Conservative Blogger
Tuesday, November 10, 2026
California Voters Reject Billionaire Tax
California voters rejected a proposed tax on billionaires even as Democrats won control of Congress and scored victories in statewide races in the midterm elections.
Newsmax projected Monday that California voters had rejected Proposition 40, nearly a week after Election Day. With about 82% of the vote counted, 52.9% opposed the proposal and 47.1% supported it.
The tax would have imposed a one-time 5% levy on residents with a net worth of at least $1 billion.
Two competing ballot measures sought to restrict wealth taxes or impose added requirements on new state taxes. Under California law, when conflicting propositions pass in the same election, the provisions of the measure receiving more affirmative votes generally prevail.
Proposition 42, which would prohibit certain new taxes on personal wealth and retroactive taxes, remained undecided Monday night. With 87% of the ballots counted, 51.7% supported the measure and 48.3% opposed it.
Proposition 41, which would restrict certain new taxes, was defeated, with 54.8% voting against it and 45.2% in favor, according to Decision Desk HQ.
The campaign over Proposition 40 and the two competing measures was among the most expensive ballot-measure fights in California history, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.
More than $400 million was spent on the three measures, with more than 90% going toward efforts to defeat the billionaire tax, according to campaign finance disclosures filed with the California secretary of state's office.
Billionaires, including Google co-founder Sergey Brin, contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to groups that financed advertising campaigns against the tax. Brin alone contributed $102 million.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, the California Teachers Association, and Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California were among the prominent Democrats and Democrat-aligned groups that expressed concerns about the proposal, including the possibility that billionaires would leave the state.
The Times reported that some billionaires, including Brin and fellow Google co-founder Larry Page, moved out of California amid concerns about the proposed tax.
Ads opposing the billionaire tax argued that it could affect all Californians, not just the ultra-wealthy. Advertisements featured teachers, firefighters, and other middle-class Californians arguing against the proposal, the Times reported.
Opponents of Proposition 40 said Californians made the "right decision," calling the proposal a "reckless experiment" that would hurt the state's economy. The coalition included the California Medical Association, California Primary Care Association, and California School Boards Association.
"Proposition 40 risked California's economic competitiveness and fiscal stability, as well as the revenue we rely on to fund our top priorities — from education and healthcare to public safety and infrastructure," the group said, according to the Times.
Leaders of the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, which sponsored Proposition 40, vowed to pursue another billionaire tax measure in 2028 unless state leaders find other ways to support healthcare, the Times reported.
California lawmakers face a difficult budget outlook next year, raising questions about how the state could replace an estimated $100 billion in federal healthcare funding cuts, according to the Times.
Supporters said the proposed tax on more than 200 California billionaires was intended to raise $100 billion, with 90% of the revenue going to healthcare and the remaining 10% to schools and food assistance.
"Billionaire-funded propaganda may have influenced the outcome of this election, but as hospitals reduce services, emergency rooms close and families lose access to care, the truth will become increasingly difficult to hide," Suzanne Jimenez, chief of staff for the SEIU-UHW, told the Times. "Californians will see for themselves what was at stake."
At the federal level, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who backed Proposition 40, are pushing for an annual 5% tax on American billionaires. Earlier this year, they introduced the Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than three decades of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
SCOTUS Blocks Judge's Border Wall Injunction, Delivers Blunt Lesson on Constitutional Claims
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Sometimes, what you call something matters. Other times, the courts aren't particularly interested in your creative labeling. The Supreme Court made that second point abundantly clear Monday, handing the Trump administration a win in its effort to resume border wall construction in Texas — and delivering a rather pointed lesson about the difference between constitutional claims and statutory ones. In Mullin v. Friends of the Ruidosa Church, the High Court granted the administration's request to stay an October 2 preliminary injunction issued by a federal district judge in the Western District of Texas. That injunction had halted construction of border barriers and roads in the Big Bend Sector along the U.S.-Mexico border. At issue is a provision of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), which gives the Homeland Security secretary broad authority to construct border barriers and waive legal requirements that might impede their construction — including environmental and conservation laws. There's a catch for anyone wishing to challenge those waivers in court, though: Congress specifically limited judicial review to claims alleging violations of the Constitution. Enter the plaintiffs, including a river guide, an environmental organization, and a group dedicated to preserving a historic Texas church. They challenged the administration's waivers using what's known as the major questions doctrine. That's a legal principle requiring clear congressional authorization before federal agencies can exercise certain powers of vast economic or political significance. The plaintiffs argued that the administration lacked that authorization. And the district court agreed, concluding that the major questions doctrine is rooted in constitutional separation-of-powers principles and therefore provided a constitutional basis for the challenge. SCOTUS delivered a big NOPE to that view, however. In an unsigned, five-page opinion, the justices explained that while the major questions doctrine certainly reflects constitutional concerns, it's still a tool courts use to interpret statutes. And the Court didn't mince words:
In other words, arguing that an agency exceeded the authority Congress granted it doesn't magically become a constitutional claim simply because the underlying legal principle has constitutional roots. Call it what you like. It's still a statutory challenge. Moreover, Congress expressly barred the lower courts from entertaining those challenges to the secretary's waiver decisions. Thus, the Court concluded that the administration was exceedingly likely to prevail on its argument that the district court lacked jurisdiction. The justices also noted that the injunction was costing the government nearly $500,000 per day in unrecoverable expenses, according to a Customs and Border Protection official, and interfering with Congress's expressly stated preference for expedited border construction. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson would have denied the stay, though she offered no written explanation. Now, there's a caveat here: Monday's order is not a final decision resolving the underlying lawsuit. What today's order means is that the injunction remains suspended while the administration pursues Supreme Court review. But the ruling carries significance well beyond this particular stretch of border wall. Congress can limit lower federal courts' authority to hear certain disputes. And when it does, litigants cannot sidestep those limits simply by giving their statutory arguments a constitutional makeover. (A rose by any other name...) It's also important to bear in mind that the separation of powers works in more than one direction. And sometimes, the most consequential question isn't whether the government acted lawfully, but whether the court had the authority to decide that question in the first place. Credit: redstate.com |
Mamdani’s Staff Is Panicking As Their ICE Favor Pipeline Just Hit a Brick Wall Named Stephen Miller
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Zohran Mamdani's reported favor line to the White House may have just gone dead thanks to Stephen Miller. The communist New York City mayor has quietly been asking President Trump's team to release individuals held in ICE custody, according to a Monday report from Politico. Sources and quotes from Mamdani himself show that his inexplicably cordial relationship with the President had previously expanded into an open line of communication on specific immigration enforcement issues. According to Politico, that communication came through former Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. It began in February, when Mamdani persuaded Trump during a White House sit-down to free Columbia University student Elmina Aghayeva, who had been detained by federal immigration agents earlier in the day. Mamdani pointed to her release as proof that his surprising relationship with Trump could deliver for New Yorkers. What nobody knew at the time was that he kept going back to the well. Since then, Mamdani and his staff have handed Trump's team the names of about two dozen more immigrant New Yorkers in ICE custody and asked the president to order their release, according to two people with knowledge of the outreach. The most recent list reportedly came during Mamdani's September meeting with Trump at Gracie Mansion. Of course, this whole tale rests on two anonymous sources, and even Politico admits it can't confirm that a single name on that list has walked free. That's an odd result for a president who is supposedly listening to favor requests. And the lack of tangible results fits the man who has made mass deportations the centerpiece of his agenda.
Mamdani's aides allegedly worked the requests mostly through Wiles, who has since left the White House. Aside from Aghayeva, Politico claims Mamdani was able "to secure a short-term visa for a woman from Ghana whose son was fatally shot in the Bronx." "Other than that, not much substantive has materialized between the two ..." the outlet adds. “Over the course of these conversations, we have been able to free a New Yorker from ICE detention," Mamdani said in an interview with Fox News. "We have been able to secure a visa for a grieving mother who would otherwise have to watch her son be buried from thousands of miles away." The game, though, has apparently shifted with President Trump's move to name Miller his new Chief of Staff, replacing Wiles. As expected, Miller is making many people on the left nervous.
And that includes Mamdani's team, who fear the hardline immigration-enforcement advocate will be less responsive to requests from Gracie Mansion. Politico reports there is growing concern inside the mayor's administration that whatever door of communication was open is now closing since it seems "unlikely that Miller, given his posture on immigration, will keep playing ball in the same way Wiles did." Good. Miller is making the right people antsy. Murad Awawdeh, a close Mamdani ally, had a strange way of trying to keep their foot in the door. “Stephen Miller is a cruel man who has spent his career targeting immigrants, but he is not the president. Donald Trump is, and the deportation agenda is his,” he said. “New York expects the president to work with the mayor, deliver for this city, and end the terror in our neighborhoods. Promoting Miller changes none of that.” New York shouldn't "expect" anything, and I'm not sure the right approach to keep a cordial relationship alive is to insult the new Chief of Staff. Trump, for his part, has come out and reiterated his tough stance on criminal illegal aliens. "We have a very strong deportation policy, there's no amnesty, there's no anything, we keep that," he told reporters. "But, we focus on the worst of the worst. We want the murderers out. We've gotten most of them out ... We want to get the worst of the worst, and then we'll see what happens." Mamdani has supposedly been slipping names to the White House, but the guy answering the phone now is Miller. Something tells me that list is headed straight for the shredder. Editor’s Note: New York City is now facing the consequences of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s socialist takeover. Credit: redstate.com |
Texas Democrats Are Wasting No Time With Their Radical Ideas
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Texas Democrats are wasting no time in putting forth a wildly progressive agenda for the Lone Star State, with dozens of bills being proposed to radically reshape the state.
Democrats are seeking to legalize marijuana, end school choice, restrict gun access, expand Medicaid, and double the minimum wage. The moves aren’t being limited to the Texas Legislature, either. Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa has proposed siphoning off massive chunks of the state’s emergency savings account to distribute $1,500 checks to state residents. The fate of these proposals would fall in the hands of the Texas State Senate, the last body that Texas Republicans have retained control of following the 2026 midterm elections. Credit: townhall.com Texas has Fallen to the enemies of America.  |
Watch Trump Chop Block CNN and Thomas Massie in Under a Minute
President Trump held an impromptu press conference lasting a little over 30 minutes, during which he gave an update mostly on the Iran War. UFC’s Dana White also fielded questions after being at the White House for other matters. No, he’s not the new press secretary, which the president admitted was a joke. Trump did, however, take questions, as he always does, and managed to take down CNN and outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) in one swoop. Massie filed articles of impeachment against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Monday. Kaitlin Collins was the one who got buzz-sawed here, though she’s used to it.
TRUMP: “Massie’s a loser. Just like you’re a loser at CNN.”
“Just like your ratings are a loser.”
“Massie is a loser. Stone cold loser.”
Trump later called into C-SPAN last night:
President Trump Calls In to Washington Journal Primetime C-SPAN host Mimi Geerges: "We heard that you like to watch C-SPAN. What do you like to watch?" President Trump: "I like to watch the call-ins because it gives me a little of an indication of where we are." https://t.co/wMrZmy3FSW
— CSPAN (@cspan) November 10, 2026
Credit: townhall.com
Bill Maher Cannot Deny This Aspect About Trump's Life
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Bill Maher and Donald Trump do not get along, but that doesn’t faze the HBO host. Trump posted a 1,300-word diatribe against the comedian, but it’s not the first time. Maher has dined with Trump multiple times, even bringing along all the insults Trump has hurled at Maher — and the president signed off on it. He can take a joke, but we all know his social media activity is out of control. Regardless, Maher has been calling strikes and balls regarding this guy. You might not like his opinions — he’s not a conservative — but he’s also not Trump-deranged. On his Club Random podcast, Dean Norris was the guest, and the two reminisced about the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, where Barack Obama humiliated Trump, which is where he set in motion the grand plan to become every liberal American’s nightmare by forever canceling Hillary Clinton’s presidential ambitions. Maher said what Trump did was badass. From then until now, it’s been remarkable. The Left wrote him off, and he got elected twice to the presidency:
I mean, where's the lie? Credit: townhall.com |
UFC CEO Dana White clears the air at WH briefing: 'I have zero political aspirations'
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| US President Donald Trump and CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship Dana White shake hands after participating in a press briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on November 9, 2026. During a press conference at the White House, President Donald Trump was joined by Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) CEO Dana White after the president jokingly floated White as a potential replacement for press secretary. White — a longtime friend of Trump’s — joined the president at the White House briefing room on Monday to clear the air after Trump jokingly wrote in a Truth Social post that the “violent fighter and warrior” had been offered the position.
During the briefing, Trump explained how the situation began, adding that he was “totally kidding” about the idea.
After the president introduced White, the UFC chief took to the floor, where he maintained he has “zero” interest in entering politics.
In his original weekend Truth Social post, the president joked that he was “pleased to announce that the great Dana White” was offered the White House role.
The White House is still searching for a permanent replacement for Karoline Leavitt following her departure earlier this year. Political commentator Katie Zacharia briefly held the position, but her controversial five-day tenure ended after allegations surfaced that she misrepresented her legal credentials. Credit: oann.com
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Honda announces new $3B plant in Ohio, expected to increase U.S. production to about 1.3M vehicles annually
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In a major validation of President Donald Trump’s domestic manufacturing push, Honda announced it will invest $3 billion to build a brand new auto plant in Central Ohio. This marks the automaker’s fourth assembly facility in the Buckeye State and its first major new U.S. assembly plant since 2008. The new facility — designed primarily to boost production of hybrid-electric vehicles — is slated to begin operations in 2029. The site will have the capacity to produce 240,000 vehicles annually, bringing Honda’s total United States auto production capacity to about 1.3 million vehicles per year, Honda stated on Monday.
Company executives noted that Ohio was chosen for the new plant in part due to “an established, highly skilled workforce” as well as its proximity to much of the automaker’s development operations and existing supplier networks.
The new plant, expected to create more than 2,000 new jobs, will be built in Central Ohio, between Honda’s existing plants in East Liberty and Marysville. It will mark the company’s ninth auto-related production facility in the United States. The company also announced it would be making investments in other plants in Ohio, Alabama, and Georgia to scale up component production for next-generation hybrid systems. This news comes comes as a major validation for President Trump’s domestic manufacturing push, following his administration’s implementation of a 25% general tariff on imported automobiles and foreign parts auto. Designed to penalize overseas production and compel global automakers to shift manufacturing back into the United States, the tariff strategy is proving to be a decisive catalyst in corporate investment decisions. Credit: oann.com |
Monday, November 9, 2026
Democrats Plan to Push Clean Energy to Lower Bills and Challenge Trump's Fossil Fuel Agenda
Here We Go Again Thanks To the Cheap Ass Voters Who Thought Gas Prices Were To High Now! 😏 Some Democrats are promising to push for more clean energy to help tackle rising energy costs when they take control of Congress in January, though President Donald Trump says he will use his veto power aggressively. With new majorities in the House and Senate after last week's midterms, Democrats can set an agenda boosting clean energy and addressing climate change. While those are traditionally core priorities of the party, climate was not a central topic in this election cycle. Democrats can begin investigations and hold hearings into climate policy rollbacks and elimination of green energy grants by the Republican administration, potentially trying to undo some changes and restore renewable energy incentives. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, said Trump’s clean energy attacks drove up prices for taxpayers. He said Democrats will "work every angle to lower consumers’ energy costs, and we will demand accountability for the massive corruption wrought by Trump’s fossil-fuel donors.” American Clean Power Association CEO Jason Grumet said everybody who is trying to build clean energy “feels bolstered.” Enacting major changes would require Republican support because Democrats will lack the numbers to override presidential vetoes. Even then, lower energy bills are not guaranteed because prices also depend on fuel costs, demand and the expense of maintaining the electric grid. “The wins give Democrats more leverage over spending and more political power to advance a coherent agenda; the question is whether they’ll use that power effectively,” said Lisa Sachs, director of the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment. “The vote was for affordability and opportunity. Democrats now need to be clear about which policies deliver them.” Trump said after Tuesday's election that Democrats will send over “things that are insane” and he will veto them, speaking generally about legislation. But in the comments to Fox News, he predicted that “after a couple of months of vetoes,” he and Democrats will find ways to work together. The White House said in a statement Wednesday that Trump is "committed to unleashing reliable, affordable, and secure energy sources to lower prices, strengthen our grid, and protect our national security, and is willing to work with anyone to accomplish this.” Trump promised to lower energy prices. Instead, his war with Iran and other policies increased the price of gasoline, diesel and electricity. At the same time, the administration canceled many clean energy projects and grants and slowed clean energy permitting. Trump particularly dislikes offshore wind. Developer Orsted said Thursday that Revolution Wind, a large wind farm in federal waters off Rhode Island, has started operating commercially. Will the president change his tune on green energy? That's doubtful, said former Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., co-chair of the government relations practice at ArentFox Schiff. “He is likely to keep pushing his energy issues, and I think he will be forced to give some room for a new Congress to recreate a different strategy that will add clean energy,” Dorgan said in an email. Trump promotes expanding production of oil, natural gas and coal, which cause climate change, because he argues that would give the U.S. the lowest-cost electricity. Mike Sommers, CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas industry’s top lobbying group, said that as voters have changed the balance of political power in Washington, “the affordability message is unmistakable.” Sommers said in a statement there is a real opportunity for bipartisan cooperation to reduce costs and strengthen the economy, starting with an energy permitting reform proposal announced in September. The legislation is aimed at shortening the timeline to get big energy projects started. Ife Kilimanjaro, executive director of the U.S. Climate Action Network, said Democrats should reject that proposal and use their stronger position to pass legislation that actually builds out much-needed clean energy. The administration has reshaped the Environmental Protection Agency, reversing pollution limits as it promotes fossil fuels. Clear Street energy transition analyst Tim Moore said he expects Democrats to investigate the climate and environmental rollbacks, in an effort to block some from taking effect. Democrats could also try amending the Clean Air Act to cut carbon pollution and push back against EPA budget cuts, he added. Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., said he is cautiously optimistic some Republicans will now seek to differentiate themselves from Trump and back pro-environmental policies. But without Republican support, Democrats’ more ambitious bills will largely lay out their agenda for 2028, he added. Climate is not necessarily at the top of Democrats' list of priorities. They are targeting healthcare access, trade tariffs and the Iran war. Rep. Frank Pallone, the New Jersey Democrat who is expected to become chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the party should focus on healthcare, affordability, consumer and environmental protections, clean energy and regulating Big Tech. David Victor, a professor of innovation and public policy at the University of California, San Diego, largely expects a stalemate at the federal level on climate and energy policy because of the divided government. He said agreement could come on some bipartisan measures such as a permitting overhaul. Victor thinks Democratic-led investigations and hearings will center on corruption and other topics that may only touch on energy and climate. Like Casten, Victor said many of the Democratic bills likely will not become law, but will outline what Democrats could accomplish if they win the White House in 2028. “The Democrats are going to be drafting things that the administration’s not going to like. They don’t have the votes to override a veto, and on top of it, the administration is going to be in turmoil because of its own electoral failures and because of all the investigations,” Victor said. “This seems to me, at the federal level, largely a recipe for kind of intense chaos over the next two years.” One of the biggest wild cards is the behavior of the administration, which could use executive power to double down on rollbacks of climate and environmental rules, he said. Democrats scored victories in races for governor in states long controlled by Republicans, including Texas and Georgia. Leah Stokes, a political scientist at the UC Santa Barbara, said there could be a lot of state action on climate next year because of those wins. That is where climate leadership has traditionally come from, she noted. At the federal level, Stokes is optimistic about extending clean energy tax credits since some Republicans support that. Jay Inslee, a former Democratic governor and congressman from Washington, also expects growing momentum for clean energy in states that elected Democratic governors, particularly in states where they also won legislative majorities. “This is a really powerful instrument for the United States to join the rest of the world and get back in a leadership position, even if we still have a climate denier that might exercise a veto on some things that we want to do federally,” Inslee said. “So I hope people will pay attention to the big progress we’re going to make on a state-level basis.” Credit: newsmax.com |
Rick Scott Wants Senators Working Through Christmas — and the Senate’s Calendar Shows Why
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Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) wants Republicans to put their holiday plans on hold and get to work. He is calling for the Senate to remain in session every day until Democrats take control in January. How that even has to be stated out loud to this group is beyond comprehension. You've got roughly two months to protect America from the incoming socialist onslaught, and we're debating if we should even show up to work? Get your act together, people. Scott's goal is to confirm judges and administration nominees and advance Republican priorities while the party still holds the majority. "I think the American people would love for us all to shut up and just do our job," he wrote on X. I'd like to interject here — The American people would have loved it if the Senate GOP started doing that long before the election. Maybe y'all wouldn't be in this situation if, say, you passed the SAVE America Act. "That starts with the Senate staying in session every day until January, when Democrats take over. We owe it to the American people to get as much done as possible," Scott added. "Let’s Get to Work." Better late than never, I suppose. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) has also urged Republicans to make the most of their remaining time in charge. "Eight weeks in the majority remaining. There’s a lot of work left to do. Time to get going," he added. Scott reiterated the call to action in an interview on Fox News’ “Saturday in America.” “What we ought to do is just stay up there until January 3rd or whatever it is when the new Democrats get sworn in, and let’s get everything done. Just stay every day — all through Christmas, all through Thanksgiving, all through New Year’s, every day," Scott urged. "Stay there, get things done.” I'm not busting these guys' chops, as Scott and Lee almost certainly made the effort all along. But as a group, the exact time to start working for the American people is about 30 seconds after you're sworn into office. Not just a handful of weeks before you lose the majority. I'm sure they would agree. Of course, there is a problem here. Scott and Lee's demands put the Senate’s planned workload under scrutiny. According to earlier reporting on its calendar, the chamber had scheduled just eight session days in November and 14 in December. That schedule leaves a considerable gap between the urgency Republicans describe and the time senators had set aside to address it. And if you thought this fiery call to action would lead somewhere, consider this — Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) is the main person who can push to cancel recesses and keep the Senate in session. Granted, he needs enough senators to support the necessary procedural votes, but do you think he'll even set the wheels in motion? Good luck with that. Credit: redstate.com
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Georgia House Race Flips After Hundreds of Votes Go Unreported, Sparking Investigation
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Democrat Harry James had a 58-vote lead over Republican incumbent Gerald Greene in Georgia House District 154. Then Seminole County uploaded several hundred Election Day votes that hadn’t made it into the first tally. Greene moved ahead, and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger opened an investigation into the delay. Start with the check-ins. Seminole County had records of roughly 388 more people signing in to vote on Election Day than it had ballots in its reported count. State officials saw the gap during their review and notified the county. That sent local officials back through their results, where they found that the results from one memory card hadn't been included in the reported totals. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R-GA) said the state’s checks worked as intended. Now his office wants to see what the county did before it put out the first tally.
On Sunday, Seminole County Elections Supervisor Ron Foskey disputed a missing-card claim made in a Facebook post by an account called “Donald Trump for President.” Foskey said no card was missing and that the Election Management System hadn’t finished the final step for the last precinct’s memory card. The county finished that step when officials met Friday.
Was the card ever missing? That’s how the AJC described it. Other reports said it was discovered or found. The county says it had every card on election night and that the report it put out was incomplete. Seminole County Elections Supervisor Ron Foskey said the scanner tape and the data on the cards both matched the number of ballots cast. On Friday, Raffensperger’s office said Gerald Greene had gone from trailing by “less than 100” votes to leading by 262. The AJC reported the same lead. By Saturday, the state website showed 10,193 votes for Gerald Greene and 9,932 for Harry James. Subtract those, and you get 261, one vote shy of the figure in Friday’s release. Republican state Rep. Gerald Greene said he was “in disbelief” and hoped his lead would hold. If he keeps his seat, Democrats would still control the 180-member Georgia House, but with 92 seats, they’d have just one more than they need for a majority. Republicans were in court over a separate county election dispute in June. The RNC and the Georgia Republican Party sued election officials in Fulton and Gwinnett counties, arguing the counties had accepted absentee ballots through methods Georgia law didn’t allow. Seminole County has until Monday to clarify and certify its results. By then, the votes will be in the tally, but voters still deserve an answer about the first report. If the county had the card all along, as Seminole County Elections Supervisor Ron Foskey says, how did the county put out numbers that left those votes off? Credit: redstate.com |
Your 401(k) Just Met the New Congress
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I was so sad that fuel and food was so high I voted for the Democrats😁😭😭😭 Wall Street gave Democrats a standing ovation on Wednesday and a dose of reality on Thursday. After Democrats won both chambers of Congress, flipping more than two dozen Republican-held House seats, the Dow jumped 3 percent, its best post-midterm day since 1982. Then Thursday arrived. At the close, the S and P 500 had fallen 4.36 percent, or 334.89 points, and the Nasdaq Composite 5.52 percent, or 1,421.52 points. The VIX, Wall Street's fear gauge, jumped 68 percent to 27.46. That is the worst second day after a midterm in nearly a century, well past the 2002 low of 2.3 percent. More than $2 trillion in value evaporated from pension plans, IRAs, and 401(k) plans. I won't pretend one election explains one bad Thursday. The AI trade was already under scrutiny. The Nasdaq-100 closed in correction territory on Monday, more than 10 percent below its October 6 record. That came on the heels of an October 30 sell-off that erased more than $1 trillion in tech value on doubts about AI spending. Thursday's focus shifted to what a Democrat Congress could mean for the AI buildout. In 30 years of pricing risk, I've learned that investors charge for uncertainty about taxes, regulation, and investigations the same way they charge for a shaky balance sheet. Here's where I land: a Democratic Congress will pull Washington toward the California model, and Republicans handed over the keys by leaving their own agenda unfinished. I moved to California in 1990, when the mood was upbeat, and the economy was on an upswing. I raised three sons there and made a life for my family. Democrats have since held both legislative chambers for nearly three decades and now hold 29 of 40 Senate seats and 60 of 80 Assembly seats, a two-thirds supermajority in each. Add it up: a 13.3 percent top income tax rate, the highest in the nation, a steady stream of businesses leaving, and regular gas at $5.84 a gallon against a national average of $4.10. Costs are up, crime is up, housing is unaffordable and our educational system is failing our kids. Watching Washington copy that script feels like Groundhog Day, except Bill Murray eventually escaped Punxsutawney.
Texas shows how fast the model travels. The state has more data center capacity operating and under construction than any other, and Bloom Energy projects it will hold nearly 30 percent of U.S. capacity by 2028. Voters just replaced Texas Gov. Greg Abbott with Gina Hinojosa, who promised a ban on all data center approvals until the Legislature acts. Abbott had already paused approvals for audits. Still, a rising technology powerhouse just elected a governor who wants to shut the front door. Thomas Sowell wrote in Is Reality Optional?: "The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics." Power and water are scarce, and a ban doesn't make either one less so. Ayn Rand wrote that man is "not free to avoid the abyss he refuses to see." Legislators can evade arithmetic for a decade or two, and California has. Markets extend no such courtesy. Thursday's tape was reality sending an invoice, and it arrived before a single bill had passed. This reaches well beyond Wall Street. Gallup finds 62 percent of American adults own stock, directly or through a 401(k) or IRA. Thursday's losses landed on teachers, nurses, and contractors saving for retirement. Republicans earned their share of this. They held the House, the Senate, and the White House, then spent the time arguing with each other. The White House pulled more than 50 nominees in 2025, the most in a single year in decades, many after Republican senators balked. When President Trump demanded an end to the filibuster to pass the SAVE America Act, a senior GOP aide told Time that 15 of the 20 Republican senators summoned to the White House were a hard no. I respect the 60-vote rule as a brake, and I'd defend it. But a party can't hold every lever, refuse to pull any, and act surprised when voters hand the levers to the other side. Vice President JD Vance now says the party lost because of the Iran war and cost-of-living worries. Calm has a case, and it's a fair one. Gridlock usually soothes investors. The S and P 500 has risen an average of 15.5 percent in the six months after the last 14 midterms, going back to 1970, according to Edward Jones. Democrats lack a filibuster-proof Senate majority, and the president can veto what they pass. Wednesday's rally priced exactly that. A veto stops bills. It doesn't stop subpoenas. Rep. Robert Garcia will chair House Oversight and plans to investigate corporate corruption alongside the Trump family business. Sen. Elissa Slotkin told a University of Chicago audience she wants prosecutions of Trump's enablers to carry "that deterrence message" to graduates weighing administration jobs. A party that wants to look to the future shouldn't spend it on investigations and on frightening young staffers. UBS economist Jonathan Pingle notes that Democrats must now approve any new Fed governors. Republicans have three moves left. They control both chambers until the new Congress is seated, so they should confirm the qualified nominees in the queue and pass whatever can clear now. Governors who still want the AI buildout should win it, because data center policy is set largely at the state and utility-commission level, according to LPL Research's Jeff Buchbinder, and predictable permitting and power will beat a federal fight. Savers should control what they can: the savings rate, the allocation, and the urge to sell at the bottom. After 30 years managing money for families, I can tell you the last one costs the most. Margaret Thatcher put it bluntly in a television interview: socialist governments "always run out of other people's money." California has spent three decades testing that theory and keeps finding new pockets. Republicans have until January to prove they understand what they hold, and voters will render another verdict in 2028. Wall Street needed two days to price the risk. Californians needed nearly 30 years. The rest of us should skip the wait. Credit: Jay Rogers is a financial professional with more than 30 years of experience in private equity, private credit, hedge funds, and wealth management. He writes about issues in finance, constitutional law, national security, human nature, and public policy. |
Trump's 60 Minutes Interview Had Some Shocking Moments, Especially on This Issue
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President Donald Trump sat down with CBS News’ Ross Douthat to discuss the GOP’s historic drubbing in the 2026 midterms. The massive shifts that benefited him in 2024 went back to the Democrats, partly because Republicans offered next to nothing to excite base voters. The Iran War contributed to higher gas prices. While prices were higher under Biden, the only way to take that issue off the table was to lower them. Trump opted for an endless carousel of bombing, ceasefire, deal announcement, Iran reneging on or violating the ceasefire, and then the resumption of bombing. The subplot here: the Iran operation exposed Trump’s limits in his political skills and deal-making abilities. That's not a knock on Trump, but he obviously learned that Tehran is full of crazy people; there’s no negotiating with terrorists. Neocons also learned this lesson about the limits of their power, specifically American power, even though their venture cost regional instability, a trillion dollars, and thousands of Americans' lives. Some things are obvious, like the war and the appalling messaging strategy, though, again, that got kneecapped by the lack of legislative wins in the year leading up to Election Day. The immigration issue is worth watching for changes. Trump said his deportation policy might’ve been too tough and that he might rethink it. There could be some amnesty talk, even though the American people still trust the GOP to handle this issue, tough deportation policy and all. Amnesty is arsenic to the GOP. But the president, while initially waving his pen regarding the veto threat, now says he’s willing to work with Democrats on affordability issues. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles resigned last Friday — more changes could be coming.
The president said there wouldn’t be an escalation in the Iran operation, but we’ll see how things turn out. For the traditional Bush-Reagan types, this will likely drive them insane, though we’ve known for years that Trump isn’t your run-of-the-mill Republican. He just can't cave on immigration.
Credit: townhall.com |
Pa.: 3 arrested as protesters gather outside Jewish-owned businesses on the eve of Kristallnacht anniversary
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| A train passes by as people run and bike along the Schuylkill Banks Boardwalk, July 22, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On the eve of the anniversary of Kristallnacht, a protest bike ride and boycott targeting several Jewish-owned businesses at Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, led to three arrests and left two police officers with minor injuries. The event drew widespread condemnation after being scheduled on the eve of Kristallnacht — the 1938 Nazi pogrom against Jewish homes and businesses in Germany that killed over 90 Jews and the mass arrest of 30,000 others. The bike ride was reportedly organized by “Philly Bike On Your Left” an anti-fascist and anti-Zionist cycling collective, with critics denouncing the boycott as a direct attempt to intimidate Jewish business owners. In response to the boycott, massive crowds of counter-protesters and community members showed up to support the targeted businesses. Three people were arrested and two officers sustained minor injuries during an apprehension. A man and a woman were also arrested for disorderly conduct and a 17-year-old boy arrested for assaulting police, according to authorities per CBS News. Ahead of the boycott, Pennsylvania Republican Attorney General Dave Sunday condemned the planned event, posting on X that holding it on the eve of Kristallnacht was “deeply unsettling.”
Nevertheless, Philly Bike On Your Left claimed the event was “grossly misrepresented.” The group stated that they boycotted the businesses due to the owners’ support for Israel rather than their Jewish identity, and added that they were unaware of the timing of the Kristallnacht anniversary. Credit: oann.com |
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European leaders are standing by sanctions against Russia despite President Donald Trump’s agreement with Russian Presi...
