News of the Week for October 11th, 2026
- 2026 Election
- Abortion
- Gun Rights
- Hide the Decline
- Socialized Medicine
- War & Terror
- National News
- Economy & Taxes
- International News
- Opinion
2026 Election
Democrats Deliver a Low Blow in Colorado
Since January, the New York Times has tracked at least 35 political advertisements that feature the name “Epstein,” including “many” that deploy the loaded phrase “Epstein class.” But Times reporter Lisa Lerer might have found the most audacious attempt yet to leverage Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes for political gain this year.
GOP is at risk of significant state legislative losses, Post analysis finds
Democrats have a rare chance to boost their state presences after years of Republican gains.
Kansas Senate Race Upgraded to ‘Tornado Watch’
Greetings and welcome to this 109th edition of the Carnival of Fools! The numbers in the back catalogue just keep ticking up each week, like the odometer on a vehicle well past warranty. And the Carnival is proud of its road-dog, hard-tourin’ reputation: We’ll play any venue in America that will pay us — sorry, we charge double to play in Rhode Island — and as far as we’re concerned, “Flyover Country” is just a state of mind.
Ken Paxton’s Less Than Encouraging Comments Behind the Scenes
It is not exactly surprising to hear that, according to an audio recording from an event with donors in Washington, GOP Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton is blaming the war in Iran and gas prices for his difficulty in his bid against James Talarico. This is at least partly true: If the price of gas were around $2 per gallon in Texas, the whole political landscape would look different.
Congressional candidate is raped while repairing her campaign signs
Embarrassed, she initially didn’t want to report attack. Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office’s investigation is ongoing. A Phoenix New Times exclusive.
Rep. Max Miller Drags Senator Ex-Father-In-Law Into Nasty Divorce
Rep. Max Miller is dragging Sen. Bernie Moreno into his divorce war … Bernie is the father of Max’s ex-wife, Emily, and Max is making legal moves to get Bernie to testify … TMZ has learned.
Trump Texas Rally Descends Into Chaos as Hecklers Repeatedly Interrupt Speech: ‘They’re Paid by Enemies of Our Nation’
President Donald Trump’s rally in Texas descended into chaos, with at least six interruptions that saw police forcibly remove hecklers as supporters chanted, “We love you, Daddy Trump!”
Watch Where GOP-Supporting Groups Choose to Spend Their Money
If you say you don’t want to hear about the latest polls because you think they’re a media-run pro-Democrat psy-op designed to demoralize Republican voters, fine. Let’s put aside the public opinion surveys. Response rates to pollsters’ calls keep getting lower and lower, anyway. Instead, let’s turn our attention to where GOP-aligned groups are spending their money in this year’s Senate races. Anybody can say they believe their preferred candidate is going to win a race, but funding is finite (albeit large), and if a group stops spending money somewhere . . . that’s usually a bad sign for that candidate.
Mike Johnson Suggests He’ll Quit Congress If Voters Reject GOP in Midterms
The latest polls show Democrats outperforming Republicans in the midterms by around eight points.
Abortion
Court Cases & Legislation
Nevada Question 6 is Killing Babies in Abortions Up to Birth. Vote No
We’ve written about and posted keen observations about Nevada’s maximalist Question 6, a proposed constitutional amendment which would without question legalize abortion up until birth. Melissa Clements, Nevada Right to Life’s executive director, laid the case against Question 6 out in a brilliant op-ed here.
Gun Rights
Denial of Pistol Permit Based on Allegedly “Unsubstantiated” Past Allegations of Sexual Misconduct and Child Abuse
The government’s argument, which the court apparently found persuasive: “The denial was not arbitrary but based on documented allegations, even if unsubstantiated.”
Huge News for Gun Owners As DOJ and ATF Release Guidance and FAQ for NFA Items
The Department of Justice and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives have released the long-awaited guidance for gun owners and firearm industry members in response to the federal injunction on NFA registration requirements for suppressors, short-barreled firearms, and “Any Other Weapons.” While the scope of the injunction imposed by U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix applies only to the plaintiffs (along with their members and customers) in the Jensen and Silencer Shop cases, the guidance released by the ATF on Friday applies “to everyone, and not only to those covered by the injunction.”
Hide the Decline
Environment &“Green Energy”
New Study: 50 Years Of The Most Aggressive ‘Net Zero’ Policies Can Only Affect The Global Climate By 0.03°C
Reducing human emissions has almost no effect on global temperatures.
Socialized Medicine
Government in Healthcare
PA Tops 1,000 Measles Cases as New York Declares Emergency
Measles cases are continuing to climb across the region, with Pennsylvania surpassing 1,000 confirmed cases and New York declaring a state disaster emergency amid its own rise in infections.
Canada approved woman’s euthanasia request because she could no longer cook for her family, as country’s leading doctors warn system is far too permissive
Top Canadian doctors are raising alarm bells over the country’s seemingly quick approval for assisted dying requests, after one elderly woman was accepted based on the fact that she lost the ability to cook meals for her family.
Hospital Starves to Death a Man With Down Syndrome, Didn’t Feed Him for 9 Days
A 56-year-old man with Down syndrome suffered a preventable death after medical staff at an NHS hospital denied him food for nine days, his family said, highlighting what advocates decry as a devaluation of vulnerable lives in a system that too often fails those with disabilities.
RFK Funds Grant with Siberian Plague Lab Collaborator After Biden Policy
A new White Coat Waste (WCW) investigation exposes $779,689 in new NIH funding under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for an animal experimentation collaboration with a Russian lab that has conducted plague research with the Siberian facility at the center of a deadly lab leak controversy. Federal spending records and documents exclusively obtained by WCW show how, as recently as September 2026, RFK’s NIH renewed funding for University of Illinois animal experiments conducted in cooperation with Russia’s Institute of Cytology and Genetics (ICG) in Siberia. Records show the state-run ICG has specifically collaborated on plague research with the now-infamous Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute, where a lab worker’s recent death has sparked concerns of another lab leak and cover-up.
Canada Backs Off Euthanasia for Mental Illness, Targets Dementia Patients
Some are celebrating Canada’s government “indefinitely suspending” legalizing euthanasia for mental illness as a great victory for life. Not me.
Canadian Man Was Euthanized and His Heart Harvested for Organ Donation
The heart of a 38-year-old man whose life was ended by euthanasia in Canada has been successfully harvested and transplanted into a 59-year-old American, amid concerns that organ donation creates pressure to end one’s life.
War & Terror
NATO Drafts Plan to Defeat a Russian Attack With Drones and AI
NATO’s top military commander is working on a strategy for achieving a quick victory against a Russian attack on its eastern flank, with a particular focus on integrating new defense technologies like drones and AI into traditional power.
The Strange, Sudden Illness and Death of a Plague Researcher in Russia
On the other side of the world, a government-run lab with past ties to bioweapons research has an accident and records the sudden death of a researcher, and an authoritarian state that I loathe begins an extensive response, including quarantines, while insisting everything is fine and there’s nothing for the public to worry about. If you’ve been reading this newsletter since, oh, April 2020, you know that’s my personal Bat-Signal.
U.S. Rushes to Withdraw Bombers From U.K. Air Base After New Threats
The withdrawal came with unusual speed, following what U.S. officials said were threats of an Iran-based plot against the installation.
Germany’s former spy chief arrested for treason
August Hanning accused of selling state secrets to a foreign power after his departure as BND president
The mysterious case of Russian troops and a saintly hand fragment
Soldiers retreating under Ukraine fire may have abandoned religious relics sent from Moscow to inspire them.
I was at the helm of the Soviet Union’s secret bioweapons program. This is what I fear most about the mystery plague lab death in Russia
If anyone knows what Russia’s secret biological weapons program is capable of, it is Dr Ken Alibek. The 76-year-old was once the No. 2 man in the Soviet Union’s vast Biopreparat germ-warfare machine, overseeing a secret network of laboratories developing deadly pathogens for use as weapons.
Pentagon says the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be livestreamed
The firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be livestreamed, the Pentagon said Thursday, a stunning revelation about plans for the first military execution in more than 65 years after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had described it as being “public.”
The Execution Will Not Be Televised . . . Probably
The U.S. Army has regulations regarding executions. Those regulations specify who may be in attendance as witnesses. The regulations do permit “a minimum of 2 media representatives, selected under the direction of CPA, from a pool of media representatives requesting to witness the execution.” The regulations also declare, “no person under the age of 18 shall witness the execution.”
At least 20 killed or injured, including popular UFC fighter, as mercenary forces of US Blackwater founder ambushed in Africa
Blackwater founder Erik Prince’s forces suffered a major battlefield loss in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo when enemy forces ambushed them, killing and wounding at least 20 people, including a popular former UFC fighter.
Trump claims energy ceasefire reached between Russia and Ukraine
President Trump on Sunday claimed an energy ceasefire deal has been reached between Russia and Ukraine, days after his administration announced a deal to acquire diesel from Russia while lifting sanctions.
National
Fury in California After Trump Suggests Iran ‘Take Out’ L.A. or San Diego
Gov. Gavin Newsom called the president “dangerous and deranged” after his remarks at a political rally, where Mr. Trump said the Iran war was necessary to “keep the world safe.”
Sen. Thom Tillis says that, without checks on power, “we will have a sort of dictator king if we’re not careful”
As Sen. Thom Tillis exits the Senate, he’s blasting many of the advisers President Trump has surrounded himself with as “sycophants,” and calling on his colleagues to stand up to executive power like the coequal branch of government they are.
“I’m literally a U.S. citizen. I’m literally a U.S. citizen.”
An employee at Target is detained in January 2026 in Richfield, Minnesota.
Justice Alito Speaks Out on Media Harassment and Why the Rules Still Matter
The author of Dobbs sits down with National Review.
Paul blocks push to unanimously pass Kids Online Safety Act
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blocked an effort from Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) on Wednesday to pass by unanimous consent the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a long-sought bill that intends to protect kids in the digital space.
Honey Please’: Kimberly Guilfoyle Pushed Donor to Wire $100,000 to Her Amex Account
Text messages with a MAGA ally show her seeking funds and offering access to top administration officials ahead of her confirmation as ambassador to Greece
Alabama Public University Professors Must Now Call Gulf of Mexico “Gulf of America” (Except When Speaking on “Historical” Questions)
If the statute is interpreted as applying to all speech by employees, or even all speech by employees while at work, including informal conversations with colleagues, it will likely be unconstitutional.
Top 3 Most Outrageous DEI Courses Found in New University Catalogs
From designed courses to establish “social justice advocacy” among students, to a course specifically studying “whiteness,” these three courses are sure to raise a few eyebrows.
UMinn institute shows young children coloring books with naked, gender-confused kids, videos reveal
Clinician says she uses ‘gender affirming’ coloring books to teach that ‘all kinds of gender expressions are okay’ and to support ‘pleasure-based positive sexuality’
Short Circuit: An inexhaustive weekly compendium of rulings from the federal courts of appeal
Prison phone calls, volcanic eruptions, and animal testing.
New York Attorney General Letitia James Seeks TikTok Age-Gating Rules
Letitia James is using unsealed TikTok allegations to push age verification and digital ID checks.
Economy & Taxes
A gut punch in Ohio: Nearly 1,400 laid off at truck factory just days before Trump rally
Sipping tea from beer mugs with his co-workers, Kyle Bos listed the ways his life is changing. Bos has two daughters, with a third due in January. At the grocery store, five items cost as much as a full cart once did. And on Wednesday, Bos and nearly 1,400 other people were laid off from their jobs at what had been the Navistar truck factory in southwestern Ohio.
The Rise of Dumb, Anti-Innovation, Job-Saving Laws in Blue Cities and States
Let us turn our eyes to the Garden State of New Jersey, where pumping your own gas has been illegal since 1949. Raised in New Jersey (Exit 10), I never learned how to pump gas until well into adulthood. Then, while stopping there many years later, I got out and started pumping my own gas like a regular Billy the Kid outlaw until the attendant rushed out and made me stop. Heaven forbid I do something I’ve probably done hundreds of times in other states!
The Billionaire Tax, the Busted Federal Budget, and the Future of the American Experiment
Hoover Institution economist Joshua Rauh examines America’s mounting federal debt and the political obstacles to controlling government spending. Rauh discusses why higher taxes and faster economic growth alone cannot close the budget gap, warns that rising interest costs could lead to an inflationary crisis, and argues for slowing the growth of entitlement spending. The conversation also covers President Trump’s tariff policies, California’s proposed billionaire tax, and the lessons offered by states such as Texas and Florida.
My New Lawfare Article on Why “The President Doesn’t Have Unlimited Power to Impose Import Bans”
Many of the same constitutional and other constraints apply as with tariffs.
Trump’s Steel Policy Is Working. That’s the Problem
The announcement of a new steel plant in Iowa is a result of American steel policy, but it’s not a good thing due to the high costs and negative effects of protectionism. US steel prices are among the highest in the world, with a metric ton of hot-rolled steel costing $1,293, and steel tariffs have helped US steelmakers make profits while other manufacturers pay more for essential inputs. The Iowa project has raised concerns, including the question of whether the plant will open as promised, the large subsidies awarded to Mesabi, and the potential exacerbation of the US industry’s overcapacity problem.
International
Strikes, Barricades and Fiscal Turmoil: An Autumn of Discontent Grips France
Chaos in schools, on the streets and in the markets is rooted in France’s struggles to fund its social welfare state, with a presidential election approaching.
Kenya Records Ebola Case for First Time
The authorities said that the virus had been diagnosed in a man arriving from the Democratic Republic of Congo and that they were taking measures to prevent any spread.
Woman raised by monkeys in jungle was terrified seeing her reflection for first time
Marina was just four years old when she was allegedly kidnapped by trafficking gangs outside her home in Colombia before being dumped in a rainforest, where she claims she lived among capuchin monkeys for up to seven years
‘High-Risk Research’ and ‘Shoddy Biosafety Measures’ at Russian Plague Lab
Today is the three-year anniversary of Hamas’s brutal, bloody terrorist attack on Israel. Shabbos Kestenbaum, Shay Khatiri, and Noah Rothman have you covered. Elsewhere in the world, a U.S. researcher who worked closely with the World Health Organization contends, “Clearly, on its face, the [anti-plague research] lab [in Irkutsk] was conducting extremely high-risk research and using shoddy biosafety measures.” And who was August Hanning, who headed up Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, really working for? Apparently, not the Germans.
China militia boat spotted for first time off Taiwan’s east coast, patrol finds
A Chinese militia boat was spotted along with two other vessels off Taiwan’s Pacific coast in August, according to a surveillance report reviewed by Reuters, the first known sighting of such a craft in the sensitive area.
Tim Cook Welcomes EU KIDS Act Age Verification for App Stores
Von der Leyen posted about privacy, safety, and security for children. The law behind the post needs everyone’s age checked.
British teen arrested for making fun of politician’s fashion choices
Apparently poking fun at the way a Wolverhampton City Council member dresses is grounds for arrest.
Man named Hitler Mussolini elected mayor in Peru
A man named Hitler Mussolini Simeon Flores has secured a narrow victory in Peru’s local elections, exit polls show.
France is flirting dangerously with the end of capitalism
If Jean-Luc Mélenchon took on Jeremy Corbyn in a lunatic Leftism contest, he would win – and now he has a path to the presidency
Christian nationalism in Britain driven by people who seldom go to church, says report
Research challenges the notion that the growing visibility of crosses and other symbols reflects a revival of Christianity
Soft to steel: Tiny robot muscle lifts 4,000 times its weight, defying limits
The muscle can stretch up to 12 times its original length in its softened state.
Opinion
Rees-Mogged by reality
Tucker Carlson invited the British conservative Jacob Rees-Mogg to appear on Carlson’s show to rehearse themes to which we have become accustomed. At some point Vice President Vance will have to conduct an intervention for his friend who won’t quit selling the ideological Kool-Aid, or he will have to renounce his views, but the damage will have been done.
The Internet Runs on Cats and Porn. It’s About to Get Cattier and Pornier
Soon, hundreds of new top-level domains, including .meow and .fart, could be added to the internet. WIRED goes inside the backroom shenanigans of ICANN, the organization at the helm.
The Cult of Trump Is Trump’s Worst Enemy
Little else has served Donald Trump as poorly as his own insistence on blind deference and thoughtless fealty from his aides and allies. Once in a while, though, reality pierces the distortion field the president cultivates for himself. And even as Trump rages against the intrusion, he probably doesn’t mind the long-term results. After all, in being compelled to make some concessions to Americans’ shared experience, he ends up advancing his own interests.
The End of MAGA — and What Comes Next
What is post-liberalism really all about?
The Young Right Wants to Change America. It Might Be Looking in the Wrong Place
A growing group of young Republicans is embracing “post-liberalism,” a political philosophy James Patterson — co-author of Why Postliberalism Failed — examined in National Review yesterday for its economic merits (or lack thereof). As Patterson wrote, post-liberalism calls for an executive-dominated state, which uses power to impose Christian values on the public.
Drones, Plague, and Ailing Autocrats: This Week in the World on Fire
I don’t mean to pooh-pooh those who are really interested in former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt signing with Fox News, or the White House blocking Politico from getting on Air Force One, or Ken Paxton lamenting that he doesn’t control his own campaign’s messaging. (Considering his track record and demonstrated political instincts, that’s probably for the best.)
The New Dark Ages Is Long on Alarm, Short on Scientific Literacy
The perils of blaming screens for everything
‘A Reliable Barometer of Wrongness’
How many years have I been mocking Amanda Marcotte? Many, many years. Nearly two decades.
The Social Contagion
In July of 1518, a woman named Frau Troffea stepped into a street in Strasbourg, France, and began to dance. She could not stop. Within weeks, dozens of others had joined her, and some accounts put the number as high as 400. The city council decided the afflicted needed to dance it out, so the city leaders built a stage and hired musicians to keep the dancers dancing until they collapsed. The outbreak ended only when the dancers were carried into the mountains to a shrine of St. Vitus.
Central planning also centralizes the importance of “who you know”
On the social media site formerly known as Twitter, Handre points out the other thing that socialized economies share with one another: the overwhelming importance of “friends”, “connections”, and “family” in generating unearned wealth and power.
Do Republicans Want to Rehabilitate Socialism?
Of course, if he wanted to, JD Vance could define socialism. He just doesn’t.
The Soundbite From Michigan, A Moral Abomination, and One Easy Thing Trump Could Do
First, the soundbite heard round the world last night. From Michigan, this was Mike Rogers in the Senate debate.
Do Republicans Want to Rehabilitate Socialism?
Of course, if he wanted to, JD Vance could define socialism. He just doesn’t.
Why Kimberly Guilfoyle Should Not Be Ambassador to Greece
The many sordid and embarrassing acts of our current ambassador to Greece; Ken Paxton fans, read to the end.
I Am Now “THE ENEMY!” (as Is Everyone Who Uses the Term “Artificial Intelligence”)
What is this even supposed to mean?
J.D. Vance Accidentally Comes Out as a Socialist
At a press conference, the vice president offered a strange new definition of the word. But his full remarks revealed a deeper irony.
If Britain has no right to the Falklands, the US has no right to half its territory
Brick by brick, the Western alliance is being dismantled. Alliances work when countries stand by their friends, even when their own interests are not engaged. Britain, Canada, and Denmark joined the U.S. operation in Afghanistan, not because they had been attacked, but because they saw 9/11 as an assault on the free world, and rushed to help their ally.
Alito’s ‘Practical Originalism’ Doesn’t Sound Very Originalist
The conservative justice seems to favor the kind of results-oriented judging that originalists are supposed to oppose.
The Cornell Seven and the Revolution
When the rule of law gives way to ideological passions and partisan score-settling, then we no longer have trials worthy of the name.
