On the eve of the midterm elections, one searches in vain for a coherent expression of the ideology that animates the widely predicted “blue wave” that will roll over the country, bringing about Democrat Party dominance of every branch save the presidency. To the extent that foundational beliefs can be detected, they posit that Republicans, particularly, but not exclusively, President Trump are “not nice,” while the Democrats, even the Mamdani radicals, are the party of “nice.”
The “#BeNice” movement has been a long time in coming, but it’s now firmly ensconced across the left. All manner of objectively horrible proposals gain favor when adopted by the party of “nice.” Its adherents bask in their good intentions. They look in the mirror each morning and exclaim, “Oh, what a nice person I am,” and they know that all their like-minded friends are similarly “nice.” This, it seems, is the unifying philosophy, and “be nice” is their secularized version of the Second Great Commandment. (RELATED: The High Priests of Performative Goodness)
Many of them, of course, claim to be Christians. Indeed, they frequently claim to be the best Christians, superior in every way to their more conservative brethren in Christ. And they have weaponized “love thy neighbor as thyself,” turning it into a cudgel with which to beat those who disagree with their several pieties, such as “no person is illegal, or “my body, my choice.” (RELATED: James Talarico’s Strange Religion)
In this, sadly, they’re backed by a great many of their pastors. I have a former friend, a decent woman, but one fully in thrall to “be nice” Christianity. Her local pastor, evidently, is a font of “be nice” platitudes, and not just those of his own creation. He apparently serves as a conduit linking his parishioners to all manner of self-righteous “love thy neighbor” memes, which my former friend dutifully posts to her Facebook page.
[W]hat they really care about is a kind of do-gooder, feel-good tyranny that they can ram down the throats of everyone else.
For anyone who cares to compare, these memes line up almost perfectly with the political messaging of the Democrat Party and its counterparts in Western Europe. “Be nice,” it seems, has become an international phenomenon, along with “we care,” as in, “we care more than those horribly benighted conservatives.” We care about the environment, we care about peace, we care about human rights — and so it goes, ad infinitum and ad nauseam. (RELATED: Paris Is Burning. Is Washington Next?)
But what they really care about is a kind of do-gooder, feel-good tyranny that they can ram down the throats of everyone else. Caring about the environment means forcing one’s neighbors to buy the right kind of car, however unsuited to that neighbor’s vehicular needs. It’s all about enforcing virtue, even when virtue can change more quickly than a Tesla lease. When Elon Musk embraced Trump, virtue became vice in the blink of an eye.
Human rights? In my own home state, Virginia, this has devolved, via proposed state constitutional amendments, into promoting “reproductive freedom,” that is, unfettered abortion even for babies at full term, and, for one of our former governors, even beyond. “Marriage rights” are also on the ballot, which, when translated out of Democrat-speak, makes a constitutional right out of transgender marriages as well as every other possible “marital” combination. And felons get their “rights” restored automatically at the end of their sentence, without the once-customary review. (RELATED: The Demonic Possession of Liberal Women)
Peace? Once again, “be nice” is highly selective in its calls for peace. One saw this very clearly in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre of Israelis. This was only to be expected from Islamist radicals, but almost immediately “be nice” leftists of all stripes, including many who called themselves Christian, set about the task of “contextualizing” this horrific violence. (RELATED: Hasan Piker and the Democrats Who Embrace His Violent Rhetoric)
And not just in the Middle East. Christians in Nigeria continue to find themselves on the wrong end of what can only be described as a genocide being perpetrated by Islamist terrorists. Our “we care” fanatics have been remarkably absent from discussions of this issue. My aforementioned former friend — and many others of her ilk — make constant noise about the needs of illegal immigrants and the iniquities of ICE but remain silent about the wholesale slaughter of Christian villagers in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa. (RELATED: The Christian Slaughter the World Ignores)
Or not completely silent. When the Trump administration ventured a strike last year against Islamist terrorists in Nigeria, the “be nice” crowd at the New York Times did actually take notice, but only to become exercised by the fact that the U.S. missile strike terrified some Muslim villages in the affected region, while ignoring the extent to which this same strike gave heart to persecuted Christians. (RELATED: The New York Times Keeps Getting It Wrong on Nigeria)
It’s revealing that amidst the current controversy over the citizenship status of Ilhan Omar, we’re now learning that her father, a colonel in the regime of Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, was implicated in the genocide of the Isaaq clan, 200,000 of whom were murdered by the dictator’s army. But we never heard much about this genocide when it was happening, nor do we hear much about it now from the “be nice” crowd. Instead, 175 congressional Democrats line up in support of the “persecuted” Omar.
On and on it goes. The Vatican now lectures Catholics to “be nice,” and not in the manner one might expect of church leaders. Instead, we’re told that centuries of church teaching on the death penalty and just war no longer applies. “Be nice” only goes so far when faced with an AK-47, a machete, or an incendiary device. When priests are murdered and churches burnt, can we no longer defend ourselves? Can we no longer expect that horrific acts receive their just punishment?
Now it seems that even mortal sin has been relentlessly relativized. If abortion is among the most heinous of such sins, why can some of our church leaders make excuses for radically pro-abortion politicians, even those who profess to be Catholic? We’re told to embrace the notion of “balance,” where one mortal sin is whitewashed by some other virtue, particularly where a pro-abortion politician is given a free pass — or even rewarded — for supporting, say, uncontrolled immigration. (RELATED: Catholic Cognitive Dissonance)
This is not a one-time thing, nor is it something that the Church stumbled into and then corrected. Only yesterday it emerged that, once again, a prominent Catholic cleric is honoring a prominent contributor to Planned Parenthood, notable for his contributions to “offset federal cuts in reproductive health funding.” That prominent clerics now embrace the “reproductive health” canard should be appalling, but “be nice” and “balance” seem to be higher virtues than protecting the unborn. One sees a similar “be nice” driven “balance” in the so-called “synodal” church’s treatment of gays, which stands in sharp contrast to the cold shoulder offered to traditional Catholics. And the Protestant battalions of the “be nice” brigade are, if anything, even worse.
“Balance,” of course, is a very slippery word, but one that the “be nice” tyrants exploit to the fullest. This wouldn’t be so bad if the desire for balance, one might say a desire for “fairness,” was genuinely pursued and practiced. But this is not the case. Instead, “nice” is conflated with a decidedly biased outlook, one that equates Christian virtue — or even ordinary secular morality — with whatever serves the left-wing globalist agenda.
Angela Merkel and her ilk — or Joe Biden, closer to home — draped their open-borders fanaticism in various forms of “be nice” rhetoric, while dismissing their opponents contemptuously as “deplorables.” As French neighborhoods burn, Emmanuel Macron might ponder the old adage, “you reap what you sow.” In Europe, the “be nice” fanatics have invited irredeemable cultural catastrophe, something American voters should ponder carefully while there is still time before the midterms. (RELATED: The French Revolution of the 21st Century: From the Guillotine to the Suicide Vest)
Perhaps then it’s time we start fighting back against the “be nice” fanatics, starting with the words they enjoy throwing around so carelessly. Tell these benighted souls that “genocide” is what radical Islamists wish to do to Jews and, increasingly, to Christians — and not the way they would have it. “Love your neighbor” should extend to those neighbors who simply wish to still live in the culture handed down by their ancestors. “Reproductive freedom” should be replaced with “support for infanticide.”
Words like “tolerance” should extend in both directions. Charlie Kirk was the very embodiment of “tolerance” and also of “balance,” and the left needs to be reminded that they killed him for it. We might also insist that “illegal” is a perfectly accurate prefix for immigrants who have broken the law. Our country doesn’t belong to the members of “The Squad” or the women of The View, and they and their like have no right to give it away, nor attack those of us who stand for the country we inherited. (RELATED: Who Gets Canonized — And Who Gets Condemned?)
Stated plainly, “be nice,” as it’s commonly used by the left, has nothing to do with actually being nice. It is instead the cloak that conceals the dagger of hatred. “Hate has no home here?” No, the very opposite, for these people have become the colonizers of hatred, and the rest of us are their victims. It’s time that they were stopped, and next Tuesday would be a very good place to start.
READ MORE from James H. McGee:
The War Iran Chose: Remembering the Beirut Bombing
Learning to Read and the Crisis of Male Demoralization
The Stakes Are Too High to Sit Out the Midterms in Virginia (and Elsewhere)
James H. McGee is a retired nuclear security and counter-terrorism professional. His most recent novel, The Zebras from Minsk, was featured among National Review’s favorite books in 2025. His next novel, The Cathedral of Sorrows, will directly focus on the plight of Africa’s Christians. You can find The Zebras from Minsk and his previous thriller, Letter of Reprisal, in paperback and Kindle editions at Amazon. The Cathedral of Sorrows will appear at Christmas.
Move the NFL Out of Manhattan
I took the bait and clicked the headline, “Super Bowl LXI halftime headliner announced.” And the headliner is … Jay-Z, who, frankly, I wouldn’t know from Jay Leno.
I clicked less out of being baited than confirmation bias. That is to say, I clicked to confirm my suspicion that once again the NFL would choose a halftime performer out of bounds with much of its most-devoted demographic, the rank-and-file who shell out $250 per ticket and buy $100 worth of beer and still more in merchandise — in all, more than their monthly union dues. If the NFL were truly in touch with its fanbase, it would occasionally offer a halftime performer who happens to be, say, a major country music artist. This year in particular, I thought the NFL might pull that trigger, given that the top country song this year has been the smash, “Choosin’ Texas,” by Ella Langley. (RELATED: Halftime Hype and Cultural Blind Spots)
And given that the NFL’s front office is first and foremost hopelessly woke, I thought that country music might have a shot this year given that the lovely Ella is, well, female. To be sure, the NFL could and should go with a guy like Morgan Wallen or Luke Combs or some other good ol’ boy. But alas, the NFL brass surely has no idea who Wallen or Combs is.
Country music is as alien to them as NASCAR. Their image of the typical Budweiser drinker is Dylan Mulvaney, not Hank Williams Jr.
The reality is that it remains exceedingly rare for a country music singer to do the NFL halftime show. Shania Twain did it over 20 years ago (2003), and she was a pop artist as much as country. Prior to that, in 1994, there was a country assemblage that played together: Clint Black, Tanya Tucker, Travis Tritt, and the Judds. But that’s it, cowboy. We’re talking about a handful of country performers over six decades of Super Bowls, and a mere couple of shows.
Instead, the NFL taps the likes of Bad Bunny and Lady Gaga (last year), or Ricky Martin, Justin Timberlake, Janet Jackson, Katy Perry, Kendrick Lamar, Rihanna, Beyoncé, Eminem, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Madonna, Prince, Jennifer Lopez, Shakira. None of which the hard-hats at the construction site can relate to. The dudes sitting behind me at this Sunday’s Steelers-Browns game would belch as they ask with contempt, “Who in the [BLANK] is Bad Bunny?” As much as they’d otherwise thoroughly enjoy watching Shakira shaking her stuff at some other venue, they’d be buying Primanti Bros. sandwiches or taking a leak in the men’s room sink as she or Lady Gaga pranced around at halftime.
This, however, isn’t something within the mental wherewithal of the folks running the National Football League. Country music is as alien to them as NASCAR. Their image of the typical Budweiser drinker is Dylan Mulvaney, not Hank Williams Jr. No doubt, the NFL’s beta males dub the likes of Jason Aldean, Zach Bryan, Trace Adkins, Blake Shelton, and Chris Stapleton a bunch of hayseeds and hicks and rubes and rednecks. (RELATED: When Virtue Signalers Become Virtue Flaunters)
Get this toxic masculinity away from me!
And yet, the undeniable reality is that the rest of America would have gone wild for, say, Toby Keith belting out “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” at the halftime show of the Super Bowl that followed 9/11. Or the milder but likewise wildly popular Alan Jackson crooning “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning).” But not the suits at the NFL offices. They would throw a hissy fit in the mere presence of Waylon Jennings or Merle Haggard. George Strait sells out stadiums, drawing crowds of over 90,000 at Clemson University in South Carolina and 110,000-plus at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, but if he doesn’t play coffee shops in Greenwich Village, forget it.
Who’s heard of him? The guy wears boots and a cowboy hat! Are you kidding me?
Of course, there’s a simple explanation for this thinking: this cultural blind spot, this self-imposed ignorance. It’s because the NFL office is located not anywhere near its fans in the Midwest, the South, the Rust Belt, but instead, in liberal Manhattan. In fact, worse than that, the headquarters of this sport that’s associated with toughness, with tackling, with hard hits, with teams with names like the Steelers, Bears, Lions, is located on Park Avenue. Yes, that’s 345 Park Avenue, of all places. It’s a place not of coal miners or iron workers but fashion and design and opulence; not the millworker but the metrosexual.
The NFL’s headquarters are just two blocks from the Waldorf Astoria, hundreds of miles from a Detroit auto plant and thousands of miles from a Nebraska or Oklahoma cattle ranch. Kansas? That’s flyover country.
It’s because of that location in Manhattan that Roger Goodell’s cultural revolutionaries celebrate Pride Month and create campaigns like “Football is Gay.” His NFL social-political activists join forces with Black Lives Matter and commit to $250 million campaigns to “combat systemic racism.” (RELATED: Why Pittsburgh Booed Goodell)
The progressive boys at the NFL’s Park Avenue palace couldn’t be farther removed from the locales and values of its most rabid fans.
Those offices ought to be in a city like Buffalo, Green Bay, Indianapolis, Dallas, Pittsburgh. It ought to be in a place like Peoria. I would even suggest a city like Latrobe, Pennsylvania, which is where the first professional football game was played in 1895 (and has long been the site of the Steelers’ training camp). My friend and colleague Salena Zito (a fellow Pittsburgh native) has often made this point, and probably has made it to Roger Goodell directly. Salena actually worked for the Pittsburgh Steelers before she became an influential journalist. Goodell, who often attends Steelers games, was raised near Lake Erie in small-town Jamestown, New York, and attended college at Washington & Jefferson College, which is only 30 miles from the Steelers stadium. He can’t claim ignorance of this environment. (RELATED: Steelers and Faith: The Foundation Behind the Grit of the Gridiron)
In fact, moving westward from Pittsburgh and closer to the Midwest — the Heartland — allows me to narrow this down even more, to another city, an optimal one. Here’s my recommendation for precisely where the NFL’s offices should be moved: Canton, Ohio.
Indeed. Canton is the home of the NFL Hall of Fame. That makes it a natural pick. And it’s very much a place reflective of the NFL’s fanbase. Regular, real America. Not left-wing Manhattan.
An analogy might serve to help here: In the political world, James Piereson, the astute conservative thinker and friend of The American Spectator, argues that to improve the federal government, the nation’s capital should be moved out of D.C. A smart start would be to shift certain departments and bureaus closer to the areas they claim to represent. Think about it: Why in the world is the Department of Agriculture or Department of the Interior or Bureau of Land Management located in Washington, D.C.? Move the Ag. Department somewhere that actually has agriculture. Move the BLM out West to one of the massive states with gazillions of acres of federal land. This would make for better policy — for decisions made by those near the areas affected, and who best understand the product. Not some D.C. bureaucrat who lives off the Beltway and commutes from Arlington. (READ MORE: Let’s Move the Capital. Washington, DC, Squandered Our Trust.)
The same is true for football. If you want a better NFL — or at least those running it — then move it out of Manhattan.
And until then, we shall suffer more ridiculous halftime shows.
READ MORE from Paul Kengor:
A Gala of Ghouls: Joe and Jill’s Planned Parenthood Lovefest
Remembering Iron Mike Ditka
Anti-Italian Discrimination: The Bigotry Behind the Columbus Cancellers
Brewers manager reveals his biggest challenge during championship parade was not peeing himself
A championship parade comes after all the hard work is done … or at least that’s what most of us would think.However, Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy revealed that he was put through a serious endurance test during his team’s victory lap through Cream City (which sounds dirty, but I promise it isn’t … though somewhere out there, it might be. Who knows?).The Brewers’ skipper hopped on stage at the end of the parade route where he took a second to talk to Brewers play-by-play man Brian Anderson.BREWERS’ WORLD SERIES CELEBRATION GETS ROWDY AS STAR MAKES OUTRAGEOUS BEER PROMISE, COACH SINGS KARAOKE”I had to pee as bad as anybody has had to pee,” Murphy said.Now we need to pause for a second because this is something I have never considered about championship parades: it really is an assault on one’s bladder.We all know beer makes pee, but consider the sheer volume of suds you’d consume after winning the World Series.BREWERS CONTINUE WORLD SERIES CELEBRATION, RAISE COMMISSIONER’S TROPHY AT LAMBEAU FIELD DURING PACKERS GAMENow imagine the awful feeling of having to unload like Seabiscuit after a pre-race trough of water, but you’re on a fire truck only halfway through the parade route.Brutal. But Murphy got the job done … or did he?”Good job holding it together,” Anderson said.”I didn’t say I held it together,” replied Murphy.A stroke of brilliance that makes up for not using Jacob Misiorowski to close out Game 4.That’s a great joke to endear you to the crowd that is already in the palm of your hand even more. However, if there really was an accident, it clears your conscience while everyone in the crowd just thinks you’re joshing.What a run Pat Murphy is on.Hopefully someone pointed him in the direction of the shiniest urinal Milwaukee has to offer.
Virginia Family Receives Voting Paperwork for Their Dead Dog ‘Biscuit’ Due to Spanberger Voting Rights ‘Restoration’ Program
Abigail Spanberger speaks to a reporter – Screencap of Twitter/X video.
Imagine receiving an official notification from your state informing you that your dead dog has had their voting rights restored.
That’s just what happened to one family in Virginia. Thanks to a ‘voter rights restoration program’ under Governor Abigail Spanberger and the Virginia Democrats.
If this is a restoration program, does that mean that ‘Biscuit’ had voted in the past?
FOX News reports:
‘Biscuit’ the dog is latest dead felon to get their voting rights back from Spanberger, confused owner says
A Southside Virginia lawmaker is demanding an investigation after a constituent received an official rights-restoration certificate for his dog, Biscuit, a beagle-hound mix from Goochland County that died about five years ago.
The discovery follows the “Betty No Last Name” controversy in Chesapeake — where a purported convict lacking a surname had “her” rights restored — and raises fresh questions about the governor’s vetting process just days before voters decide whether to make felons’ voting-rights restoration automatic via an Election Day ballot measure supported by Richmond Democrats.
Del. Tom Garrett, R-Buckingham — who received the letter from the constituent who owned the pet — is now calling for an investigation into how Gov. Abigail Spanberger could have restored voting and jury-service rights to a deceased animal.
“This is not a question of whether people who have served their sentences deserve a second chance. This is a question of whether the Commonwealth is exercising one of the Governor’s constitutional powers with even the most basic level of review,” Garrett said.
“Biscuit was a dog. Biscuit has been dead for five years. Yet an official document bearing the governor’s signature says the executive reviewed the particulars of Biscuit’s criminal case and determined her rights should be restored. Virginians deserve an explanation for how that is possible.”
You couldn’t make this up.
ALERT: ‘Biscuit,’ a dog who died 5 years ago, receives an official rights restoration certificate, which makes the dead dog eligible to vote in Virginia. pic.twitter.com/bZ3nmjqaP4
— E X X ➠A L E R T S (@ExxAlerts) October 30, 2026
Delegate Garrett confirms Biscuit Rigsby is a DOG. Yet this certificate claims the Executive reviewed Biscuit’s criminal case before restoring his civil rights.
First “Betty No Last Name.” Now Biscuit.
It’s time for the Attorney General to open a criminal investigation. If he… pic.twitter.com/ipjphOUO8P
— Tim Anderson (@AssocAnderson) October 30, 2026
https://t.co/f3JrksHXyh pic.twitter.com/sN5EDF7Boj
— TheFOO (@PolitiBunny) October 30, 2026
Democrats want dead people to vote, why not dead dogs too?
The post Virginia Family Receives Voting Paperwork for Their Dead Dog ‘Biscuit’ Due to Spanberger Voting Rights ‘Restoration’ Program appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Mullin Says DHS Has Presented DOJ a ‘Large Case’ Against Ilhan Omar
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said his department has presented a “large case” to the Justice Department in the federal investigation of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).
The post Mullin Says DHS Has Presented DOJ a ‘Large Case’ Against Ilhan Omar appeared first on Breitbart.
Report: Alaska’s Second Dan Sullivan Leaves Hometown Days Before Election
Daniel J. Sullivan, the independent Alaska Senate candidate accused of entering the race to draw votes from Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, left his hometown days before the election, according to CBS News.
The post Report: Alaska’s Second Dan Sullivan Leaves Hometown Days Before Election appeared first on Breitbart.
“Operation Ghostbusters” Exposes Kenyan Student Loan Scam
“Operation Ghostbusters” Exposes Kenyan Student Loan Scam
The US Department of Justice has announced the first arrests in an ongoing investigation launched in April called “Operation Ghostbusters”, and the results are not surprising.Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald held a press conference this week detailing the discovery of a fraud pipeline exploiting US college loan programs. The underlying fraud relies on “ghost-student” schemes using stolen identities for FAFSA/aid, and has been ongoing since at least 2021. The investigation that grew into Operation Ghostbusters was opened by the FBI’s Richmond Field Office after a referral from the Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General. According to the Justice Department, criminal actors allegedly stole or used personal information of U.S. citizens (often people who had never attended college) to create fraudulent FAFSA accounts. The scammers enroll “ghost students” at colleges and universities as fake enrollees, often through online programs. Then, they apply for federal grants and loans and divert the aid to controlled bank accounts. Five suspects have been arrested in a fraud that has operated since at least 2021. The DOJ has flagged roughly 830,840 potentially fake FSA IDs so far, though it is not yet clear how many such accounts are active vehicles for theft. The FBI is pursuing more than 40 open cases in 2026. Officials estimate at least $200 million US tax dollars have been diverted through student loans for non-existent students. Two Kenyan nationals (Francis Mogambi and an unnamed suspect in Virginia) have been identified in running the scheme, and they have both been living in the US since at least 2024. Officials believe they are part of a larger network of scammers based in Kenya, and they expect that these first arrests are just the beginning of an elaborate web of foreign fraud. Stolen funds were frequently funneled overseas, predominantly to Kenya via U.S.-based “money mules” and crypto accounts. The countries of origin for the three money mules have not been released, but their names are Hispanic (Mabed Patricia Utate-Alberto, Patricia Arisleydi Perez and George Arturo Alfau Mendez). Much like the Somali daycare scandal in Minneapolis, the “ghost student” arrests are likely just a taste of a far greater threat: Third world migrant fraud networks dug in like ticks across the US. This is why immigration is perhaps the single most important issue facing America and the west today. Third worlders view America as a pirate’s paradise, a place to plunder wealth – They do not see America as a place to assimilate and build a new life. Bureaucratic bloat and a lack of immigration controls have made the US a juicy target for fleecing. The Trump administration’s efforts to address the problem are a good start, but it could take years of due diligence to undo the damage that has already been done.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/30/2026 – 23:00
China Secures Massive Discount On Russian Gas As Moscow’s Leverage Weakens
China Secures Massive Discount On Russian Gas As Moscow’s Leverage Weakens
Authored by Eurasianet via OilPrice,Russian government projections show China paying approximately 56% less for Russian natural gas than other foreign customers outside the former Soviet Union in 2026.Chinese companies are advancing major copper, port infrastructure, energy, and technology initiatives across Central Asia.Beijing is strengthening its regional influence through investments, digital connectivity, and partnerships with Central Asian governments.Russia is giving China a huge discount on natural gas purchases, underscoring the Kremlin’s fiscal dependency on Beijing. The Moscow Times (MT), citing Russian Duma documentation, shows that China will pay an average of approximately $248 per thousand cubic meters of pipeline gas in 2026, compared with $562 for Gazprom’s other foreign customers outside the former Soviet Union. That means Beijing is receiving as much as a 56 percent discount on its purchase price. The steep discount appears to be the cost of Beijing’s ongoing political support for the Kremlin’s war effort in Ukraine. Given the Western sanctions regime and the European Union’s efforts to reduce its reliance on Russian gas, China’s purchases are a crucial source of funds needed to keep Russia’s war machine going. Russia hopes to reduce the discounts in the coming years, according to the MT report. To put Russia’s weak negotiating position into context, an estimate published by Carnegie’s Russia Eurasia Center showed China is paying up to $60 per tcm more to Turkmenistan than the Russian purchase price. Meanwhile, talks of creating a “Power of Siberia 2” pipeline have stalled over a pricing dispute, according to Beijing-connected media reports. “It’s much harder for Russian negotiators today,” Sergei Vakulenko, a senior fellow at Carnegie, wrote in the estimate. “On the one hand, the growing confrontation between the United States and China, and the instability in the Middle East, should push China into reducing LNG imports in favor of pipeline gas, which would likely be to Moscow’s advantage,” Vakulenko stated. “On the other hand, the break with Europe has left Gazprom with huge gas reserves in Siberia’s Yamal Peninsula that are ready to be exploited but have no customers, significantly strengthening China’s position.”Central AsiaChinese Premier Li Qiang traveled to Central Asia on October 17-19, visiting Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The tour produced deals with both Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, including for a non-ferrous metallurgy industrial cluster in the Sughd region. For more about Li’s visit, see this Eurasianet report.China’s Institute of East European, Russian, and Central Asian Studies (IREECAS), a major government think tank that informs Beijing’s regional policymaking, co-organized a China-Central Asia forum in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek for regional scholars and experts. The meeting focused on the “preparation of practical recommendations” for regional governments on a wide range of domestic and international policies. IREECAS also held a joint event with Uzbekistan’s presidential think tank, ISRS, in Tashkent, focusing on government efforts to promote artificial intelligence and digital transformation. At the conclusion of the gathering, IREECAS and ISRS announced the signing of a program of joint events and initiatives for 2027. IREECAS’s activities fit into China’s growing push to exert influence on the direction of Central Asian states’ domestic and international policymaking.KazakhstanKazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev launched construction of a $1.8 billion copper smelter at the Aktogay deposit in Kazakhstan’s Abai region. The project, developed by Kazakh mining company KAZ Minerals, with NFC, a subsidiary of China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group (CNMC), is designed to produce 300,000 tons of copper cathodes annually, alongside gold and sulfuric acid, and is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs. First production is scheduled for 2030. Tokayev separately met with CNMC Chairman Wen Gang, who pledged to complete construction on schedule and expand cooperation in workforce training. However, a Chinese corporate disclosure dated October 21 indicates that NFC’s Kazakh entity has signed only a preparatory-work agreement, capped at 4.52 billion tenge (about $10 million), and that the full construction contract remains unsigned. KAZ Minerals and NFC also signed a memorandum of understanding on geological exploration and mineral-resource assessment in Kazakhstan, according to the official state news agency Kazinform. The companies plan to explore the use of remote sensing, geophysical and geochemical surveys, artificial intelligence, and three-dimensional geological modeling to reassess historical geological data and identify potential drilling sites. The memorandum also provides for possible specialist training, joint research, and educational programs, with a cooperation roadmap to be developed. No financial commitments, specific exploration sites, or implementation deadlines were disclosed.Kazakhstan’s national investment holding Baiterek JSC announced the signing of an MoU with the Chinese firm Guoyou Materials Group covering a $1 billion investment to develop the port of Kuryk, a major Middle Corridor hub on the Caspian Sea’s Kazakh shore. The project’s first phase envisions the creation of a multifunctional terminal with a capacity of 15 million tons of cargo per year.Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation reported that 25 Kazakh water-sector specialists are currently participating in training programs in China focused on irrigation modernization, water-saving technologies, digital water management, and small hydropower.Kazakhstan’s Committee for National Security (KNB) reported that it detained 13 Chinese nationals allegedly operating an international online fraud scheme out of Kazakhstan that targeted individuals in other countries. The KNB officials noted that they conducted their investigation jointly with China’s Ministry of Public Security, which identified some suspects as wanted for similar offenses in China. All 13 suspects were transferred to Chinese custody to await prosecution.Kazakhstan received observer status in the China-initiated Alliance for Cultural Heritage in Asia, according to Kazinform. Some observers see the organization as designed to advance state-led historical narratives and promote the strategic use of cultural heritage as a diplomatic tool. Kazakhstan proposed expanding cooperation in the sphere of specialist training, AI-assisted monitoring of cultural heritage sites and joint archaeological research along the Silk Road. No specific funding commitments or projects were announced.UzbekistanUzbekistan’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry held an economic conference in Tashkent with a delegation from the Chinese city of Shihezi in Xinjiang Province to discuss expanding bilateral cooperation, investment, and joint projects. The conference yielded several agreements covering logistics, construction, energy, and technology sectors. No details were immediately disclosed.China is trying to take some energy-sector business away from Russia. The heads of Uzbekistan’s largest state-run oil and gas company, Uzbekneftegaz, and China’s largest oil and gas producer, CNPC, held talks in Tashkent to discuss expanding energy-sector cooperation. CNPC expressed readiness to help Uzbekneftegaz diversify petroleum product supplies and establish a permanent representative office in Tashkent. Russia has reduced its supply of oil-based products to Central Asian states in recent months, due to the destruction of energy infrastructure by Ukrainian drones.TajikistanTajikistan’s national telecom operator, Tajiktelecom, and the PRC’s largest telecom operator, China Mobile, launched the Tajikistan-China International Digital Corridor, a fiber-optic line that runs 1,010 km from Dushanbe through Khorog to the Kulma Pass, where it joins China Mobile’s 6,100 km network to Beijing, Tajik authorities report. The initial capacity is 1 Tbps, but it is expected to rise to 10 Tbps in the coming years. Tajikistan sees it as a step toward its ambition of becoming a hub of the Digital Silk Road and a leading regional AI player.Tajikistan’s Ministry of Energy and Water Resources signed an MoU with Xinjiang Shouhai Power Development, a Chinese energy company, to explore the hydropower potential of the Obihingou River, Tajikistan’s official news agency Khovar reports. According to a Soviet-era assessment, the river has an estimated annual hydropower-generating capacity of 2.6 gigawatts.TurkmenistanAshgabat hosted a trade and economic forum involving companies from the PRC’s Shanxi Province, Orient.tm reports. The forum resulted in the signing of two comparatively minor contracts between Turkmen and Chinese companies.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 10/30/2026 – 22:35
BOMBSHELL: Top Ranking Senate Republican Accuses Chuck Schumer of Colluding With Petola Campaign in ‘Dan Sullivan’ Alaska Scheme
An unhinged Chuck Schumer loses his mind on the Senate floor after hearing President Trump’s response to Democrat treason. Credit: C-SPAN screenshot
The Dan Sullivan scandal in Alaska just got a lot more interesting.
Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, the Senate Majority Whip, is accusing Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of colluding with the Mary Petola campaign for over a year, to place the second ‘Dan Sullivan’ on the ballot.
Barrasso is not a loose canon. He would not be making these allegations publicly without knowledge to back it up.
FOX News reports:
The Senate’s No. 2 Republican believes that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., had a hand in the alleged scheme unfolding in the Alaska Senate race.
Operatives for Rep. Mary Peltola’s Senate campaign, along with top aides in Senate Democrats’ campaign apparatus, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), are alleged to have been involved in creating one of the stranger races this election cycle: finding and recruiting another candidate named Dan Sullivan to run against the incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, R-Alaska, according to reporting from The New York Times.
National Democrats have maintained they had no hand in the move, but Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told Fox News Digital in an interview that he believes the campaign received help from the very top.
“I mean, this is criminal behavior to steal the Alaska Senate race, it’s now been fully exposed,” Barrasso said. “And there is proof that the Peltola campaign knew about it, and that Schumer schemed and colluded with them for over a year to try to search for and then coax a decoy of Dan Sullivan onto the ballot with a purpose only to deceive the voters.”
There isn’t much other reporting about this yet, but there will be. Especially if what Barrasso is saying is accurate.
Schumer could be facing a world of trouble.
The post BOMBSHELL: Top Ranking Senate Republican Accuses Chuck Schumer of Colluding With Petola Campaign in ‘Dan Sullivan’ Alaska Scheme appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
State Department Video Celebrating America’s Christian Heritage Sparks Backlash from Democrats
Prayer and Christian observance have long been part of American government without establishing Christianity as the national religion, a tradition reflected in Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s video highlighting America’s Christian heritage. Image generated by AI.
The State Department’s new video marking International Religious Freedom Day celebrates America’s heritage as a Christian nation. Images of Christopher Columbus and the Pilgrims appear as Secretary of State Marco Rubio declares, “Our faith calls us outward into the limitless darkness of the unknown. It tells us to go forth and preach the gospel to the world as a witness unto all nations and to the end of the earth. From that command came America.”
Democrats have criticized the video, alleging that it violates the separation of church and state and accusing the Trump administration of using an official government channel to promote Christian nationalism.
Rubio continues, “Our nation, more than any other in history, was shaped by this Christian idea.” His narration accompanies historical paintings, including George Washington kneeling in prayer at Valley Forge and Washington presiding over the Constitutional Convention. The video closes with Rubio declaring that the soul of the nation has always been rooted in an ancient faith.
The video draws on a longer video address Rubio recorded for Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise and Thanksgiving. Trump announced the event at the February National Prayer Breakfast, and it was held on the National Mall on May 17, 2026, as part of the nation’s 250th-anniversary celebrations.
In that address, Rubio traced Christianity’s influence on America through several historical examples, including the Continental Congress’s May 17, 1776, day of fasting and prayer, John Winthrop’s 1630 “city upon a hill” sermon, Christian missionaries during westward expansion, Samuel Morse’s first telegraph message, “What hath God wrought?”, and the Apollo 8 astronauts’ Christmas Eve 1968 reading from Genesis while orbiting the Moon.
California state Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democratic candidate for Nancy Pelosi’s congressional seat, posted on October 28, “This is an official United States government account promoting the Christian gospel.”
Oklahoma state Rep. Mickey Dollens, a Democrat from Oklahoma City and regional governmental affairs manager for the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a national organization of atheists and agnostics, challenged the historical accuracy of The Prayer at Valley Forge, Arnold Friberg’s 1975 painting depicting Washington kneeling in prayer beside his horse.
The Museum of the American Revolution traces the story to Mason Locke Weems, an evangelical preacher and biographer whom it characterizes as more of a storyteller than a historian. According to Weems, a Quaker named Isaac Potts witnessed Washington praying in the woods. However, the museum notes that Potts spent the winter of 1777–1778 in Pottstown, 20 miles from Valley Forge.
The lack of reliable documentation for that particular incident does not mean Washington never prayed. His religious practices, references to Providence, and calls for public prayer and thanksgiving are well documented.
Dollens also questioned the image of Washington presiding over the Constitutional Convention. On June 28, 1787, Benjamin Franklin proposed that delegates open each day’s proceedings with prayer, but the Convention did not adopt the motion.
Nevertheless, religious observances were common in public life during the founding era. The Continental Congress recommended national days of prayer, while references to God and divine providence appeared in official proclamations and other founding-era documents.
The dispute raises the question of whether a government video celebrating Christianity’s influence on American history infringes on the religious freedom of Americans who follow other faiths or none at all.
The video does not require Americans to practice Christianity, attend church, profess belief in God, or participate in religious ceremonies. Nor does it prevent Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, or members of other groups from practicing their beliefs.
The First Amendment contains two protections concerning religion. The Free Exercise Clause protects religious practice, and the Establishment Clause limits the government’s ability to establish or sponsor religion.
Rubio’s critics are raising an Establishment Clause objection. They argue that the State Department is using an official platform to identify Christianity with American national identity, in addition to acknowledging historical facts. That objection differs from a claim that the video prevents anyone from practicing another religion.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that government references to religion do not automatically amount to an unconstitutional establishment of religion. In American Legion (2019), the Court upheld the display and maintenance of a large Christian cross on public land in Maryland, emphasizing the monument’s historical significance.
In Kennedy v. Bremerton (2022), the Court ruled for a public high school football coach disciplined for praying after games. In that case, it abandoned the Lemon and endorsement tests in favor of historical practices and understandings, and emphasized protecting religious expression from government interference.
Neither decision addressed an official government video presenting a religious interpretation of American history. The Rubio video is government speech, not a private individual’s religious expression, so the constitutional questions differ from those in Kennedy. The decisions do show that Christian imagery or religious language in a government setting is not, by itself, enough to establish a constitutional violation.
The controversy highlights the distinction between the religious beliefs of America’s founders and the constitutional government they established. The Declaration of Independence invokes a Creator and divine providence, while the Constitution does not establish a national religion. Article VI prohibits religious tests for federal office, and the First Amendment protects religious freedom while restricting government establishment of religion. These provisions have coexisted with a long history of public religious expression by American political leaders.
International Religious Freedom Day commemorates the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, which established mechanisms for the United States to promote religious liberty internationally and respond to persecution of believers and nonbelievers alike.
Rubio’s examples illustrate Christianity’s influence on American political, cultural, and scientific history. Democrats and secular advocacy groups contend that the State Department has gone beyond acknowledging that heritage by using an official government platform to promote Christianity. However, the involvement of organizations such as the Freedom From Religion Foundation raises a broader question of whether the opposition is limited to government religious endorsement or extends to official recognition of America’s Christian historical foundations.
Congressional Democrats have repeatedly challenged the characterization of America as a Christian nation. In September 2025, Reps. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona, Jared Huffman of California, and Jamie Raskin of Maryland introduced H.Res. 773, which recognizes church-state separation as a founding principle and opposes what it calls “extreme right-wing Christian nationalism.” The resolution had attracted 20 cosponsors by March 2026.
On July 2, 2026, Huffman introduced H.Res. 1415, celebrating the country’s history of church-state separation ahead of its 250th anniversary. The resolution responded to a draft report from Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, whose members, according to Huffman’s office, endorsed the claim that America was founded as a Christian nation.
“The Constitution doesn’t belong to Christian nationalists, and it doesn’t belong to Donald Trump,” Huffman declared. The resolution’s cosponsors included Reps. Julia Brownley, Suzanne Bonamici, Sean Casten, and Gil Cisneros. Raskin warned against using government authority to impose “white Christian nationalism.”
The dispute over Rubio’s video reflects a broader disagreement over America’s religious identity. While Democrats and secular organizations argue that official recognition of Christianity risks promoting a particular faith, the historical examples cited by Rubio remain part of America’s documented past. The central controversy is whether the federal government can celebrate that heritage without crossing the constitutional boundary between religious acknowledgment and religious establishment.
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