☕️ STRATEGIC MISDIRECTION ☙ Friday, November 14, 2025 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

Trump hints at Obamacare overhaul; Hegseth hides a carrier; real war on drugs heats up; new midterm issue erupts; tariffs fuel a factory boom; BBC bungles edits again; DOJ sues California; more.

Good morning, C&C, it’s Friday! Your roundup today includes: Trump and co. begin teasing Obamacare replacement, but will it be a tweak or a demolition job?; Hegseth plays hide-the-carrier; Venezuela feels tense and needs a few days in the quiet room; the real war on drugs; surprising midterm issue appears on the boards; tariff policies score another big win and American industrial golden age looms; BBC apologies for “errors in judgment” and “mistakes” in Trump speech edit, and then steps right on another editorial rake; and DOJ sues California over redistricting maps and dems complain like always.

🌍 WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY 🌍

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A massive story is swirling in the political mists, but we can’t quite make out what it is yet. So let’s play dot detective! Three days ago, Politico ran a story headlined, “Obamacare could collapse under Trump’s new plan, policy experts say.” They know nothing. But their headlines betray their real fears— Trump is coming for their beloved healthcare program.

Look, if I had to choose between Obamacare and, say, electroshock therapy, there would be no contest. Of course, I would take the juice. Under Obamacare, big pharma and big insurance have gotten rich. No complaints from them. But patients have gotten poorer and sicker, and doctors have become employees. Those are facts. The government-run plan inauspiciously began with a grotesque deception —“read my lips: if you want to keep your doctor, (lie, lie, lie, etc)”— and rapidly got worse from there in every conceivable way.

Even more annoying, doctors now follow detailed government instructions on everything, like how to treat a ringworm rash, which requires a minimum of three visits and a $650 co-pay. That’s why they call it “affordable healthcare”— we can’t afford to get sick. Incentives!

But it has become clear to everyone now that President Trump is up to something. Based on corporate media’s evident anxiety, and the steady drumbeat of defensive reporting, it looks like Trump is preparing to tackle the Obamacare catastrophe. UK Independent, Tuesday:

“Sort of” reveals. For Democrats, insurance companies, and the media, the worst thing of all is that, in spite of Trump’s teases, they have no idea what’s coming.

Information, as they say, is sparse.

💉 “We have lots of great ideas,” CMS Director Oz told Fox on Monday. “But I don’t want to show our cards. As the president often says: Why would I telegraph to you what we are going to do?” The game is afoot. Pieces are in motion. Dr. Oz teased that he’d spent “a good part of the weekend with the White House” working on a plan to replace ACA subsidies with a new policy.

Trump has been talking about it, lots. But in general terms. “We want a health care system where we pay the money to the people instead of the insurance companies. And, I tell you, we’re going to be working on that very hard over the next short period of time— where the people get the money,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Monday.

It is unlikely they are making it up as they go, or floating along with Democrats’ narrative currents. If Heritage’s infamous Project 2025 —Trump 2.0’s “secret” policy blueprint— lacked a detailed Obamacare strategy, then I will eat a stethoscope’s ear nipple.

Late last week, two Republican Senators with healthcare chops —Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Rick Scott (R-Fl.)— each simultaneously announced they are working on (separate) bills that would redirect billions in Obamacare subsidies from insurers to patients’ Health Savings Accounts. So far, so boring, and so unsurprising.

But wait! Read like a lawyer. Scott didn’t say HSAs. He said HSA-style accounts:

So Scott is proposing something new. But what? Or, maybe Cassidy’s and Scott’s bills are mere distractions, glittering toys designed to keep the media occupied while Dr. Oz and Trump’s Team prepare the real deal. That’s the marvelous thing about Trump 2.0— they can pull off that kind of strategic misdirection like nobody else.

🚀 I’ll give you an example. Look how well the Administration fooled the media last week: “Where in the world is the U.S.S. Ford?”

Three weeks ago, news leaked that our newest and highest-tech aircraft carrier group, the U.S.S. Ford, along with its vast retinue of support craft, were steaming toward the Caribbean, to join in on the fun of the Navy’s narco-ship shooting gallery.

Then, last week, media suddenly said never mind. They reported Trump had chickened out, forced by complaints from United Nations bureaucrats and pressure from NATO weenies to stand down the supercarrier. TWZ News, November 6th:

Then swoosh!, it all changed again, first thing Monday morning, when —surprise! we’re here!— the USS Ford turned up right where nobody expected. The Hill:

Haha, I bet Venezuela is feeling tense. Imagine waking up one morning and discovering your next-door neighbor had trailered a nuclear-equipped aircraft carrier in his front yard, looming ten stories above your house and substantially exceeding the HOA’s strict limits on off-street parking. Tensions.

The point is: like Obamacare, nobody knows what kind of attack Trump is mounting against Venezuela. There are no leaks! They didn’t even know for sure where the Ford was headed until it got there, and the Ford’s impressive superstructure is pretty hard to miss when it is sailing by.

Before returning to the healthcare story, I’ll pause to counter one more silly narrative. Using our own military to actually defend America, instead of some murky, all-bad-guys conflict in the Middle East, is America-first, and inoffensive to notions of not starting new foreign wars. It’s not like being the world’s policeman. It is properly using the military to suppress our long-standing problem, one that has resisted all other remedies and a so-called 40-year “War on Drugs.”

Venezuela might be about to learn what a proper “War on Drugs” looks like.

Anyway, with that said, the point is: the Trump’s team leaks less than any administration in modern history, which allows them to hide massive stuff like moving aircraft carriers. So the one thing we know for sure is that we have no idea what kind of Obamacare plan is coming (nor should we).

But why would they be so secretive about whatever they might be about to propose? Why are they hiding their healthcare fixes, like they hid the USS Ford? Why not just say what the plan is?

💉 Tinkering with Obamacare is like pulling a loose brick out of a load-bearing wall. The whole structure depends on an insanely complicated lattice of interrelated subsidies, mandates, and cross-subsidies that nobody understands and everybody hates except the insurance giants gorging on guaranteed government revenue.

ObamaCare. It’s simple.

Any serious move to redirect billions in subsidies to people instead of insurers threatens epic levels of entrenched cash flows, making it politically explosive. It’s not just adjusting health policy, it is kicking the revenue stool out from under some of Washington’s fattest, best-connected clients.

Drop a reform package too early, and powerful opponents have months to organize a counteroffensive; drop it too late, and miss the chance to shape the battlefield. But drop it just as the midterm machinery starts grinding, and suddenly it becomes a narrative-setter: “We’re taking your money back from insurers and handing it to you.” It’s the kind of move that burns media’s oxygen for weeks and forces Democrats to defend the least defensible part of Obamacare— the part even their own voters despise.

Prepare for the main issue of the 2026 midterms to be health insurance. I bet you didn’t see that coming.

They can’t wait. It started with Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, which canceled billions in Obamacare “subsidies” to insurance companies. Unless something changes, some 22 million people in certain subsidized plans will face even more expensive policy premiums next year. Democrats have already started carping about affordability, and they obviously plan to —ironically— use unaffordable Obamacare premiums to hurt Republicans.

This plan was in place before the OBBBA passed. Something big is brewing. Nobody knows what it could be. But it is coming. Get ready for political fireworks.

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More tariff news! Inbound Logistics ran a terrific story yesterday headlined, “Pedal to the Metal: GM Tells Suppliers to Exit China Supply Chains.”

GM excited markets yesterday when the automaker announced a deadline of 2027 to its galaxy of suppliers. They must start buying their components from somewhere other than China. India, Mexico, Canada are all fine —albeit burdened by tariffs— but the best choice will be sourcing parts inside the USA.

In other words: prepare for an economic boom in buying American. “GM reportedly prefers sourcing parts from within the same region where vehicles are built,” Inbound explained. “This could mean increased production and logistics activity in North America and allied regions, while sourcing footprints in China shrink.”

President Trump has long demanded American cars actually be American-made, and media’s experts have long sneered about how impossible that goal actually is. This story supplies evidence that, even if a “true” 100% domestically produced car is unlikely, moving the needle from 50%-made to 75% could spur an economic miracle.

🔥 Auto manufacturing is a beast of a $1.5 trillion industry. Its growth sparks a ripple effect across the economy— each new car-making job creates up to ten additional positions in sectors like steel, transportation, electronics, and services. Remarkably, the auto manufacturing sector accounts for five percent of all private-sector jobs.

Remember: Since his first day in office, even before lighting up his tariff dashboard, President Trump focused relentlessly on American carmakers. For example, his day one orders shredded Biden’s burdensome rules and regulations to make it easier for automakers to operate, invest, and build in America. On January 16th, even before Trump took office, NBC reported:

Promises made and kept. The plan is working. And the other big automakers aren’t far behind GM. Last week, Industrial Sage reported that auto giant Stellantis announced a $13 billion project “to expand and modernize its U.S. operations” and create 5,000 new jobs across Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana— the largest single investment in the company’s 100-year history.

You may never have heard of it, but Stellantis has one of the largest footprints in the global automotive industry, with 14 brands across nearly every major vehicle type and segment, including Dodge, Jeep, and Maserati.

Meanwhile, over in Italy, Germany, Poland, and France, Stellantis has paused production due to weak demand. So.

Ford’s new BlueOval City campus in Tennessee is gearing up to start full-scale production of EVs and batteries, and Toyota has already begun shipping batteries from its new EV battery plant in North Carolina. South Korea is building a new $4 billion plant outside Savannah, and will supply Hyundai and Kia. Industry analysts report that Volkswagen and more global brands are also shifting their sourcing structures toward North America.

All this activity isn’t just a surge in isolated investments. Smaller firms follow the big anchor tenants like remora fish follow whale sharks. Battery makers, welders, chip fabricators, raw-material processors, tool-and-die shops, precision robotics firms, logistics companies — all of them draft right behind the big-box tenants. Each new large plant typically draws 5–8 more ancillary businesses per every thousand workers.

This is nothing less than the early architecture of a new American manufacturing era, the opening chords of a full-blown industrial re-anchoring of the American heartland. The bracing effects from all this new economic activity will infuse everything: wages, energy markets, housing, geopolitics, domestic supply chains, and long-term economic power.

I’m just a lawyer, not a credentialed media expert, but media’s consistently wrong take on tariffs might be the greatest act of journalistic malpractice in history. (After their covid coverage, that is.) At least nobody is listening to them anymore.

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Yesterday, the beleaguered British Broadcasting Company, or, affectionately, “the Beeb,” ran a typically snooty story headlined, “BBC apologises to Trump over Panorama edit but refuses to pay compensation.” It was their only play.

Alas, the BBC is suffering. After getting caught red-bottomed in creating a fake video of President Trump supposedly calling for a violent attack on the Capitol on January 6th, its two top officials resigned in humiliating disgrace. (To wit: The Right Hon. Sir Nigel Tiddlywinks, Marquis of Upper Swash-on-Sea, and Lady Percivel Mildred Crumpet-Farquar, Keeper of the Queen’s biscuits. Or something like that.)

Following the high-profile resignations, Trump’s lawyers smelled blood in the North Atlantic. They fired off a demand letter, requiring a retraction, a formal apology in English, and a second apology in the International language of hard currency. The BBC, which did not get where it is today by sprinkling its farthings and Royal pocket-scraps on any old Hitler that motors down the Channel, opted for A and B, but not C.

That seems like a big mistake, but it positions the broadcaster for what they undoubtedly sense will be a painful and ultimately expensive legal dialogue. Our initial offer is zero. Please send counteroffer.

In short, in addition to apologizing, the Beeb has deleted the offending video from “all platforms,” and issued a statement of error in its “Corrections and Clarifications” section. In short, it was the classic mistakes were made, but here is their longer, lawyer-approved, carefully worded statement (in the King’s English):

“We accept that our edit unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech, rather than excerpts from different points in the speech, and that this gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action.”

Furthermore, “BBC chair Samir Shah has separately sent a personal letter to the White House making clear to President Trump that he and the corporation are sorry for the edit of the president’s speech on 6 January 2021,” and calling the mishap an appalling “error of judgment.”

They are sorry. Soon they will be even sorrier.

The BBC’s lawyers also sent a legal response, which immediately misfired. They pointed out that, regardless of whose fault it was, Trump was re-elected anyway, so what’s the harm? And anyway, they said, the silly and unfortunate edit was only available on BBC iPlayer, so it was restricted to UK viewers. But just as they were clapping each others on the backs about having dodged an American bullet, it happened again.

UK Telegraph, yesterday:

The Telegraph reported that, separately, and a year apart from the documentary clip, BBC Newsnight also doctored footage of the exact same speech and also ignored multiple complaints that had been raised about it.

This one was even worse than the first.

In the latest deceptively spliced clip, not identical, but very similar to the first one, Trump is falsely shown as saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol. And we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women. And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not gonna have a country anymore.”

And then, to make sure the audience was properly fooled, BBC presenter Kirsty Wark voiced over, “and fight they did,” switching straight to footage from the Capitol riots.

A scalded BBC said it was “looking into the matter.” Trump’s lawyers say the new clip proves a pattern and intent for defamation.

Let’s open the betting. My chips are on a $15 million settlement. You?

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Yesterday, the Associated Press ran an encouraging story headlined, “Justice Department sues to block California US House map in clash that could tip control of Congress.”

Is it my imagination, or is Gavin Newsom going grey? Not just his hair— all of him? It happens to us all, I suppose, but it seems to be happening faster for California’s oleaginous Governor. He does face a lot of problems lately.

One new problem spindled onto the stack yesterday when the DOJ moved to intervene in a lawsuit filed by California Republicans to stop the ballot initiative passed last week that would redistrict away five GOP congressional seats. “Governor Newsom’s attempt to entrench one-party rule and silence millions of Californians,” Attorney General Bondi said, “will not stand.”

Proposition 50 is another Democrat band-aid. It temporarily amends the California constitution for four years, allowing the Governor’s map to replace the legislature’s version, which was approved by an independent commission under the existing state constitution. It ‘expires’ in 2030 with the state’s next census.

This silliness results from the fact that California’s constitution requires only a simple majority (51%) for amendment. Florida used to have the same problem, and every ridiculous thing you can think of was being turned into a constitutional amendment. It changed after the infamous “pregnant pig” amendment, in which a small but highly motivated group of pregnant pigs provided just enough votes to outlaw bacon-based breakfast sandwiches.

Thus, in 2006, Floridians angry about so-called turkey bacon (which is not bacon) voted to increase the margin for constitutional amendments from 50% to 60%, which has rescued us from abortion-till-birth, recreational marijuana, and nationalized alligator wrestling, which each got over 50% —but not 60%— of the popular vote. (It’s still too low, we still pass an appalling number of them, and the pro-mosquito lobby is an ever-present danger.)

🔥 Predictably, Democrats immediately complained that the DOJ didn’t sue any other state for redistricting, like Texas:

Schiff is a nincompoop. Biden’s DOJ did sue Texas, holding up the redistricting for four years. Trump’s DOJ dropped the suit, but Texas still had to survive a gauntlet of lawsuits from groups like LULAC, the NAACP, Voto Latino, and the Mexican American Legislative Caucus —I am not making any of that up— alleging racial discrimination, gerrymandering, and violations of the 14th Amendment and Voting Rights Act (VRA).

This year, the Fifth Circuit ruled Texas could redraw its maps without having to meet the VRA requirements. So there were plenty of lawsuits. You can hardly call it two-tiered justice. Libs sued and lost. Now it’s Trump’s turn. It’s as simple as that. Quit whining, Adam.

Anyway, the DOJ has accused California of racial gerrymandering, a constitutional violation, by intentionally favoring Hispanic voters with Newsom’s proposed new map. So, contrary to Schiff’s claims, voter popularity has nothing to do with it. If the maps unconstitutionally prefer one race over others, the maps are still illegal, no matter how many people voted for them.

We should know the outcome soon; courts usually expedite redistricting cases, for obvious reasons. (Except when a leftwing judge is considering a case involving a conservative state, then it takes years and years.)

Stand by for updates.

Have a fantastic Friday! Swing back around tomorrow morning, for the weekend edition roundup of essential news and commentary.

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