October 2, 2026

WELL, GOOD: Ken Paxton Takes On The Bar Association. “For the majority of America’s history, lawyers didn’t need either American Bar Association imprimatur (or even a law degree) to practice law. Abraham Lincoln and Clarence Darrow never went to law school. Parallel to the New Deal, the ABA and the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) sought to cartelize the legal profession to restrict access and raise rates. Previously, self-study and apprenticeship was the path to a legal career.”

Posted at 3:52 pm by Stephen Green

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: He Tried to Hide the Evidence, but His iPhone Ratted Him Out. “It’s time for your much-needed break from the serious news, and this week, we’ll learn where not to hide the gun you aren’t allowed to have, when the smartphone isn’t your friend, and what not to drink to avoid a DUI in Virginia.”

Posted at 3:21 pm by Stephen Green

IT’S GOOD TO BE THE NOMENKLATURA: Abdul El-Sayed Billed County Taxpayers $9,000 a Month in ‘Consulting’ Fees While Running for Senate.

Michigan’s left-wing Democratic Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed billed county taxpayers $9,000 per month in consulting fees while running for Senate, according to public records obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The Wayne County Department of Health, Human and Veterans Services approved a contract to hire El-Sayed for “consulting services” on April 23, 2025, six days after El-Sayed announced he was running for Senate.
El-Sayed had previously served as director of the county health services department for two years, a post he resigned from on April 3, 2025.

The contract, which extended through the end of the calendar year, stipulated that El-Sayed would be paid at a monthly rate of $9,000 for 30 hours of work—which amounts to around $300 per hour. Wayne County is run by county executive Warren Evans, a Democrat.

If I had to guess, calculating his actual hourly rate would return a divide-by-zero error.

Posted at 2:50 pm by Stephen Green

YOU AND I HAVE A RENDEZVOUS WITH SCARCITY:

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

DON’T FALL FOR THE OP:

“This is why you are experiencing an epic information war campaign to convince you that you cannot win. That campaign’s singular purpose is to BREAK your WILL to win.”

Posted at 2:34 pm by Stephen Green

WHEN YOUR ECO-APOCALYPSE MOVIE IS SO BAD, EVEN THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER HATES IT: Digger Review: Tom Cruise and Alejandro G. Iñárritu Are a Match Made in Showboating Hell in a Shallow Satire Insufferably Pleased With Itself.

When an explosion is reported at the drilling site, Digger is more worried about the damage to the oil rig than he is the human casualties or the massive dislodged ice shelf headed for Europe, where scientists predict its impact will trigger a tsunami and displace millions of people. That potential disaster of course is something Digger and his father before him have known about for decades (“CO2 is just the fuse, methane is the bomb”) but have managed to hush up thanks to bribes and backroom government deals.

It’s hard to find the humor in all this with a current administration so gung-ho in its “Drill, baby, drill!” recklessness, having neutered the EPA and scrapped regulatory oversight for fossil fuel extraction. But being unfunny is less Digger’s problem than a story that ties itself in knots trying to be clever, as a completely unconvincing big twist alters the picture and opens a window to a grim future. It also means that many of the cast from a certain point on are effectively playing dual roles, not that there’s much virtuosity to admire.

Scenes of laissez-faire politics leave more of a sour taste than a smile — notably when Digger summons President Compson and his senior cabinet to his home for a meeting in which he emphasizes the need to get out in front of the story and control the narrative, using the public’s panic to their advantage.

Hardass Defense Secretary Colonel Fitzgerald (Robert John Burke, basically playing George C. Scott in Dr. Strangelove) just wants to bomb the runaway iceberg. But one of the few voices of reason, scientist Ganesh (Riz Ahmed, also one of the few performances allowed any nuance), speaks up to explain how that would set off a whole new chain of disasters, refusing to sugarcoat the awful truth for the public.

The movie’s best scene, which gives Cruise an opportunity to flex his acting muscles while being simultaneously combative and charming in Digger’s folksy manner, has him addressing the European Parliament in an assembly hall that evokes the Roman Senate. By owning the global crisis unleashed by oil billionaires and a complicit government, Digger causes an uproar. But he hurls the politicians’ anger right back at them, declaring that, “Oil is the mother’s milk of Earth,” and calling the current predicament the price of doing business with a commodity that all of them want.

Exit quote: “The IMAX Countdown that precedes the film reads: ‘Watch a movie or be a part of one.’ It’s difficult to imagine mainstream audiences ever wanting to be a part of this bludgeoning ordeal.”

He’s not wrong: Tom Cruise’s New Movie Is Expected to Become the Biggest Box Office Bomb of 2026.

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

NOTHING THAT CABAL DID SHOCKS ME ANY LONGER: Biden Admin’s Office Of Refugee Resettlement Was A Fraud-Fueled ‘Smuggling Operation’ For Alien Children.

A memo obtained by The Federalist details six primary forms of fraud used by adult sponsors of UACs and says that intentional fraud made up 77 percent of reported Child Level Events (CLEs). The office also received 1,669 reports of fraud between Oct. 1, 2023, and Oct. 31, 2024. HHS further reviewed a portion of those reports and found 85 percent had intentional document fraud. On a phone call with reporters, ORR Senior Advisor John Fabbricatore said that 479,000 UACs went missing during the Biden administration.

“This is fraud that should have been caught by the Biden administration easily, but it was not because there was more of a want to get these kids out the door as quick as possible,” Fabbricatore said. He added that 70 percent of minors in ORR’s care are males over the age of 15, many of whom do not claim any sponsor in the U.S. and say they are simply here to work and be released into the country.

And that was just in 13 months.

Posted at 1:48 pm by Stephen Green

OKAY, BUT DON’T DEMS SAY THIS STUFF BEFORE EVERY ELECTION?

 

Posted at 1:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

VOTE AS THOUGH YOUR LIFE, LIBERTY, AND PROPERTY DEPEND UPON IT:

(Because they do.)

Posted at 1:32 pm by Stephen Green

ABOUT THAT COMING DEM BLUE WAVE: Odds are it isn’t going to happen, despite the best cheer-leading efforts of top Democratic strategists and their aiders and abetters in the Mainstream Media. Check out my latest Substack column, “Not So Fast on the Coming Democratic Blue Wave.”

Posted at 1:17 pm by Mark Tapscott

BIRDS OF A FEATHER: Mamdani Will Be Honored Alongside Group with Alleged Ties to Iranian Regime. “New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani will be honored next Monday alongside the National Iranian American Council, an organization long suspected of being the unofficial lobbying arm of the Iranian government. Both Mamdani and NIAC will receive William Sloane Coffin Jr. Peacemaker Awards recognizing their advocacy for peace and diplomacy.”

Posted at 12:46 pm by Stephen Green

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Governor replaces DA with New York AG Letitia James as special prosecutor in Cornell case.

I’m sure this won’t devolve into a circus:

UPDATE:

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll