Giorgio de Chirico Piazza d’Italia 1913
French journalist Paul Amar:
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 18, 2026
“They came prepared. They had the addresses of town halls. They had addresses of Jewish shop owners.
In a street in Marseille, all businesses owned by Jews were set on fire. Businesses run by Muslims weren’t” pic.twitter.com/zudahbmw7p
🚨 IT'S OFFICIAL: New York Times just admitted that legal immigration from Muslim-majority countries has PLUNGED more than 90% under President Trump, and new immigrant visas from Africa are down 89%
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 18, 2026
Legal immigration cuts at this scale have not been seen since 1920s!
Central… pic.twitter.com/zXnOhECGMU
Look at this corrupt little demon, on TV completely drugged off his nut – telling the global media that dictator right down to the last Ukrainian. So far beyond the pale it's hard to comprehend…. https://t.co/LhoCyVvSeM
— Patrick Henningsen (@21WIRE) October 18, 2026
🚨BREAKING: Hungarian Prime Minister sends a message to the EU:
— Inevitable West (@Inevitablewest) October 18, 2026
"Perhaps it is now clear to everyone why Hungary has the strictest possible approach to migration, and why we will NOT weaken our border protection or immigration policy under any pressure." 🇭🇺🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/otqkBAUUV9
“His country is in shambles, a large portion of his land is lost, his oceans and seas are gone, and his male population is low, wounded, and/or dead.”
• Trump Points Out Zelenskyy’s Financial Motivation to Keep War Going (CTH)
Factually, CTH is very comfortable, perhaps even optimistic, to see President Trump take a full wolverine position toward the insufferable position of Zelenskyy. President Trump delivers this message via Truth Social:Read more …
“My decision on Russia is a very simple one. I am in the process of negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and don’t want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table. Great progress is being made, and that includes current hostage negotiations!Signing that document at this time will do that, and I can sign it later, or any time that I want! Perhaps more importantly, Russia is doing very little, if anything, to help the Islamic Republic of Iran, compared to what they could be doing, and I want to keep it that way, and will, unless stupid people get in the way.
Lastly, Zelenskyy is using Diesel Refineries in Russia as a target, knowing that these attacks are seriously hurting the world diesel markets, including those in the United States. Farmers, ranchers, and businesses of all kinds are suffering greatly from this, but Russia is, nevertheless, sending, at a low price, millions of barrels of diesel to the World. Zelenskyy doesn’t care, and frankly, with all of the money that Europe is famously giving him, and that Crooked Joe Biden gave him in the past, he doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did.
He could have made a better deal two years ago than he can now. His country is in shambles, a large portion of his land is lost, his oceans and seas are gone, and his male population is low, wounded, and/or dead. I WANT THIS WAR END! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
~President DONALD J. TRUMP
Zelenskyy responds via his X Account:
The trend this year continues – since the start of fall, our warriors have liberated more territory than the Russians have managed to capture. The same was true at other points this year. We continue to press the Russians at the front.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 18, 2026
Dobropillia, Kostiantynivka,… pic.twitter.com/56Os272RCM
1 – The money stops coming.
2 – The Nazis kill him.
• Zelensky Knows Peace Deal Would End Him, Lavrov Says (ZH)
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is currently in the Gulf region. On Sunday he visited Bahrain, which was hit frequently by Iranian drone and missile attacks earlier in the US-Iran war.Read more …
On Monday, the top Russian diplomat is meeting with senior Iranian officials in Tehran, where top of the agenda is the ongoing conflict with the US as well Iran-Russia relations. This marks Lavrov’s first visit to the Islamic Republic since February 2025, and so is very significant. But he also issued stern comments related to Russia’s own ‘special military operation’.Bahrain, Lavrov gave some remarks before a press conference in which some interesting things were said about the Ukraine war. He reiterated the familiar Kremlin refrain that the Zelensky government and its backers are not actually interested in peace, and are actually trying to derail Trump-led efforts.
That’s when he said that Ukrainian President Zelensky knows that a comprehensive peace deal with Moscow would spell the end of his regime, according to Russian state media. “It is obvious that Zelensky has no desire to even move toward reaching agreements,” Lavrov said.
“Presumably, this is because he understands that any agreement acceptable to both Russia and the US would spell the end of his regime – and his own personal end as well,” he emphasized. He further lambasted EU leaders for encouraging Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy infrastructure, even as Washington tries to impose a ban on these to stave off a deepening global diesel crisis.
“I am confident that decisions will be made there [at the meeting of gas-exporting countries to be held in Moscow on October 28-29] aimed at stabilizing global markets, rather than collapsing these markets in order to save Zelensky’s regime, which is what our European colleagues are currently doing, including by encouraging the aforementioned strikes on civilian infrastructure,” Lavrov added.
Days prior to the Gulf visit, Lavrov said: “Zelensky is not interested in holding elections in Ukraine, he ‘made it very clear’.” The foreign ministers added: “He has fenced it with terms that are unacceptable for us.”
NEW: Volodymyr Zelenskyy Bloomberg interview by @DarynaKrasno and our Kyiv team
— Alex Wickham (@alexwickham) October 18, 2026
+ Says Trump is pushing Ukraine to capitulate to Russia. “I believe steps have been taken to convince Ukraine to capitulate”
+ Says he’s offered to stop striking Russian oil refineries if the US…
As for the comments on the ‘end’ of Zelensky’s rule, many independent observers have in the past noted that if Zelensky were to make significant territorial compromises with Russia, hardline right elements within Ukraine’s security establishment could overthrow him (or worse, assassinate him).President Trump is meanwhile calling on Kiev to urgently hold elections, coupling this with serious cuts to what Washington has been supplying over prior years, especially intelligence-sharing. Trump has also just signed a major sanctions waiver for Russia, coming on the heals of the diesel deal he did with Putin.
“The US president defended his decision to ease sanctions, blaming Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries for rising energy prices.”
• Zelensky Never Wanted To End War With Russia – Trump (RT)
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky does not want to end the conflict with Russia and probably never did, US President Donald Trump has said, citing the billions in aid Kiev has received from the West as among the reasons. In a post on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump defended his decision to ease the sanctions on Moscow, while reiterating his claim that Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries have contributed to rising energy prices.Read more …
“Zelenskyy doesn’t care, and frankly, with all of the money that Europe is famously giving him, and that Crooked Joe Biden gave him in the past, he doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did. He could have made a better deal two years ago than he can now,” Trump wrote. He added that Ukraine was “in shambles,” describing its male population as “low, wounded, and/or dead.”Trump lifted sanctions on Russian diesel exports earlier this month to curb rising energy prices ahead of the US midterm elections. On Friday, he suspended the tariffs targeting major buyers of Russian oil and gas. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he is focused on brokering peace between Russia and Ukraine and does not want to “do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table.”
Ukraine defied Trump’s demand to halt strikes on Russian energy facilities, launching a drone attack on an oil terminal in St. Petersburg overnight on Sunday and setting it on fire.Zelensky said he felt betrayed by Trump. According to US media reports, Ukrainian officials were blindsided by his diesel deal with Russia.“I hope that he will change his decisions, because I think that it’s all mistakes, and it will not help us, and it will not help [the] United States,” he told NBC News’ Meet the Press on Sunday.
On Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested that Zelensky has “no desire” to reach a settlement because his government would collapse if Ukraine signed a deal acceptable to both the US and Russia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ukraine “cannot alter the course of history” by intensifying strikes deep inside Russian territory.
Russia has long accused Ukraine’s Western backers, including former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, of sabotaging the 2022 peace talks in Istanbul. Johnson has denied the allegations. Zelensky, whose five-year presidential term expired in 2024, has refused to call a new election, citing martial law, which was imposed shortly after the conflict with Russia escalated in February 2022.
He has since argued that an election can only be held after a months-long ceasefire. Russia has warned that Ukraine could use a prolonged truce to replenish its military and has offered to suspend attacks only on election day.
Ukraine has been rocked by a series of high-profile corruption scandals since 2025, including an alleged $100 million kickback scheme in its embattled energy sector that implicated Zelensky’s former business partner, Timur Mindich. His government has also faced political controversies, including attempts to curb the powers of Western-backed anti-corruption agencies and the abrupt dismissal of popular Defense Minister Mikhail Fyodorov in July, which sparked protests in Kiev.
“..assuming he’s not made a mistake. Senator John Cornyn has just exposed that elements within the United States government are controlling military operations and operating without the knowledge of President Donald Trump and Secretary of state Marco Rubio.”
• Outgoing Senator John Cornyn Sends Alarming Public Statement (CTH)
There are, as best I can fathom, three possible options for what you are about to read from Texas Senator John Cornyn. The outgoing senator sent this public statement via his X Account:Read more …
It is the official position of the United States government that Ukraine has never had access to the “Starshield” global satellite system used by the United States military for communication and global guidance targeting. Giving Ukraine access to Starshield would be akin to the United States operating missile and drone targeting of nuclear armed Russia.For obvious reasons the U.S. government would not want to escalate to direct military conflict with a nuclear-armed power.
Senator John Cornyn is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and Cornyn has been a long-time tenured member of the Republican Senatorial Leadership Team. There are three options behind this X message:
Option #1 – Senator John Cornyn genuinely doesn’t know that Ukraine has never had access to “Starshield.” The implications within this possibility are alarming, especially when you consider his senate office staff wouldn’t stop him from making a public fool of himself.
Option #2 – Assuming he’s not made a mistake. Senator John Cornyn has just publicly exposed a deep state, highly classified secret, outlining to Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin that the United States has indeed been operating the Ukraine targeting system against Russia all along. This has major implications.
Option #3 – Again, assuming he’s not made a mistake. Senator John Cornyn has just exposed that elements within the United States government are controlling military operations and operating without the knowledge of President Donald Trump and Secretary of state Marco Rubio.
You choose.
One thing is very clear, someone from Vladimir Putin’s office is very likely calling someone in the White House chain of command to gain clarity. Maybe that ‘friction’ and/or ‘deconfliction’ problem is the reason Cornyn wants to kick sand?
.@SecRubio on defense product Starshield: "It's not at this moment available to Ukraine." pic.twitter.com/J1OPYEXg90
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 18, 2026
If ever the story of the Trojan horse was applicable, it is now.
France invited in the muslims.
• The Burqafication of France Is Nearly Complete (Stephen Kruiser)
Regulars here are familiar with my penchant for bashing the Eurotrash “leaders” who are continual embarrassments to all freedom-loving people in the West. I would prefer not to have a reason to, but they make it easier all of the time.Read more …
At the beginning of this month, I led a Briefing with a headline that said the UK has outlived its usefulness to the free world. UK leaders’ Islamofetishism is the reason for that, of course, and that’s also the reason for the cratering world stage relevance of Germany, Spain, and France. The barrage of bad news from the UK will no doubt continue without pause, but France has reentered the conversation and is saying, “Hold my bière.”This is from Rick: In France, more than half a million people poured into the streets as mobs of radical left rioters, students, labor unions, and antifa thugs rampaged through historic districts, burning government buildings and bringing the country to a “point of no return,” according to Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu.
There’s a leftist narrative being sold hard that the rioting has roots in angst about the economy and education. Like 99.999999% of all leftist narratives, it avoids huge chunks of the truth. Here’s some follow-up from Catherine:
The riots in France are not about the cost of living or education. There is a reason so many of those rioting are immigrants or first-generation (especially Muslims), and why so many of them carry Communist or Palestinian flags. We are watching the neo-Nazi sharia takeover of France in real time. That is why the Marseille rioters specifically targeted Jewish businesses.
Quelle surprise!
As Catherine goes on to point out, this was done on the Sabbath. Some people may say that this was purely a coincidence. Those people would most likely be employed by leftist media organizations. It’s probably safe to say that most of us who hang out here aren’t big believers in coincidence. Trouble sure does seem to follow large concentrations of Muslim migrants, doesn’t it? Or — just spitballing here — they bring the trouble with them and simply don’t unpack it all right away. Kind of a “sleeper” approach to chaos, if you will.
I know, I know, Islamophobia and stuff. Like its English friends, France doesn’t understand that it is mostly a vestigial afterthought on the world stage in the 21st century. Western civilization doesn’t need attitude-filled cafés for its survival. Perhaps the diminished global stature made France, England, and Germany so starved for attention that their leaders couldn’t say no to the Muslim migrant invasion even though the risks were obvious. Or should have been obvious.
Western leftists lie so often that I’m convinced they forget that they’re lying and begin to believe the prevarication that they are peddling. The post-9/11 spin about Islam being a religion of peace and most Muslims being wide-eyed innocents has become truth for woke leftists. All that talk about wanting to destroy the West and kill infidels is just the ranting of a few bad seeds, according to them. They create an alternative universe that is filled with the comfort of blissful ignorance.
The European countries that are the biggest cesspools now are also the ones that are most beloved by American leftists. French President Emmanuel Macron is a particular darling of Democrats. What did Manny Mac do as the powder keg in his country was just about to blow? He went to a Celine Dion concert, which my RedState colleague Nick Arama wrote about here. Macron is a thoroughly unserious panderer overseeing a country that is in dire need of having an adult in charge.
The Francophile tourists who can’t get enough of the Eiffel Tower might want to visit sooner rather than later. The Parisian dress code for women may be undergoing some changes in the very near future.
Gay visitors should probably avoid the tower altogether.
The president is in complete denial of why there are riots.
• Macron Says He “Doesn’t Know What is Going On” but Trump is to Blame (CTH)
Following days of riots, violence, arson, buildings destroyed and mass looting, French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a national address to the people of France. Remarkably, in the beginning of his remarks Macron says no one in the French government understands what is happening, but he is demanding an investigation.Read more …
A few paragraphs into the prepared transcript and Macron says high fuel prices driven by President Trump’s war against Iran, “a war we had nothing to do with,” is certainly the cause of the protests that have mysteriously turned violent for some unknown reason. Macron further notes those protests are righteous, justified and he agrees with them.This is quite a remarkable address.
.
The image below represents the entire dynamic.
FRANCE – France’s President Emmanuel Macron addressed the nation on Sunday evening as communities reeled from one of the most violent nights of unrest in recent years after largely peaceful anti-government protests descended into rioting, leaving government buildings torched, one police officer and one protester dead.Macron said that the full force of the law would be brought to bear on those who had damaged property or participated in rioting. “Those who looted will have to pay back for the damage,” Macron said, according a translation from the AP. “And those who sought to bring down the Republic will be held accountable.”
The president allowed that the government should listen to public grievances, and said that he would hold an emergency meeting with French mayors to discuss public safety tomorrow. Macron also said that he had asked the government to convene stakeholders – including students, teachers, trade unionists and others – this week to discuss “concrete proposals,” according to a readout from Reuters.
There were at least two deaths connected to rioting and protests over the weekend. A 22-year-old police officer died after being “struck by a third-party vehicle” in the city of Nantes, about 250 miles southwest of Paris, France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said. (read more)
“The Dems are a total mess of cluster B psychopathology. They will continue to humiliate themselves & alienate the normal population.” — JD Haltigan on X
“Whatever the Europeans choose to do, it would be a shame if they lose their countries. We won’t lose ours, and we are not coming to rescue them this time.”
• Intifada for All (James Howard Kunstler)
A Nice Bordeaux with Your Intifada?
Looks like the punishments will continue across the pond until morale improves. France on fire in the “mostly peaceful” riots — according to the BBC — this past weekend could yet ignite a final, furious, Globalist-Jacobin bid to wreck Western Civ as populist nationalism looms ever larger to defeat them. That is, whatever the demonic coalition of desperate Euro elites backed by the Soros NGO empire, the WEF, the UN bureaucracy, possibly the British Crown, and the EU, can induce their Lefty-left useful idiots to act out intifada-style against the people and their culture.Read more …
President Macron stepped up Sunday to ask, “How can French people do this to France?” as the ancient tower of the Limoges city hall collapsed in flames. Somebody please inform him that the parties responsible for all the fiery chaos are not necessarily French people. Any way you cut it, this has got to be the end-of-pretend that flooding Europe with jihadis for two decades was a grand and noble idea. Where’s that whiff of grapeshot when you really need it?You also must wonder whether the American Lefty-left has riot-envy. Their handlers in the Democratic Party and its dark entourage of “resistance” foundations, billionaire NGO-funders, and Deep State seditionists must be itching to unleash similar punishments across the USA, as they managed to do in 2020 to honor the saintly George Floyd. Of course, they don’t have the same resources they enjoyed back then. The US president — know who that is? — has choked off a good deal of their money-laundered cash-flow.
The main question seems to be: will any street-fighting commence here before or after the mid-term election? Before Nov. 3, let’s face it, would not be such a good look for the Dems. Flash mobs of “teens” looting the sneaker stores and burning down 7-Eleven shops might only prompt the Trump-weary Republican hold-outs to show up at the polls bigly in swing states. Certainly, big, violent street demonstrations full of jihadi and communist iconography won’t reflect well on Mamdani wannabe Senate candidates Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan or Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who assisted Tim Walz in covering-up the Somali fraud operations for years and years, and ran the Signal comms network during the Minneapolis ICE riots of last winter.
Of course, if the Euroland riots keep going, the American Lefties just might bust out anyway. “Solidarity,” and all that. Comically, the “No Kings” demos of Saturday were hamstrung when Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta company (formerly Facebook) suspended the No Kings Instagram account around the peak time of scheduled events around the country (starting at 1:30 p.m. ET) and for nearly two hours after. Meta later explained something about an automated security system triggered by a high volume of bot postings linked to an Anthropic AI tool. The No Kings organizers lost their action coordination platform. Fizzle fizzle. . . Boo-hoo.
After the election, however, you might consider that the same Lefty-left minions in America will take to the streets whether they win or lose the big contest over who gets to run Congress. For one thing, do not underestimate the degree of scrutiny that the federal government will give to balloting in previously sketchy corners of the land such as Michigan, Arizona, Minnesota, California, and many other places.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, sent letters to fifty states last summer warning officials they could face criminal liability for allowing or enabling non-citizens to vote. This ain’t no fool’ around. The DOJ is also sending attorneys by the hundreds to “observe” election proceedings. The Department of Homeland Security announced and is taking multiple actions framed as “protecting election integrity and addressing voter fraud.”
The Democratic Party is already royally pissed-off at the prospect that their manifold cheating operations might be stifled this time around. You can bet that a failure to win the House and Senate will produce a vigorous reaction, easily turning violent, along with a massive effort led by lawfare ninjas Norm Eisen and Marc Elias to foul up all efforts at certifying the vote in a thousand frivolous lawsuits. Is it not time to recognize that as a form of seditious conspiracy and prosecute it accordingly?
The last big question, then, is how the president might respond to post-election shenanigans. Well, for one thing, and whatever the outcome, Mr. Trump will no longer be constrained by the need to avoid the appearance of election interference. My guess is that he will finally go medieval on these vile seditionists, even if it requires declaring some sort of national emergency or invoking the Insurrection Act. He is not going to allow a replay of anything like the 2020 mayhem.
Whatever the Europeans choose to do, it would be a shame if they lose their countries. We won’t lose ours, and we are not coming to rescue them this time.
This puzzles me: “Macron also asked for the introduction of “new policing tactics on the ground as quickly as possible”.
• Macron Orders Curfew in Primary Tourist Regions of Paris (CTH)
In an optically smart move by French authorities, the main shopping and tourist regions of Paris are now under a localized curfew as police try to stop the riots, arson and looting – yet maintain the important tourism aspect. Other towns in France are also ordering curfews in the districts with the spreading violence.Read more …
CBC – Paris police issued an overnight curfew on Monday in two areas of the French capital in efforts to prevent further violence, after a weekend marred by France’s worst rioting in years that targeted city halls, other public buildings and thousands of businesses across the country. The order aims to protect “people and property from the violence and looting,” the Paris police statement said.The curfew prohibits anyone from entering or remaining on the Place de la République, where rioting took place Saturday, and the shopping neighbourhood of Les Halles, which has been subject to looting. The curfew will be in effect from 11 p.m. local time Monday until 6 a.m. Tuesday. In addition, gatherings and demonstrations are banned from 8 p.m., the Paris police said.
[…] In northern France, local authorities imposed a curfew for children and teenagers under age 18 in several cities, including Lille, starting from Monday and for the next two days from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Nice, on the French Riviera, also imposed an overnight curfew for minors from 9 p.m.
[…] The prime minister’s instructions come after France’s interior minister Laurent Nuñez offered his resignation Sunday. But President Emmanuel Macron refused it “given the need for continued command of law enforcement in the current context,” Macron’s office said in a statement Monday.
He instructed Nuñez “to take all necessary steps to ensure full transparency about the failures in planning and intelligence-gathering that led to the violence,” the statement said. Macron also asked for the introduction of “new policing tactics on the ground as quickly as possible” to put an end to the violence.
Crazy video of a French couple enjoying drinks and cigarettes at an outdoor café near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris as rioters and looters fight riot police and set fires just 50 meters behind the couple pic.twitter.com/DsihcyzMcf
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 19, 2026
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced Monday that “very limited” and “localized” curfews would be imposed in some areas to prevent further rioting. https://t.co/MJiPkWfaAu
— WLOS (@WLOS_13) October 19, 2026
PARIS, Oct 19 (Reuters) – French authorities set curfews in parts of several cities on Monday, including Paris, Lille and Nice, as they faced pressure over security failings after a weekend of riots and looting stemming from nationwide anti-government protests.Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu had ruled out a blanket curfew in Paris but not a state of emergency, and had said it was more appropriate for now to apply partial and localised curfews. “My determination to restore order is absolute, he told reporters.”
Paris police said they had issued orders barring protests in certain areas of the French capital from 8 p.m. (1800 GMT) and had issued a curfew around the Place de la Republique and Les Halles from 11:00 p.m. Both would remain in effect until 6 a.m. on Tuesday morning.
A police deployment is in place to ensure strict compliance with these measures, the police said in a statement. A source in Lecornu’s office said a curfew for minors had been set between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. for the next two days in Lille, Douai, Wattignies and Denain with the agreement of the local mayors.
“He’s simply admitting that the tools his industry relies on have a blind spot, and that blind spot has a habit of landing right on top of Republican voters.”
• The GOP May Have a Much Better Midterm Election Than Expected (Margolis)
Spend five minutes on social media these days, and you’ll find left-wing bots predicting a blue wave. They’re everywhere, and they’re absolutely certain that Republicans are about to get crushed on Nov. 3. The media have been pushing a similar story for months. Lately, though, even some of the people pushing it have started hedging, quietly admitting they could be wrong.Read more …
In fairness, the blue wave crowd has some numbers to point to. The polls suggest that Democrats are headed for a good night, and history is on their side, since the party holding the White House usually takes a major hit in a midterm year. But CNN’s Harry Enten has pointed out that if this year’s polls are off the way they’ve been historically, Republicans will hold the Senate, and they could even keep the House.How is that possible? It comes down to the data pollsters have to work with. Last week, veteran pollster Frank Luntz went on CNN and explained how that data has misled the experts before and why it could happen again. When host Boris Sanchez asked whether the polls might be undersampling the kind of voter Trump usually brings out, Luntz went back to 2016.
“We know that they don’t respond to phone calls,” Luntz told CNN. “We know that in the exit polling back in 2016, and I say this publicly because I want people to hear this. You know, I teach at West Point. I cannot lie, cheat, or steal. The cadets can’t. I can’t. I got 2016 wrong. I believed in the exit polls. Trump voters walked away, refused to participate because they thought that it was against them.”
Now, Luntz isn’t some MAGA pollster selling copium to Republicans. He’s telling us what he has personally experienced, and making it clear that it may very well be a factor in this year’s midterms. Luntz allowed that the polls might get it right this time, but he isn’t sold. “In the end, Republicans are less likely to participate,” he said. “They’re less likely to believe the polls are happening.”
His bigger concern is turnout, and he doesn’t think many pollsters are measuring it well. “And turnout determines everything,” Luntz said. “And I ask the viewers, pay attention to how they’ve asked the questions about turnout. It’s not whether you say you’re going to vote or not, because people lie.”
Luntz said three questions separate likely voters from everybody else: how interested someone is in the election, how often they follow political news, and how often they talk politics with friends and neighbors. Here’s the thing, though. He said plenty of pollsters skip those questions entirely, which means they’re surveying the mood of the whole country instead of the folks who’ll actually show up.
💥Frank Luntz *DUMPS COLD WATER* on CNN viewers' dreams of blue wave💥
— Jason Cohen 🇺🇸 (@JasonJournoDC) October 18, 2026
Luntz warned Trump voters "don't respond" to pollster phone calls.
He admitted he "got 2016 wrong" because he trusted the exit polls.
Luntz asserted he is "skeptical" the current polling is accurate.… pic.twitter.com/uDYItXrxrw
“And I hate to say this, but a lot of polls don’t ask it,” he added.Luntz isn’t predicting a red wave, and he’s not dismissing the polls outright. He’s simply admitting that the tools his industry relies on have a blind spot, and that blind spot has a habit of landing right on top of Republican voters.
That means it’s on Republican voters to get out and vote and keep the House and Senate red.
Maybe Woke should die in silence.
• Woke 2 Is Here, and It’s Failing Hilariously (Kurt Schlichter)
Woke 1 died out in the early 2020s when people got sick of the nags, scolds, and harpies trying to pester their way into power. But now these weirdos, losers, and mutations are back, trying to make “Woke 2: Wine Woman Boogaloo” happen. But it’s not going quite the way they want. It’s not happening quite the way they envisioned. Yeah, they’re whining and complaining like the shrill shrews they are, but people have finally figured out how best to deal with these yakking malcontents. You either mock them or ignore them, and when you do, they’ve got nothing.Read more …
Understand that woke is an attempt to seek power by weaponizing endless gripes and verbally bludgeoning us into compliance. They can’t actually make us do anything. As anyone who grew up on a playground before the generation of “We only use our words” kids knows, and as anyone with even a glancing familiarity with human history knows, the true basis of all human interaction is force. Somebody bigger and stronger will either beat up or kill the weaker, and thereby exercise power.We’ve gotten away from this basic truth. We stopped punching annoying people because that is aesthetically displeasing, and in retrospect, it seems to have been a mistake. There are a lot of people who should’ve been slugged when they ran their mouths but weren’t, and now they’re running their mouths endlessly with the expectation that we will conform. Hell, if you’d started hassling people about the patriarchy in my junior high school, you’d have been hanging from the flagpole by your wedgie.
Woke is really just a substitute for force. It’s an information operation, an attempt to shape the cultural battlefield by convincing those of us who have the power to do whatever we want to instead do whatever the wokesters want. As long as we give in and go along, it’s great for them. It works. It gives the powerless power over the powerful, or rather, the powerful give the powerless that power either out of moral intimidation or simple exhaustion from the never-ending litany of complaints that characterizes wokeism. But do you see woke’s vulnerability? We can say no, and there’s not a damn thing these people can do about it.
Now there’s a reason that woke people are so often fat, ugly, and stupid. It’s because they’re the losers. Woke is the tool of the losers; they’ve got nothing else. Its efficacy exists only because of the grace of the winners, and if we stop giving them that grace, it stops being effective. And we give that grace in large part because we’ve been convinced, falsely, that those claiming oppression have some sort of moral edge over the rest of us. A lot of this stems back to the 70s and 80s popular culture, where nerds were put on a pedestal as somehow morally superior to people who aren’t geeks and goobers.
But being picked on does not make you a good person; maybe you were picked on because you suck. Now there’s nothing inherently wrong with nerds, but there’s also nothing inherently wrong with non-nerds. Both nerds and non-nerds can be jerks or wonderful. The problem is that we’ve been lied to. We’ve been told that there’s a moral superiority in being a doofus. Look, I love “Revenge of the Nerds” as much as anybody else, but it’s propaganda – dork propaganda. You’re not inherently better because you’re an awkward outsider, nor is your blood corrupted because you’re good at sports and handsome.
Now, we’ve all encountered guys who channel 80s-movies’ James Spader type, the good-looking, rich, popular creep. Those guys certainly exist, but you have something of the authoritarian versus totalitarian issue going on. Remember how Jeane Kirkpatrick differentiated between the two, with authoritarians just wanting to be in charge so they can get rich and the totalitarians wanting control of your mind. The James Spader type doesn’t care about you or what you think; he wants his cocaine and models.
But the nerd wants more than just power – the nerd wants revenge for all the endless wrongs he is convinced that he has endured at the hands of normal people. Where James Spader merely wants obedience, the empowered nerd gets off on bending you to his will and making you submit: 2 + 2 = 5, and a man can become a woman, you transphobe. Nothing illustrates this better than that classic Simpsons episode where Lisa and the other nerds suddenly get absolute power and it corrupts them absolutely and hysterically.
Left field.
• Trump Refuses Iran’s Offer To Bail Out His Presidency (Paul Craig Roberts)
We would think that Iran has a grudge against Trump, so why is the Iranian regime working so hard to save Trump’s bacon?Read more …
Trump has written to donors that his presidency could end midterm if Republicans lose control of Congress in the midterm elections in two weeks. Why Trump thinks campaign money can win for him when Iran has restricted oil flows from the Persian Gulf and Yemen has blocked Saudi oil, I do not know. The majority of Americans are experiencing declining incomes and rising energy prices, and they attribute the high cost of gasoline and diesel fuel to Trump’s war for Israel against Iran. So what is Trump’s response? He threatens to bomb Iran into oblivion, which would further destabilize energy markets.
Iran has suffered from Trump two unprovoked surprise attacks while negotiating peaceful relations. The attacks killed top level Iranian officials and religious leaders, wiped out the student body of a girl’s school, and murdered several thousand Iranian civilians and destroyed civilian infrastructure. So what is Iran’s response? Iran offered Trump a midterm election victory by offering to open the strait within the week if Trump calls off the war and accepts Iran’s rights over the Strait of Hormuz.Here are the headlines that Iran has offered Trump just prior to the midterm election:
“War Over!”
“Strait Open.”
“Oil Price Drops.”
“Inflation Expectations Fall”
As I write Trump hasn’t accepted the life-saver that Iran has thrown to him. What do we make of this? Is Trump too egotistical and stupid to accept the offered rescue? Or is Trump too firmly in the hands of Netanyahu to be able to save his own skin? There are strong cases for both explanations. Trump rushed to boost the embattled Netanyahu with America’s support: “Netanyahu has been a Great Warrior Prime Minister, and an even greater Partner for Peace in combatting the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Think for a moment about this nonsensical endorsement. An unprovoked surprise attack on Iran makes Israel a partner for peace. So, the more wars and surprise attacks, the more peace? What we are witnessing is “the leader of the free world” showing himself lost in false narratives. I have no idea why Iran handed Trump on a silver platter the midterm election. One would think that Iran, recognizing the necessity of defeating an enemy, would have tightened the screws. Instead, Iran gave Trump a way out, and the fool hasn’t taken it.
If Democrats return to power Americans will pay the price as lawfare replaces justice. The entire Republican Party and Republican electorate will be subject to punishment by lawfare. A legal caste system will be put in place, based not on social hierarchy but on race, gender, and sexual preference. In place of wars abroad, the wars will be at home, and traditional Americans will lose because they are out to lunch and will hand themselves over to their enemy.
“I don’t want to see people that work for me go through years of nonsense, hire lawyers and everything else, all for nothing..”
• “Use Prosecution To Make Young People Afraid To Serve In Trump Admin” (NYPost)
Elissa Slotkin
WASHINGTON — Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin publicly called on Democrats to intimidate young conservatives who want to work for the Trump administration by prosecuting the president’s staffers.Read more …
Slotkin (D-Mich.), a former CIA analyst, contended that Democrats must “go after” and make examples out of officials in President Trump’s orbit who engage in corruption to send a message to young people who may want to join the administration.“I want young people coming out of school to say, ‘Should I go work for the Trump administration? That sounds fun, I might get an opportunity,’” Slotkin mused at a University of Chicago event last week that has since gone viral.
ON UCHICAGO CAMPUS: U.S. Senator from Michigan Elissa Slotkin hopes planned political prosecutions of republican leaders will scare young conservatives from getting involved in politics.@ElissaSlotkin pic.twitter.com/p7NBJpDcQW
— The Chicago Thinker (@ThinkerChicago) October 17, 2026
“I want them to be like, ‘Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems I don’t want, and so let me avoid participating in that,’” the senator went on. “I want that deterrence message sent.” The Michigan Democrat also stressed the importance of finding “signature” corruption cases to prosecute rather than just focusing on President Trump specifically.“We do have to have accountability for the unbelievable corruption that we are living under right now,” she said. “But you can’t just make that your whole personality, right? So you have to pick signature cases, and you have to go after people and projects that are just super egregious.” Slotkin reflected that despite her voting to impeach Trump twice, he’s still in the White House and seemingly alluded to how he survived the four criminal cases against him.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin wants college graduates eager to work in the Trump administration to think about what will happen after the president is gone.“The people around Donald Trump who are doing his bidding and enabling this have no such immunity. They have no immunity the way the president does,” she added.
“And to me, he couldn’t do any of this stuff without all of those people saluting and supporting it. So you go after the people who do his bidding.” Slotkin’s remarks ignited a firestorm on social media from conservatives.
Sen. Slotkin, a self-avowed “defender of democracy,” told me and other conservative students that we should live in fear of political persecution if we dare serve our country in the Trump administration. Sadly for her, we will never be intimidated by her Bolshevik-style tactics. https://t.co/OI4M1ssl7D
— Michael Bicksel (@MichaelBicksel) October 18, 2026
“Sen. Slotkin, a self-avowed ‘defender of democracy,’ told me and other conservative students that we should live in fear of political persecution if we dare serve our country in the Trump administration,” University of Chicago student Michael Bicksel posted on X. “Sadly for her, we will never be intimidated by her Bolshevik-style tactics.”“Sen. Elissa Slotkin just said that he wants to prosecute everyone who works for President Trump and that her goal is for young conservatives coming out of school to be afraid of working in a Republican administration,” conservative influencer Greg Price chided on X.
President Trump has floated the possibility of mounting a mass pardon spree ahead of his White House departure. “This is gross. Democrat Senator Elissa Slotkin threatens young conservatives wanting to work in government and be civically engaged,” GOP operative Nathan Brand said.
Last week, Trump openly mused about going on a massive pardon spree, including a self-pardon near the end of his time in the White House. “I don’t want to see people that work for me go through years of nonsense, hire lawyers and everything else, all for nothing,” the president told Newsmax host Rob Finnerty.
💥European political class, pushed hard by the British – are now lobbying hard for a massive war with Russia… https://t.co/hi58moDOJF
— Patrick Henningsen (@21WIRE) October 18, 2026
A 300-ft. Palestinian flag is unfurled from the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy, and the mainstream still says these are "cost-of-living protests." pic.twitter.com/Nv2z68jfdd
— The Seed (@theseed59788459) October 18, 2026
Elon Musk just made an absolutely massive pledge
— X Freeze (@XFreeze) October 19, 2026
Elon is giving one SpaceX share to every child in America next year 🇺🇸
And this is just the beginning
“Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America
This will be the first of many”
Millions of American… pic.twitter.com/RefQKNMi88
They both thought they lost each other.. 😊 pic.twitter.com/p3G7bNeeS9
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) October 19, 2026
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