It always tabs on Saturday ...
Kamala Harris on possible presidential run: “I’m not done”.
— Bree A Dail (@breeadail) October 25, 2025
MAGA: PLEASE run again!
pic.twitter.com/9hUnI69SkR
Ed: There's no way we're this lucky. It wouldn't matter anyway, though; Harris can't possibly survive a competitive primary for the nomination. That's why Democrats rushed to anoint her after Biden's withdrawal; she would have flopped in an open convention too. Harris is done, and I suspect even she knows it.
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Politico Magazine: An objective view of history says that, despite our many mistakes, we’ve left each region far more stable and globally connected — not to mention wealthier — than we found them. Now, through the radical presidency of Donald Trump, we are seeking to load-shed those distant responsibilities and refocus on our own hemisphere.
If Iraq was George W. Bush’s ‘Big Bang’ theory of regional transformation, then Venezuela has become Trump’s test of hemispheric re-engineering. His administration has cast President Nicolás Maduro’s regime as the antichrist — a cauldron of corruption, narcotics, and Chinese meddling that demands and justifies a belligerent approach. To topple it, Trump vows, would be to reset the strategic physics of the Americas: a “splendid little war” for the digital age.
As unlikely as it might seem, it is a history-resuming America’s first grand strategy, part of a throughline — a connecting ideological vein — that runs from Founding Father James Monroe to William McKinley and then through Theodore Roosevelt to Trump. We are witnessing the latest iteration of an enduring American impulse: to redraw the map of the hemisphere as the world system begins to fold back upon itself.
Ed: As I mentioned yesterday, this could be called the Donroe Doctrine. The biggest and most urgent mission at the moment is to push out China and Iran. This is why one of Trump's first big moves on the international stage was to take back control of the Panama Canal, in the first two weeks of his second term. That preceded Trump's tariff wars by a full two months, a measure of the import and priority of this new direction in American policy. And Trump is not making it very subtle, either ...
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Griffin noted the scale of the deployment, saying nearly 14% of the U.S. Navy’s entire fleet is now positioned in the Caribbean — a major show of force. pic.twitter.com/tPlvix6ErM
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) October 25, 2025
Ed: This is a signal to Maduro, certainly. But it also sends a message to Beijing and Tehran, and perhaps even Russia. The era of American default in the Western Hemisphere is over. As is the era of apologies for the US acting in its own interests.
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Jerusalem Post: Defense Minister Israel Katz on Saturday instructed the IDF to destroy all of Hamas's underground tunnels in the area the IDF withdrew to following the implementation of the US-backed Gaza Deal.
The minister called this order Israel's "central mission," placing it alongside the IDF's other obligations, such as the protection of soldiers and Israeli communities.
"This is in parallel with the dialogue we are having with US representatives, from [US] Vice President Vance, the Secretaries of state and war, and through the US president's envoys to CENTCOM commanders," he added.
Ed: Why now? The hostages, both living and dead. They had to hold off while the living hostages remained in Hamas custody, as no one knew precisely where they were being held. Now that they living hostages have been freed, there's little reason to hold off on these demolitions. And there are plenty of reasons to make sure that Hamas can no longer make use of its terrorist infrastructure again, of course.
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NOW 🔴
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) October 25, 2025
IDF says it carried out a precision strike in Nuseirat, central Gaza
Killing an Islamic Jihad operative who was planning an imminent attack on troops. pic.twitter.com/kPovDiJDrK
Ed: The IDF wants to make sure everyone understands that they are not just going to sit around and wait for terrorists to strike during this "ceasefire."
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John Hinderaker at Power Line: The Washington Post thinks the new East Wing will be too darn large. The paper has no fewer than four reporters on the story ...
I suppose some would say that the size of the new East Wing reflects the magnitude of Trump’s gift to the taxpayers.
The fact that Democrats are trying to make political hay out of something as benign as an expansion of the East Wing suggests that they know their more important attacks on Trump–for enforcing the immigration laws, per Article II, for closing the border, for killing narco-terrorists, and so on–have fallen flat.
Ed: The whole freakout over the East Wing renovation/rebuilding project is so petty as to be beyond belief. No taxpayer dollars will be spent; it will have no impact on the White House itself; the new ballroom provides for a real and practical problem with hosting state dinners on the grounds, where tents have to be used instead. The TDS is so intense on this story that it practically screams desperation.
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I’m wondering how it’s not a democracy when a guy promises to do certain things, gets elected to the presidency, and then does those things https://t.co/GBV1EA4e9Y
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) October 24, 2025
Ed: Trump is doing pretty much everything he said he would when running for president. Voters chose him over Kamala Harris with that understanding. He's delivering on those promises, especially when it comes to closing the border and ejecting illegal aliens. And according to polling, voters still want those policies kept in place. It's TDS to pretend that a politician keeping his campaign promises crosses some sort of "red line," especially through the use of tendentiously contrived analogies.
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Jeffrey Lord at Newsbusters: All of which is to say, with Trump’s second and last term now underway, with the first of his last four years almost completed, there will be a subtle and sometimes not so subtle shift of media attention to the candidate emerging in the eyes of the media as the inevitable Trump successor.
One could suggest that this will be unfair, and yes it will surely be just that. But alas it will most certainly be inevitable as the liberal media starts probing what Vance or Rubio or some other potential GOP Trump successor did with that girl in the 9th grade or did they cheat on their tests to get into law school or whatever. Jen Psaki is already battering Vance as "scarier" than Trump, a "little Manchurian Candidate" with a wife that might need rescuing! ...
And you can be sure of one thing. As the Post-Trump era dawns? The media are watching, and ready to pounce.
Ed: And you can be sure that the coverage will include, "At least Donald Trump wasn't ...."
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According to Zohran the real victim of 9/11 was his auntie who got some (allegedly) bad looks https://t.co/UGeKANSAH2
— JD Vance (@JDVance) October 25, 2025
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Just like grandma. If she was a Nazi. https://t.co/RjTPPrVeos
— DarthMallard🦆❗️ (@drumhellor) October 25, 2025
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NY Post: Billionaire businessman Timothy Mellon – scion of the famed American banking family – is the deep-pocketed donor who gave $130 million to pay US troops during the government shutdown.
The reclusive Mellon was identified as the source of the funds in a Saturday report by The New York Times.
President Trump announced this week that “a friend” who “loves the military and loves the country” – but who didn’t want to be identified – had given the funds.
Ed: Big salute to Mr. Mellon, whose generosity toward our troops deserves acknowledgment -- if he wanted it. Mellon didn't want the attention, however, which raises the question as to why the NY Times would have outed him.
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Dem after Dem called Trump, Elon, etc. Nazis. They accused Hegseth of Nazi tattoos (FALSE). And now? The most popular Dem Senate candidate in AMERICA has actual Nazi tattoos & the full backing of the radical Sanders wing of the Democratic Party. OWN IT. pic.twitter.com/WzgknJR5UW
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) October 25, 2025
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