November 13, 2026

MORE THOUGHTS FROM ESR ON THE MICROSOFT OUTAGE:

Posted at 5:41 pm by Glenn Reynolds

IT LIKELY WON’T EMBED, but you can watch Starship Flight 15 here on X.

Posted at 5:18 pm by Stephen Green

I’LL TAKE “WHAT IS MALICIOUS COMPLIANCE?” FOR $500, ALEX: St. Patrick’s Day parade canceled in Florida thanks to state’s anti-DEI law.

A new anti-DEI law championed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that goes into effect next year has resulted in the cancellation of a St. Patrick’s Day parade.

The city of Delray Beach announced that it was pulling the plug on the popular 60-year-old spectacle — as well as the city’s annual Pride celebration — after it did a review of Florida Senate Bill 1134, which DeSantis signed into law and goes into effect on Jan. 1.

This new law, the city posted on an official website, “establishes restrictions on municipal funding, promotion, and official actions involving activities defined under the legislation as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).”

Great minds think alike; I found this story after writing the above headline: DeSantis accuses Delray Beach of ‘malicious compliance’ over parade cancellation.

Posted at 5:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

TANKER COLLIDES WITH CRUISE SHIP IN NEW ORLEANS:

A tanker has crashed into a cruise ship carrying 129 people in New Orleans.

Footage shows the cruise ship tipping over on to one side on the Mississippi River before sinking rapidly beneath the water. Rescue efforts are under way, local media said.

A separate clip posted to X shows the moment the tanker seems to head straight into the ship, resulting in a huge boom.

The tanker collided with the American Cruise Lines’ American Heritage at 12.30pm local time on Friday, the Port of New Orleans press secretary said.

Pictures show people scrambling over railings as the ship lists. At least 14 people were rescued from the river, Billy Nungesser, the lieutenant governor, said.

Dozens of people have been taken to hospitals, local outlet WDSU reported. Their conditions are unknown.

Scary looking video of the crash has been posted to social media:

Language alert:

UPDATE:

Posted at 4:48 pm by Ed Driscoll

THE ASSASSINATION FAN BASE: What the Logan Circle Shooter Told Me.

Matt Lambert, a former emergency room physician and health care technology executive, shot five people and then himself on Thursday in D.C., apparently motivated by a bitter, ongoing and all-consuming legal dispute with the Metropole Condominium Association and the building’s property manager.

The back-and-forth had been dragging on for more than a year, draining his retirement savings and fueling a deepening desperation.

* * * * * * * *

In a series of interviews in late November and December 2025 — including two visits inside his gutted penthouse at the Metropole on 15th Street Northwest — Lambert described how a dispute over severe water leaks and black mold had turned into “psychological warfare” between himself, building manager James Stuart, the management company EJF Real Estate Services and their insurance defense attorneys.

“It’s affected every part of my life — my sleep, dietary habits,” Lambert told me in December. “I pride myself on my resilience, and I’ve been kind of surprised at how much it has been affected.”

On Thursday, D.C. police said, Lambert shot and killed Stuart at the VIDA Fitness Center located on the ground floor of the building in a targeted attack just before 8 a.m., then shot four more people in the vicinity and barricaded himself in his apartment before shooting and killing himself. Of the other four people who were shot, one was in critical condition, while three others had non-life-threatening injuries.

While at no point in the reporting process did Lambert give any indication he would resort to violence, he did frequently use intense, combative language — and at one point, his frustration veered into what at the time felt like dark humor. During a December visit with a neighbor, Lambert criticized the condo association’s legal strategy by making an offhand reference to Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the 2024 shooting death of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO who is accused of inscribing “delay, deny, depose” on his ammunition.

“What are they called? Delay, deny, defend … the Luigi three?” Lambert said.

The left knew that elevating Mangione into a folk hero would inspire plenty of others to go down that dark route, and didn’t care.

And note this, “Lambert reached out to me in late 2025 when I was a reporter at The Washington Post, pitching a story about how his million-dollar Logan Circle penthouse had been rendered unlivable. I continued reporting the story into the new year, but the article was abandoned when I was laid off from the Post in early 2026.”

Posted at 4:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: What Do You Mean He Stole a Second School Bus? “It’s time for your much-needed break from the serious news, and this week, we’ll learn just how easy it is to get caught stealing your second school bus, where not to pump your diesel, and what it’s like to be number two in Michigan.”

Posted at 4:23 pm by Stephen Green

UM…:

Details coming in now: FAA issues nationwide ground stop due to ‘extraordinary circumstances.’

The FAA issued an extremely rare nationwide ground stop at all airports due to “extraordinary circumstances” and “reasons of safety.”

The big picture: An air traffic control advisory posted Friday afternoon reads: “All departing traffic should remain ground stopped until further notice.”

“Inbound international flights will be managed on a case by case basis.”
What they’re saying: The FAA did not immediately respond to Axios’ request for comment.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

Another post indicated the stop should end before Starship Flight 15’s launch window opens, but according to Grok, the stop doesn’t apply to launches.

UPDATE (From Ed): FAA issues nationwide ground stop due to ‘extraordinary circumstances.’

The Federal Aviation Administration late Friday afternoon issued a nationwide “ground stop,” affecting flights across the country.

The FAA issued the advisory after a reported equipment outage affecting airports across the US: “National ground stop,” the advisory read.

The agency said the stop was due to “extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety.”

According to Kentucky CBS affiliate WKYT: Air traffic communication issues being blamed for FAA nationwide ground stop for all flights. “The last time there was a nationwide ground stop in January of 2023 when a pilot notification system went down. Prior to that, the last time a nationwide ground stop was issued was after the September 11, 2001 attacks.”

Posted at 4:14 pm by Stephen Green

STEPHEN MILLER: What If JD Vance Doesn’t Run?

What if JD Vance sees another coming wave, and decides he’s up against destiny and reality, and decides to simply sit out 2028, and come back rejuvenated in 2032? That decision then opens a field for candidates such as Marco Rubio, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, or Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee-Sanders, or even a Mike Pence and Chris Christie, as well as a challenge from the right in Marjorie Taylor Greene or Thomas Massie running on an “America First” MAGA betrayal campaign that could make some noise, backed by powerful media allies like Tucker Carlson or Megyn Kelly.

But it also raises greater questions about who fills the Trump endorsement lane. The question isn’t so much about who would run absent a Vance campaign, but rather who would fill the Vance-lane and void. Does Donald Trump Jr., a friend and confidant of Vance and the son of the president, entertain a campaign? Does Pete Hegseth enter the fray? A Vance exit likely creates a MAGA vacuum, as everyone jockeys for a post-Trump electorate, and what that looks like right now is anyone’s guess and likely signals a white flag coming from the Trump White House for a party where heir apparents are somewhat successful. The blame game engulfing the political Right and how Vance navigates the rubble of the midterms will answer several questions over the coming months, but as of now, there are no easy answers, and there is no easy path for him.

Will Iran be sorted out by 2028? What will the economy be like? How much Dem infighting will we see in the next two years? How many impeachment hearings will there be? Will there be a black swan event on the scale of 9/11, the 2008 financial crisis, or Covid? It seems far too premature to wargame 2028, though as Miller writes, as of right now, “The Democrats have the wind at their backs, and they know that whoever comes out of a vicious, brutal primary will have a decent chance at the White House.”

Posted at 4:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

JUST WHEN I THINK WE MIGHT NOT BE IN A BUBBLE, I SEE A STORY LIKE THIS ONE: OpenAI Is Sustaining Enormous Losses. “The ChatGPT maker told investors Tuesday that its operating losses in the third quarter topped $10.9 billion, up from $10.1 billion in the previous one. That’s striking because the company actually grew its revenue by around 50 percent from the second to the third quarter, per the The Wall Street Journal, though it wasn’t enough to offset its astonishing expenses — illustrating just how steep of a gap it still has to close to achieve profitability.”

Then again: “The AI business behind Grok – which SpaceX has now renamed Super Intelligence – has become SpaceX’s biggest business. In Q3 2026 it generated $7.56 billion of revenue, nearly triple the previous quarter and around nine times the same quarter last year, and swung to an operating profit of $431 million.”

Posted at 3:52 pm by Stephen Green

WE HAVE AN 11 CARRIER NAVY IN A 20 CARRIER WORLD: USS George H.W. Bush Deployment Could Last an Entire Year, Navy Officials Warn.

As of Thursday, the Bush has been at sea for 226 days, and the Navy reportedly told families earlier this month that the mission could stretch to March 2027. On Monday, during a “town hall” meeting at Naval Station Norfolk, US Navy officials told around 500 family members of the USS George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group (CSG-10) that their loved ones would not be returning home for the holidays, according to an audio recording made public by MS NOW.

The US Navy has already extended CSG-10’s deployment twice. US Navy leaders were candid that families should prepare for “a worst-case scenario of a yearlong deployment”—a forecast which, if accurate, would give the Bush the longest continuous deployment of any aircraft carrier in US Navy service.

Classical reference in the headline.

Posted at 2:50 pm by Stephen Green

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: Hakeem Jeffries faces protesters at Democrats’ What’s Next conference.

Protesters inside the room at Democrats’ “What’s Next’ conference in Denver screamed at House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., in protest today as he participated in an interview on stage about the party’s agenda.

First, a protester yelled that she was “scared for her future” and yelled, “When is it time for a Green New Deal? When is it time for Medicare for All?” Several protesters seemed to join in.

Other attendees chanted Jeffries’ name. He’s expected to be elected the first Black speaker of the House in the new year, with Democrats taking the majority.

Jeffries continued speaking amid the shouts from the audience. Another protester also yelled, “You are a f—— liar!'” The person appeared to be shouting about impeachment.

Isn’t it too late for a New New Green New Deal? The proponents of the original old Green New Deal assure me that mankind has less than five years to go:

Posted at 2:40 pm by Ed Driscoll

DISPATCHES FROM AL-BRIṬĀNIYĀ:

Posted at 2:34 pm by Stephen Green

MY OUTLOOK IS WORKING, KUDOS TO THE UT IT DEPARTMENT. But here’s the latest:

Posted at 2:31 pm by Glenn Reynolds

CONGRESS MAY WANT A WORD HERE: Hegseth seeks to elevate top SOF civilian to service-secretary equivalent.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is seeking to upgrade the powers of the department’s top special operations civilian role to the equivalent of a service secretary, a move that would radically shape the power of the special forces community inside the military.

“Despite [its] contribution to the Joint Force and our Nation, resourcing for SOF remains behind current operational and force posture,” Hegseth wrote in a new memo, released today but dated Nov. 2. “It is time for a bold, foundational change.”

The overall goal of the memo is to elevate the assistant secretary of defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict (ASD-SOLIC), a role currently held by Derrick Anderson, to a new role of undersecretary of strategic services (OSS). The question of whether SOF should have its own military department has been bandied about over the years, but has never gathered much steam in Congress, where members have instead focused on enhancing the SOLIC office and give special acquisition authorities to US Special Operations Command.

The memo outlines a number of changes Hegseth would like to see, but they break down into effectively two buckets: the changes that need congressional support to happen, and those that can be done internally right now.

Does this mean that Jack Ryan is out of a job?

 

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll