JIM GERAGHTY: Wait, You’re Telling Me This Person Is Shifting the Overton Window?

Now I see the New York Times has published a long and mostly positive profile of Jennifer Welch, an interior designer and former Bravo reality TV star, who has co-hosted a podcast since 2022. The Times gushes that Welch is “the rare figure who appeals to the mainstream liberal, angers the Fox News viewer and thrills the dirtbag left. As she challenges Democrats from a more progressive stance, a portrait of Kate Moss in the frame behind her, she provides the sensation of watching the Overton window shift in real time.”

Here’s Welch’s take on Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk:

You are an opportunistic grifter who weaponizes your gender to demean women, and you are a walking, talking, breathing example as to why nobody, number one, wants to be a Christian, and number two, wants to be a female hypocrite such as yourself. . . . This woman should be kicked to the curb.

(The Kirk assassination has really brought out the best in people, huh?)

Welch has argued that Trump voters should be banned from eating at Mexican, Chinese, or Indian restaurants, or using the services of gay hairdressers:

I’ve had it with white people that triple Trumped that have the nerve and the audacity to walk into a Mexican restaurant, a Chinese restaurant, an Indian restaurant, go to a gay hairdresser. . . .  White people that triple Trumped should be boycotted, banned from enjoying the best thing that America has to offer, which is multiculturalism. I don’t think you should be able to enjoy anything but Cracker Barrel.

In an October MSNBC appearance, Welch said that Vice President JD Vance “is married to a woman of Indian descent. He has mixed race children. So to all of the MAGA voters out there, if this man will not defend his wife and will not defend his kids, do you think he gives a crap about you or anything to do with you?”

Last month, the London Telegraph gushed, “This sweary ‘wine mom’ is the Democrats’ answer to Joe Rogan:”

Since starting the I’ve Had It Podcast (IHIP) with her best friend Angie “Pumps” Sullivan, Ms Welch’s expletive-laden rants have seen her gain a loyal following of almost four million and frequent Fox News coverage.

She has attacked Donald Trump, calling him a “teeny weeny mushroom c— piece of s— cankles McTaco t-ts”, said JD Vance is a “smokey eye failed drag queen” and likened Stephen Miller to a “Nazi Jew”.

Ms Welch, 51, and Ms Sullivan, 55, start what they boast is “America’s top DEI podcast” by shouting out “patriots, gaytriots, theytriots, blacktriots and browntriots” and telling those who do not support them to “f— off”.

The so-called “wine moms” have now amassed more than 3.8 million followers across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, interviewing some of the biggest Democrats in the business, including Barack Obama, Kamala Harris and Zohran Mamdani.

Geraghty writes that “NPR, the U.K. Daily Telegraph, and the The Guardian have also written positive profiles about Welch.” There’s no doubt that she’s getting massive amounts of hype from her fellow leftists, but nothing in the Telegraph’s profile indicates that the left have figured out how to produce podcasts that appeal to men, unlike Rogan, who was a Bernie-supporting leftist until his party shunned him for not toeing the official line on Covid.

DON’T MESS WITH THE CHOSEN PEOPLE: Tehran may be evacuated as taps run dry due to water crisis.

What plague will strike next? Anything but the frogs. I always thought the plague of frogs was kind of a lame plague. Give me some butter and garlic and it’s not a plague, it’s a feast.

YES, THAT’S THE IDEA: Charlotte Sheriff Gripes That Iryna’s Law Is Likely to Overcrowd Jails.

Talk about having your priorities completely out of order. The sheriff for the North Carolina city that became infamous for the race-fueled, deadly stabbing of Iryna Zarutska is angry that so many crimes are occurring in his city, but not for the reason you’d think.

Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden complained that Iryna’s Law will overcrowd the jails. He said this days after another train stabbing. So it would seem he has no issue with criminals sticking knives into innocent victims, so long as they don’t fill up his jail. Talk about a sheriff unfit for duty. To make the situation even more shameful, the sheriff whined about how many people saw the video of Iryna getting stabbed and acted as if the judges that social media users criticized were more worthy of pity than Iryna.

Sheriff McFadden acted as if Iryna’s grisly death at the hands of serial criminal Decarlos Brown Jr. — simply because she was white — were somehow a plot to make his life difficult. “And we believe that the only reason that this caught national attention is because it was caught on video and it was displayed across the United States, and our local politicians at that time saw it was a political agenda, or they could highlight her as a refugee and not an immigrant,” he griped at a press conference. “This is why they created Iryna’s Law.”

And boy, is he angry that criminals will be sent to jail instead of being allowed to roam free and commit crimes over and over and over. You see, Iryna’s Law imposes stricter penalties for violent offenders and repeat offenders before pre-trial release, in some cases preventing them from pre-trial release altogether.

Sheriff McFadden is the latest leftist to stumble into the world of Fox Butterfield: “‘The Butterfield Effect’ is named in honor of ace New York Times crime reporter Fox Butterfield, the intrepid analyst responsible for such brilliantly headlined stories as ‘More Inmates, Despite Drop In Crime,’ and ‘Number in Prison Grows Despite Crime Reduction,’ not to mention the poetic 1997 header, ‘Crime Keeps on Falling, but Prisons Keep on Filling.’”

ATHENA THORNE: Stop Worrying About the Midterms — Trump Prosperity Will Be Undeniable by Then.

READER FAVORITE: True Classic Mens T-Shirts. #CommissionEarned

NOT SO SHOCKING: Study links Agent Orange exposure to rare bone marrow cancers.

21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: Navy, Palantir Announce $448M ‘Ship OS’ AI Tool for Shipbuilding and Repair.

Announced at an industry day on Tuesday, the Shipbuilding Operating System program, or Ship OS, will collect data from across the new construction and maintenance systems to streamline shipbuilding and the repair of the current fleet, according to the service.

“Every ship builder who partners with us will have AI power tools that optimize their work in real time. Every supplier in the network will be connected through intelligent logistics,” Secretary of the Navy John Phelan said on stage with Palantir CEO Alex Karp. “Every program manager will have unprecedented visibility into schedule, cost and risk. We’re not just building ships faster. We’re rebuilding American maritime industrial capacity for the AI age.”

Faster, please.

I’ll TAKE HEADLINES FROM 1943 FOR $500, ALEX: Porsches Across Russia Suddenly Stop Working.

Hundreds of Porsche cars have stopped working in Russia due to an issue with a satellite-based security system, according to local reports.

Owners reported various issues with their vehicles, including not being able to start the engine, or it shutting down soon after ignition. Others said that they had been locked out of their cars.

The root cause of the issue is not yet known, though a representative for Russia’s largest dealership group told local media that it could be an act of sabotage.

“It’s possible this was done deliberately,” the Rolf spokesperson told the RBC news website, without providing any evidence.

There is no official support for Russian Porsche owners after the German manufacturer suspended commercial operations in the country following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

To be fair, Porsches have a long history of being surprisingly unreliable in Russia: Elefant Tank Destroyer: Ferdinand Porsche’s Epic Fail That Got Its Butt Kicked at Kursk.

I’VE BEEN WARNING THE GOP ABOUT ITS LACK OF A TURNOUT MACHINE FOR A WHILE. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DON’T HAVE ONE:

I’m not discounting the loss.

Need to put it in perspective.

The GOP did not turn out.

445k people in Miami proper.

38k voted in the runoff

We need to understand why the GOP primary voters didn’t consolidate.

Trump doesn’t get turn out when’s he’s not on the ballot. https://t.co/1nl6tTS5pd pic.twitter.com/G3DLRNniYW

— El Guapo 🍸 (@pancho_joe) December 10, 2025

SHE HAS TO RIDE HERD OVER AN AWFUL LOT OF SORE LOSERS: Bari Weiss Named a New CBS News Anchor and the Response Is the Funniest News Ever.

LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: “Our Job is to Teach the Children, Not be the Children:” UVA lawprof Xiao Wang exposes immature and unprofessional behavior by his colleagues.

Professor Xiao Wang, director of University of Virginia’s Supreme Court Clinic, litigated the case of Ames v. Ohio Youth Services. The thrust of the case was quite simple, and intuitively appealing: Heterosexual employees alleging discrimination based on sexual orientation have the same burdens as homosexual employees alleging such discrimination. Such symmetry is built into our antidiscrimination laws, which is why the laws ban discrimination based on “race” or “sex” or “sexual orientation” and not “against people of color” or “women” or “people who identify as LQBTQ.” Not surprisingly, the Court reasserted this principle in a unanimous opinion.

While the case was pending, however, Wang and his students were subjected to a campaign of harassment by some of his faculty colleagues and other students. You can watch a video of him recounted what transpired, and inspired the title of this blog post, here.

Good for him for calling them out. With a quibble that law students are not children. They may act like them sometimes, but no more often than a good chunk of the faculty, these days.

HAMAS CAPTURES HOBOKEN! Palestinian Flag-Raising In Hoboken Draws Ire From Mayor-Elect Jabbour.

HOBOKEN, NJ — Hoboken’s next mayor has blasted the current city administration for raising the Palestinian flag in front of City Hall without input from other officials.

As the conflict in Gaza continues, a number of events related to Israel and Palestine have raised controversy around the region.

As Mayor Ravi Bhalla finishes his last full month in office, Mayor-Elect Emily Jabbour blasted his decision to raise the flag on Tuesday.

“Today, we are seeing first-hand the repercussions of decisions made without a larger community conversation, and without any engagement with myself or my council colleagues,” Jabbour said in a social media post on Tuesday afternoon. (See the post below.)

Local resident Audrey Truschke said in response, “The Palestinian flag raising was organized by an informal group of Hoboken residents from diverse backgrounds. City Hall selected the date.

“Mayor-elect Jabbour’s arm-jerk reaction against a basic show of solidarity with a beleaguered people shows that she is out of touch with her constituents, who requested this flag raising. It also suggests that she lacks empathy. I hope she displays better judgment as mayor than she has as mayor-elect in this situation.”

What is an “arm-jerk reaction?” Is she implying something like this?

If only there was a way for mayors to avoid this sort of unnecessary controversy. If only:

Maybe then we should chill with all these flags. Too risky. A USA flag, a NJ flag and maybe the new mayor can initiate a citywide contest to design a Hoboken flag— and that’s it. Nothing else goes up that pole.

— David Brown (@thatDavidBrown) December 9, 2025

CHANGE: HUD terminates Biden-era guidance, claiming it unfairly favors Afghans. “HUD Secretary Scott Turner argues the Biden-era guidelines prioritized nearly 200,000 Afghan refugees who were admitted following the 2021 pullout of American forces from Afghanistan by encouraging landlords and property owners to forgo credit checks, occupancy limitations, and engage in targeted marketing toward Afghans.”

CHANGE: Australia Implements Ban on Social Media Accounts for Those Under 16 Years Old.

TREAT THE PAIN: NEENCA Professional Knee Brace for Pain Relief. #CommissionEarned

SOLAR IS A WASTE OF SPACE: Young farmer’s crusade to protect vanishing farmland pits her against solar developers in New York.

The neighbor assured her that he wasn’t going to sell his land to solar developers, but Fasulo said the developers are aggressive and many farmers do end up selling. Between 2017 and 2024, the U.S. saw a decline of 24 million acres of farmland, a trend that worries Fasulo.

The average age of farmers is rising, and few young people aren’t pursuing careers in agriculture, making it attractive to sell off unused farmland to developers.

Farmland is being sold for other types of development than renewable energy. But renewable energy takes up large amounts of land, and unlike other types of energy, rural land is an attractive location to site wind and solar projects.

Nuclear power works 24/7, and unlike solar or wind, has a tiny footprint.

GOOD: New FAFSA update flags colleges with ‘lower earnings’ for graduates. Honestly, it should go beyond this sort of warning and specifically warn if average earnings for graduates at these schools are insufficient to pay off the loans.

“TRUST THE SCIENCE,” THEY SAID. “IT’S PEER-REVIEWED,” THEY ASSURED ME:

It's all fake research. I hate to tell everyone this, but it's true. https://t.co/52fG3P4tJz

— James Lindsay, anti-Communist (@ConceptualJames) December 10, 2025

I GOT NOTHIN’: This Viral Clip of Walz and Newsom Talking About ‘Masculinity’ is Comedy Gold.

LIMITED TIME DEAL: DEWALT 20V MAX Cordless Drill and Impact Driver. #CommissionEarned

LUTHERANS DIDN’T USED TO BELIEVE THAT: Cal Lutheran’s TPUSA chapter was rejected because students think they have a right to comfort.

CHANGE? Trump administration quietly builds plans for what would happen if Maduro were ousted in Venezuela. “They include multiple options for what US action could look like to fill the power vacuum and stabilize the country if Maduro voluntarily leaves as part of a negotiated departure or is forced into leaving after US strikes on targets inside Venezuela or other direct action, the sources said.”

2026 PREVIEW:

Republicans better stop running on foreign policy and start doing something here at home. https://t.co/f1jPlRLiAY

— Brickhouse (@Brick_House04) December 10, 2025

Turnout was almost comically low. But almost every indication is that the GOP gets slaughtered next year, absent some getting stuff done in DC.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Can We Retro Impeach Biden for Ketanji Brown Jackson? “When playing by the Dems rules, Jackson has two built-in shields of protection. If I criticize her, I’m a racist, a misogynist, or both. I prefer racogynist, thank you.”

NEW U.S. NUKES ARE COMING: Now, hot off the presses comes news the Department of Energy will kickstart funding for construction of 10 new nuclear power plants, according to Secretary of Energy Chris Wright in an exclusive interview with the Washington Free Beacon.

Wright told WFB’s Thomas Catenacci that “we want things built by and risk capital coming from the private marketplace, and most everything we’re doing is dominantly going to be funded by private capitalBut the government smothered the nuclear industry for 40-plus years. We’ve got to get it back up on its feet again.”

To do so, Wright said the Department of Energy would back well-funded equity investments with low-interest government loans:

“We are going to use our loan program office at the Department of Energy for credit-worthy hyperscalers that are putting equity capital in front of us. We’re going to back that up with low-interest loans. We’ll supply it to maybe the first 10 reactors that get built. That’ll incentivize people to move fast.”

(VIP Digital-Age FYI: “Hot off the presses” refers to the days long, long ago of what is now known, if it is known at all, as “Old-School Journalism” when a reporter would get a VIP news story before his competitors and his editors rushed it into print. Ok, by “print,” I mean in the old days before the Internet, people actually paid for what were called “newspapers” that were printed on giant rolling ink applicators known as “presses.” Since it was an important story, the presses would be run at high speed, meaning they heated up more quickly. Thus, a big story was called “hot off the presses.”)