November 15, 2025

DOWNFALL: Poll Suggests the Platner Campaign Is in Trouble.

Graham Platner has been dubbed Maine’s Mamdani by some because his views, as revealed by his deleted Reddit messages, suggest he is genuine socialist. Platner’s campaign took off quickly as a kind of insurgent, blue-collar challenge to Senator Susan Collins, but his rise has been sidetracked by those deleted messages along with a mini-scandal about a Nazi tattoo he’d had for decades. A poll released this week suggests Platner may be too damaged to topple Collins.

But who will make the trains run on time?

Posted at 8:45 am by Ed Driscoll

21st CENTURY HEADLINES: Sam Altman and husband fund startup to edit babies’ genes.

The OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and his husband are backing a controversial startup exploring the genetic engineering of babies to eliminate hereditary diseases.

Preventive says its goal is to “correct devastating genetic conditions” and that if successful, gene editing could be one of the most important health breakthroughs of the century.

Preventive has raised $30 million from private backers and set up headquarters in San Francisco. It is a public-benefit corporation, meaning it is a for-profit entity legally committed to a public good other than maximising shareholder value.

Altman, his husband Oliver Mulherin and Brian Armstrong, the chief executive of cryptocurrency platform Coinbase, are among the investors.

Gene editing in sperm, eggs or embryos is highly controversial. Opponents say it raises critical ethical questions and its safety has not been proven. Gene editing with the intention of creating a baby is illegal in the US, UK and many countries around the world.

Decades of watching Star Trek lead me to ask, what could possibly go wrong?

Posted at 8:14 am by Ed Driscoll

WE AS A NATION CONTINUE TO DISAPPOINT MICHELLE OBAMA:

Back in 2010 at the New Criterion, the late Kenneth Minogue warned:

My concern with democracy is highly specific. It begins in observing the remarkable fact that, while democracy means a government accountable to the electorate, our rulers now make us accountable to them. Most Western governments hate me smoking, or eating the wrong kind of food, or hunting foxes, or drinking too much, and these are merely the surface disapprovals, the ones that provoke legislation or public campaigns. We also borrow too much money for our personal pleasures, and many of us are very bad parents. Ministers of state have been known to instruct us in elementary matters, such as the importance of reading stories to our children. Again, many of us have unsound views about people of other races, cultures, or religions, and the distribution of our friends does not always correspond, as governments think that it ought, to the cultural diversity of our society. We must face up to the grim fact that the rulers we elect are losing patience with us.

Earlier: Michelle Obama Takes Victimhood As Currency to Another Level in Latest Interview.

Posted at 7:45 am by Ed Driscoll

WHAT CORRUPTION LOOKS LIKE:

Posted at 7:30 am by Glenn Reynolds

YET ANOTHER HIGH QUALITY CHINESE IMPORT:

As Victoria Taft warned in July of 2021: Democrats Move to Take Over Your Credit Score and Go Full ‘Woke’ – Just Like Communist China.

Evergreen:

Posted at 7:14 am by Ed Driscoll

A CONSPIRACY SO VAST:

Posted at 7:07 am by Glenn Reynolds

FROM CAROLINE FURLONG:   The Guardian Cycle, Vol. 3: Neptune’s Envoys and Other Stories.

There is no need to be afraid of the dark. But what about fearing that which lives in the dark? What if those shadows have teeth and glittering, hungry eyes?

Darkness conceals many Things better avoided. Meet the miner who delved too deep beneath Luna’s surface for treasure, yet lived to return and tell the tale in Despot Hold ‘Em. Follow Damien Fraser as he collects diamond rain from the cloud depths in Neptune’s Envoys – if he can avoid the Devil sharks. But are the Devils the worst things there?

Allan Kearney defeated the demons seeking his soul after escaping death in a Nihanese prison camp. Now, with the help of Michio Oshika and assembled allies, he plans to infiltrate the camp to free the other prisoners. But so much blood has been spilled that the ground is ripe for a Hellmouth to open. The demon priest who branded Allan and killed so many others is dead, yet another may appear, one who could draw a different demon to his aid with the right sacrifice….

Posted at 7:00 am by Sarah Hoyt

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE:

Posted at 7:00 am by Glenn Reynolds

AH! BUT WE WERE MADE FOR TIMES LIKE THIS. ALL OF US WHO STAND UP:  At a time when submission is called “virtue” and fear “prudence,” Sydney Sweeney’s simple frankness serves as an act of insurrection.

For the times, they are achanging.

Posted at 2:00 am by Sarah Hoyt

THE DAYS OF MICROSOFT — THE DAYS OF ALL THE GIANTS — ARE PASSING: I’m going to connect two dots that have been active conversation topics on X recently. One is Microsoft corporate blather about Windows turning into an “agentic” OS stuffed with AI; the other is increasing hype around the Steam Machine from Valve. Reaction to the Microsoft trial balloon has been, to put it mildly, negative. People hear AI from Microsoft and think “Oh great – superintelligence to spam me with yet more ads and spyware.” (Think Clippy with vampire fangs.) Slightly more sophisticated users worry about prompt injection. As they should.

It’s like watching the dinosaurs die after the asteroid, with no idea what hit them.

Oh, yeah, and a link for the X-communicated.

 

Posted at 1:04 am by Sarah Hoyt

JUST BECAUSE SOMETHING IS WRONG, IT DOESN’T MEAN THE SCREAMING ISN’T A PSYOPS:   The Economics of Chaos.

Posted at 12:28 am by Sarah Hoyt