CNN’s Jake Tapper confronted House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., on Wednesday about Medicaid funding for “noncitizens,” as the Democratic lawmaker argued his party was trying to save healthcare.

Tapper asked Jeffries about the extension of Obamacare subsidies after the government shut down on Wednesday when Democrats and Republicans in the Senate failed to reach a spending agreement before the end of fiscal year 2025 on Sept. 30.

The CNN host said Republicans “characterize it as you want to give health insurance to undocumented immigrants. I understand that’s not really an accurate depiction.” Jeffries responded, “It’s a lie.”

“It’s a lie, but what you support does bring back funding for emergency Medicaid to hospitals, some of which does pay for undocumented immigrants and people who don’t have health insurance. And also, there is this provision, and it’s not about undocumented immigrants. It’s about people with asylum seekers and people with temporary protected status, et cetera, et cetera, but about their ability to get Medicaid. So they’re noncitizens. They’re not undocumented. They’re not illegal. Why even include that in a bill, knowing that they’re going to seize right upon that and use that to message? I understand that when you retake the House, you can get whatever you want passed, but at this point?” Tapper asked.

Jeffries insisted Democrats were fighting against the “largest” cut to Medicaid ever, pointing to the Republican-backed “big, beautiful bill.”

“You’re talking about the subsidies again, but I’m talking about the noncitizens,” Tapper pushed back.

The House Minority leader argued again that Democrats were trying to save healthcare for 14 million Americans.

Hanna Penrick

Can anyone dismantle the administrative state?

Only one president has had both the desire and opportunity to crush and disable the administrative state, but more importantly, end the Marxist dialectic that has infected and subsumed this nation and post-modern Western civilization.

Nixon wished to shrink the federal bureaucracy, but enemies inside the government would never allow him the opportunity, while Nixon himself, at the same time, enlarged the administrative state by creating the EPA. Reagan could have engineered the opportunity, but never gave his Office of Management and Budget director, David Stockman, enough power to go beyond just designing tax cuts and small-ball regulatory reform.

President Trump and his Office of Management and Budget chief, Russ Vought, have maneuvered and neutered the opposition, positioning the so-called government shutdown, allowing Trump and Vought to seize nearly unlimited Article II power and prerogative to eliminate half of the federal workforce and erase the bureaucracy to levels not seen since Calvin Coolidge.

If not Donald Trump, then who?

How did we get here? And why is this the moment to fulfill the counter-revolutionary dialectic reversing Karl Marx’s force of destiny?

Marx’s struggle actually wasn’t between the propertied class and the proletariat, according to the late sociologist Alvin Gouldner in his work, The Future of Intellectuals and the Rise of the New Class.

The proletariat were mere pawns in the real war for power between the property-owning class and the upcoming rival—the mercenary technocrat and intellectual class, as Professor Darren Stallof remarks in his YouTube reading of Gouldner’s argument.

Further, since FDR, this intellectual class has gradually elbowed its way to power in enlarging, controlling, and manipulating the administrative state, according to retired UNLV sociologist Professor John Marini, in two podcasts with Steven Hayward at Powerline (here and here).

Marini says this intellectual class has dictated rules and norms to the propertied class, and nearly everyone else. It’s an incremental, subtle coup in the takeover of private property and the means of production while dismantling the US Constitution by obviating the separation of powers.

The Marx and Engels “clash of the titans” never actually benefited the working class. Instead, it only enabled the intellectual elitists, the cultural bourgeoisie, the revolutionary technocrats in exploiting the working class to seize state and economic power—ostensibly only temporarily—to facilitate the redistribution of wealth and power to the common man.

Engels expected the proletariat takeover would lead to the evaporation of the temporary central state. Except in the real world, following Nietzsche’s Will to Power, once it acquired central state power, the intellectual class never relinquished it.

Reversing the destructive force behind the administrative state and dismantling it requires more than just a hygienic cleansing. It must be a transforming demolition, leaving neither surface nor cavity behind to let the toxic state hibernate, survive, and re-populate. Instead, we need a politico-governance nuclear winter, leaving only a salted bunker-busted pile of rubble.

A government shutdown doesn’t have to be another inconsequential, flaccid, fleeting mini-drama. It can be the beginning of our own dialectic.

Trump now has the opportunity to make the government shutdown permanent. The big question is whether he has the will?

Geoffrey Hunt, American Thinker

Be careful what you wish for. I’m not just referring to the enthusiastic Zohran Mamdani voters who believe that the failed rapper and nepo-baby is the person best suited to run this city. Nor am I referring to the fashionistas at Vanity Fair who this week swooned over Mamdani’s apparently “Kennedy-like charisma.”

I am referring to some Republicans who are starting to see a silver lining in the socialist’s Mayoral run.

Since Mamdami won the Democratic primary for Mayor in July it has been whispered in Republican circles that there may be a positive in Mamdani’s projected arrival in Gracie Mansion.

This week that whispering became public conversation.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview: “I kind of like Mamdani winning, because the worst thing in a way would be when [Andrew] Cuomo comes back in, you just keep losing a little bit of altitude for four or eight more years, and they kind of hold it together, and more people leave. So if you could just say, ‘OK he’s a shock to the system, and there’s a chance you can come back from it.’ ”

Conservative guru George Will has looked at things in a similar way. Speaking on Bill Maher recently, Will said of Mamdani: “I want him to win,” continuing, “Every twenty years of so we need a conspicuous, confined experiment with socialism so we can crack it up again.”

This week the Commander in Chief spun a similar line. Posting on Truth Social on Monday President Trump said: “Self-proclaimed New York City Communist Zohran Mamdani, who is running for Mayor, will prove to be one of the best things to ever happen to our great Republican Party.”

To which I would again reply, “Careful what you wish for.”

And I don’t just mean because some of us still have to live in this city, and don’t like the idea of being in a permanent political petri dish.

The President and others mentioned above have an uncanny ability to see around corners. But still it is hard to see around several corners. Especially when it comes to the way in which young, socialist-leaning, poorly over-educated young voters might react to Mamdani’s undoubted failures were he to get in.

It is perfectly possible, practiced little demagogue that he is, that Mamdani will be able to turn any turning off of this city’s money-spigot as being evil DC doing its thing. Or wicked Republicans punishing New Yorkers.

It is perfectly possible that when his free buses and free shops and free everything else don’t materialize his voters will not blame him but “the system.”

Remember that one of the greatest evils of communism and socialism is that they can always pass on the blame for their own failings. That is why even now — after a blighted twentieth century in which this evil ideology was tried out in country after country — the true believers still say, “But it hasn’t been tried yet.”

You will notice that there aren’t people going around saying, “Fascism is a perfectly good idea. It just hasn’t been tried properly yet.”

That is because — to understate matters a lot — fascism failed to produce the perfect societies that it promised. It lead to catastrophe in country after country.

Yet the socialist and communist myth is based on the idea that everywhere it has been tried it didn’t have a good enough chance. Cuba — still the near-perfect society for the radical left — is not believed by its foreign supporters to have failings because of its system. Any failings that the left cannot explain they say are the fault of the American blockade or other foreign interference in Cuba. As though if it hadn’t been for the US, Cuba would be even more of a paradise than they currently believe it is.

And there is one other objection. Which is that I have seen this line of thinking before.

You will notice that there aren’t people going around saying, “Fascism is a perfectly good idea. It just hasn’t been tried properly yet.”

That is because — to understate matters a lot — fascism failed to produce the perfect societies that it promised. It lead to catastrophe in country after country.

But Corbyn did win the Labour leadership election and in a snap election in 2017 the radical, Britain-hating socialist came uncomfortably close to actually becoming Prime Minister. He came closer than any such person ever should have done to real power.

Last decade the Labour party in the UK had a seismic shock when a rabid, socialist, anti-Israeli boor called Jeremy Corbyn ran for the leadership of the left-wing party. When he got through to the final round a group called “Conservatives for Corbyn” boasted that they had joined the Labour party in order to vote for Corbyn as leader and thus consign the Labour party to the dustbin of history.

The Conservatives for Corbyn kept pretty quiet after that.

Besides which, the party did not learn the lesson that Bessent and others assumed that American voters would learn. Having flirted with the worst of their side the British left then did a quick change of makeup, elected somebody slightly less socialist who then — looking moderate in the eyes of the electorate — was promptly voted him in as Prime Minister. Since Keir Starmer’s election there has been a massive flight of capital and talent from the country.

So as I say, be careful. Because electorates don’t always come to the conclusions you think they will. And people who have learned nothing from history aren’t necessarily going to learn anything from the present either.

Hegseth’s positive vision for military

I was pleased to see Secretary of War Pete Hegseth address a gathering of American military top-brass this week. His speech caused fits of the vapors in all the usual places, with talk of an address to the troops being somehow ominous.

Douglas Murray, New York Post

After President Donald Trump announced plans to deploy the Oregon National Guard to Portland, organizers are planning an “emergency” naked bike ride in protest.

The organization, an offshoot of the World Naked Bike Ride group, made the announcement in an Instagram post on Wednesday, writing, “Emergency World Naked Bike Ride coming up in response to the militarization of our city. Plans are being worked on.”

While this “emergency” bike ride is in response to the National Guard deployment, generally, the World Naked Bike Ride aims to promote body positivity and encourage decreased reliance on fossil fuels. In Portland, the event splintered after the original organizers decided not to host one in 2024. A smaller group hosted their own version instead, resulting in two separate events last year. The upcoming event is hosted by an offshoot group of World Naked Bike Ride.

“As a longstanding protest, we believe strongly in the power of people, and love that Portlanders use bikes (and sometimes their bodies) to stand up for justice and community,” the official Portland World Naked Bike Ride said in a statement on Thursday.‘Oregon has no choice’: New SNAP requirements will impact over 313K residentsThis comes after President Donald Trump announced on TruthSocial on Sunday that he planned to bring troops to Portland with the intent to use “full force” and claims “Antifa and the radical left anarchists” have been attacking federal officers outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.

Following Trump’s TruthSocial post, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth issued a memorandum calling 200 members of the state’s National Guard into federal service.

During a press conference Monday, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek shared that the Portland Police Bureau is managing the protests outside of Portland’s ICE facility while complying with sanctuary city laws, which state that officers will not aid federal immigration enforcement efforts. In text messages to the president, the governor called the deployment “unlawful” and “unwarranted.”General to National Guard on Portland mission: ‘We don’t get to pick and choose’

The Oregon Military Department told KOIN 6 News that the city could see boots on the ground as early as Thursday; however, military officials later said that timeline could be delayed.

In response to the deployment, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield filed a temporary restraining order on Monday, challenging the president’s call for federal troops in Portland, saying the decision is “unlawful” and poses a “substantial risk” to its residents.

Michaela Bourgeois

Communist California Governor Gavin Newsom — who, like every Democrat in America, is running for President — has called President Trump’s White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller a “fascist.”

Ouch! That hurts, coming from such a pillar of integrity like Gavin Newsom, doesn’t it?

So interesting to be called a “fascist” by people who support gun confiscation and social media censorship; to be called a “racist” by people who support Black Supremacy terrorism sponsored by Black Lives Matter; to be called “domestic terrorists” by people who applaud the assassination of Charlie Kirk and fund snowflake teen thugs hilariously labeled “Antifa.” Never in human history, even with all the authoritarianism that has plagued us, have you ever witnessed the hubris, duplicity and craven dishonesty of today’s ruthless, psychopathic, totalitarian Left.

When their demise finally arrives, I hope to be around to witness it, because it will be spectacular.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

Only a week before Charlie’s gruesomely broadcasted killing, a young Ukrainian immigrant, Iryna Zarutska, was stabbed to death by a repeat violent offender on public transportation in North Carolina. She bled out, terrified and alone, in front of train passengers.

Underneath the surface of economic betterment and the herculean efforts of the Trump administration to root out the rot, it’s clear that the body politic has a metastasized cancer that threatens the life of the republic. Time is short.

Thousands of Americans rejoiced at Charlie’s death. This systemic psychopathy is horrendous to behold. One flippant girl said to her dad on camera, thinking her empathetic father was the problem, “What do I care that this bad person is dead?”

TV commentators also expressed sympathy for the killer of Iryna Zarutska, with CNN’s Van Jones saying, “[W]e don’t know how to deal with people who are hurting in the way this man was hurting.”

The following passage from the book of Isaiah comes to mind:

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20, New International Version)

The backdrop for this murderous rage isn’t malnutrition, hunger, or the deprivations of war. The people fomenting the violence are living, by nearly any historical measure, decadent lives. They are overfed, psychologically indulged, technologically sophisticated, and materially rich. Most have families who love them. And yet, simmering rage and grievous resentment infect their minds and their actions. The violence within is spilling over and they kill with callous disregard, while their compatriots cheer them on — uploading TikToks of themselves grinning with glee — so confident are they that they’re right, justified, and, worse, that everyone agrees with them.

The faces of the murderers are not sad or regretful. They’re not ashamed. They’re confident and defiant.

There will be more targeted killings of conservatives. The killers believe they’re killing “fascists” and feel entirely justified in doing so. 

Remember COVID? Remember how nearly half of Democrats were willing to take children away from their parents if the parents weren’t vaccinated? Remember how leftists imposed mandates — in workplaces ranging from the military and government to hospitals and private businesses — requiring employees to submit to an untested vaccine or be fired? Even so-called conservatives and libertarians made the argument that Americans did have a choice — it was their choice not to have a job. Those in power hated anyone who refused to comply, and, if someone died, they shrugged and took pleasure in it.

This anti-American, anti-Christian malady is not new. It is not isolated. It is not exclusive to young, disturbed trans kids.

We have a nation of rich, spoiled, aggrieved people. Teachers — from preschool instructors to college professors — along with the media and Democrat leadership have encouraged this wrath and inculcated young minds with communist propaganda disguised as DEI. Leftist organizations, including Open Society Foundations, Tides, Ford, and the Rockefeller Foundation, as well as funders like George Soros, Michael Bloomberg, and Reid Hoffman, have helped shape and mold these disaffected people. 

Antifa is now militarized, organized, and present in every state. Black Lives Matter destroyed cities, and now their founders live in luxury. SSRI-addled aging hippies, looking to recreate their halcyon youth, fuel this insanity — bowing to BLM, protesting government firings, and parading around in pink pussy hats. The whole of the Left — from the Democrat Party, which is increasingly overtly socialist (hello, Mamdani), to the militarized activist wing — is insane. Most have been diagnosed with mental disorders and are medicated. It’s not helping.

America is also now home to millions of unassimilated illegal and legal aliens. The Trump administration has been heroically expelling the criminal element, and illegal immigration has largely been halted. But what to do about the legal immigrants who, rather than become Americans, cling to their own ideologies and refuse to assimilate?

The Biden administration — the third term of Obama — did incalculable damage. The scope and breadth of it is overwhelming. Tens of thousands of children who entered the country illegally and unaccompanied did not show up for their court dates. Many were found as sex slaves and indentured servants “working off” their trip to America. 

Democrats were importing slaves. Read that sentence again.

How do you combat the minds that believe this is acceptable? This is a spiritual problem with heinous real-world implications.

The first thing a doctor must do when a patient is sick is prevent death. The Trump administration is going after root causes, but it must also dismantle and stop Antifa, as well as go after its associated organizations and funders, immediately. Just as there are thousands of criminal illegal immigrants and thousands of hardcore criminals in major cities, there are brainwashed Antifa militants who have instigated violence, committed violent acts themselves, and been let go by the Democrats in power. These psychopaths need to be rounded up, tried federally, and put in prison. And their funders need to be rounded up and tried under RICO laws.

We face domestic enemies who hate America and everything she stands for. Charlie Kirk embodied these values: Christian, married, a devoted father, a defender of free speech, and a promoter of American values. He was killed because he was those things.

America cannot survive if this metastasizing rot is not stopped and removed. Here’s the thing: The cancer has spread for so long, and so much of the body is affected, that the body will inevitably be harmed in the process. It cannot escape damage. Too much healthy tissue has already been lost to the disease. What will remain after this surgery will be scarred, misshapen, less mobile, less energetic, and exhausted. Already, many on the right fret about civil liberties. They’re right to worry. But what has been occurring is not freedom. American citizens have cowered before these woke, DEI, communist bullies, and now they see Catholic children, a refugee, and Charlie Kirk murdered. They see that words cannot combat this violence.

The alternative to dealing with this demon is death.

I don’t think the center Right grasps the implications of this. While conservative influencers fight over the legacy of what Charlie Kirk built and inveigh that they will continue his courageous work on college campuses, they risk ultimate failure because they are only addressing those who share the fundamental belief in free speech and the power of persuasive words. While the Right has succeeded in winning thousands of hearts and minds — as shown by the worldwide outpouring of grief and solidarity in the wake of Charlie’s death — many on the left reject this premise entirely. They believe that hurt feelings and what they perceive as “mean words” deserve violence and death. If you disagree with me, they reason, you hate me, and you deserve to die.

When Charlie Kirk is talking and the political opposition is shooting, civil authorities who are unwilling to deal with the terrorist cells producing these killers are no different from Redcoats standing in careful formation, flummoxed by motivated Americans using guerilla tactics they dismiss as “uncivilized.” Tut-tut, how dare you? 

The enemies of Western civilization are uncivilized, godless heathens. Accept this. Do not pretend that the demon-possessed can be reasoned with or persuaded by words.

Majorie Taylor-Greene has proposed a national divorce — she concludes that the two worldviews of the Left and the Right cannot coexist and so need to be separated. But how could this be done? Our country is utterly intermingled. We are one body, for better or worse. The heinous violence on the left will not be stopped with words alone.

A demonic spirit is at work. The corruption affects the minds and actions of these killers. When Jesus met the demon-possessed, he talked to them, but then he acted, casting the demons out and sending them into pigs at their own request. The demons promptly drove the pigs over the cliff to their deaths. They want their hosts to die. To them, death is more meaningful than life.

In journal entries posted on YouTube, the Minnesota church assassin expressed regret over his decision to transition, anger at his mom for not approving of his life choices, and, ultimately, resentment at the truth: His mom had been right. Rather than admit his mistake and change his life, he chose the path of Judas: betrayal and murder, and then suicide.

Charlie Kirk’s killer had his whole life ahead of him. All good things were within his reach. He is smart, good-looking, and utterly nihilistic. Killing Charlie Kirk gave his life meaning. Rotting in jail or death by firing squad is preferable to making a life.

The enemy determines the battlefield, and they are using bullets. They have been entreated to talk, and some respond to grace with murder. To be clear, I am not seeking vigilantes or street justice, but those will come if Republicans and the president who leads them do not take these dangerous Antifa elements seriously. Rather, it is time to fully grasp that the America that the America First voters seek will not come through persuasion alone, but through elected leadership and the power of the state to impose that vision and crush violence. The Left came close to achieving total domination, and Trump’s election does not mean they have given up. Now, instead of creating CHAZ units in Portland, some are carrying out target assassinations.

But it is risible that the American people, seeking relief, will likely get none from the people they elected because those leaders lack the internal fortitude.

Reflect on this passage from Jeremiah, chapter 6:

“From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace. Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush.” (Jeremiah 6:13–15, NIV)

What will happen if the sickness of progressive ideology is allowed to advance unchecked? We don’t have to wonder. Nearly every Protestant denomination has been hollowed out from within by cultural Marxists. The churches convulsed internally, and a small but dedicated minority took them over, filled them with heresy, and destroyed them in the name of gay marriage and women preachers.

Ultimately, America has a spiritual problem. It started as a Christian nation, giving glory to God and standing firm in her convictions, and a good half of the nation remains Christian today. Charlie glorified Christ in word and deed. He fought for Trump’s election, believing that Trump would use his divinely given power to steer the country back onto a healthy path.

Where Charlie was naive is that he believed persuading people toward liberal values would be enough — that this would mean conservatives in positions of authority would be willing to use the power of the government to stop the violence of the radical Left. There are limits to this approach. Jesus had to actively cast out the demons for the bodies to heal (Matthew 8:28). 

Our elected leadership must get down to the business of casting out. It is what the people voted for. This, for a time, is going to escalate social pain, but it is necessary to heal America. We must also acknowledge that America will not remain the same. It will be harmed in the process, but it will live.

Without this sort of reckoning, America is lost.

So while there is good news all around, it’s delusional to ignore the poison within. Cultural Marxists are destroying the vestiges of what made America great. And if the movement’s violent elements are not stopped by the government, in an official capacity, the country will eventually be in civil war because average Americans have far more courage of their convictions than their elected officials.

Before concluding, it’s also worth noting that the FBI did not catch Charlie Kirk’s killer. The FBI — who sat in Catholic churches and perhaps still does, who entrapped hapless rednecks to manufacture a kidnapping plot, and who sent their khaki-clad minions marching around to intimate being right-wing goofballs — could not find a killer sitting in his parents’ home. This is concerning. Is it incompetence? Is it malice? Or are the remaining agents still loyal to their Marxist masters rather than the American people?

Targeting Antifa, arresting lawbreakers, and destroying their funding mechanism: This is what MAGA voted for. Will President Donald Trump deliver? If he doesn’t, I fear that America will get a true tyrant, or that the American people will take matters into their own hands.In the meantime, the solution is to prepare one’s heart. To pray. To seek God’s face. To see clearly and not pretend. In times like these, when seeing is so difficult, that alone is an act of courage.

Melissa Mackenzie is Publisher of The American Spectator. Melissa commentates for the BBC and has appeared on Fox. Her work has been featured at The Guardian, PJ Media, and was a front page contributor to RedState.Melissa commutes from Houston, Texas to Alexandria, VA. She lives in Houston with her two sons, one daughter, and two diva rescue cats.You can follow Ms. Mackenzie on Twitter: @MelissaTweets.

Mark C. Ross

Hitler was originally democratically elected — not by a majority, but rather by a plurality, as allowed by the Weimar Republic’s constitution.  It was a turning point for all of world history.

The Nazis, being ambitious tyrants, leapt at any possible opportunity to expand their grip on Germany.  So, on February 27, 1933 — just four weeks after Hitler was sworn in as chancellor — the fire that struck the German parliament building was at least partially blamed on Bolshevik agitators.  Sound familiar?

Germany’s then-president, Paul von Hindenburg, issued a decree suspending all civil liberties in order to facilitate the rounding up and disposal of communists.  And thus, Hitler became an absolute dictator.

Today’s American Democrats have not been quite so lucky.  Hitler’s Germany was rife with a profound sense of betrayal, since the German people had been continuously told by their government that they were winning the world war.  This was added to the subsequent misery that came with Weimar’s catastrophic inflation — which was ostensibly intended to screw the Allies out of their reparations, which were defined in German marks.  This is well described in Paul Johnson’s Modern Times, in the chapter aptly titled “Waiting for Hitler.”

The days after January 6 have seen anything other than a leftist surge in the USA.  How so?  Short answer: This is America, land of the free.  No two-bit public official can suspend our civil rights, to say nothing of the obvious political incompetence that has infected today’s Democrat party.  Also, we have not been as softened up as the German people had been in the early thirties.  However, the possibility of some staged event to push us into surrendering our personal sovereignty remains in the background.

Ninety-two years after the fact, suspicion still lingers as to the details of the cause of the Reichstag fire.  Did Hitler’s minions assist in making it such a big deal?  The same is already true for the January 6 event.  FBI director Kash Patel recently confirmed that about 300 federal agents were present at the scene on that day.  Their ostensible purpose was crowd control.  Really?

Without hesitation, the Democrats moved heaven and earth to showcase January 6 as a prime example of right-wing violent extremism.  Did that impact Trump’s re-election attempt?  Wink, wink.

It is entirely reasonable to expect continuing revision of the particular details of January 6.  The dozens of alleged participants, who’ve faced criminal charges as a result, will remain as focal points of this process.  As the future of the Democrats dims, they will act out of increasing desperation.

What’s next?  Far be it for me to have any specific idea, but it can be safe to assume that whatever is in the offing will be even more stupid than what has been put out in public thus far.

Democrats fell into Trump’s trap. They are used to blaming shutdowns on Republicans. The media will always portray it that way. But what if a sizable and growing portion of the population simply doesn’t care what happens to the non-essential part of the government? Shut it down and leave it shut down. Fire them permanently. So what? It only matters to the parasites and profiteers living off the labor of others. President Trump speaks for that sizable and growing portion of the population, the ones fed up with the graft, the wealth redistribution, the two-tiered society: those who produce, those who take from the government.

Have fun with what you’ve started, you socialistic leftists.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

Chinese dictator Xi Jinping told his Politburo on Monday that tougher law enforcement in religious affairs was needed to complete the project of “Sinicizing” all faiths, which means making them all subordinate to the authority of the Chinese Communist Party.

“Governing religious affairs in accordance with the law is the fundamental way to properly handle various contradictions and problems in the religious field,” Xi told a Politburo study group, as reported by Chinese state media.

Xi told the Politburo to “enhance relevant laws and policies, carry out in-depth legal publicity and education, and implement strict law enforcement” to achieve full Sinicization, which he said was “the only way” to achieve social harmony.

Xi directed his regime to make “efforts to guide religious figures and believers to develop an accurate understanding of country, history, ethnicity, culture and religion.”

“He said religions in China can only be passed down healthily by always having their roots in the Chinese culture, and required efforts to promote the integration of religions with fine traditional Chinese culture,” China’s state-run Xinhua news service reported.

The India-based Tibetan Review smelled another Chinese crackdown on religion brewing, noting that Xi placed a heavy emphasis on Sinicization during his unusual visits last month to Tibet and Xinjiang, home of the oppressed Uyghur Muslims. In both cases, Xi commemorated China’s forcible conquest of the regions and talked up efforts to subordinate their language, culture, and religion.

The Tibetan Review pointed out that Sinicization is as much a war against culture as against religious freedom, since the Chinese use the excuse of “correcting” religious practices to marginalize Tibetan and Uyghur language and cultural traditions. A heavy component of Sinicization involves forcing religious schools to use the Chinese language, and forbidding religious groups from accepting overseas support.

Asia News saw Xi’s remarks to the Politburo as further confirmation of how the dictator’s “political vision” depends on subduing the five officially recognized religions in China – Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Protestantism, and Catholicism – and teaching adherents to view Chinese Communist dogma as superior to any religious text.

Xi told the Politburo to strengthen the “Five Identities,” one of Chinese Communism’s myriad euphemisms for its tools of political and cultural control. The Five Identities essentially tell religious leaders they are required to imbue their teachings with the principles of loyalty to the government in Beijing, Chinese nationalism, Chinese culture, Chinese socialism, and the Chinese Communist Party.

“These identities clearly show that for Beijing, Sinicization is not simply a matter of translating the message of each faith into its own cultural categories, but a patriotic imperative that views religions as cogs in its own system.,” Asia News noted.

Some observers think Xi is battening down his political hatches ahead of a major conflict with Tibetan Buddhism, as Beijing is demanding the power to choose the spiritual successor to the Dalai Lama, who will soon turn 90 years old. Human rights groups have called on China to cease its political interference with Tibetan Buddhism, but if anything, Xi is ramping up his efforts to exert supremacy and control over the religion.

John Hayward, Breitbart

It wasn’t long ago when the party anxious to avoid piling on more debt (Republicans) would capitulate to additional spending when shutdowns loomed. Democrats ran an extortion racket: acquiesce to more spending or we’ll close the government and blame Republicans. 2025 began with DOGE slashing government spending. Democrats then rushed to the courts seeking injunctions. That was then. With their government shutdown push, Democrats just ran a bus over their base. Because you-know-who resides rent-free in their heads, they’ve concluded a government shutdown sounds great.

Because Republicans cut funding to the Democrats’ favorite programs, Democrats’ brain trust now grants OMB Director Russ Vought unlimited rescission authority. Their specious logic goes like this: if Democrats support a shutdown because Republicans support insufficient spending, voters will blame Republicans for the ensuing shutdown. Yet it’s not Republicans supporting the shutdown.

It’s unclear whether Democrats managed to self-destruct on their own or were manipulated into it. The party of Really Big Government handed the administration a blank check for wholesale layoffs. Maybe Democrats believe a shutdown will encourage voters to rise up and demand restoring positions. Maybe they’re just insane. Nobody will notice or care if hundreds of thousands of surplus federal workers are fired, except the workers.

Democrats might want to rethink this one. The ones being hurt the most are their fellow travelers, foot soldiers comprising the ranks of overpaid and underworked federal bureaucrats. Shutdowns normally conclude with furloughed government employees receiving vacations, then receiving full back pay after the charade concludes. Except this time, workers will be terminated. Have Democrats considered the loss of campaign contributions from federal workers and their unions?

Republican presidents have long dreamed of a constitutional amendment granting them unlimited line-item veto authority. Christmas arrived early for Trump this year. The areas targeted for the largest cuts include healthcare, education, science, and social services. Defense (War), immigration enforcement, and law enforcement workers are safe. The federal government is being reformulated away from touchy-feely objectives, with an emphasis on restoring its original primary mission to ensure public safety. It’s not all cuts. Thanks to the OBBB, ICE is adding 10,000 agents.

Education faces approximately $5 billion in additional cuts; HHS is slated for $33 billion (about 26%); NSF faces a 56% cut, with HUD scheduled for a 43% cut. Labor faces a 35% cut, and over $10 billion more is slated to be drained from foreign aid and public broadcasting. Imagine the horror: platoons of overpaid NPR and PBS executives forced to take pay cuts or pink slips. Woke corporations might need to advertise to woke listeners and viewers.

By September 30, over 350,000 workers had left the federal workforce from an initial 2.4 million total, almost a 15% reduction. The biggest cuts were made to the War Department, 55,000. The second biggest was Treasury, down 33,000, mostly from the IRS. Agriculture cut 21,000 and HHS cut 20,000. A shutdown provides the administration a clean way to permanently eliminate hundreds of thousands more jobs. Litigation and costly buyouts are avoided.

Critics complain that the administration’s planned cuts bypass Congress. Precisely. The Number One impediment to wholesale reform is Congress. Number Two is the judiciary. A government shutdown removes the ability of both branches to obstruct executive branch spending determinations. Democrats just defenestrated two government branches, then empowered the executive.

Shutdowns eventually conclude. The longer that date gets postponed, the more bureaucrats who will be signing up to learn to code. Democrats are running out of factions in their base to antagonize. Legal citizens, males, Whites, Christians, Jews, cisgenders, female athletes, the law-abiding, and now bureaucrats have been systematically run over by the bus. The party’s remaining minority females, criminals, and transgenders don’t yield a winning coalition.

Senator John Kennedy concluded that Democrats’ shutdown antics provide “that much more evdence that human evolution is a slow, slow process. I thought humans had advanced more as a species, but apparently we haven’t.” Trump has dialed his trolling up to 11, with backup from MAGA forces. The White House assembled a highlights reel of Democrats decrying shutdowns. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-Bedlam): “If the government shuts down, it will be average Americans who suffer the most.” There might be a sliver of truth in Schumer’s statement, but Democrats’ problem is they’re the ones creating chaos. The shutdown’s impact is mostly confined to hundreds of thousands of overwhelmingly leftist bureaucrats.

We’ve seen this movie before. TDS victims such as Hillary, Mitt, or Kamala never recover their bearings. They wallow in self-pity, seeking others to blame. The infection has spread throughout Democrats’ ranks. Kaitlan Collins tried, but failed, to trip up House Speaker Mike Johnson over the Schumer Shutdown. Johnson noted that Democrats oppose the same funding they voted for in March. Polling shows 2.4 times as many voters oppose Democrats’ refusal to fund the government as those who approve.

Gaza parallels are obvious. Hamas leaders, wallowing in luxury abroad, sacrifice their population on anti-Zionism’s altar. Democrats routinely sacrifice their constituencies. They also aren’t allowing their shutdown to go to waste. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee scheduled an October 13-14 retreat at the five-star Estate Yountville in Napa Valley. Rooms start at $700 nightly. Organic wine, hot tubs, massages, and spa treatments are extra. The event features vineyard and wine cave tours before dinner at the exclusive Staglin Family Vineyard.

Feel free to draw the Marie Antoinette analogy. The retreat also includes a crypto roundtable. Maybe Democrats’ $40 million donor Sam Bankman-Fried can phone it in. His schedule remains free for 24 years. Trump is unconcerned about the shutdown: “I don’t worry aboutthat because people that are smart see what’s happening. The Democrats are deranged.”

Douglas Schwartz blogs at The Great Class War, applying pattern recognition of historical cycles to place current events into context.