December 23, 2025

UGH: Former Republican Senator Announces Grim Cancer Diagnosis. “There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of Advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come.”

Posted at 3:18 pm by Stephen Green

MORNING IN AMERICA? Boom! US Economy Grows By Big 4.3% In Third Quarter.

So, the 4.3% growth is very high and not too far away from “It’s Morning in America again.”

And it’s not even a one-quarter wonder — the last quarter showed strong 3.8% growth. It looks like it’s real and building.

Is the economic turn we desperately need for 2026 and 2028, too, finally here?

Let’s hope. It looks good at the moment.

Classical reference in headline:

 

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

FASTER? PLEASE! Isaacman emphasizes accelerating NASA programs as he takes agency’s reins.

“We cannot achieve our objectives the way they’ve been done in recent years,” he said, citing the “absolutely impressive speeds” of China’s space activities. “We must do all we can to minimize the bureaucratic drag that can slow us down.”

That effort includes companies and international partners working with NASA, particularly on plans to return humans to the moon. “We will prepare for the inevitable return by working with our commercial and international partners to ensure they’re aligned with our programmatic objectives and acting with the urgency needed” to deliver Artemis elements, he said.

Isaacman highlighted an executive order signed by President Trump on Dec. 18 titled “Ensuring American Space Superiority,” which includes provisions calling for a human return to the lunar surface by 2028 and the establishment of initial elements of a permanent lunar outpost by 2030.

“In my view, it is one of the most significant commitments to America’s space program by any administration since the Kennedy era,” Isaacman said. He attended the signing ceremony in the Oval Office shortly after being sworn in.

The agency needs a good shakeup, and an entrepreneur/astronaut has the skills, experience, and cred to get it done.

Posted at 1:45 pm by Stephen Green

FROM THE “FARTING COWS AND PLANES” FILES: “Ecologists understand the implications. Then environmental organizations continue campaigning to remove cattle from rangelands because they’re ‘destroying’ the environment. The Serengeti proved that 1.5 million large grazers make the land healthier, not worse. But admitting this would require acknowledging that maybe cattle aren’t the problem.”

Posted at 1:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

WHY YES, THIS IS TRUMP’S ECONOMY: Issues & Insights notes the new talking point among Democrats is “Trump owns the economy.” That talking point must have been conceived and distributed prior to Tuesday’s BEA GDP growth estimate for the third quarter at 4.3 percent. Next they’ll tell us that 4.3 percent growth rate must be because of Biden since Trump’s tax cuts haven’t yet taken effect?

Posted at 1:24 pm by Mark Tapscott

BRENDAN O’NEILL: The anti-Semitic delusions of Candace Owens.

In a way, I’m glad Candace Owens held up a copy of the notoriously anti-Semitic screed, The Talmudic Jew, during her latest digital rant. For it confirms what she is. More importantly, it lays down a gauntlet to the right. To the left too, in fact. It demands of them the following: are you going to turn a blind eye to this propagation of bloodcurdling lies about the Jews, or are you going to do something about it?

It’s an extraordinary image – Ms Owens, once a darling of America’s online right, sporting a demented grin as she holds aloft one of the most scurrilous and libellous texts about the Jews. She was venting about Ben Shapiro after he dissed her in his speech at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest conference last week. Shapiro called the likes of Owens ‘frauds’ and ‘grifters’ for spreading conspiracy theories about the murder of Charlie Kirk.

‘Ben Shapiro, f**k you’, said Owens in her wild-eyed video response. You’re nothing more than a ‘Talmudic Jew’, she spat, with extraordinary venom. ‘I encourage other people at home to learn what is in that Talmud’, she said, holding up a copy of The Talmudic Jew by August Rohling, published in 1871.

And there it was, one of the digital right’s best-known figures, a woman with more than five million YouTube subscribers, hawking a book full of anti-Semitic lies. Rohling was a German Catholic theologian. He was an infamous Jew-hater. The Talmudic Jew depicts the Talmud as a ‘repository of anti-Christian hatred’ and a ‘manual for swindling Gentiles’, says Hussein Aboubakr Mansour. And of course it’s fraudulent, Mansour writes. It relies on ‘medieval anti-Jewish polemics and out-of-context quotations’.

Conservative pollster Patrick Ruffini suggests that “Lots of people are listening [to Owens] but are totally unpersuaded by anti-Israel arguments:”

Still though, I’m curious as to why Megyn Kelly, who had been doing yeoman work over the past couple of years rehabilitating her image with conservatives, chose to detonate her career (once again) by standing with Team Candace: Megyn Kelly Blasts Ben Shapiro After He Calls Her a ‘Coward’ for Not Condemning Candace Owens’ Charlie Kirk Murder Conspiracies.

Posted at 1:23 pm by Ed Driscoll

I’M NOT HOLDING MY BREATH, BUT: JustTheNews is reporting that John Brennan’s lawyers confirm he is ‘target’ of Florida grand jury probe:

“Former CIA Director John Brennan’s lawyers have taken the extraordinary step of confirming their client is a “target” of a criminal grand jury investigation in Florida and are asking the chief federal judge in Miami to stop the proceedings on the grounds that the Justice Department is “judge shopping.”

I have little doubt this will all be spun by media stenographers as “retribution” or “vindictiveness,” (as did Comey) but at the end of the day, any case — if even brought — will face the most extreme Due Process scrutiny lawyers can muster.

Posted at 1:21 pm by Charles Glasser

TURNAROUND: 3D Printing Sends Broken F-15 Back to Action Within Hours.

US Air Force and Marine Corps repair teams have joined forces to send a damaged F-15 back to flight status in just a few hours, far ahead of the original several-month timeline.

The 18th Maintenance Group (18 MXG) at Kadena Air Base in Japan reached out to Marine Aircraft Logistics Squadron 36 (MALS-36) to leverage its on-site additive manufacturing equipment in repairing a malfunctioning cooling duct.

Within 12 hours, the teams printed, delivered, and installed two prototypes that restored the duct to operational condition, beating engineers’ original four-month repair estimate.

By roughly 119-and-a-half days. Impressive.

Posted at 12:43 pm by Stephen Green

OLD AND BUSTED: “Nobody is Above the Law.”

The New Hotness? Charlottesville, VA Eliminating Use of Camera System Because Feds Might Track Illegal Aliens.

In other words, the Charlottesville City Council looked at the data and saw that the system was reuniting families, solving heinous crimes, and returning stolen property to people, and decided that protecting illegal aliens from deportation was far more important than the safety of its residents.

Does it get any more blatant than that? Nobody is even trying to pretend that the city has decided to drop using the system for privacy or any other reasons. It all boils down to weighing the safety and security of the citizenry on the one hand, and helping illegal aliens defy the law on the other.

They chose the latter. Better that illegal aliens roam free, even if it means unsolved murders and children not being found quickly.

“And now, a city council has decided that solving murders and reuniting children with their families is all well and good, but when compared to saving an illegal alien gang member from being deported, it’s nothing.”

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

IT’S COME TO THIS: Boston Democrat Mayor Michelle Wu Says Somalis To Thank For City’s ‘Every Achievement.’

Democratic Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said on Monday that Somalis are to thank for “every achievement” that the city has ever had.

Somalis have gained national attention after several were charged with stealing over $1 billion from Minnesota’s social programs, including those intended to feed poor children. Wu claimed that the Somalians are responsible for every positive thing that has happened in Boston.

“You cannot talk about any achievement that the city of Boston has had in safety, jobs, and economic development, in education, without talking about the Somali community that has lifted our city up. We are proud and we are grateful for our Somali community and for our Somali American neighbors. Boston and the country are clear that hate has no place in our society,” Wu said.

“We will use every attack to actually strengthen and expand the services available, to empower and work alongside our community members who are already doing so much good in the world and setting the example for the rest of the country,” Wu continued.

Related:

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll

INCENTIVES: Noem offers $3,000, free flight for migrants who sign up to leave.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem raised her incentives on Monday for illegal migrants who volunteer to return home before the end of the year as part of a program to lower deportation costs for taxpayers.

Noem had a new offer of $3,000 stipend and free flight home if they sign up to self-deport through the CBP Home app by the end of the year. That’s up from a previous offer of $1,000.

She said 1.9 million illegal aliens have voluntarily self-deported, including tens of thousands who used the CBP Home program since January.

“During the Christmas Season, the U.S. taxpayer is so generously TRIPLING the incentive to leave voluntarily for those in this country illegally – offering a $3,000 exit bonus, but just until the end of the year,” Noem said. “Illegal aliens should take advantage of this gift and self-deport because if they don’t, we will find them, we will arrest them, and they will never return.”

Self-deportation is less expensive than average cost to arrest, detain, and remove an illegal alien.

Offer expires soon…

Posted at 11:41 am by Stephen Green