decade antitrust battle over interchange fees, the charges banks collect from merchants every time a customer pays with plastic.

The settlement still needs court approval, and is likely to be contested by some merchant groups, which have disagreed over the fees and other terms in the past. A deal last year fell apart after lawyers for some merchants objected.

Here’s what else to know:

Merchants have always had the right to refuse to do business with a payment network entirely. Costco, for example, only accepts Visa credit cards in stores. But current network rules say that if a store accepts one Visa credit card, it has to accept all Visa credit cards.

The settlement could change that practice by allowing merchants to pick and choose which categories of cards to accept within a network. Analysts say the groupings are broad enough that merchants are unlikely to start refusing any one of the categories, including those that offer rewards. The categories would lump in midmarket cards with more premium cards, meaning they would get blocked together, TD Cowen analysts wrote in a note.

The settlement doesn’t affect debit cards.

A more likely outcome is that people will start to see more fees, according to analysts. Some merchants already tack on small fees when customers pay with a credit card instead of cash, but those tend to apply broadly across credit cards.

The settlement would go a step further, allowing different surcharges depending on the category the card falls into. A basic, no-frills credit card, for instance, might come with a surcharge of 2.5% of the transaction amount, versus 3% for a rewards card.

Plus this gem: “For merchants, adding a surcharge would help offset their costs, but it also risks alienating customers.”

You don’t say.

GOOD OLD-FASHIONED FAMILY FUN: Stars of ‘Wicked for Good’ Hail Film as LGBTQ Story: ‘The Gayer the Better.’

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Space rescue services needed? 2 ‘stranded’ astronaut incidents are a ‘massive wake-up call,’ experts say.

That trio of Chinese astronauts — Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie — have been orbiting Earth for more than six months. Prior to the landing delay, the Shenzhou 20 trio had handed over operation of the Tiangong space station to the newly arrived Shenzhou 21 crew. They were due to return back to Earth under parachute on Nov. 5., but the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) announced the landing wave-off the same day, explaining that the crew’s spacecraft “is suspected of being struck by small space debris and impact analysis and risk assessment [s] are underway.”

The CMSA provided a brief on the status of the crew on Nov. 11, writing that “Following the postponement of the Shenzhou-20 manned spacecraft return mission, the project team, adhering to the principles of ‘life first, safety first,’ immediately activated emergency plans and measures” and that “All work is progressing steadily and orderly according to plan.” However, the statement does not elaborate on what specific issue the Shenzhou 20 encountered or where the problem lies. Some speculation revolves around a possible launch, if needed, of an uncrewed Shenzhou 22 spacecraft as a replacement vehicle for the damaged spacecraft. In light of details provided by China’s space agency, experts are now left to wonder what the state of the Shenzhou 20 relief efforts might be.

“I wonder out loud why they would not be more forthcoming about specifics of the event,” responds Darren McKnight, an orbital debris specialist and senior technical fellow of LeoLabs, a group dedicated to space domain awareness.

McKnight observes that the Chinese are not usually forthcoming about anything where they would ‘lose face,’ a very Eastern philosophy. “However, we are all now citizens of the space environment and lack of communication about events such as this hurts everyone,” McKnight told Space.com.

Given that China is tight-lipped about most everything and they’re the worst orbital litterbugs, don’t expect them to say much.

DECLINE IS A CHOICE:

It’s astounding that DE destroyed what they had. A monopoly providing a steady flow of income while providing predictable corporate governance laws. Then, the judges who knew better destroyed it. Typical of the left but still makes no sense to me. Now the real the whirlwind.

— Danny (@QuidamVeritas) November 12, 2025

Sometimes, it’s a choice imposed on the people by ideologically driven judges, but still.

SARAH ANDERSON: Tracking China in the Americas: Hongqi Bridge Is Falling Down — and Everything Else Is Too. “Welcome to the fourth installment of my ‘Tracking China in the Americas’ series, in which I cover some underreported stories on China’s footprint in the Western Hemisphere. I actually had something different planned for this week — a deep dive into how China is reaching out to young people in the Western Hemisphere — but when I saw this bridge fall, I knew I had to switch gears.”

I HOPE NOT, BUT IT COULD CERTAINLY AUGMENT THEM: AI is learning how to teach: Will bots replace human teachers? “The story of EdTech has largely been one of expensive failure,” Hendrick writes. There’s evidence that AI tutoring can be highly effective, if structured to supplement human teaching. However, “many uses of AI in education actively harm learning.” Research confirms what teachers suspect: “When AI does the thinking, students stop doing it themselves.”