Fake Polls II It seems if you poll left it’s easy to get into the NYT poll aggregator and yet again these polls showing big leftward swings were entirely fabricated.Wedgwood polling turned out to be an “experiment” in issuing fake polling results. It’s more an experiment in fraud. And in helping certain candidates to raise money. This is no experiment but calculated fraud. Real Clear Politics and Polling once again did not fall for the ruse because Wedgwood did not meet their screening process. You gotta wonder now how much else in politics today is faked given two “polling” firms were nothing but empty fronts.

Can France Happen here I hope not. It looks like whatever started out there about students has been highjacked by the left and the red-green alliance to generate uncontrolled looting, destruction of public property and houses of worship. The write up by the WSJ front page on what’s happening is laughable. The left is growing in strength here and so is the red-green alliance and add a toxic brew of universities that have abandoned their role of teaching values and are producing America haters and we have to be careful. The key will be the Michigan race and whether sanity prevails and the voters reject El Sayed and begin to turn back this new strain of extremism or whether the Democratic Party will embrace and extend it. Former President Obama seems to be leading the charge to the far left and helping grow it — giving a lie to how he presented himself as a centrist, but we kind of knew that by now anyway.

Houthis There is video now of the missile hitting the Riyadh airport as hundreds of people are in the terminal and the Houthis have claimed responsibility. This is a unique act of terrorism whose monstrosity should not be downplayed. This was not a military target. The Saudis are not hiding missiles in the airport — this is a deliberate attempt to kill hundreds of people with missiles directed at an open civilian airport. No warning. No flyers. This is terrorism at its bleakest. And from an Iranian proxy. Clearly they think the Saudis will retreat rather than face more of such acts. This would be a major setback in the war on terror if there is no coordinated response to this. Maybe we are waiting for the midterms to be over but this is bold aggression targeting civilians with terror. They will either win and take more territory or be set back if there is a coordinated response but the Houthis are on the move here and willing to send missiles into open airports — missiles that the Saudis cannot at present reliably stop.

Saudi Attacks The Houthis are carrying out wholesale attacks on the civilian Saudi airport, killing 13 including an American, and injuring hundreds. Israel, Saudi, UAE — these terrorist movements want them all. They don’t care which. And Iran and the Houthis figure the President is stuck until the midterms — unable to hit them. But they have gone too far and the US and the Gulf states have no choice but to respond forcefully. Oh yes, and there are laughably some French troops there who are more needed in their home country right now. Houthis are just proxies for Iran and so this pot is about to boil over as both think they can get away with murder right now. Maybe they can for a few days and maybe the President had planned on waiting until the midterms but attacks on civilian airports are not going to go unanswered.

October 7th, 2026 It is becoming clear that some people are seeking to erase and even glorify the savagery that was done on this day three years ago mostly to innocent kids at a peace concert treated in the most brutal and repulsive manner documented by the UN, the NY Times, Sheryl Sandberg in her movie and in the 45 minutes of videos from the terrorists themselves. Women raped, maimed and murdered. And yes children burned alive on purpose and with glee. We say Never Again and yet this happened again, and those who should be most ashamed and sickened by what was done on this day wave flags and banners as though they would do it again and again. We see it in the streets of Paris, the Green Party of the UK and in the City Hall of New York whose First Lady celebrated the slaughter. And in the anti-Semitic rants of influencers like Hasan Piker who are celebrated and campaigned with by the El Sayad’s of the world even after saying “America deserved 9/11.” There is a cold wind blowing across our world and infecting our societies. But on this day we remember those who lost their lives and were taken hostage in acts of horror deserve no praise and only condemnation.

Inflation Facts Most people think inflation is higher today than under the Biden years and in fact the Fed did raise interest rates over fears of renewed inflation. But the facts are something else. Under the President’s first term inflation was under 2 per cent a year and ended at 1.2 per cent in 2020. Then during the Biden years inflation soared to 8 per cent in 2022. A total of 21.4 per cent of price increases. Then in the second term inflation has averaged about 2.7 or total increases so far even with the tariffs and Iran conflict at 5.4 per cent. So inflation has come down from 8 per cent to around 3 per cent. Gas was most expensive in 2022 at 3.95 a gallon, more expensive than today. Those are the facts plain and simple.

Fly Dubai Follow Up After publishing stories depicting the terrorist incident as an outburst from a “rogue” pilot, the WSJ did publish a follow up acknowledging the co-pilot was a consumer of a diet of jihadist videos and it has since come out that he was fired from a previous job for dangerously radical views. They still have not labeled it as a terrorist incident but now the evidence is out and clear and they have published it. I imagine they are still pondering whether Covid came from a wet market or the lab next door that was jammed full of viruses. But this kind of woke narrative journalism that denies obvious truths leads to more dangerous outcomes as it created room for literally thousands of posts saying that the terrorist incident was a “false flag” and could not have happened despite all of the evidence and witnesses in the world. These posts are all over social media. And so you see from this one incident how the obvious nature of the concentration camps were kept from public view for years by mainstream media. There are those who are dedicated to covering up both what happened then and what happens now, and that’s why it’s important that institutional press not repeat the mistakes of the past and not easily whitewash incidents that have deep and dangerous roots but expose them fully when and if they occur.

War at the Journal I’ve never seen a greater disconnect from reality in covering the news. Front page WSJ: the caption calls the stabbing co-pilot “a rogue pilot.” Rogue? No use of the words “high jacking” or “terrorist.” Quite a cad this rogue. Article says no clear motive but there are “troubling possibilities” Then comes this doozy of a paragraph: “Negotiations to end the war that Israel and the U.S. launched against Iran appear stalled, and anger runs high over Israel’s conduct in the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.” No mention here of Oct. 7th, Hamas or Hezbollah or Iran’s link to terrorism in the UK yesterday — clearly the US or Israel must be to blame for this incident. Contrast the editorial inside at the same moment with the headline about how brave passengers averted a “highjacking” and calling the stabber a “terrorist” and putting it in the context of the Iranian actions, threats and history of terrorism. It seems if you want the news straight you need to read the Ed page and I’m at a loss as to the game being played on the front page, but there are “troubling possibilities.”

Only in America Only in America is the unduly elected President of Iran given a podium and interviews on news channels as though he is a legitimate head of state. Of course he doesn’t want to develop a nuclear bomb and is a victim of terrorism, according to his interviews. And only at the UN do people walk out on the only duly elected head of state in the MidEast while sitting in reverence (with the exception of the US) for the Iranian leader responsible the the executions of its own citizens en mass. The Argentinian leader said it best: “The alleged defenders of human rights have sheltered bloodthirsty dictatorships and regimes that stone women in the streets. They have systematically voted against Israel while remaining silent in the face of Islamic terrorism and the genocide of Christians in Africa.”

Yom Kippur Hit Piece So I’m reading my am emails and come across this Politico playbook and start reading about this guy who is in the state department and he is soliciting cash from Israeli citizens. Wow this sounds serious. I imagined a guy visiting people with a bag shaking them down for cash. Then as I read through it, it turns out he sent out an email as part of his wedding to tell his invited guests IF they are giving gifts here is how you do it. (so they don’t bring cash). It wasn’t anything like the headline pretended. Then the article goes on to trash the guy from a bunch of anonymous sources. And the guy sent out a later email telling people to disregard if not close family. And so I’m wondering what exactly is this? An article on a guy’s wedding invite is blown up to an international incident and depicted as sinister? Then I see Huckabee’s name is sprinkled liberally. And then that the subject is Mark Levin’s stepson, so now I get it. And so I start to click on the supporting links for this obvious trash — and the first link is from an article in a Quincy Institute publication (Responsible Statesman) — since when does Politico regard them as reliable sources? It’s especially odd that this urgent story about a wedding invite was launched on Yom Kippur.

The Midterm Squeeze It’s kind of obvious that Iran has about 40 or so days it believes it and its proxies can advance without facing all-out response from the US and its neighbors because of fear of pushing the midterms against the administration. They are advancing boldly in every direction including supporting Houthi aggression to capture more sea lanes and put pressure on Saudi Arabia to opt for ceasefires rather than battle it out. Iran also knows the day after the midterms all bets are off and they are likely to face the full weight of the American armada so they need a deal now. The last time the president unleashed US bombers against the Houthis it was incredibly effective and halted their aggression. Iran may simply have overplayed its hand and the President has the choice of either going along with Pakistan and Turkey to agree to a bad deal that would breathe life into Iran and its proxies or resume military action and blunt the Houthi advance. It’s really not a choice at this point. And people may just vote for a side that does the right thing even at a political cost rather than sit by. The Houthis could control all of Yemen and destroy Saudi oil fields if allowed to go unchecked for 40 plus days at their current rate of advance. So definitely the midnight oil is burning in the situation room and the question is whether we will take another bad deal, let the Houthis take over, or step up and blunt them.

Unbelievable So Democrats like Abdul El-Sayed have campaigned with Hasan Piker whose most recent rant included: “Because I’m in the United States of America, the most dogshit country on the fucking planet, the absolute worst country on the planet, straight up, bar none. A capitalist shithole. The absolute worst fuckin’ place on the planet, just a horrific, monstrous, awful, dogshit country that I fucking despise.” And so how is it possible that any candidate in 2026 of any party would go within 100 feet of someone so demonstrably anti-American and so hateful towards the very country that gives him a platform.

Interest rate catastrophe Well the replacement for Jerome Powell is worse than Jerome Powell. The inflation we are facing is caused by inflated oil prices from Mideast tensions. No amount of rate increases is going to have any effect on the oil prices unless it was big enough to stall the economy and throw a lot of people out of work. And what would be the point of that? Inflation will drop soon after the midterms when the war is resolved. And once the midterms are over the Iranians know the gloves will be coming off. And oil prices won’t change until that happens — all rate increases will do is making it more difficult for ordinary mortgage paying Americans. And then the Fed will have overshot because it takes many months to lower them again.

Raising Rates Raising rates is a medium term strategy for the economy that takes time to implement, take effect and reverse. The economy in terms of growth and employment is relatively strong and the Mideast tensions and transitory gas price increases slow not grow the economy. Therefore rate increases in response will do nothing to curb inflation which will cool when the conflict cools and only damage the economy further. The problem is not excess demand but Iranian intransigence and raising rates only helps the Iranians. The right response is to hold in place until the Mideast situation clarifies and when it does rates can come down.

Osama Bin Laden I remember a call I got at 1 am in 1998 from President Clinton who explained that there was this “really bad dude” named Osama Bin Laden and that they had intelligence on his location. They knew even then of his evil nature and its potential. He decided to launch the missiles but they missed hitting Bin Laden. If only they had taken him out then as the President tried, 9/11 might never have happened. So when I see college Democrats of many colleges inviting Hasan Piker, a celebrity influencer riding a social-media fueled wave of outlandish comments, including how “America deserved 9/11” I wonder how this generation that did not live through these terrible events in which terrorists planned and executed the mass murder of 3000 civilians and almost destroyed the Capitol, can possibly welcome and cheer someone with these views. On this 25th Anniversary of this terrible event, it is a time to honor those who lost their lives that day who in no way deserved their fate and to double down on stopping the next generation of terrorists because stopping them early — if you can — saves lives later.

Iran Desperate The actions of Iran seem desperate. They are doing Hail Mary attacks on US ships and soldiers that are failing. Clearly they think that if just one missile gets through and sinks a US ship or hits a base that the resulting outcry in the midterms would cause the US to pull back out of political fall out. They misjudge this president. If that occurred he would not pull back but instead unleash hell on them. He is showing restraint now and giving them every opportunity to give up and they seem instead to be lashing out in ways that indicate underlying weakness caused by the past military strikes and the blockade that is choking them off from the world economy .