October 28, 2025

October 27, 2025

OPEN THREAD: Won’t you stop and remember me?

Posted at 9:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds

TOO GOOD TO CHECK: Scott Jennings’ Days at CNN May Be Numbered.

Scott Jennings is easily the best thing that has happened to CNN. Unlike the faux conservatives the network usually hires, Jennings doesn’t join in with the rest of the network’s voices in trashing Trump and the GOP. He masterfully takes down the leftists on the panels he sits on and makes the segments he participates in watchable because they’re not just an echo chamber of left-wing talking points.

Well, according to a report from Semafor, Jennings may not be with CNN much longer. “CNN personality Scott Jennings visited Weiss this week at CBS’ New York headquarters,” the outlet reports. “A onetime Bush administration staffer, Jennings, as CNN’s primary defender of President Donald Trump, has elevated his profile by sparring nightly with Democrats on the network’s evening roundtable shows.”

* * * * * * * *

If Jennings does jump ship, it could be devastating for CNN, which has finally found someone willing to push back against the endless parade of liberal talking heads who dominate their panels. Since Jennings is a non-staff CNN contributor, he’s completely free to pursue opportunities elsewhere. A source familiar with the situation confirmed his ability to negotiate with other networks, and when asked about the possible move, a CNN spokesperson declined to comment. That silence speaks volumes about CNN’s concern over potentially losing their most effective conservative voice.

Make it happen, Bari.

Posted at 9:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: WaPo trashes KJP’s Memoir. In her new book, Biden’s former press secretary lets Democrats have it.

Unsurprisingly, “Independent” is a fascinating book for all the wrong reasons. It was dated before it arrived at the printers, perhaps before it was even written; no doubt it will be studied by the historians and anthropologists of the future. Jean-Pierre is an artifact of an age that looks recent on paper but feels prehistoric in practice — the age of pantsuits, the word “empowerment,” the musical “Hamilton,” the cheap therapeutic entreaties to “work on yourself” and “lean in” to various corporate abysses. “Independent” is written in the outmoded register of one of those lawn signs proclaiming that “in this house, we believe kindness is everything,” which have been firmly planted, to no tangible electoral effect, since 2016.

Jean-Pierre is revealingly blinkered. She may represent the future of the Democratic Party, despite her notional disavowal of it. Like many younger Democrats, she came of age in the in-this-house era and made her name by embracing its symbolism and sensibility. Now, she has perhaps been advised by a team of pollsters and PR professionals to distance herself from a party that is rapidly hemorrhaging appeal and support. Yet, like her colleagues in the halls of Congress, she appears to have little authentic understanding of why her erstwhile party’s approval rating has cratered. The approach she opts for in this book — loudly declaring herself an independent in a futile effort to cleanse herself of the taint of her party, all while espousing the same old worldview in the same old tired tone — is one that will surely tempt many of her peers. The silver lining is that she has provided an object lesson in exactly what not to do. The question is whether the Democrats are capable of learning from her example.

Another opinion outlet that should be considered friendly turf for KJP pummels her as well: Karine Jean-Pierre’s MSNBC Meltdown: Smirking, Dodging, and Still No Apology for Slandering Hur.

Whom the Gods destroy, they first make Nixonian:

Posted at 8:45 pm by Ed Driscoll

‘DAMN, IF HE ISN’T A DICTATOR:’ ABC News Claims Trump Not Leaving Ever.

Watching ABC News’s The View throughout October, one couldn’t help but think that their pearl clutching hyperventilation about President Trump supposedly trying to steal the midterms with the National Guard and the ballroom being evidence that he planned on holding onto power, were meant to incite another assassination attempt. On Monday’s show, they claimed that Trump was in fact a “dictator,” that he was planning on running again in 2028, and he was going to steal the election.

“Well, [Trump] told us he was going to be a dictator on day one and, damn, if he isn’t a dictator,” proclaimed ABC News moderator Whoopi Goldberg. Despite playing a soundbite of Trump denying that he was going to seek a third term because the people wouldn’t support him, Goldberg warned he was going to do it anyway and wanted to know if their audience was “going to let it happen[.]”

Damn if Trump isn’t a dictator – who’s doing a really lousy job of being one:

Posted at 8:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

RIP: Jack DeJohnette, Renowned Jazz Drummer Who Played On Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, Dead at 83.

In 1969, DeJohnette replaced Tony Williams as drummer in Davis’ band just as the trumpeter was about to embark on his “electric period.” Joined by saxophonist Wayne Shorter, keyboardist Chick Corea and bassist Dave Holland, that formation with Davis was later dubbed the Lost Quintet as they never actually recorded in the studio together, but played a now-legendary run of European shows together, as captured on 2013’s Live in Europe 1969: The Bootleg Series Vol. 2.

In the studio, DeJohnette and a larger ensemble accompanied Davis as he began to explore the jazz-rock genre, resulting in albums like his 1970 masterpiece Bitches Brew and — later, after DeJohnette had already exited the group — Circle in the Round and Big Fun. DeJohnette also played on a portion of “Yesternow” off Jack Johnson, as well as Davis’ jazz-funk LP On the Corner, which marked DeJohnette’s last recordings with Davis.

Here’s my 2003 review of A Tribute to Jack Johnson, Davis’ seminal 1971 jazz-rock fusion recording.

Posted at 8:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

MARK STEYN: Big Apple, Big Allah.

I can’t decide whether this is the sort of ad you run when your internals show you’re done and you’ve got nothing to lose, or when it’s way closer than anyone ever expected and just needs one extra push:

What’s interesting is that in an ad playing up to every stereotype about Democrat client groups there’s no mention of what is Mr Mamdani’s most obvious glass-ceiling-shattering quality: his “Muslimness”, as Sir Keir Starmer’s working party on Islamophobia likes to say. Me twenty sodding years ago:

 You don’t need to fly jets into skyscrapers and kill thousands of people… The wimp state will bend over backwards to give you everything you want – including, eventually, the keys to those skyscrapers.

And so, in New York as in London and Minneapolis, it is proving. To the progressive mind, there is no legitimate basis on which to object to a hardcore jihad-chummy taqiyya Muslim taking over your city. Even a bloodsoaked homicidal sex-fiend like Cuomo can only object to the Islamicness super-covertly, by mocking the famous stupidity of New York Jews:

One should never underestimate the power of fear in politics. Just as white working-class English girls are expected to lie back and think of diversity, so too are moneyed Democrat power-brokers like Chuck Schumer.

Read the whole thing.

Speaking of fear and politics, in addition to the terrifying prospect of Mamdani likely becoming mayor of New York City next week, Cuomo’s ads are the dawn of a future where increasing numbers of political ads will be filled with uncanny valley-style AI slop. I know the former will likely be far worse, but the latter also presages a dreadful future.

Posted at 8:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

CATS AND DOGS LIVING TOGETHER: Atari just resurrected its most potent foe in the console wars from 45 years ago, the Intellivision Spirit — $149 console comes with 45 games, was brought into the Atari fold through IP acquisition last year.

 

Atari’s promotional video, above, reminds viewers about “the First Console War,” back in the 1980s. More usefully, the video highlights the different strengths of each system. I remember the Mattel Intellivision was definitely more desirable for advanced graphics and sound when it came out, but it was newer, and more expensive… Now, in 2025, the Atari vs Mattel ‘war’ has been over for a long time, and the two rival systems are ‘friends,’ according to the promo video.

No word yet if Atari will be programming an AI George Plimpton to promote their new box, along the lines of Mattel’s original ads in the early 1980s:

Posted at 6:39 pm by Ed Driscoll

THE BEST AND BRIGHTEST, BIDEN EDITION:

Exit quote: “(I know why she was picked.)”

Posted at 6:09 pm by Stephen Green

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Dear Gavin: Oh Dear Lord PLEASE Run for President. “Here’s the thing you don’t and maybe can’t understand: Just because you’ve risen to the top of California politics doesn’t mean you’re ready for the national stage. California is a bubble. You are the boy who lived inside it for 58 years. National politics is a leaky Wuhan lab. Get the picture?”

Posted at 5:21 pm by Stephen Green

DATING IN THE 21ST CENTURY: I Tried to Have Sex With AI Clive Owen. “I RECENTLY HEARD that a former friend was now heavily into an S/M relationship with Pedro Pascal. This was moderately surprising, as she’s a lesbian and he’s an AI chatbot, but what is fluidity for if not to explore previously untapped facets of ourselves? Let’s not get all rigid about identities. I decided I wanted in on this.”

Maybe we need red flag laws for AI and extremely neurotic, lonely people.

Posted at 4:50 pm by Stephen Green

GOOD AND HARD, FUN CITY:

 

Posted at 4:45 pm by Ed Driscoll