Good morning, C&C, it’s Thursday! Apologies for the late delivery— your author is navigating the nation’s airports again (ugh). Our election hangover continues, creating a challenge to report real news, since the Great Shellacking is still busy throwing its weight around. But, only 48 hours in, twists and turns are appearing and some of the numbers are paying hide-and-go-seek. Today’s roundup describes what’s causing folks to scratch their heads a little. Plus, more good news from Florida.
By the way, I’m en route to the lovely city of Chattanooga, where I’m attending the Brownstone Institute’s sixth annual conference, “The Challenge Ahead.” For two days, a crowd of doctors, scientists, journalists, and assorted heretics of various sizes and descriptions will compare notes on how to unwind the capture of our institutions, preferably before the next “two weeks to flatten the curve” arrives.
On Saturday morning I’m speaking on the Law and Legal Issues panel with Bobbie Anne Cox, the New York attorney who beat Governor Hochul’s quarantine-camp rule. The inimitable Jeffrey Tucker will be moderating. Other speakers include Robert Malone, Aaron Kheriaty, Bret Weinstein, Joel Salatin and Walter Kirn, so the hallway conversations alone should be worth the trip. I’ll report back on whatever I can repeat in polite company. The blog keeps running; delivery schedules may vary.
🌍🇺🇸 ESSENTIAL NEWS AND COMMENTARY 🇺🇸🌍
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Yesterday, in the wake of their tsunami of midterm victories, Democrats continued vibrating in excitement like struck tuning forks, and corporate media kept dishing up servings. The Times topped its triumphant web page with a photo-packed, multimedia-rich, magazine-style super-article dramatically headlined, “‘I Have Seen the Enemy, and It Is Us’: Inside Team Trump’s Historic Collapse.” The subheadline teased, “How an unpopular president and an unpopular war provided an opening for Democrats to make sweeping gains in the midterms.” It’s all perfect nonsense, of course, but man up— it’s going to be like this for a while.
I considered listing the slew of triumphalist headlines festooning the Times’ home page today. They are so over-the-top it’s hilarious. They heaped praise on clever Democrat strategists and mocked Republicans as fumbling incompetents. According to corporate media, the nation has just experienced the most consequential political earthquake in world history, at least since Julius Caesar overthrew the Roman Senate.
I’m only slightly exaggerating. The word “Watergate” appears so often in the various NYT stories that we should make it into a drinking game.
Since there was nothing new or interesting in any of these stories, I won’t bore you with a full recap. Observing social media yesterday, I was encouraged by how many conservative influencers avoided circular firing squads and offered optimism; or, if not exactly optimism, less pessimistic takes. Florida’s Governor DeSantis in particular had a lot to say, and I’ll point out his most insightful comments in a moment.
So, let’s set up the next story with the unintentional heart of the Times’s overlong article. For the first time, so far as I know, the Grey Lady admitted what we’ve noticed since last year: the Democrats’ strategy boiled down to two things: running white guys who can act straight, wear flannel, and fake their blue-collar bona fides. Then those guys stuck like glue to gas prices, a poorly disguised style of socialism-lite wearing a Carhartt jacket. Here’s how the Times described it:
Not that long ago, saying minority candidates might be “immediately off-putting” would have gotten Mike Smith thrown off the Times’ executive floor balcony. Now, apparently, it’s just politics. (Minorities: take note.) Anyway, that’s what the Democrats did; they ditched the blacks, women, and gays and marched out “affordability” like it was the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
That’s part of the narrative, and it’s not far from the truth, to the extent that was the blue strategy. The other part is the whole “rebuke” thing, that voters “punished an unpopular president and war.”
But is that really what energized Democrat voters and depressed Republican turnout? Testosterone, flannel, and Iran?
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Will I keep this up as a daily feature? Who knows. But for now, I’m still finding examples. Yesterday we saw a gender-bending political novice who somehow beat the Republican incumbent for a state house seat in Alabama. It was a metaphor for the national election results. Today delivers another colorful red district upset: Ericka Lomick. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported, “This Democrat won Fort Worth House seat after dropping out. Can she take office?” Wait till you hear this story.
Defying the Times’ template, yesterday’s trans state rep could hardly be “perceived as moderate,” especially in Huntsville. He was no Tejano smokejumper. As for his testosterone levels, well, he is probably taking blockers. Ericka Lomack is not quite as shocking, not right off, but she still breaks the Times’ “success formula.”
It only gets weirder from here. A lot weirder.
Her demographics are not the story. Ericka won a state house seat in a safe red Texas district by a narrow but conclusive margin of 810 votes. The number of votes was one of the first things that seemed off. Ericka got 38,972; her Republican opponent, Alan Blaylock, got 38,162. It wasn’t an accident. She won twice on Tuesday, since, due to a weird overlap of two different terms, the same seat appeared twice on the ballot in two different races.
Ericka won two times on the same ballot. So it wasn’t a fluke.
With me so far? Now consider this: Ericka’s district is all red. It went for Trump +19 in 2024. Tuesday’s numbers are wildly inconsistent with that.
Two years ago, 53,728 Fort Worth Republicans voted for Trump, and 36,253 Democrats voted for Kamala Harris. In other words, Ericka got 2,719 more votes than Kamala Harris did two years ago. At the same time, some 15,500 Texas Republicans disappeared or sat home. When you hear the rest of Ericka’s story, you’ll understand why I cannot believe a single Republican crossed over and protest-voted for her.
You won’t believe it either. Let us count the ways.
🔥 Like Alison, yesterday’s gender-twisted example, Ericka, a UT law student (she says) who works at Walmart’s operations center, was a first-time candidate with no prior political experience. She also lacked connections because she’d only moved to Texas less than four years ago. Her opponent, Alan Blaylock, was a Fort Worth City Commissioner and a born-and-bred Texan.
According to campaign disclosures, Ericka raised less than $8,000 for the entire campaign, which also proves she had no party support. She had no organizational support. It sounds like she didn’t even really campaign. Meanwhile, Blaylock raised six hundred thousand ($600,650). He outspent her 75 to 1.
Money isn’t everything. But come on. Sometimes money is a proxy for other factors, like how much popular support a candidate does or doesn’t have, or it says something about their political skills.
Now let’s peek at the really weird part.
🔥 When Ericka won this week, her campaign website was down, and it has probably been down since the beginning of September— because she probably took it down, and fast. She probably took it down because someone found some North Carolina federal court records showing that she pleaded guilty in 2011 to mortgage fraud, bank fraud, and money-laundering conspiracy. She got 63 months in prison.
In Texas, convicted felons cannot hold office.
The candidate form even has a box requiring candidates to check off whether they’d ever been convicted. Ericka checked “no.” (Which itself created a new crime.) In late September, after being confronted with her 2011 fraud and money-laundering conviction and five-year prison sentence, Ericka suspended her campaign and dropped out— before early voting began. Headline from the Texas Scorecard:
Ericka can’t legally hold office. She was always a non-viable candidate. It was obvious and it was public. But since in September’s final week it was too late to change the ballots, Ericka’s name stayed on both races. And on Tuesday, despite being a convicted felon, despite suspending her campaign, despite having been outspent 75 to 1, despite her lack of political experience or any roots in Texas, Ericka still got more votes than Kamala Harris got, in a +19 Trump district.
Somebody explain to me how this could have happened. Her campaign strategy was to quit. It was the most effective Democrat platform since Biden’s basement or Talarico’s three-week flu holiday.
Take any of the hot-take theories you like. But if you want to argue that thousands of disgruntled Republicans in Fort Worth were so mad about the Iran War they’d protest vote for a convicted felon with a suspended campaign, then where are they? Folks that angry should stick out like a thumb so sore it was trying to self-amputate.
It’s weird! It’s another twisted example of yesterday’s distorted results. According to the reported numbers, Republican turnout was undoubtedly weak, about 30% under 2024 levels. But in their defense, that’s not a weird drop-off for a midterm election compared to presidential numbers.
The Democrat turnout over 2024 numbers is what’s hard to explain. I can believe some sore Republicans stayed home. I can’t believe they went to the polls and voted for this.
This is our second metaphor for Tuesday’s blue wave.
I’m not the only one asking questions. Also in Texas, Democrats somehow managed to increase their turnout from 2022’s midterms by nearly 2 million votes:
The unknown Democrat Gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa, who has never held a statewide office, slaughtered Greg Abbott, who has held the Texas governor’s mansion through thick and thin. Until now. Though Republicans turned out in numbers above 2022 (and only slightly below 2018 midterm turnout), Democrats somehow surged +1.68 million votes —more than any gubernatorial candidate of any party in modern history— even more than 2022’s nationally-known Beto O’Rourke.
Abbott outspent Gina 8 to 1— $281M to her roughly $37M. Even Polymarket predicted an Abbott win (64%). The shocking last-minute surge came from nowhere. No reports of Democrats blowing out polling places. Early voting and mail-in ballots only showed a tie: 30% to 30%. Democrats were ahead in early voting by only 26,000 votes. Again— it’s weird. Some folks are scratching their heads. For example:
To be clear: I am certainly not claiming fraud. It is far too early for that. Texas GOP voters were in a minor civil war, with disaffected John Cornyn supporters angry that the Senator was primaried by Ken Paxton. Nationally, the “blue wave” was so ubiquitous it makes a coordinated scheme hard to picture. done. But it’s all strange enough that I hope somebody is taking a look. Just to be sure.
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Finally, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s 2028 presidential run has unofficially begun. It appears he was just waiting for the midterms to finish before blowing up social media. Yesterday, Florida Politics reported, “Ron DeSantis says Amendment 3 saved Florida from the blue wave.”
“It’s the political equivalent of a meteor strike that went all around the United States — blue states, red states, everything in between — and the one state that was able to hold the line and withstand that is right here in the free state of Florida,” DeSantis told reporters in Tallahassee.
Yesterday, the nation’s best governor explained how Florida managed to hold the line. He said that, after anticipating a blue wave, he successfully helped get the homestead property tax bill on Florida’s ballot— to encourage turnout. (It worked. The amendment passed the 60% threshold, and the ‘controversy’ filled the papers for months leading to the election as local governments encouraged residents to vote against the bill.
“Had Amendment 3 not been on the ballot, I don’t know that we turn out the voters that we ended up turning out. People wanted to vote ‘yes’ on that, and then many of them ended up voting Republican later on down the ballot,” DeSantis said.
It was bigger than that. It broke the blue wave. He rope-a-doped them. DeSantis turned every city hall that campaigned against Amendment 3 into a free GOTV operation. Brilliant.
As I have, Governor DeSantis also noticed the record-smashing Democrat turnout. “Democrats had their best turnout they’ve ever had in the modern history of Florida,” he said, “with 68% turnout of their registered voters.” It was literally unprecedented. “They’ve never gotten that high in a Midterm,” DeSantis explained. “They’ve never beaten us in turnout as a percentage in a Midterm.”
Weird, huh? There’s some kind of electoral Twilight Zone movie being scripted. But is it going anywhere?
“The only thing that saved us is we just have so many more Republicans than they do.” Of course, Florida’s advantage came from three things: DeSantis and his policies, new election integrity laws including a Florida SAVE Act, and President Joe Biden, for accidentally creating the Great Pandemic Migration. (One wonders what Biden’s Uncle Bosey would have thought, had he not become a cannibal’s breakfast.)
DeSantis, a lame-duck governor with less than two months left in his final term, is still working. “His priorities,” FlaPol said, “are setting a schedule for further homestead expansion and limiting local governments from doing an end run around the amendment.” Not only that. “A taxpayers’ bill of rights also could be on the table, he said, as well as a ‘pool of funding’ for ‘core needs’ of local governments, including rural ones.”
🔥 Yesterday, in related news, Florida’s Tallahassee-Democrat reported, “Muslim group shutting down in Florida amid ‘terror’ designation.” Buh bye!
“The Florida chapter of the country’s largest Muslim advocacy group will be shutting down indefinitely,” the paper reported, “after state officials stamped foreign and domestic terror labels on the group under a law approved by Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier this year.”
Among other things, CAIR —the Council on American-Islamic Relations— was once named by federal prosecutors as an unindicted co-conspirator in America’s largest Hamas-linked terror-financing case.
There are two lawsuits. In the first, Judge Mark Walker (Obama appointee) blocked DeSantis’s executive order in March. The state appealed, and Walker later recused himself after Florida accused him of bias. In the second, Chief Judge Allen Winsor (Trump appointee) declined to block the new law before it took effect. So as of today, CAIR is officially a terrorist organization in Florida, which puts the group somewhere between ISIS, the Taliban, and a surprise nest of silverfish.
The move —a combo of an executive order, agency action, and a law passed through Florida’s legislature— restricted over 90 groups besides CAIR, including the Muslim Brotherhood and Antifa groups. (Governor Abbott also designated CAIR a foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organization under Texas law.)
Attorney General James Uthmeier explained the effect: “Supporting these groups is a felony. Your tax dollars will not fund them. No contracts, no foothold on our campuses. Students who promote them are expelled.”
Florida also passed a law prohibiting Sharia law from being used as an authority in any Florida court. In the Sunshine State, radical Muslims are being twisted around an axle.
Given how concerned voters are about the Muslim takeover in places like Texas and Michigan, DeSantis is leading another high-visibility 2028 issue.
The Governor, who ran against Trump in the primary, has famously feuded with Trump’s Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, and is banned from the inner circle, is thus unencumbered by any Trump connection, and won’t be in the limelight of the Democrats’ wild-eyed investigations for the next two years, so he can run on his strong Florida record as an outsider. He is also unencumbered by public employment, with two full years to run for president.
Let me know what you think about a DeSantis run in the comments.
Have a terrific Thursday! Apologies for the delay. I’ll be hotel blogging in the morning tomorrow and Saturday, so you can expect something closer to a normal schedule. I’ll see you soon with another roundup of essential news and caffeinated commentary.
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On Tuesday our country took a step, many with blurry eyes, towards communism.
People that have fled communist regimes and migrated here to America warned Americans but many Americans chose not to listen.
Election after election Jewish voters overwhelmingly have voted for democrats. For Jewish people today, they wake up in a country where discrimination against Jews is not only creeping but now will be governing. When it comes to discrimination against Jews the party that will soon run congress looks the other way.
Election after election black voters give the party of slavery, the Democratic Party, their loyalty, about 9 out of 10. Election after election they get left behind. Their schools fail, their streets bleed, their neighborhoods are last in line. And as of late, when the money gets handed out illegal aliens stand in front of them. Billions of dollars. Free hotels, free debit cards, free phones, free everything. This for people that broke our laws to get here. Meanwhile the American citizen gets pushed to the back of the line. That’s not hate talking that’s democrat reality. Loyalty that is never paid back is no longer loyalty, it’s a habit and Tuesday night the habit took control again.
And then there’s the strangest alliance in American politics, the gay and lesbian community, marching proudly with a coalition which makes large space for political Islam. The people in the parade may not want to hear this but under sharia law homosexuality is not tolerated it is punished. By sharia, gay people are imprisoned flogged and executed. The Islamic state threw gay men from rooftops while the world watched. That is not opinion that is the law on the books. So when the Islamist wing of the democrat coalition is strong enough, which promise will survive (Chuck Schumer ?) the promise they made to you or the promises they made to their god?
Then there’s the average American, many who have no real coalition, just work and struggle to put food on the table and pay their bills. Many Americans that pay 4 dollars a gallon for gas now, voted, and will soon pay double that. They will watch 4 dollar gas rise along with energy costs, food, taxes, etc. The costs of living will climb up the same hill. Across the board costs will rise making government dependency a must for millions.
Every group gets sold the same two lies. Dependence; we will feed you, we will house you, forgive you and own you. The Islamist offers silence. Say nothing about us, don’t question us, or be branded a bigot on the spot. Dependency and silence that’s the old communist program. One takes your wallet the other takes your voice and together they take your country. Communism is forced dependency and silence that’s the program.
Although the election was a disaster we should never lose focus. Day by day we must take back one institution by one. We have to keep in front of us a vision of what we want for America. What we keep in front of us is what we are moving towards. Don’t have a small vision. When you believe in something great, when you believe to set a higher standard for your family, when you take the limits off of God and say God I don’t see a way but I know You have a way. When you believe big like that you please God.
Physically placing something in front of you, seeing it everyday, will push you in that direction. For instance place a copy of the Constitution on a table where you sit. Pick it up, read it, pray that America will continue to follow it. If someone asks what or why it’s there tell them, “I want America to move back towards the Constitution”. We have to keep in front of us a vision of what we want for America.
People may try to talk you out of what’s in your heart but Americans are special. What the communist doesn’t understand is a true American, and there are tens of millions of us, will never hand the communist the keys to our liberty. The enemy would like nothing more than us to give up. We will never give up! Keep the faith!
J.Goodrich
SPEAKING OF THE ROPE-A-DOPE!
One fantasy scenario playing out on X is that Trump is actually pulling a Muhammad Ali. Three days before the election, POTUS posted footage of Ali losing to Joe Frazier in 1971. But Ali’s most famous maneuver came three years later, when he let George Foreman pound him on the ropes until the poor bastard was completely spent before bouncing back and knocking him out. In boxing, it’s known as a rope-a-dope, which sounds like something you’d find hanging in your grandfather’s shower but is apparently a consistently winning fighting strategy.
In this storyline, Trump is mimicking the heavyweight champ’s signature move: cheerfully congratulating Democrats, pretending he’s down for the count, and quietly preparing his counterpunch while everyone mistakes his defeat for surrender. Proponents point to election-record preservation orders, federal monitors, and military cybersecurity preparations as evidence that the gloves are unequivocally still on. The part that makes it almost believable is that Trump just got his political teeth knocked in—and somehow he’s smiling through the blood instead of swearing vengeance or demanding a rematch.
https://jennasside.rocks/p/making-sense-of-the-midterm-massacre