Posts on Sunday, November 23, 2025

Good morning! It’s Sunday, November 23, 2025. Today in History: 1976: Frenchman Jacques Mayol is the first person to dive 100 meters (~328ft) in the sea without breathing equipment He broke his own record seven years later by diving to 105 meters (~350ft). (Snip) I've been watching the developments in the government's case against Derek Chauvin. Another person who has also been watching and who has been rather vocal about it is a former law-enforcement, former-Marine type under the handle “Flopping Aces”. This morning, his newest post has some rather interesting info. We'll get to that in a minute, but I want to first make clear my position:

Kennedy Center president Ric Grenell and Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island are clashing over the center's spending and operations records, after Trump allies were appointed to key roles at the Kennedy Center earlier this year, and President Trump was elected chairman of the board.In a letter to Grenell, Whitehouse said that under Grenell's stewardship, "The Center is being looted to the tune of millions of dollars in foregone revenue, cancelled programming, unpaid use of its facilities, and wasteful spending on luxury restaurants and hotels." He called it "an unprecedented pattern of self-dealing, favoritism, and waste."

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sent out a fundraising email in mid-November asking supporters to chip in "$5 or anything you can" to spread holiday joy across New York City ahead of Thanksgiving, calling on donors to help pay for turkeys for needy families. But instead of directing donors to local charities coordinating turkey drives, as she did in years past, the appeal funneled contributions straight into her campaign account through ActBlue, raising serious legal and ethical red flags. According to a report from the New York Post, “clicking on the contribution link sends people directly to a campaign fundraising page operated by ActBlue,

A federal judge ordered the Department of Justice to release grand jury documents to attorneys working for former FBI Director James Comey. “[T]he Court finds the record in this case requires the full disclosure of grand jury materials,” wrote U.S. Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick. He argued that “government misconduct may have tainted the grand jury proceedings,” and as a result, “disclosure of grand jury materials under these unique circumstances is necessary to fully protect the rights of the accused.” Fitzpatrick noted that the decision is an “extraordinary remedy.”

Military investigations have reportedly revealed that Hamas spent years collecting sensitive intelligence on IDF bases and equipment, especially tanks and their operations, from soldiers’ social media activity, allowing the terror group to disable tanks and raid army bases during its October 7, 2023, onslaught in southern Israel. Army Radio reported Sunday that a specialized Hamas intelligence unit built a detailed database over several years by piecing together thousands of social media posts by soldiers, including photos and videos, specifically focusing on the Merkava Mark 4 tank — the most advanced armored vehicle in the IDF’s arsenal. According to the report, Hamas learned about a hidden kill switch on the tank

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani doubled down Sunday on his claim that President Trump is a “fascist” and “despot” — but says he can still work with him. “That’s something that I’ve said in the past. I say it today,” Mamdani told NBC’s “Meet the Press” when asked whether he still views Trump as a fascist. The socialist pol said he’s eager to work with Trump because they agreed that the Big Apple needs to be more affordable at their surprisingly chummy meeting Friday. “What I appreciated about the conversation that I had with the president was that we were not shy about the places of disagreement,” he said. “

"Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or household divided against itself will stand." Jesus Christ, Matthew 12:25 (RSV) In grade school, I often heard about our country's "Melting Pot," a symbol of the blending of diverse ethnicities united by the idea that we are a nation formed by various groups coming together to create a new and distinct culture unlike any other. As a predominantly Christian nation, we welcomed everyone through legal immigration. We expected everyone to share the same values—freedom, self-reliance, capitalism, and the willingness to learn and speak English. It wasn't about just living in America or being dependent, expecting freebies.

First, I am not a doctor, but I have medical experience in Respiratory Therapy. When the COVID-19 “Flu” emerged, I knew that an effective vaccine could not have been manufactured and tested effectively in that amount of time. I also knew that the 6-foot distancing rule was nothing more than political and social theatre. The mask fiasco was not only unnecessary, but it created more problems than it solved. Rebreathing damp, contaminated carbon dioxide-laden (CO2) air can lead to hypercapnia and even hypoxia. For these reasons, neither my better half nor I received the jab or ever wore a mask, and when we did experience the COVID “flu,” it lasted

A Long Island neurosurgeon who has the misfortune to be named Dr Jeffrey Epstein has an ingenious idea for how he might respond to Texas Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett after she confused him with the notorious sex offender of the same name. “I think that I should contribute money to Jasmine Crockett and then let everybody know that she also took money from Jeffrey Epstein,” the physician joked to The New York Post. Crockett threatened on the floor of the House of Representatives Tuesday that she was “gonna expose it all” after discovering that “somebody named Jeffrey Epstein” had donated to the campaign of the former New York Republican congressman Lee Zeldin,

It was only near week’s end that things started really hopping. Oh, sure, there was another D.C. federal district judge issuing a ridiculous order -- this week one of them enjoined the President from power washing the Executive Office Building that sits nearby the White House. I must have missed the constitutional provision providing that, for historical if not aesthetic reasons, our federal buildings must be grime covered. And yes, the media was still trying to confect out of the juvenile blatherings of Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes a major split in MAGA.

It ain’t so much the things we don’t know that — Mark Twain (attributed) What’s the one thing everyone knows about capitalism? Why, that it started out as a mean, nasty tool of greedy industrialists, of course. “The Industrial Revolution,” we all learned, was a terrible Moloch that devoured children, put profits before people, and, though it made great fortunes (or, perhaps, partly because it made great fortunes), was a wicked development. The Industrial Revolution, we’ve all been taught, was the original sin of capitalism, necessary, perhaps, to prime the engine of economic progress, but lamentable nevertheless.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told US senators Saturday that the sweeping peace plan to end the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine was not America’s — but merely a “leaked” Russian “wish list,” according to reports. Rubio told a bipartisan delegation at the Halifax International Security Forum in Canada Saturday afternoon that the 28-point blueprint supposedly crafted to end the war is actually a Russian proposal, not a US initiative, according to South Dakota GOP Sen. Mike Rounds. “He made it very clear to us that we are the recipients of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives,” Rounds said, Politico reported.

In the wake of New York City electing itself a real live communist for mayor earlier this month, Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) introduced a non-binding resolution to Congress this past week called "Denouncing the horrors of socialism." That means it doesn't create any sort of real law — it's largely symbolic, with the intention of affirming "that the United States rejects socialism and opposes the implementation of socialist policies that threaten the freedoms and prosperity that define our nation." Voting in favor of it should have been a no-brainer. It was for Republicans, at least: 199 voted in favor of it, with zero voting against.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Climate Hoax) is enraged at President Donald Trump and his administration, but not for the usual Orange-Man-Bad-is-a-fascist-who-is-taking-away-Our-Democracy reasons. No, Whitehouse deserves credit for originality: he has found an entirely new reason to hate Trump, blazing trails for his fellow leftists. The man is that rarest of things among politicians, particularly leftist ones: an innovator. Fox News reported Friday that the selfless public servant Whitehouse “spoke at a press conference on the House side of the Capitol Thursday with the blessing of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.”