DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE:
It seems like a really bad idea to utterly alienate one of the two parties when you rely on government largesse. But then again, there’s no one dumber than an academic. https://t.co/dIoQN9YEob
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) October 20, 2026
LIGHTNING DEAL: Upstreman 12,000 BTU DIY Mini Split AC & Heat Pump 230V. #CommissionEarned
HARDBALL: Trump administration withholds $1.2 billion in federal Medicaid funding from California.
“I’ll make this announcement today on behalf of Secretary [Robert F.] Kennedy, Health and Human Services, that we are going to defer $1.2 billion more dollars from California,” Oz told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. “They just got the note, and we’re doing that because the growth of personal care services in California, just that one little area where you’re paying someone to carry groceries upstairs for your mom, which many of you would carry groceries upstairs for your mom for free, I would think.”
Oz added that California’s approval of Medicaid-covered personal care services has grown by 24% in the last three years.
“That is twice the rate of every other state average in the country, impossible for us to understand how that could be so,” he said. “So we’re taking major action in California again – $1.2 billion deferred in their Medicaid payments directed to personal care services.”
We used to just call that “helping out,” and, yeah, we did that for mom for free.
TRUE:
The ability to lay mines by drone-subs will be the biggest use case for them in a war with China.
The problem is China can and will do the same to Western ports. https://t.co/tccV6r2IlE
— Trent Telenko (@TrentTelenko) October 20, 2026
REQUIRED READING: The Last Gate.
THE LAST GATE
You may be wondering why there has been a full on attack against the War Department the past couple of years. Coupled with disturbing reports of communists planning some form of uprising, and the picture becomes clearer. Let's break it down so you can remain… https://t.co/NrKjfC8bo1
— InfantryDort (@infantrydort) October 19, 2026
Key bit:
If the Secretary of War is weak and the generals begin deciding for themselves which lawful presidential orders deserve obedience, then the republic has a problem far bigger than whoever is SECWAR.
At that point, the uniform is no longer serving the Constitution through civilian command. It’s becoming its own political authority. That’s what every red revolution wants.
That’s how republics die from the inside. Not always with gunfire. Sometimes with memos, hesitation, professional pressure, and men convincing themselves that disobedience is virtue.
And do read the whole thing.
AND THEN THERE ARE THE FACTS: About Medicaid spending, which Democrats claim Trump is slashing, that is. To the contrary, Medicaid spending under Trump is up a bunch. And so I again pose THE question, yet again: When are politicians in both parties going to stop the Talk, Talk, Talk about cutting federal spending and paying off the National Debt?
VENEZUELA: María Corina Machado Has a Message for Midterm Voters. “She said that in the end, dignity comes from honest, productive ideas and effort. She also said that ultimately, she has trust in the voters in the United States.”
I REMEMBER WHEN HIGHER EDUCATION WAS JUSTIFIED ON THE GROUNDS OF OPENING PEOPLE’S MINDS:
“Such opinions simply should not be permitted, argued the Columbia Political Review.”
Are these some of the kids who are supposedly always on the right side of history? https://t.co/ROzqFIWlRH
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) October 20, 2026
OPEN THREAD: Tuesday’s groovy.
AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD:
Ilhan Omar Furiously Denies Immigration Fraud Charges, Says She Only Married Brother For Love https://t.co/5etgCfDDfY
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) October 20, 2026
THE ORIGINAL EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM: Did a giant object collide with Earth to form the moon?
REPORT: Jay-Z ‘picks himself for Super Bowl 2027 Halftime Show as Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber miss out.’
Flashback: Halftime S***Show: Even NFL Players Have No Idea Who Bad Bunny Is (Just Like the Rest of Us).
Why not choose yourself and cash in?
THE CRITICAL DRINKER: Crash and Burn — The Kevin Spacey Story.
XXX
ABE GREENWALD: The Disavowal Game.
There’s a stronger response to El-Sayed’s “Why are you asking me?” jiu-jitsu, and it goes like this:
Well, Abdul—may I call you Abdul?—to begin with, there are the verified Brotherhood, Islamist, and terrorist connections of most of your immediate family.
Your father-in-law, Tayeb Jukaku, the largest individual donor to your campaign, is a member of the Islamic Society of North America and a founder and board director at the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Both groups are unindicted coconspirators in the USA v. Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development case, in which Holy Land Foundation leaders were convicted of terrorism-related charges. Federal prosecutors also linked both groups to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Read the whole thing.
Related: El-So Long: The Detroit News Throws Michigan’s Jihaddy Daddy Under the Bus.
21st CENTURY NON-RELATIONSHIPS: Bricklayer, 49, travels 1,200 miles for dream girl — only to discover she’s AI-generated.
A Brazilian man sold all his belongings and traveled more than 1,200 miles to meet the woman he hoped to marry — only to discover his dream girl was an AI-generated persona.
Edimar Martins, 49, told TV Mirante that he initially came across a social media account under the name of Jéssica Oliveria in 2020.
The bricklayer said he never had the suspicion that he had been in contact with an AI-generated character and came to the decision that it was time to meet the love of his life last week.
Probably should have checked its hands first, although I assume AI programmers will eventually fix this issue, if they haven’t already: Deepfake vs. the Three-Finger Test.
SO UNFAIR. THEY SHOULD HIRE PUBLICISTS TO DUB THEM “DREAMY SPAGHETTI WORMS.” New Genus of Nightmare Spaghetti Worms Found Deep Under The Indian Ocean.
SARAH HOYT’S SHOCKED FACE LEFT EARLY TODAY:
#BREAKING: DNA report says Ilhan Omar and her ex-husband are siblings; Biden DOJ refused to act.
— Insider Wire (@InsiderWire) October 20, 2026
ANALYSIS: TRUE. The NFL in Paris Is a Fat Man in a Tutu. “Secretly being football’s Dr. Jack Kevorkian is the only plausible explanation I can think of for Goodell’s insistence that regular-season NFL games be played hither and yon about the globe. I’ve traveled around the world, so I know for a fact that most of yon sucks.”
SHOT: F-22 Pilot Directs CCA in Flight as ‘Airborne QB.’
The human F-22 pilot acted as an “airborne quarterback” for the YFQ-44 drone by sending it high-level tactical directives, according to the Air Force statement. The YFQ-44’s on-board autonomy software then interpreted and carried out those orders in real time to carry out “dynamic flight maneuvers and simulated combat tasks,” the statement reads.
Anduril Industries, the manufacturer of the Fury, said in follow-up statements that the flight took place out of Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., during the week of Oct. 5.
Mark Shushnar, Anduril’s vice president of autonomous airpower, said the Fury and F-22 both took off at Edwards, and then joined up midair. The Raptor pilot then sent an updated mission plan to the Fury CCA using a tactical data link, “commanding Fury through operationally relevant maneuvers from the cockpit of the crewed quarterback” fighter.
For this demonstration, the F-22 was controlling a single YFQ-44A. But the Air Force’s plan is to eventually have each fighter pilot capable of controlling multiple CCAs as a formation—extending the service’s combat mass and reach.
Very cool stuff, but here’s the chaser: World’s fastest AI-powered racing drone outflies the best human pilots.
The human QB will likely do less and less until he’s replaced, too — no matter how often certain folks insist on keeping a human in the loop.
WELL, GOOD:
"If foreign courts decide to… try and get in our way, there will be a point at which we have to accept that we won't be able to recover that money.”
Ofcom admits defeat in the 4chan case. https://t.co/3afeqTiibN
— Preston Byrne (@prestonjbyrne) October 20, 2026
Britain’s Ofcom is just another way to spell Minitrue.
YALE IS FINALLY ADMITTING THAT HIGHER EDUCATION HAS SOME SERIOUS PROBLEMS. I was thrilled by its unusually candid report, along with new reports from Harvard, Vanderbilt, Washington University, and Cornell. But after 25 years at FIRE, I know exactly how defenders of the status quo can bury reform. My new Substack series explains why we can’t afford to let that happen again.
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