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Ohio Democrat-Elect Claims Party Warned of Hell for Opposing Jeffries
US Rep.-elect Don Leonard (D-OH) said senior House Democrats warned him that withholding support for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) as speaker would mean “making my life a living hell for the next two years here in Washington, as well as being sure to lose my election in two years.” Leonard, who flipped Ohio’s 15th District, said the warnings came during a dinner with senior elected officials who framed the advice as friendly but with stark consequences.
Leonard listed conditions for his support, including a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United ruling and ending U.S. support for the war in Iran and for Israel. He told TMZ that committee assignments would be withheld, legislation would face obstacles, and reelection support would be difficult. “At the end of the day, the big-D Democrat Party needs some little-d democracy, and I’m just a stubborn SOB,” Leonard said. House Democrat Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-CA) said he did not know which senior Democrats Leonard referenced.
Why It Matters
Party bosses still treat freshmen as hired help who must check their independence at the door. Threatening a new member’s committee seats and reelection for demanding accountability on campaign finance and foreign wars shows a leadership more interested in lockstep loyalty than representing voters. That culture corrodes the House and rewards obedience over conscience.
Jeffries Backs Proxy Voting Return as Democrats Rewrite House Rules
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said Thursday he supports allowing proxy voting next Congress for expectant mothers and new parents. This would eliminate the need for certain members to vote in person when Democrats take control. “I certainly will continue to support … proxy voting for expectant mothers and for new parents,” Jeffries said of a rules rewrite in January.
A new Congress passes a rules package along party lines. In 2025, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) rejected a bipartisan push for proxy voting by female lawmakers. Johnson said it “violates more than two centuries of tradition and institution” and “opens a Pandora’s box.” Democrats allowed proxy voting during the coronavirus pandemic. Republicans ended it upon retaking the majority. Rep. James McGovern (D-MA) called proxy voting a “good idea.”
Why It Matters
Proxy voting erodes the constitutional duty of lawmakers to show up and cast votes in person. It invites absenteeism that weakens accountability and lets leaders manipulate outcomes without full attendance. Restoring the practice under Democratic control threatens centuries of House tradition and opens the door to further dilution of representative government.
USDA Moves to Close SNAP Eligibility Loophole
The Agriculture Department published a proposed rule on Nov. 10 that would end broad-based categorical eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Under the change, only households receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families cash assistance would automatically qualify for SNAP, rather than those receiving non-cash or in-kind services. The department estimates the rule would remove 6.3 million people in 3.2 million households from the program by fiscal year 2029.
USDA projects the proposal would cut federal SNAP benefit spending by about $44.6 billion between fiscal years 2027 and 2031. As of December 2025, 46 states used the broader policy, with 37 setting income limits above the federal standard and 41 imposing no asset test. The department said the change would align eligibility with statutory limits and target benefits to households that meet federal income and resource requirements.
Why It Matters
States have used a paperwork trick to hand food stamps to people well above the income and asset limits Congress set. Closing that loophole restores the program to the truly needy, stops taxpayers from subsidizing households that do not meet the law’s standards, and trims billions from a welfare system that has grown far beyond its original purpose.
Democrat Scott Colom Defeats Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi Senate Upset
Democrat Scott Colom, a district attorney, defeated Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) in the Mississippi U.S. Senate race, according to the Associated Press. Hyde-Smith conceded late Wednesday, and Colom will become the state’s first Black senator since Reconstruction.
Colom opened a narrow lead that widened as officials counted absentee and provisional ballots. He led by roughly 4,600 votes with 99 percent of precincts reporting. Hyde-Smith said in a video, “While this is not the outcome we worked for or hoped for, I respect the decision of Mississippi voters.” President Trump had rallied for Hyde-Smith, and a late Senate Leadership Fund ad buy failed to reverse the result. Colom is the first Democrat elected to a Mississippi Senate seat since 1982.
Why It Matters
A narrow flip in a state Trump carried by nearly 23 points hands Democrats another Senate seat and further erodes Republican control. The outcome shows how late ballot counting and targeted turnout can overturn an incumbent in deep-red territory, weakening the constitutional balance free societies depend on when one party consolidates power.
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Democrats Eye National Popular Vote Compact After Midterm Wins
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Wisconsin Gov.-elect David Crowley said they support electing the president by national popular vote after Democrats won full control of legislatures and governorships in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact would award member states’ electoral votes to the nationwide popular-vote winner once states holding at least 270 electoral votes join. Eighteen states and the District of Columbia, with 222 electoral votes, have already enacted it.
Shapiro said, “I think that the national popular vote makes sense,” and that he would work with lawmakers on a mechanism. Crowley said of the Electoral College, “We can do away with it.” If Pennsylvania and Wisconsin joined, the compact would still need Michigan and either Arizona or Nevada to reach 270. Wisconsin Assembly Republican leader Tyler August said the change “would undermine that balance and disenfranchise Wisconsin voters by letting results in other states override their choice.”
Why It Matters
The Founders built the Electoral College to stop large population centers from dictating the presidency. A compact that lets a handful of states ignore their own voters and hand electors to a national popular-vote winner rewrites the constitutional bargain without an amendment. It is unconstitutional, and hands coastal majorities permanent leverage over the rest of the country.
Indivisible Organizers Demand Consequences for Heritage Staffers Linked to Trump Administration
Indivisible co-founders Ezra Levin and Leah Greenberg said on their podcast that Heritage Foundation staffers and others complicit in Trump administration actions should face accountability. Greenberg stated people must create consequences so the next generation of “crappy little Heritage staffers” understands they cannot be complicit in anything like the past two years. She said corporations cannot donate to inauguration funds or shovel money into crypto wallets without serious consequences.
Levin said Democrats have a credibility problem. An accountability agenda against corrupt crooks in the White House, Silicon Valley, and big business, plus a popular legislative agenda that Trump would veto, would demonstrate they can get things done. He quoted incoming House Oversight Committee chair Robert Garcia (D-CA), “lawyer up, folks, because if you committed crimes and you undermined the Constitution over the last two years, you’re going to need some legal support.”
Why It Matters
This push to punish private staffers for lawful service in a elected administration exposes the left’s drive to weaponize congressional power against ideological opponents. It undermines the separation of powers and chills participation in governance. Such tactics threaten constitutional norms by treating policy disagreement as criminality.
Mullin Urges Pritzker to End Rhetoric After ICE Agent Run Over in Chicago Heights
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin called on Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to “knock off this violent rhetoric” after an illegal alien from Mexico intentionally ran over an ICE officer in Chicago Heights on Nov. 10. Jose Juan Garnica-Naranjo, who has been deported seven times in 2013 and has prior arrests for assault and domestic violence, refused to shut off his engine during a targeted stop. He sped away with an officer partially inside the vehicle, drove over a median, threw the officer out, and struck him while fleeing. The officer was hospitalized with a leg injury and later released. Garnica-Naranjo was arrested the same day.
Mullin said the attack is “the result of anti-ICE rhetoric from sanctuary politicians like Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker.” He noted a more than 1,600 percent increase in assaults on ICE officers and stated that “DHS is calling on Governor Pritzker and all other sanctuary politicians to knock off this violent rhetoric and start cooperating with ICE before any more officers are injured in the line of duty.”
Why It Matters
Sanctuary politicians who shield repeat border crossers and paint federal officers as villains invite exactly this kind of vehicular attack. Each time an ICE agent is dragged or struck while doing the job the law requires, the message spreads that resistance carries little cost. That calculation erodes both officer safety and the rule of law.
Idaho Man Sentenced to 18 Years for ISIS Plot to Attack Churches
Alexander Scott Mercurio, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, was sentenced Tuesday to 18 years in prison and lifetime supervised release by U.S. District Judge David C. Nye for attempting to provide material support to ISIS. Mercurio planned to incapacitate his father with a metal pipe, take his firearms, and attack churches in Coeur d’Alene using explosives, knives, a machete, and flame-covered weapons.
He created an online repository of pro-ISIS content in early 2023 and, days before the planned April 7, 2024, attack, stood before an ISIS flag holding a knife and pledged allegiance to the group. The FBI arrested him on April 6, 2024. A search of his home found butane canisters, lighters, handcuffs, a knife, a machete, and his father’s firearms. Prosecutors said he wrote of wanting to “rinse and repeat” attacks on more than 21 churches until killed.
Why It Matters
An American citizen’s detailed plan to massacre churchgoers in the name of ISIS shows the domestic reach of radical Islamist ideology. The plot targeted houses of worship, the historic core of Western culture, and the sentence affirms that the United States will punish those who seek to import foreign terrorism onto its soil.
ON THIS DAY IN 1942:
U.S. and Japanese naval forces clash in a decisive four-day World War II engagement in the Solomon Islands that halts Japan's final major offensive to retake Guadalcanal.
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Spain’s General Strike Turns Violent Over Housing Costs
Unruly protesters set fires, smashed storefronts and launched fireworks at riot police across Spain on Wednesday during the country’s first general strike in 14 years. Violent scenes unfolded in Barcelona, where demonstrators vandalized stores along Paseo de Gracia, set small bonfires and clashed with officers in riot gear and armored vehicles. The walkout disrupted public transportation, forced some businesses to close and blocked major roads.
Housing activists claimed 400,000 people marched through Barcelona, while city officials estimated 55,000. Government officials reported another 120,000 demonstrators gathered in Madrid despite heavy rain. Police made arrests across the country and used pepper spray against demonstrators in Madrid. The unrest comes amid frustration over soaring rents and the cost of living, including the eviction of an 87-year-old Madrid woman who later died, and arrives weeks before Spain’s Nov. 29 parliamentary elections.
Why It Matters
Street violence and vandalism during a housing strike in a major European capital show how economic pressures can tip into open disorder. Western cities that allow unchecked rioting erode the rule of law that underpins free societies, and the scenes serve as a warning that similar unrest can spread when governments fail to protect property and public order.
China Shifts Military Forces Toward AI-Powered Drone Warfare
China’s People’s Liberation Army is developing artificial intelligence-powered drone warfare that will mobilize millions of civilian drones and conduct decapitation strikes on enemy generals, according to a PLA report. The study states unmanned warfare is set to become a primary mode of modern combat. The PLA is shifting all forces toward advanced drone warfare while maintaining Chinese Communist Party control and seeking cognitive dominance.
The 2025 report by Col. Zhao Hui and Maj. Zhang Yicheng, translated by the Army’s China Landpower Studies Center, outlines mobilizing dual-use civilian drones and embedding technicians into units. Wartime tasks include targeted strikes on senior generals and scientists, as well as sabotage of sensitive facilities. The report notes such methods offer low costs, high success rates, and minimal collateral damage. Joshua Arostegui of the China Landpower Studies Center said the PLA's greatest friction remains institutional control rather than hardware.
Why It Matters
This PLA blueprint for AI drone swarms and leadership assassinations poses a direct threat to U.S. forces and allies in the Pacific. Mobilizing millions of dual-use civilian drones for wartime use blurs combatant lines and raises the risk of rapid, low-cost saturation attacks. It challenges Western military advantages and erodes deterrence against Chinese aggression.
French Novelist Houellebecq Indicted in Paris Over Alleged Hate Speech
French novelist Michel Houellebecq was placed under formal investigation this week by a judge in Nanterre for complicity in incitement to discrimination, hatred or violence. The charges stem from a November 2022 interview with philosopher Michel Onfray published in Front Populaire. Houellebecq said native French people want Muslims to stop stealing and assaulting them or leave the country.
He predicted future “Bataclan in reverse” attacks on Muslims once territories fall under Islamist control. The Union of Mosques of France filed a complaint in January 2023. Houellebecq’s lawyers argued the remarks contain no call to violence and are protected by free expression. The 2010 Goncourt Prize winner previously faced charges for calling Islam the stupidest religion, but a court dismissed them.
Why It Matters
Criminalizing sharp criticism of Islam and mass immigration under hate speech laws chills debate on demographic change and cultural erosion. It punishes writers for describing observable social tensions rather than addressing rising parallel societies and crime. Free societies cannot survive if courts police opinions that challenge progressive orthodoxy on migration.
U.S. Authorities Intercept 49 Migrants Off California and Puerto Rico
U.S. authorities intercepted 49 migrants in two maritime interdictions off Southern California and Puerto Rico. On Nov. 7, Customs and Border Protection Marine Interdiction Agents boarded a vessel about 12 nautical miles east of Catalina Island. An aircraft from the San Diego Air and Marine Branch detected it. Agents transported the vessel and 18 illegal aliens to Newport Harbor for U.S. Border Patrol processing.
Near Puerto Rico, Coast Guard Cutter Joseph Doyle intercepted an overloaded 25-foot yola with 31 people in the Mona Passage on Nov. 9. All claimed Dominican nationality. The vessel rode low and risked capsizing. Cutter Heriberto Hernandez repatriated 30 to a Dominican Navy vessel off Samana on Nov. 10. One remained pending. Cmdr. Matthew Pinhey said those who cross the Mona Pass on an overloaded, unseaworthy vessel with no safety equipment are gambling with their lives.
Why It Matters
These maritime interdictions show illegal entry attempts ticking up since Democrats won the midterms. Overloaded vessels risk mass drownings and force agencies to divert assets from other threats. Such crossings erode sovereignty and reward those who skip legal pathways. They impose costs on taxpayers and communities while endangering lives at sea.
