“Senate Republicans are staring down their last chance to move key priorities during the end-of-year lame-duck session after suffering a beating in the midterm elections. With the hourglass dwindling, Republican leaders are faced with decisions in the final weeks of unified government as they attempt to balance bipartisan year-end priorities with advancing party goals before handing over control to Democrats.” (11/05/26)
‘One of the most important developments in American religion over the past several decades has been the rise of the ‘Nones’—people who tell pollsters they have no religious affiliation. According to the Pew Research Center, about 29% of American adults now fall into this category, compared with 16% in 2007. Among younger Americans, the figure is even higher. Many observers see these numbers as evidence of the continuing secularization of American society. A provocative new book challenges this conventional wisdom.” (11/05/26)
“Trump’s unconstitutional policies on tariffs, the Iran War, and immigration played a big role in his party’s enormous ‘Blue Tsunami’ election defeat.” (11/05/26)
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Vice President JD Vance made the surprising admission on social media that Trump administration’s war with Iran was what caused the massive Democratic Party sweep of the midterm elections, stating plainly that ‘The reason we lost is the war.’ Saying ‘the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone’, Vance noted that a poll found Trump 2024 voters who ditched the president’s party in 2026 gave four main answers to the question of what the Republicans could do to win them back: ‘1) End the war, 2) Focus on cost of living/inflation, 3) Put America First , 4) Change our relationship to Israel.’ All four of these answers tie directly in to Trump’s decision to launch an unprovoked war of aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran. The war itself, failing to put America first, and Washington’s grotesque alliance with the state of Israel are all straightforward references to Trump’s warmongering in the middle east.” (11/06/26)
“One thing is for certain: the prospects for 2028 are better than ever, and I don’t just mean the electoral math. I mean the literal security of the elections themselves. One fear that was expressed to me consistently throughout the year was that the administration would use its election interference efforts as a testing ground for what it would do in 2028. Well, those efforts were entirely pathetic and now they will have far, far fewer options in 2028 than they did this year.” (11/05/26)
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Clayton J Baker, MD
“Having yellow-stained fingers is associated with lung cancer, but we know that the association does not reflect causality. Yellow-stained fingers do not cause lung cancer. Rather, the association is explained by smoking — a confounder — a cause of both yellow fingers and lung cancer. Suppose a group of researchers reported that the association in question was not removed after adjustment for smoking status. Obviously, something is wrong, either in the data or in the way it was analyzed. Regardless of the reason, we will not trust any inference from that study, including the estimated effect of smoking. It is equivalent to rejecting a witness’s entire testimony after detecting a single relevant lie. That’s an analogy, of course, not a claim about intentional lying by the researchers.” (11/05/26)
“Obesity in its modern, mass form is surprisingly recent. In America, adult rates were fairly stable at around one in seven from the early 1960s to the late 1970s. Then something changed. From about 1980 the line turned sharply upward, and by 2000 roughly three in ten adults were obese. By 2022 an estimated 107 million American adults, 42.5% of the adult population, were obese, up from 34.7 million (19.3%) in 1990. Britain followed the same curve about a decade behind. … The timing is the most useful clue. Genes did not change in 1980. Willpower did not suddenly collapse across two nations. Something in the environment shifted, and the evidence points mostly at what we eat rather than how much we move.” (11/05/26)
“Alexander Hamilton is well-remembered as a protagonist in America’s founding drama. He is celebrated widely as a war hero, foreign policy genius, architect of the economy, and framer of the Constitution. Even over the yawning distance of years, young Americans are inspired by the romance of his life. Conservatives and progressives alike claim his mantle to justify their pet projects. ‘There is an elegant memorial in Washington to Jefferson, but none to Hamilton,’ columnist George F. Will once observed. ‘However, if you seek Hamilton’s monument, look around. You are living in it.’ Though his Federalist Party failed, America became a deeply Hamiltonian country.” (11/05/26)
“Yesterday, Donald Trump and the Republicans took the proverbial shellacking. We’ve seen this sort of thing before. It’s not unheard of. Americans repudiate failed programs, and Trump, who promised to keep the American people out of war did the precise opposite of what got him elected in the first place. Only by grace extended from the American people could the application of the varnish be withheld. … This could be a warning to all: the awfulness of your opponents will not stay the hand of shellac . . . er, citizen correction.” (11/05/26)
