Friday's Final Word

Ah, if she clicked me I'd be there, I'd come tabbing anywhere, she's all I need, all my sites ...

I'm still waiting for gun control advocates to name any measure short of total confiscation that: (1) Oregon didn't already have in place, and (2) Might even remotely have mattered in this specific instance.

— Amy Swearer (@AmySwearer) October 16, 2026

Ed: We have this issue in every shooting incident used by the gun control lobby. It’s especially acute in jurisdictions like Oregon, where gun-control laws are already in place, and in this case, a gun-free zone enforced on law-abiding citizens. The issue isn’t guns; it’s mental illness in most cases. 

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CBS News: The 16-year-old gunman who shot and killed three children and one teacher at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, on Thursday has been identified as John Griffin Jr. III, two law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation told CBS News. Police say he was shot and killed by a bystander at the school.

The attacker used a shotgun purchased by his mother, law enforcement sources told CBS News. 

A motive for the attack has not been provided. The suspect was from Bend, but police have not said if he had a connection to the school. 

Law enforcement sources told CBS News that investigators are combing through his computer, phone, social media, search history and other online activity. They are probing whether the shooter may have been obsessed with violence, including prior mass shootings. The sources emphasized that the investigators are in the preliminary stages of their investigation. 

Ed: I suspect we’ll find a mental illness component here too. The control of the firearm in the home may be an issue too. The use of a shotgun is unusual in these attacks, but at the least, we’ll be spared the “assault weapons” rhetoric. 

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Let’s check in on @jezziib’s position on three little murdered babies from just a couple months ago… Come on – are any of you surprised? https://t.co/X4ABFqYq6b

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) October 16, 2026

Ed: Fair point. I suspect we’ll see more of this hypocrisy from social-media activists in the days ahead.

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Elizabeth MacDonald on X: The federal investigation into Ilhan Omar’s finances will find tens of millions of dollars in reported valuations suddenly vanishing, tax troubles with state tax collectors, and companies reportedly taking in a lot of money suddenly collapsing after overstating their business activity. Having covered corporate accounting frauds at the Wall Street Journal, IRS frauds, and the subprime mortgage fraud crisis, it’s an understatement to say something is seriously off. 

In May 2025, Omar’s financial disclosures valued her husband Tim Mynett’s stake in Rose Lake Capital at $5M–$25M for calendar year 2024. It began operations in 2022.

She also disclosed in Congressional records the value of his stake in their winery eStCru at $1M–$5M. The winery launched in 2020.

But just a year earlier, she had reported the stake in Rose Lake Capital was worth only $1 to $1K, and eSTCru, $15K-$50K. 

Then came a major reversal.

Ed: Be sure to read it all. MacDonald provides interesting data and context, and this offers a potential map to where federal investigators may be going in the Omar probe. This is separate from the asylum and naturalization fraud investigation at DHS, of course, but the combination may be too much for Omar to overcome in the end. The financial disclosure fumble was an epic misstep by Omar and her husband. 

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Sometimes bias gives itself away in the most subtle, but telling ways.

— Brit Hume (@brithume) October 16, 2026

Ed: Katie Zacharia got cashiered for misrepresenting her status as a ‘lawyer,’ thanks to intense media scrutiny. Shouldn’t these same media outlets apply the same level of scrutiny to false claims made by a major-party nominee to the Senate?

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WSJ: Elon Musk is putting a small fortune into Republicans’ effort to salvage the Senate seat in Texas, seen as critical to the party keeping control of the chamber in the fall elections.

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I cannot believe we’re having a national struggle session over a) a joke and b) a joke based on an observation that is objectively correct.

— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) October 16, 2026

Ed: Lindsay Clancy murdered her three children and got better treatment from the media and the progressive throngs. Let that simmer for a while. 

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The Free Press: In late 2023, Fergie Chambers, the radical American political activist with a $250 million inheritance and a vow to invest in revolutionary and anti-imperialist causes, fled the United States. He knew he was under FBI surveillance, he has said. And four young comrades in Palestine Action US, an anti-Israel group co-founded by Chambers shortly after Hamas’s terrorist attack on southern Israel, had just been arrested for allegedly attacking two U.S. offices of Israel’s largest defense company.

Chambers soon wound up in Tunisia, where he made no secret about his ambition to keep using his money to further his causes. He converted to Islam, bailed out a Tunisian soccer team, and has said that he continued funding radical groups, particularly ones focused on Palestine. Those financial connections led to his arrest in July in Spain on charges of providing financial support to international terrorist groups. He has been fighting extradition to the U.S. ever since.

Exactly what evidence has the Justice Department amassed against Chambers? And why is the Trump administration so determined to get him back? The answers to those questions have remained a mystery, largely because the federal indictment of Chambers is sealed and because government officials have not commented on him since the arrest.

But Spanish court documents obtained by The Free Press reveal crucial details about those accusations, including that Chambers was actively conspiring with Iran while in Tunisia to support Hamas and possibly other terrorist activities backed by Tehran, according to information provided by American law-enforcement officials.

Ed; Remind me again about how Elon Musk is a threat to democracy. Be sure to read all of this; I consider myself to be well-informed on politics, and the Fergie Chambers story is new to me. However, David and John have written about him before. 

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🚨🚨🚨We have asked our Four-Way Choice question on nearly every survey since October 2020. In every survey until this week, a plurality of voters have favored a candidate advocating Trump-like policies. ✅This week's survey show a plurality (26%) favoring a candidate advocating traditional Democratic policies. Just 24% want Trump-like policies and 22% prefer Traditional R. ✅When President Trump began his second term, 38% of voters wanted a candidate advocating Trump-like policies. That number has fallen 14 points to 24% over the past year-and-a-half. ✅BTW... just 19% prefer a candidate advocating policies like those of AOC.

— Scott Rasmussen (@ScottWRasmussen) October 16, 2026

... advocating traditional Democratic policies. Just 24% want Trump-like policies and 22% prefer Traditional R.

✅When President Trump began his second term, 38% of voters wanted a candidate advocating Trump-like policies. That number has fallen 14 points to 24% over the past year-and-a-half.

✅BTW... just 19% prefer a candidate advocating policies like those of AOC.

Ed: I'm surprised we haven't seen more erosion than this in a midterm cycle. It could be much worse. 

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NBC News: The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office sex crimes unit is weighing whether to bring charges in a case involving former Rep. Eric Swalwell, a spokesperson told NBC News on Thursday.

The county sheriff’s victims’ unit investigated the case, which was then forwarded to prosecutors on Sept. 21, according to the spokesperson.

Swalwell, a Democrat, resigned from Congress in April and dropped out of the California governor’s race after multiple sexual assault and misconduct allegations, which he denies.

Former model and fashion software company owner Lonna Drewes held a news conference in April with her attorneys in Los Angeles, accusing Swalwell of drugging, sexually assaulting and choking her. Los Angeles authorities confirmed at the time that they had launched a criminal investigation into the allegations.

Ed: Swalwell's attorneys insist that this is SOP and means nothing. It's only SOP when law enforcement agencies think an indictment can be supported, though. This is bad news for Swalwell, and given the high profile of this case, he'd better be prepared to mount a legal defense after negotiating a surrender at some point.

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Ilhan Omar To Be Deported To Dearborn, Michigan https://t.co/pnXKv1mm0j

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) October 15, 2026

Ed: Would Dearborn accept her entry? Arabs are not Somalis, and vice versa. 

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Dan McLaughlin at NRO: The idea that there is any sort of gender principle at stake here, however, is a transparent fraud, and always has been. The outrage is always and only when it’s a female Democrat and a male Republican, or perhaps a progressive female and a more moderate liberal man. The yass-kween solidarity memes and the think-piece columns about patriarchy never show up when this goes the other way.

Our latest example: an exchange in last night’s Maine Senate debate between Republican Susan Collins and Democrat Troy Jackson. It started with Collins being interrupted by a shrieking left-wing protester who yelled about data centers poisoning the water. While the moderator tried to get rid of the protester, Collins quipped, “So, this is obviously one of Troy’s supporters.” That’s a fair-enough shot: protesters interrupting debates and hearings are nearly always left-wing, and this was somebody yelling one of the Democrats’ 2026 campaign themes at Collins to try to shout her down. An angry Jackson responded, “Oh, shut up. I don’t even know that kid.” Collins cracked back, “Oh, right.”

The moment has drawn many of the debate headlines, but the media framing is mostly neutral, unaccompanied by the meme-alanche we would see if a Republican man told a Democratic woman, “Oh, shut up” on a debate stage. 

Ed: I wrote about this earlier today. I have been waiting all day for feminists to object to Jackson's treatment of Collins, and I suspect I'll be waiting for a very long time to come, too. 

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So yeah, the Democrats nominated a race scientist who studied the hazards of Arab outgroup mating, with family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, for Senate. Will Michigan voters elect him?

— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) October 16, 2026

Ed: The other papers are more or less standard stuff regarding outcomes for people within ethnic groups, but the study on "interethnic mating" between Arab women and non-Arab men is ... bizarre. Just the phrase "interethnic mating" is weird. Maybe it's a good thing that El-Sayed never practiced medicine if this was his focus. 

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Glenn Reynolds on Substack: The thing about the left is, it’s made up largely of people who aren’t great at doing things. They don’t get rich by building things or doing things. They get rich, when they do, by declaring problems, getting the government to throw money at them, and then stealing some (sometimes pretty much all) of that money for themselves and their NGOs. There’s nothing for them in flying cars.

But there’s more than that going on here. Because getting rich to them is secondary to self-importance. When Elon does something cool, they’re offended because they feel diminished by that. As Norman Mailer wrote about why the hippies turned against the space program, the hippies spent years going around talking about how they were going to change the world, then a bunch of guys with flattop haircuts and pocket protectors and slide rules went and actually did it. Unforgivable.

Interestingly, people on the right — and most Americans generally — don’t feel diminished by other people doing cool stuff. They feel spiritually and culturally enriched by it.

Ed: Americans are aspirational, while the Left are intrinsically rejectionists. Most Americans aspire to greatness through innovation and investment; Leftists want to seize and redistribute the status quo. 

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Lon Johnson, the former #Michigan Democratic Party chairman whose wife was a top Obama fundraiser: "As a result, we will not vote for Abdul El-Sayed." #misen https://t.co/rTqBDVQ34E

— Dennis Lennox (@dennislennox) October 16, 2026

Ed: There's no way the polls in Michigan are accurate with this as context. No. Way.

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Last night's lyric: 'Rapture' by Blondie. 

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