The Other McCain remains a committed journalist. MIDTERM ELECTION RESULTS HQ
The first polls close in Kentucky and Indiana at 6 p.m. ET, followed at 7 p.m. ET by Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia and Vermont. There are certain “bellwether” counties to watch in each of these states, to get an idea of whether a “blue wave” scenario is happening, and just how big such a wave might be.
Click thru. I expect updates through the night.
Light Over Heat with Professor David Yamane is first with Visualizing the Shall Issue Wave
Beyond being boring, a static table also hides something important to understanding the concealed carry revolution: the pace of change. Shall issue laws did not spread evenly. They trickled, then surged.
Moonbattery - Here Comes Euthanasia Without Consent in Canada
Canadian leftists just slathered more grease on the slippery slope that is Medical Assistance in Dying. Soon authorities may not even have to inform you before they help you die.
OldAFSarge at Chant du Départ - Sure They're Ugly, But ...
The Royal Navy's newest aircraft carriers illustrate the sad state of that navy. The French under the Bourbons and Bonaparte couldn't destroy the RN, neither could the Germans in two World Wars, sadly, all it took was bad government at home.
Doug Ross - The Democrat Plot To Shred The Constitution
It starts small, and it starts in NYC. As mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani posted that “Nearly 80% support a rent-freeze. I’m running for mayor to deliver these exact policies.”
Bearing Arms - How State Supreme Court Election Could Change Everything in Anti-Gun Washington
Washington state was a pretty pro-gun place before all the locusts from California moved there. Silicon Valley pulled up stakes, changed its address to the Evergreen State, and immediately went to work creating the same political environment they left to the south.
The Other McCain - Brett Kimberlin: Still GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY!
Kimberlin hates America, and America ought to hate him back twice as hard.
Cafe Hayek - Covidian Myth-making Re-emerges
It was clear as early as March 2020 that covid’s dangers are concentrated overwhelmingly among the elderly. Nevertheless, the public-health establishment, the major media, and (most) governments heedlessly hurled everyone into a panic by treating covid as if it would kill us all unless we obeyed their commands without question, including retreating into isolation – isolation that had its own very real dangers that covidians ignored.
Meep at STUMP - Movember 2026: 10th Year of Fundraising for Men’s Health Issues
Movember Foundation is a men’s health charity that focuses on prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men’s mental health, worldwide.
Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 1 November 2026: F Edition
French lawmakers have decided to do what French lawmakers have always done: Make other people pay for the problems they created. (Tom's Hardware)
In this case, they are trying to charge the companies that send data over the internet to customers in France for the data they send - at an utterly absurd 6 cents per gigabyte.
Wombat-socho - FMJRA 2.0: The Continuing Crisis
Unlike previous seasons when our pitching was decent but our offense was weak, this year we have a good offense but our starting pitching is terrible.
The World According To Quinn - Special Edition: WILDWOOD (2026) Movie Review, CONJuration This Weekend
When I saw the near-perfect reviews from Rotten Tomatoes, both from critics and the audience, I knew I had to see it [Wildwood]. Some health mishaps caused delays, but here I am getting my thoughts to you at last.
The Other McCain brings us The End of Polls and Predictions
Election Day 2026 has finally arrived, bringing with it the merciful end of polls and predictions being presented as “news.”
Personally I hope all of the emails, and SMS messages about the election also stop.
At some point, you need to get in touch with your inner Stoic, to seek calm amid the gibbering madness, to stop being a wired-in political junkie before it drives you bonkers.
Good advice. Hard to follow.
This is another incident where that thing the gun-hating Left says never happens, happened. Again. Two Men With a Knife and a Pole Were Beating a Third. Then a Fourth Man Stepped In and Opened Fire. - USA Carry
By way of USA Carry we get this incident from September, that I had not covered before.
The attack happened in the area of Decatur Avenue and Tennessee Street in southeast Albuquerque, as reported by KOB 4. A preliminary investigation found two men were attacking a third man with a knife and a pole. A fourth man stepped in to help the victim. He shot one of the alleged attackers. That man died.
The stabbing victim fled, but police found him nearby, and had him taken to a local hospital.
What police describe here cuts most of that doubt down. Two men on one. A knife and a pole. A victim who was already being stabbed. The law lets you defend another person to the same extent that person could defend himself, and a man being carved up by two attackers armed with a blade and a club is facing an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm by any reasonable reading. The fourth man did not have to guess at that. He could see it.
Could you walk away from a stranger being stabbed? Do you have the ability, the tools, to do anything about it?
Self-defense is a human right.
This insanity has got to stop. Cyber attacks disable. . .refrigerators? - by Josh Slocum
Making something digital, and exposing it to the internet is not always an improvement.
It’s happened again. Refrigerators in Europe went warm because of a software hack.
Think it through. Refrigerators are boxes with compressors that move gas around to remove heat. They have one function: make the box cold to keep food fresh.
They are not computers. They are mechanicals.
These were refrigerators in grocery stores.
If you run a chain of grocery stores, you do not need to digitally interconnect the refrigerators among that chain. You do not need a computer turn the refrigerators on or off. You do not need a computer to monitor them.
All you need are mechanical controls that already do the same job, plus actual human people on site (it’s a store, remember) who are capable of walking over to a dial and turning it. Capable of walking into a cooler and reading the numbers on the thermometer.
But it was possible to put the refrigerators online, so they did. Which made it possible for the online refrigerators to be hacked, which they were.
This caused some stupid grocery store chains in Europe to lose a bunch of stock, and so lose a bunch of money. But your water supply is probably already online. Hospital equipment, power plant cooling systems, etc. are all moving that way. Why? Because we can, and no one wants to stop and ask if we should.
Click thru for more details, and more thoughts on the subject.
The electric ferry, or the charging infrastructure?
This is what is known as putting the cart before the horse.
Projects need to be done in a certain order, but that doesn't give politicians the splashy PR that they like.
The city of Auckland, in New Zealand, bought some electric and some hybrid ferries, for their waterways. There is just 1 problem. They bought the ferries, but the charging infrastructure is still in the early stages of construction.
The electric ferry is just stuck. The hybrid ferry (ferries?) run around at night, doing pointless circles, to charge the batteries.
Well done Auckland!
Personally I wouldn't ride on an electric ferry, because the risk of fire at sea is bad enough, without adding in a giant lithium-ion battery. Even if it doesn't start the fire, if any of those batteries go into thermal runaway, it is going to be bad.
This is the MGUY Australia video You won't BELIEVE this ridiculous ELECTRIC ferry FIASCO!
So, it's not surprising that in the net zero adult minds of ferry companies, they do the easy bit first and put off the hard part till later. They buy the shiny new electric ferries to signal their environmental virtue and then put off worrying about the charging problems until another day.
But soon enough that day will come and they will discover that installing multi-megawatt charging facilities is both A) complex and B) eyewateringly expensive.
That is before the difference in cost of an electric versus a diesel ferry is calculated. The video is about 11 minutes.
Media Bias? What media bias? From John R. Lott Jr. at The Federalist: The Media Won’t Tell You Felony Violent Crime Is Plunging Under Trump
Most people who follow the news probably missed Monday’s announcement from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS): Felony violent crime plunged 25 percent in 2025. Rape fell 13 percent, robbery dropped 27 percent, and aggravated assault declined 31 percent. Property crime fell 19 percent. Except for rape, these represent the largest one-year declines since the government began collecting these data 53 years ago.
That marks a dramatic reversal from the Biden administration, when felony violent crime soared by a record 59 percent and property crime rose 8 percent between 2021 and 2024.
Murders are down. The rate fell in 2025 to 4.1 murders per 100,000 people. That is a record low.
And the media?
You might expect these unprecedented declines in violent and property crime and record low crime rates to dominate the news. Instead, most major media outlets ignored Monday’s announcement. While the New York Post and CBS covered the new data, the Associated Press, Reuters, CNN, NBC News, ABC News, the New York Times, and the Washington Post apparently didn’t consider the historic reductions newsworthy.
Click thru for more details, and a consideration of the question, "Why?"
The policies that contribute to this drop in crime, are exactly those policies Democrats want to reverse. Almost like The Left wants crime and chaos.
Hat tip to The Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC)
Lacuna Coil came up on social media recently. Not this song, but another song off this album, which got me to listen to the whole album again.
I really like Lacuna Coil. The combination of Cristina Scabbia's clear vocals and Andrea Ferro's harsh vocals really work well together. (Though I know a lot of Americans don't like harsh vocals of this style.)
Here is a link to they lyrics. They are singing in English, but they're Italian, and it is Heavy Metal.
This song is "Apocalypse" by Lacuna Coil from their 2019 album Black Anima.
The bad guys have not changed their ways. Concealed carry holder shoots suspect during altercation in North Lawndale
According to Chicago police, the 23-year-old man was walking in the 3100 block of West Cermak at approximately 10:25 a.m. when he was approached by two individuals.
An altercation was followed by the concealed carry license holder shooting one of the bad guys. Cops are speaking with a "person of interest," but the 2nd guy has not been arrested.
North Lawndale, is one of the 77 neighborhoods community areas in Chicago. It is located on the west side of the city.
HeyJackass! has 6 self-defense shootings listed for Chicago in 2026, through August. I am not sure how up-to-date that data is. (HeyJackass! announced they were stepping back from the daily grind, though the data does seem to be updated regularly. Or somewhat regularly.)
Self-defense is a human right, and the idea might be catching on in Chicago.
Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony brings us the insane story from the world of technology. Daily News Stuff 31 October 2026: Ween Edition
Binance was hacked by thieves who made off-ish with $6.3 billion. (Bleeping Computer)
I say "ish" for two reasons: First, half the funds were immediately frozen and cannot be transferred further; second, it's a bit like bank loans: When you lose $1000 in Bitcoin, you have a problem; when you lose $6.3 billion in Bitcoin the blockchain has a problem.
I'm old enough to remember when the Blockchain was going to solve all of our problems. No theft. No counterfeiting. No money laundering. Yeah, doesn't seem to be working out too well.
And as usual, the weakest link is the people.
The attack was bootstrapped through a compromised devops laptop. The developer themselves didn't have access to do this, but they had access inside the corporate firewall so more sophisticated attacks could be launched bypassing that level of security entirely.
I'll hang on to my cash if you don't mind. Maybe I need to buy some gold or something.
If you are interested in getting a bit more into the weeds, the Bleeping Computer story is Binance links $6.3 billion crypto theft to compromised DevOps laptop.
Binance is the world's largest crypto exchange.
It is expensive to care for sick people, so Canada is just killing them. Here Comes Euthanasia Without Consent in Canada - Moonbattery
Canada - a much smaller country than the US - recorded more deaths by euthanasia in 2024 than the US did via gun violence.
And that is before this insanity.
Canadian leftists just slathered more grease on the slippery slope that is Medical Assistance in Dying. Soon authorities may not even have to inform you before they help you die.
Click thru for the details, that include not discussing ending a life with the person being ended.
I miss western civilization. (Hat tip to MaddMedic.)
Georgia is a bad place for bad guys. The bad guys keep ignoring that memo. Georgia Property Owner Shoots Intruder Who Tried to Assault Him Inside Vacant Bowman House - USA Carry
This incident took place in September, but just got noticed by my news searches, thanks to USA Carry.
A property owner was inspecting a vacant property.
Following an investigation, deputies said the owner encountered a male suspect inside the residence. The suspect reportedly attempted to assault the owner. A fight followed. Shots were fired. The intruder was hit and ran from the scene.
Cops found the guy who got shot, took him to a local hospital, and then took him to the Elbert County, Georgia, lockup.
Bowman, Georgia, is about 80 mile east-northeast of Atlanta.
What deputies describe is a fight at contact distance, not a standoff across a room. The suspect came at the owner first, and the two were already fighting before any shot was fired. At that range there is no time to size up the other man, no way to know if he is armed, and no guarantee of coming out on top with your hands. The owner was in it whether he wanted to be or not, and the gun is what ended it.
Click thru for cautions about entering vacant property.
Self-defense is a human right.
They apparently didn't like that. From the New York Post: NYC's DAs go quiet when asked about claims they told staff to downgrade charges against illegal immigrants
New York’s top elected attorneys were like deer in headlights when pressed about a congressional investigation claiming they’d directed staff to downgrade illegal immigrants’ charges to avoid deportation.
The attorneys — state AG Letitia James, and city District Attorneys Melinda Katz and Eric Gonzalez — stared blank-faced when asked by The Post about the damning report at a Thursday gun-safety press conference.
So much for the Rule of Law, Equal Before the Law, etc.
Click thru for the details.
tl;dr version - they didn't want to talk about it.
Joanne Jacobs at Thinking and Linking: Math failures double at 'test-free' University of California
The people running California think college professors should teach remedial math to their students and shut up about the fact that high schools aren't teaching anything.
UCLA and Berkeley math professors should stop complaining about students who lack basic math skills, says Richard Barrera, a school board president who's running for state superintendent in California. "Part of your job that you get paid by the taxpayers to do is to teach our kids." That includes teaching fractions to university students, he told Conan Nolan of NBC Los Angeles.
I thought the job of elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools was to teach kids basic math. My mistake.
Of course some people recognize the issue.
"A child who can't do fractions at 18 was a child who couldn't do fractions at ten, and the system knew it," Tina Descovich, CEO and co-founder of Moms for Liberty, told Fox News Digital.
Read the whole thing. Hat tip to Stephen Green at Instapundit
The Right Way is up first with Top of the News
FBI raids Beverly Hills mansion as part of Swalwell investigation - IOTW Report
Comey again - The New Neo
Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 10.28.26
Don Surber: Tariffs trump Obama
Glenn Reynolds: Life Today Under Late Democracy
EBL - Minnesota Voter Fraud: Soros Prosecutor Retailiation
RedState: Why Blue State prosecutors are attacking election integrity
Hot Air: NYT confirms Ilhan Omar fraud
Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony - Daily News Stuff 30 October 2026: Doom Edition
Speaking of Reddit but somehow worse the site will now require you to log in to read anything. (The Verge)
There has never been a better opportunity for Digg to return.
Small Dead Animals - Friday On Turtle Island
The Democratic Party’s Canada: Saving democracy. A shadow looms. White House decor.
China Carney’s Canada: An accusation. Our strategic partner. Apparently good enough for soldiers. Leniency for MP. Higher carbon taxes.
Again from Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 10.29.26
Shot In The Dark: If It Saves Just One Life, also, City Councils
Mark Steyn: Just Show Up
A View from the Beach - Flotsam and Jetsam - Is the The Alaskan Double Tap Going to Court?
PJM's Stephen Kruiser, Clinton-Appointed Judge Lends a Hand to California Voter Fraud. DataRepublican (small r) @DataRepublican, "Parallel vote tabulation (PVT) is a common tool in color revolutions."
Lawrence Person's BattleSwarm Blog - LinkSwarm For October 30, 2026
“Days before midterms, ICE and DOJ announce new wave of noncitizen voting arrests With the midterms days away, federal officials are arresting and charging noncitizens accused of illegally registering and voting. DHS says it’s checking about 300,000 more cases
Wombat-socho again - In The Mailbox: 10.30.26 (Morning Edition)
Ammo.com: Gun Violence Among Black Americans 2026
Upstream Reviews: Halloween Reading Recommendations
The Glibertarians - Friday Morning Deadline Links
Those wacky illegal alien scammers!
“Your Honor, my client pleads retarded.”
Heidi is proof that physiognomy is destiny.
Political Hat - Quick Takes – Who’s Being Euthanized Now? Autistic Teens; Toddlers; Preventable Suicides
Now, the Netherlands is killing toddlers.
Suicide is bad, unless a doctor says otherwise…
Once again from Wombat-socho - In The Mailbox: 10.30.26 (Evening Edition)
Transterrestrial Musings: Bloggus Interruptus, also, The West’s International Order
Victory Girls: Fired Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia Admitted To Leaking Classified Information
Maggie's Farm - Friday morning links
Patrick Stewart Dies at 86, Leaving a Legacy Far Beyond Star Trek
Doordash to acquire Instacart
J.J. Sefton at Ace of Spades HQ - The Morning Report — 10/29 /26
The former labor secretary wants the Democrat Party to steal SpaceX and Starlink.
Robert Reich And Organized Theft
Doug Ross - Larwyn’s Linx: Democrats Care Too Much About Power To Distance Themselves From Terror Supporters
Does NFL Know About Super Bowl Artist’s Fatwa On George Zimmerman? - Jack Cashill NYT Columnist Wants Democrats To ‘Drain’ Trump Allies’ Bank Accounts To Save ‘Democracy’ - Brianna Lyman
I leave you with Midweek Memes from Granite Grok, In case I get busy the next couple of days from The Feral Irishman, Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #4351 from 90 Miles from Tyranny, Bookworm Beat 10/30/26: The “vote like your life depends on it” meme edition from Bookworm Room, and Keeping you up to date with memes from Wirecutter.
They can cause you to do stupid stuff, which can result in you getting shot. Man shot, killed by loss prevention employee outside Glendale beauty supply store
Police say a 32-year-old man was working as loss prevention at the store when he confronted Edgar Perez Lopez, 33, and Lopez’s girlfriend, who were reportedly smoking pills.
The employee told the couple to leave, leading to a confrontation between the three. Investigators believe Lopez reached for a firearm, and the employee shot him. Lopez was rushed to the hospital and later died.
The investigation is still going on, but the cops did find a firearm and drugs. And this didn't happen in New York City.
Self-defense is a human right.
MGUY Australia is disappointed. (Not really) Tesla Just Cancelled the Cybertruck For These Two Countries
Your vocabulary word of the day: Ute. It is Australian for pickup truck. It isn't in the quote below, but is in the articles, and in the video linked below. (The British and the Americans - two people separated by a common language.)
Tesla has scrapped its Cybertruck plans for Australia and New Zealand, voiding reservations that in some cases date back to November 2019. Reservation holders began receiving emails on October 23 informing them their orders were cancelled and their deposits would be refunded.
Part of the problem is right-hand drive. The US is left-hand drive. We drive on the left side of the vehicle, and shift with the right hand. The UK, Australia, and (I think) New Zealand are right-hand drive. They drive on the left side of the road, but drive from the right-hand side of the vehicle. (Shifting with your left hand was often a problem on the UK's Top Gear for American guests.)
Part of the problem was weight.
Some other articles:
The hat tip goes to MGUY Australia and his video I'm DEVASTATED! The video is just under 9 minutes.
I think I used all of the Halloween-appropriate songs at one point or another. Does this fit? Maybe.
Poets of the Fall is a Finnish Alternative Rock band. (Don't worry; English lyrics) I can't remember how I found out about them. It may have been because they provided nine songs for the soundtrack to the video game Alan Wake.
I haven't really dived into their music, but I may have to. I hear them mostly when the Tidal streaming service offers up one of their songs.
Here is a link to the lyrics.
This song is "Firedancer" by Poets of the Fall. It is from the 2022 album Ghostlight.
The Gun Writer starts us off with New York judge delays Demetrio Daga’s sentencing for reasons unknown
None of what Braga possessed is even considered illegal in a free state.
Juliette Ochieng - Welcome to the Newbies of 2026
Thanks to the Blogfather, Glenn Reynolds, I have received an avalanche of new subscribers and followers in the last few days. To that end, I decided to give you a taste of what you new folks are working with.
Lone Star ParsonPoetry Mondays - Gods of the Copybook Headings
Chesterton, whom I greatly admire, scorned Kipling, but Chesterton, for all his greatness wasn't always right. That said, I'd argue Kipling was right in the X-Ring with this. Make of it what you will.
William Teach at Pirate's Cove - NYC’s DA’s Force Prosecutors To Downgrade Charges For Illegals
If this were you or me they’d throw the book at us, but, they go soft on illegals so that they hopefully do not show up on ICE’s radar. Also, then their pet media can say that the people are not bad criminals.
George Shay at Chicago Contrarian - Chicago Can’t Borrow Its Way to Prosperity
Even the Chicago Tribune has apparently had enough of the fiscal insanity at City Hall. In two remarkably sensible editorials published October 22 & 23, the Tribune editorial board took Mayor Brandon Johnson to task for presenting what amounts to a political campaign document masquerading as a municipal budget
Meep at STUMP - Taxing Tuesday: More California Wealth Tax Reactions
It may not even get over the finish line... gotta talk about it while we can
The Other McCain - Some People Never Learn
A couple of months ago, while most of us were distracted by the death of Dolly Parton, Rolling Stone published a lengthy article about another show-business death — except this woman wasn’t a star. She was the ex-girlfriend of a star, but one of those smaller stars you’ve probably never heard of.
James Bosco at Chicago Contrarian - Dr. Brandonlove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace Chicago’s Financial Collapse
The problems with Chicago’s governance will not self-correct because Chicago’s liberal voters are incapable of self-correction.
