IN ADDITION, YERSINIA PESTIS IS ENDEMIC IN THE MOUNTAIN WEST AND IT’S CURABLE WITH ANTIBIOTICS:  Why you don’t need to worry about the Russian plague accident (if in fact there was a Russian plague accident). Public health ninnies and a reporter promoting a book (beware reporters promoting books!), are taking advantage of an information vacuum to spin up scare stories on X. Please don’t fall for them.

THE WAY THINGS ARE GOING IN FRANCE, THIS IS AN URGENT CONCERN:  Securing The Nukes.

HAS GOVERNOR NOISOME CONSIDERED BUILDING A WALL?  Billionaires are fleeing California. The tax agency is preparing to chase them.  “If I were still controller, I’d have the Franchise Tax Board in a war room right now trying to figure this out,” a former state controller told POLITICO.

Yeah, yeah, I know, don’t give him ideas. It’s not like he knows history.

THE RE-INDUSTRIALIZATION OF AMERICA IS A NATIONAL SECURITY MATTER:  China’s Sneak Attack on the Battery American Taxpayers Paid For.

A SHIVERY READ FOR OCTOBER:  Review – Tell No Tales by C. Chancy. A ghost and a mechanic meet in a graveyard. That’s not a joke – a child’s life is on the line!

I’M NOT CONVINCED RUSSIA — EVEN WHEN PUPPETTING THE SOVIET UNION — WAS EVER UP TO IT:  The Search for Relevance.

Putin dreams of himself as a new Napoleon, but one who succeeds in uniting Europe. Not just regaining the old territory of the Soviet Union but going beyond that, to fulfil Stalin’s dreams of all of Europe, and eventually, all of the world I am sure. The trouble is, he ain’t up to it, and neither is Russia. Let’s talk about it.

THE NEOLITHIC BARBARIANS CAN STILL ANSWER; THAT’S A MISS:  Hamas’ Miscalculation – 3 Year Progress Report. So how’s it going for you guys in Gaza?

A lot of woolly headed sorts in the west think that Israel’s response to having thousands of its citizens murdered and raped has been inappropriate. They may be surprised to learn that I agree, but probably not in a way they consider acceptable.

I think Israel has been inappropriately nice to Hamass and has not killed enough Gazans.

And obviously so do I. Go read the whole thing.

ONLY IN POLITICS WOULD THIS BE NEWS:  Angela Paxton Endorses Ken Paxton.

Now, please, in the name of all that’s holy, if you’re in TX vote for the guy in the messy divorce, not the humunculus.

WHICH IS GOING TO CASCADE ALL SORTS OF OTHER EFFECTS:  ESR on the end of software secrecy.

WELL, BYE:

🚨 #BREAKING: The CIA has just offered their ENTIRE workforce the option to quit in exchange for eight months’ pay

HOLY CRAP. pic.twitter.com/nGq7rIgCvh

— MAGA NEWS 🇺🇲🗞️ (@MAGAlwr5) October 7, 2026

NO. NEXT QUESTION? Stacy McCain: Is ‘Trumpism’ to Blame for the ‘Cornell 7’ Circus? Nothing can satisfy the feminist craving for vengeance.

OPEN THREAD: Hump Day.

NEWS FROM BRONSON BETA: Worlds collide! James Webb Space Telescope investigates what happens when planets crash together.

OVER AT SUBSTACK, I HAVE THOUGHTS on Marco Rubio’s speech today.

SCIENCE: Freediving Seems to Reorganize The Human Brain on a Large Scale.

HONESTLY, IT’S NOT A BAD LOOK:

https://twitter.com/found_it_funny/status/2107544805819523225/photo/1

UPDATE: This is one of those tweets that won’t embed for some reason, so here’s a screenshot:

LIMITED TIME DEAL: Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition 32GB. #CommissionEarned

SCIENCE: Study Finds Exercise May Be a Surprisingly Powerful Treatment for Pain.

BARBARIC SAVAGES SHOULD BE TREATED WITH SAVAGE BARBARISM: October 7 and the Transition from Wokeism to Savage Culture: From character assassination to actual assassination.

What did Caesar do to the pirates who kidnapped him?

BIG PRIME DEAL: BAMBOO COOL Ultra Soft & breathable Mens Underwear Boxer Briefs Pack. #CommisisonEarned

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Some People Are Peeling Their Apples Before Eating Them—Should You?

HOUSING ISN’T QUEER, AND DOESN’T GET BUILT WITHOUT CAPITALISTS: Fresno City College ‘queer housing’ summit features ‘Anti-Capitalist Business.’

DAVID ELLISON BOUGHT WARNER BROTHERS YESTERDAY, AND THEY’RE ALREADY REDUCED TO RUNNING STALE OLD RERUNS ON TV:

For some reason the personalities at CNN dont get how capitalism works

The Ellison's now own CNN and Jake Tapper went on air to say “We here at ‘The Lead’ want you to know that we take Mr. Ellison at his word and we will hold him to it.”

Hold him to it? Its — meaning CNN -…

— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) October 7, 2026

Tweet concludes:

Hold him to it? Its — meaning CNN — is his to do as he pleases

Jake = employee

Ellison = owner

In 2024, Ira Stoll asked: Who Will Be the Washington Post’s Next Owner?

Now the Post staff is worked up into a panic over a British former Wall Street Journal executive’s plan to bring in editors from the Wall Street Journal and the Telegraph to run the place. The supposed trigger is the British press’s use of “stolen” documents, but that seems like a pretext coming from the staff of a newspaper that published the Pentagon Papers. The real issue isn’t stolen documents (the Post staff didn’t mind when the New York Times published President Trump’s stolen tax return) but fear that the new Post management might curb the left-wing tilt. Whatever the motive, Bezos is under fire from his own staff, which is questioning his loyalty to the institution. One Post veteran editor and reporter, the biographer David Maraniss, posted on Facebook, “Jeff Bezos owns the Post but he is not of and for the Post.”

As I wrote back then, Bezos must be thinking, “I’m not? If I’m signing your paycheck, I’m ‘of and for the f***ing Post.’”

 And Ellison is now “of and for” CNN as well.

RABBI MICHAEL BARCLAY: We Remember.

IS PARIS BURNING? Why the French school riots are a taste of the chaos to come.

Just over a week ago, the French, inspired by the visit of Leo XIV, were apparently communing in peace and harmony. Around 800,000 turned out on the streets of central Paris to hear the Pope celebrate an open-air mass. But as the papal plane took off from Metz in north-eastern France, the last stop on Leo’s trip, France was descending into a week of chaos and violence.

Teenage school pupils launched a wave of protests that spread across the country. Demonstrations rapidly turned ugly, leading to clashes with the police, assaults on teachers and extensive vandalism of not only street furniture but also school buildings and amenities. By the end of last week, more than 1,000 lycées (sixth-form colleges) and collèges (middle schools) had been affected. More than 5,000 individuals had been detained by police, mostly but not all minors. Over 300 police officers were injured last Thursday alone, by which time 65 schoolteachers and principals, as well as 170 pupils, had also suffered injury.

The most extensive damage was done by fire, accidentally or not. On Thursday, an international lycée in Nantes was ravaged by flames. The fact that it bore the name of Nelson Mandela did not protect it. On Friday morning, the inhabitants of Metz awoke to find that a local collège had suffered a similar fate.

The contrast with the scenes of the apostolic visit could not have been more striking. The level of violence has been exceptional, even by French standards. Comparisons can be made with the riots of 2005 and 2023, but these were in response to supposed incidents of police brutality and drew in disaffected youth from banlieues all over France. This is the first time that school protests have turned so nasty. The French government was in no way prepared.

Related: Speaking of the riots of 2023 (when this was apparently filmed), a timely metaphor alert:

A perfect depiction of Leftists ignoring the absolute shithole their open border policies create. https://t.co/l104jHFzuC

— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) October 6, 2026