WHAT IN THE ACTUAL HELL DID SHE THINK SHE WAS VOTING FOR?

This isn’t a matter of ‘bad speechwriting.’

The problem is that everything actually is as stupid as it seems.

A lot of middle aged pundits like Filipovic can’t or don’t want to come to terms with this and so they resort to denial and dissembling. https://t.co/LCPyjzYNsy

— Coddled Affluent Professional (@feelsdesperate) January 2, 2026

She wanted a young Castro, she got a young Castro — overlong pseudo-intellectual speeches and everything.

METAPHOR ALERT: Zohran Mamdani fans disappointed by disastrous ‘block party’ with no food or bathrooms.

This “block party” was a bust.

Scores of Zohran Mamdani fans who braved freezing temperatures to celebrate the new mayor as he was publicly sworn into office Thursday were left disappointed by the bash the socialist pol had promised.

Around 10,000 supporters stood outside City Hall during the event — billed as an “Inauguration for a New Era Block Party” by Mamdani’s staff — crammed into several barricaded pens without access to bathrooms or any food concession stands.

“It’s definitely not a block party,” said Danny Mahabir, 30, an Astoria resident who told The Post he’d been expecting a mix of food and music at the New Year’s Day festivities.

Get used to disappointment, Danny.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Amherst erupts after student reporter exposes sex skits thrust upon freshmen at orientation.

THIS HASN’T BEEN NEWS FOR MORE THAN TWO DECADES, BUT THE REMINDERS REMAIN IMPORTANT:

Their first instinct is always to go after the reporter not to investigate the issue. Because they’re not journalists, they’re gatekeepers. pic.twitter.com/62zCOVORj0

— Megan Basham (@megbasham) January 1, 2026

The internet has undercut the media’s self-appointed gatekeeper role at least since Matt Drudge breaking the Monica Lewinsky story. But rather than reform, the media keep doing the same old, same old — for shrinking audiences.

WILL AMERICA’S SPIRITUAL RENEWAL ENDURE: That’s one of the questions raised by the surge in 2025 in church attendance and interest in Jesus Christ, particularly among Gen Z males. It could prove to be historic if it follows the model of the Great Awakening’s role in fostering the American Revolution, or it could turn out as nothing more than another temporary fad.

NICE WORK: Despite 1347% Increase in Assaults, ICE Had a Historic Year.

SCRATCHING THE SURFACE: 5 times conservative clubs were discriminated against in 2025: Conservative students have faced uphill battles on many campuses as they attempt to organize with their like-minded peers.

CHINA IS ASSHOE:

Having depleted fish stocks in its own coastal waters in the early 2000s, Chinese fishing boats are now destroying fishing stock all across the world.

The destruction in South America by the Chinese fishing vessels is unimaginable.

China now accounted for over 80 percent of… pic.twitter.com/Hzcxu6cyLH

— Isabella Anderson (@IsabellaAn67) December 31, 2025

Pirate ships should be taken as prizes or sunk.

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: AI sex bots can fuel your kinks and freaky fantasies faster than a human partner: new study.

My forthcoming book, Seductive AI, looks at this phenomenon and its implications.

EUROPE: Two dead and church gutted by fire in ‘unprecedented’ New Year’s violence in the Netherlands.

In the southeastern city of Nijmegen, a 17-year-old was killed in an incident involving fireworks shortly after midnight but police have given no further details.

And in the town of Aalsmeer south of the capital Amsterdam, a 38-year-old was killed in another incident involving fireworks which is still being investigated.

Nine Kooiman, the head of the Dutch Police Union, reported an “unprecedented amount of violence against police and emergency services” across the country on New Year’s Eve.
…
Meanwhile, a massive inferno gutted a 19th-century church in Amsterdam. The blaze broke out in the early hours of Thursday at the Vondelkerk, a tourist attraction overlooking one of the city’s top parks since 1872.

The 50-metre-high tower collapsed,and the roof was severely damaged, but the structure was expected to remain intact, Amsterdam authorities said.

The cause of the blaze was not immediately apparent.

Developing…

READER FAVORITE: NORTIV 8 Mens Military Tactical Work Boots. #CommissionEarned

MORE:

Let me get this straight

– In 1913, zero American families paid income tax.

– In 2025, every family paid income tax, and about 2/3rds of it just covered fraud.

We have become a tax-farm for politicians to enrich themselves and anyone who they can import to vote for them https://t.co/eq7JNFxxN1 pic.twitter.com/XGd46U2pJ2

— Arthur MacWaters (@ArthurMacwaters) January 1, 2026

I’ve written here and at PJ Media for longer than I can remember, that when the middle class finally realizes how badly they’ve been ripped off, anything could happen.

Maybe now they’re starting to wake up.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: WOW — This Year Is Really Flying By. “Today’s flashback episode is from New Year’s Day, 2021. I wanted to see where I was coming out of the Wuhan Chinese Bat Flu pandemic year. It was a bit weirder than I’d remembered. Also, this classic episode features some old Morning Briefing formatting, which I hope brings back fond memories. If anything is triggered, please consult your local electric shock therapist.”

MY LATEST SUBSTACK ESSAY: UBI For Me But Not For Thee? When a nation is colonized from the inside out.

As always, if you like these essays, please take out a paid subscription. I will thank you, and my family will thank you.

THE MIND REELS:

This is staggering:

– the US collects more income tax than the *entire national budget* of every county except China

– and we lose more in fraud than the entire budget of all but four

So, money is clearly not the issue

Politicians raise taxes not because it’s needed, but… https://t.co/eq7JNFxxN1 pic.twitter.com/MlwJO6vUE1

— Arthur MacWaters (@ArthurMacwaters) January 1, 2026

Reminder: We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem — and a fraud & theft problem equal to a significant fraction of global GDP.

CHANGE: New Trump-ordered immigration restrictions go into effect Jan. 1.

Individuals from seven countries will not be able to travel to the United States starting Thursday, according to updated CBP guidance obtained by ABC News.

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed executive orders limiting travel from Burkina Faso, Laos, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Syria — with those restrictions now going into effect Jan. 1.

This applies to both immigrants and nonimmigrants, according to the CBO document dated Dec. 29.

The White House says the restrictions are for national security and public safety reasons, while immigrant advocates say the ban targets African and Muslim countries.

Both of those things are not only true, they’re inextricably intertwined.

THE JUDICIARY’S SELF-DELEGITIMIZATION IS ONGOING: The Judicial Coup in Utah Is a Warning to the Nation.

CDR SALAMANDER: “What is one of the fundamentals that we keep returning to here? If you want to know what will be important in and needed for the next large war, look closely at the most advanced small and medium sized wars happening now.”

THIS SEEMS CORRECT:

I think the answer to this is 1) class resentment (the haves are enraged by the have-mores) and 2) it’s becoming increasingly difficult for downwardly mobile urban elites to patch together recognizably adult lives.

‘Socialism’ is a both a false promise and a political… https://t.co/oawPJNgJ3S

— Coddled Affluent Professional (@feelsdesperate) January 2, 2026

The Education Apocalypse created all kinds of damage downstream, all of which politically benefitted the same side that created the Education Apocalypse.

ICYMI [VIP]: A Very VodkaPundit Look Back at 2025.

A METAPHOR FOR BLUE STATE INSTITUTIONS IN GENERAL:

JUST IN: NewsNation's Rich McHugh finds more apparent fraud in Minnesota, finds one building with *60* "healthcare" businesses registered to it.

McHugh says he visited multiple buildings with dozens of "businesses" inside.

When he entered one of the buildings, he found… pic.twitter.com/MGgKjMJmSC

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 1, 2026

FOLLOW THE SCIENCE: “Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Agrees to Pay $15M to Settle Fraud Allegations Related to Scientific Research Grants.” “As part of the settlement, Dana-Farber admitted that its researchers used funds from six NIH grants to conduct research that resulted in 14 publications in scientific journals containing misrepresented and/or duplicated images and data. The publications reused images to represent different experimental conditions; duplicated images to represent different testing conditions, mice, and/or timepoints; or rotated, magnified, or stretched images. Further, Dana-Farber admitted that a supervising researcher failed to exercise sufficient oversight over these researchers, and that Dana-Farber spent funds from those six NIH grants that were unallowable. As part of the settlement, Dana-Farber also admitted that another researcher received four NIH grants after submitting grant applications that discussed a journal article authored by the researcher but did not disclose that certain images and data in that article were misrepresented and/or duplicated. The United States contends that Dana-Farber caused the submission of false claims to NIH by falsely certifying compliance with grant terms and conditions, spending grant funds on unallowable expenses, and obtaining grants through false and misleading statements.”

Note that this is a False Claims Act case, which allows a portion of the recovery to be paid as bounty to a whistleblower: “The civil settlement includes the resolution of claims brought under the qui tam or whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act by Sholto David. Under those provisions, a private party can file an action on behalf of the United States and receive a portion of any recovery. David will receive $2,625,000 under today’s settlement.”

I expect many more such claims against universities in coming years.

DEAL OF THE DAY: Keurig K-Express Single Serve Coffee Maker. #CommissionEarned

MAMDANI: SOUTH AFRICA IS MODEL FOR NEW YORK.

The newly-minted Mayor had the stage, but graciously acknowledged that the real star was socialism. “I was elected as a Democratic Socialist and I will govern as a Democratic Socialist.” He hailed an “era of big government,” vowed to govern “expansively and audaciously” and said he would “set an example for the world.”

The grimace-cum-smile on Chuck Schumer’s face – sitting hostage-like behind the mayor, who he has yet to endorse or even say if he voted for – told its own story about exactly how thrilled the mainstream Democratic party is to go into the midterms later this year, and more importantly the 2028 presidential campaign, with Mayor Mamdani as the party’s principal standard bearer. At some point grinning and bearing it won’t be an option, the radical Mamdani platform will have to be embraced or disavowed. It won’t be pretty.

So what can New Yorkers look forward to under their energetic and muscular new form of socialism? Mayor Mamdani gave them clues, advising them to “look to Madiba and the South African Freedom Charter.” The charter that Madiba – Nelson Mandela – helped forge with the ANC was the blueprint for post-apartheid South Africa. It opens with the words “our people have been robbed of their birthright to land, liberty and peace by a form of government founded on injustice and inequality.” Suggesting that apartheid is alive and well in New York will have brought another big gulp from Schumer and the Democratic establishment. The Democrat Socialists of America have so far failed to persuade the country that apartheid exists in Israel, so it’s ambitious to think they can make the case for its existence in New York. This is testing the very limits of grievance politics. And the current almost failed state that is South Africa, with white farmers fleeing to America as refugees, bodes particularly ill as a template for New York.

As in South Africa, the enemy in Mamdani’s New York is often white people. He has already vowed to target “whiter neighborhoods” for higher taxes. In his inaugural speech he zoned in on another set of unprosecuted criminals: billionaires. They think they “can buy our democracy” and for too long New York has belonged to “the wealthy and well-connected.” Billionaires seemingly the scourge of the city and also neatly the solution to its problems – just increase their taxes.

Are we sure it isn’t San Marcos?

“And from now on, you will change your underwear every 30 minutes. And you will wear it on the outside, so we can check.” https://t.co/RDdpc6DfDe

— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) January 1, 2026

HOW TIMES CHANGE: Illinois’ compact fluorescent bulb ban begins to take effect.

State Rep. Nicholas Smith, D-Chicago, introduced House Bill 2363 in February 2023. Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the measure in August 2024.

The law prohibits the sale and distribution of screw-base and bayonet-base compact fluorescent lamps. Restrictions on pin-base compact fluorescent and linear fluorescent lamps are set to begin in 2027.

HB 2363’s Senate sponsor, state Sen. Adriane Johnson, D-Buffalo Grove, said toxic pollutants in fluorescent bulbs pose a health risk.
…
When “An Inconvenient Truth” documentary was released in 2006, former Vice President Al Gore encouraged Americans to replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescents. Many environmental groups also promoted CFLs.

They also produce terrible light, require a warmup to come to full brightness, and the dimmable models are a joke.

Not sure there’s still a market left for them big enough worth banning.

But governments do love banning things, so there’s that.