Hey everyone,

Welcome to State of the Day,

A red jersey isn’t a governing philosophy,

Presented by: Kailo

Kailo: The Remedy For Pain Anywhere On Your Body

For swimmers it’s the shoulder, for runners it’s the knees, and for seniors well, it could be anywhere. Aches, pains, soreness and stiffness can strike various parts of the body — but with Kailo, you’ll be prepared no matter where it hurts! This reusable pain patch that sticks onto your skin (anywhere there’s pain) and peels off without leaving residue. Put it on your tennis elbow, sore lower back or any place you need it.

• Non-habit forming because Kailo is drug-free

• Saves you money vs. other wraps and bandages because it’s reusable

• Works 20X faster than painkillers, relieving pain in as little as 60 seconds

• Great for swimmers, joggers and bodybuilders because it’s waterproof

Become one of the millions who’ve turned to Kailo for fast, reliable pain relief!

Click HERE to get a special deal on Kailo!

---

Republicans Deserve To Lose Tonight

The time has come, folks … if Republicans have earned anything, it’s a defeat.

Allow me to explain.

The American political system has devolved into a glorified college football rivalry. You pick a team, throw on their jersey, defend every bad call, and, most importantly, stick by them no matter what. And when your team loses? Blame everything but the players: the ref, weather, field, schedule, anything.

I’m all for die-hard fans, just not in politics. The people who lead the free world face far higher stakes than a football game, and when a political party is put above common sense, politicians stop caring about results because they know the crowd will cheer regardless.

That’s a blank check for reckless behavior in Washington and a horrible deal for the American people.

Republicans ran a compelling campaign in 2024. They wanted lower prices, an end to endless wars, and a healthier food supply, to name a few. Two years later, how’s that working out?

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Hey y’all, welcome back to Unfit to Print.

TRICK OR THIEVERY

Halloween used to be the one night a year where kids were encouraged to take candy from strangers.

Now we have to watch out for parents and their unruly offspring trying to steal it.

Videos circulating on social media show a disturbing trend: hordes of children of a certain demographic swiping entire buckets of candy, trashing Halloween displays, and generally behaving like assholes.

Even worse, some of their parents encouraged this behavior. One black mother allegedly stole 40 juice boxes and entire buckets of candy and when her son tried to give the candy back she stopped him and drove off. In another video, a black family cries racism after they’re asked to leave a neighborhood they went trick-or-treating in because they were stealing all of the treats.

Luckily I didn’t encounter this problem in my neighborhood. But something else happened on Halloween night that had me deeply concerned about our nation’s children.

Read more

Hey everyone,

Welcome to State of the Day,

Winning is one thing. Governing is another.

Presented by: Kailo

Kailo: The Remedy For Pain Anywhere On Your Body

For swimmers it’s the shoulder, for runners it’s the knees, and for seniors well, it could be anywhere. Aches, pains, soreness and stiffness can strike various parts of the body — but with Kailo, you’ll be prepared no matter where it hurts! This reusable pain patch that sticks onto your skin (anywhere there’s pain) and peels off without leaving residue. Put it on your tennis elbow, sore lower back or any place you need it.

• Non-habit forming because Kailo is drug-free

• Saves you money vs. other wraps and bandages because it’s reusable

• Works 20X faster than painkillers, relieving pain in as little as 60 seconds

• Great for swimmers, joggers and bodybuilders because it’s waterproof

Become one of the millions who’ve turned to Kailo for fast, reliable pain relief!

Click HERE to get a special deal on Kailo!

---

Election Night Won’t Fix Either Party

Tomorrow’s a big day for the union … I’m excited, and I hope you are too. There’s plenty of noise about a blue wave or a surprise Republican showing, but beyond which party comes out on top, both sides face an unavoidable reckoning.

Democrats have spent the last two years focusing their messaging on President Trump, and honestly, it’s worked.

The Iran War, gas prices, tariffs, allegations of rampant corruption — the White House has given the left lots to work with. However, they’ve been able to focus on politics, not policy, because in 2024 voters handed Republicans a trifecta in the Capital.

Now, most election forecasters agree Democrats will, at the very minimum, take control of the House, meaning come January it’ll be time for Congressional Democrats to start legislating again.

And while there’s been lots of talk about the schism on the right, a similar phenomenon is happening on the left — ironically enough, over many of the same issues.

Read more

Election Day is tomorrow. What happens after a blue wave? Poland may provide a preview.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin’s creepy and un-American screed in which she advocated for punishing young people for the crime of working for the Trump administration (“I want that deterrence message sent”) put Republicans on notice. Slotkin hinted she would like to seek prison sentences of up to 20 years for some Trump appointees.

The former (?) CIA officer has invoked Poland’s liberal Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his “iron broom” to “clean up” rightwing populism.

But just days before Americans go to the polls, Poland is undergoing a constitutional crisis.

Tusk — under the banner of “restoring the rule of law” — attempted to strengthen his grip over the country’s constitutional court.

Tusk’s 2023 election victory hinged on undoing the Law and Justice Party’s (PiS) changes, which emphasize patriotic sovereignty over European Union centralization. Promises made, promises kept: The PiS had resisted the EU’s changes to Poland’s high court. But a Tusk ally, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, tried to forcibly unseat its PiS-aligned chief justice while President Karol Nawrocki, allied with the PiS party, was out of the country.

The hostile takeover got physical when Nawrocki returned and tried to enter the court building and was shoved back by Korwin-Piotrowska and a police cordon. He eventually got inside anyway. He held crisis talks at the presidential palace, but members of Tusk’s coalition reportedly didn’t show up.

Tusk has used the term “demokracja walcząca,” militant democracy, implying the ends of “saving democracy” justify any undemocratic means.

The parallels between the efforts to defang PiS in Warsaw and “Trump-proof” Washington are too obvious to miss: Tusk co-wrote a book with Trump critic, “authoritarianism expert” and globalist par excellence Anne Applebaum.

If Democrats win control of Congress and wield committee gavels, will they simply be fulfilling their checks-and-balances duty to oversee the Executive Branch?

Or is Slotkin’s invocation of Tusk’s “iron broom” a sign that some Democrats are engaged in the same winner-takes-all, take-no-prisoners battle to criminalize the MAGA movement and right-wing populism? And does it lead to the same chaos?

As Poland faces a constitutional crisis, French riots roll into their third week, and Brazilian opposition leaders leave the country, the Free World has become a tinderbox — and the left has shown that they’re eager to light it.

Read more

Welcome back to Good Life, a newsletter about navigating our modern culture and staying sane in the process. This weekend, we get into the spooky feeling!

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I’ve never really cared too much about Halloween. It’s always been a take-it-or-leave-it kind of holiday for me. After we had the girls, I put a lot more effort into making it fun because I liked seeing them get excited. The house is always decorated; we plan fun menus and costumes, and of course, there is the obligatory trick-or-treating.

Over the years, I found myself getting more and more excited about October because I knew Halloween was right around the corner. This feeling has only grown since I moved back to Texas because Halloween at our house became a family tradition. I look forward to the moment my nieces and nephews come to the door in their costumes and big, bright smiles, eager to see the decorations we put up around the house.

This year will be no different. My parents, sisters, brothers-in-law, and all of the little cousins are coming over. In fact, as you are reading this, my husband is putting the final touches on his famous chili, which he lovingly (read: annoyingly) calls meat soup. I’m not even sure how his chili became such an integral part of our Halloween celebration, but now it just doesn’t feel like spooky season without it. Just to drive that point home. We follow the traditional Catholic schedule of no meat on Fridays year-round, not just during Lent. So when Halloween fell on Friday last year, we all felt down about not having it.

It’s funny to me that my sister says my England-born-and-raised husband makes the best Texas chili she’s ever had.

I was thinking the other day about how drastically my feelings toward Halloween have changed over the years. I was trying to make sense of it all when I realized the holiday itself isn’t what gets me so excited. It’s that it marks the start of the season when, no matter what else is going on in our lives, I know I will be spending time with my family. We see each other all the time, but the memories we make between October and January every year are some of the most precious moments living in my heart. It’s like the troubles of the world fade away and are replaced by laughter in an intensity that just isn’t there the rest of the year.

Maybe I’m getting more sentimental as the girls get older, and it becomes increasingly apparent that they will not be little forever. But really, I think the more the world feels like it’s spinning out of control, the more I focus inward on what really matters. There’s a lost art in taking the extra effort to create memories. Everything is always so rushed, and corners are cut.

Read more

An American folk hero was born under the fluorescent lights of a nondescript grocery store in Michigan.

In a viral rant reminiscent of Rick Santelli’s famous “Chicago Tea Party” moment during the Obama years, a Red Baron employee, identified as “Walt,” stood down a group of internet-addled goons and let it fly. It began when the kid filming the video took out his iPhone, pretended to scan an item that Walt was placing into a grocery store fridge, and then claimed that he stole $10 using Apple Pay and that he really needed the money. Unsurprisingly, his voice had a slow, drawn-out cadence, leading one to suspect he was high as a kite. As Walt quickly grew frustrated, the kid kept insisting it was a “joke.”

“I don’t have time for this crap right now, okay? My life is hard enough as it is. I’ve got kids at home who went to bed without me right now,” Walt said. His voice grew louder. “I was supposed to be home an hour ago. I’m still out here working. And I got to get up at 5 in the morning and do ten more stores! So this is not a joke to me!” The livestreamer makes a half-hearted attempt at an apology, but it is already way too late. Walt continued: “I’ve got a mortgage. And I’ve got four kids at home! So not funny!”

If you’re like me, the video makes you sick to your stomach. Only sadists would find this even remotely amusing, as no one with any sense of decency wants to watch a stressed-out family man get harassed in the late hours of the night as he finishes up a grueling shift. Thankfully, though, this story has a wonderful twist. Like all good stories, it shows the very worst in humans, but it also shows the very best. It also shows how the internet and social media have ruined society, but can still, in rare instances, provide an antidote to the emotional destruction it has caused.

What Rubs Me The Wrong Way: Public ‘Pranksters’

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Hey everyone,

Welcome to State of the Day,

Nothing says independent media like a little sponsored damage control,

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Kailo: The Remedy For Pain Anywhere On Your Body

For swimmers it’s the shoulder, for runners it’s the knees, and for seniors well, it could be anywhere. Aches, pains, soreness and stiffness can strike various parts of the body — but with Kailo, you’ll be prepared no matter where it hurts! This reusable pain patch that sticks onto your skin (anywhere there’s pain) and peels off without leaving residue. Put it on your tennis elbow, sore lower back or any place you need it.

• Non-habit forming because Kailo is drug-free

• Saves you money vs. other wraps and bandages because it’s reusable

• Works 20X faster than painkillers, relieving pain in as little as 60 seconds

• Great for swimmers, joggers and bodybuilders because it’s waterproof

Become one of the millions who’ve turned to Kailo for fast, reliable pain relief!

Click HERE to get a special deal on Kailo!

---

Ben Shapiro Has Reached New Lows Of Self-Awareness

The Daily Wire has built a media empire telling its audience who’s lying, who’s corrupt, and which countries are our greatest allies. But when the people keeping the lights on find themselves in hot water, a studio, camera crew, and an hour of airtime suddenly appear to tell their side of the story.

Enter Ben Shapiro and Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour.

Utah dropped 14 criminal counts against the prediction-market company and its co-founders Wednesday, accusing them of promoting illegal online gambling. What else happened Wednesday? Shapiro released an hour-long interview with Mansour, giving the exec a platform to explain why his company is actually … a force for good?

I’ve always said the best thing we can do for young men is introduce them to crippling gambling habits. Glad Ben gets it too.

Shapiro said the interview was recorded 48 hours before Utah announced the criminal charges. But don’t be mistaken; this was no coincidence.

Utah had already announced the suit against Kalshi over its sports contracts earlier this month, so the CEO knew the site was in its crosshairs.

Releasing the interview the same day the charges dropped, the Daily Wire had a fresh, polished defense of Kalshi’s business model straight from the CEO ready to go just as the company’s legal troubles became a national headline.

Crisis PR firms everywhere — take notes.

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Hey y’all, welcome back to Unfit to Print.

DIVERSITY’S DEAD END

Getting rejected for a job sucks. Getting rejected for 500 is downright brutal.

But imagine spending your career promoting DEI only to discover that even the DEI industry doesn’t want to hire you.

That’s the unfortunate predicament of one former Biden administration bureaucrat, whose plight has apparently moved the Washington Post to tears.

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Wall Street’s favorite monsters have some very powerful friends in the Beltway…

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Kailo: The Remedy For Pain Anywhere On Your Body

For swimmers it’s the shoulder, for runners it’s the knees, and for seniors well, it could be anywhere. Aches, pains, soreness and stiffness can strike various parts of the body — but with Kailo, you’ll be prepared no matter where it hurts! This reusable pain patch that sticks onto your skin (anywhere there’s pain) and peels off without leaving residue. Put it on your tennis elbow, sore lower back or any place you need it.

• Non-habit forming because Kailo is drug-free

• Saves you money vs. other wraps and bandages because it’s reusable

• Works 20X faster than painkillers, relieving pain in as little as 60 seconds

• Great for swimmers, joggers and bodybuilders because it’s waterproof

Become one of the millions who’ve turned to Kailo for fast, reliable pain relief!

Click HERE to get a special deal on Kailo!

The Swamp’s Favorite Wall Street Monsters

Private equity, the industry built around buying businesses, restructuring them, and selling them for a profit, has got lawmakers on the Hill antsy again.

But don’t get your hopes up.

These firms — the closest thing to real-life monsters on Wall Street — have massive impacts on the businesses they swallow up. For decades, critics have argued firms are more interested in squeezing every last dollar out of a company, leaving things like long-term viability, customer satisfaction, and cultural significance on the back burner.

Now, a few starry-eyed lawmakers want to put the brakes on the profit machine.

Congress did pass a bipartisan housing law this year that restricts these types of firms from buying up single-family homes. But hidden in the fine print is a parting gift: institutional investors get to keep the homes they’ve already bought.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren also reintroduced her Stop Wall Street Looting Act, which would make private equity firms responsible for certain debts and liabilities of the businesses they take over. She’s even teamed up with Republican Sen. Josh Hawley on a separate bill targeting consolidation in health care.

But hold your horses. Before you get excited that Washington might actually be fixing a problem for once, let’s look at their track record with these guys.

Read more

Hey y’all, welcome back to Unfit to Print.

STOP NOTICING THINGS

If you want to prove how easy it is to commit voter fraud in Minnesota, you may want to get a lawyer first.

Conservative activists James O’Keefe and Cam Higby learned that the hard way Wednesday when a Democrat prosecutor slapped them with felony charges of unlawful voting and identity theft.

Their alleged crime was committing an act of journalism.

Read more

The rise and fall of great fast-food brands has become a story all too familiar to American consumers. Once upon a time, an intrepid entrepreneur and artisan perfected a recipe, opened a restaurant, figured out how to scale the business, opened more locations, and quickened service without sacrificing the quality recipes and ingredients that made the restaurant popular to begin with. But just as families are always rising and falling in America, so are its fast food chains.

Long after the founder has passed away, the chains are eventually sold off to big corporations or private equity groups. Although new locations crop up in every corner of America and even the globe, the quality plummets dramatically. The meal you ate as a kid becomes something else entirely. The service, too.

More and more Americans have taken notice of this dispiriting trend in the restaurant and fast-food industries, a process commonly referred to as “crapification.” As the list of private equity-backed and corporate chains continues to grow, consumers are seeing (and tasting) the negative effects of what happens when a company engages in short-term thinking and tries to squeeze out every last cent of profit for its Wall Street investors.

One Wendy’s fan recently remarked on Reddit, “Worst fries in fast food. Worst customer satisfaction in fast food. Even the chicken nuggets are hollow. I used to get a big thick juicy burger here, now its paper thin sad looking sandwiches. What in the hell happened?!” The popular burger joint Whataburger, originally based in Texas, has experienced a decline — at least to some disgruntled consumers on Reddit. Some are beginning to question whether the chain’s 2019 sale to the private equity firm BDT Capital Partners, based in Chicago, had anything to do with it.

But thankfully, not all American fast-food chains have allowed themselves to be devoured by private equity. As it happens, these chains continue to steadily grow while still churning out delicious and affordable meals. It might actually be their stubborn, admirable refusals to get sucked into the crapification trend that sets them apart from their competitors.

Continue reading to learn about:

• In-N-Out: Why its owner refuses to sell out to private equity and is determined to preserve what makes the chain special.

• Chick-Fil-A: How the family-owned chain continues to grow conservatively without compromising its commitment to customer service.

• Raising Cane’s: Why its founder believes private equity is destroying the quality of American fast food.

Read more

Welcome back to Good Life, a newsletter about navigating our modern culture and staying sane in the process. This week, we get a little fatherly advice from Rocky Balboa!

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It’s been a couple of weeks since my husband and I returned from our hunting trip to Idaho. You’ve heard all about it in previous newsletters, but there is one conversation that I wasn’t planning on writing about until a friend sent me the USA Today interview with Sylvester Stallone.

Between the hunts, we would be back at the lodge, waiting to go out again. We shared the lodge with other hunters, so we would all naturally congregate in the sitting room to talk about what animals we saw and where, and life in general. One afternoon, we talked to another hunter who had sons. He owns a couple of very successful businesses. My husband asked whether his sons were interested in taking over or whether he planned to include them in the business. To our surprise and my obvious disappointment, he said no.

I wear my emotions on my face. You always know what I am thinking and probably should never take me to a poker game. Predictably, the man noticed my visceral reaction to his “no.” He then inquired about my reaction, asking if we would do it differently.

I’m never one to shy away from giving my opinion if asked, so I bluntly said that there is nothing wrong with a little nepotism. He laughed and explained that, in his view, he built these companies from nothing and that if his children wanted to live the same life as him, they would have to do the same.

“I’m not just going to hand them something that already works. They’ll have to earn their own way in life.”

I’m not sure my head spun a full 360 when he said that, but it sure felt that way, and given his reaction, it might have actually. Here’s the problem with that statement. It’s not that I don’t believe a child should have to work hard and succeed on their own merit. No parent is required to support a child refusing to thrive. However, there is a big difference between enforcing a proper work ethic and discipline and forcing a child down a hard path when another option exists.

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Hey everyone,

Welcome to State of the Day,

Time to inject a little red, white, and blue into your veins,

Presented by: Kailo

Kailo: The Remedy For Pain Anywhere On Your Body

For swimmers it’s the shoulder, for runners it’s the knees, and for seniors well, it could be anywhere. Aches, pains, soreness and stiffness can strike various parts of the body — but with Kailo, you’ll be prepared no matter where it hurts! This reusable pain patch that sticks onto your skin (anywhere there’s pain) and peels off without leaving residue. Put it on your tennis elbow, sore lower back or any place you need it.

• Non-habit forming because Kailo is drug-free

• Saves you money vs. other wraps and bandages because it’s reusable

• Works 20X faster than painkillers, relieving pain in as little as 60 seconds

• Great for swimmers, joggers and bodybuilders because it’s waterproof

Become one of the millions who’ve turned to Kailo for fast, reliable pain relief!

Click HERE to get a special deal on Kailo!

Call It Soccer. You Can Suck It, China.

There’s already plenty of reason to believe American football is the only real football, but if you need any more reassurance, look no further than the reaction and apologies that followed Kylian Mbappé’s joke about Mao Zedong.

Real Madrid’s star forward appeared in a backstage interview for a French online show, where they asked him about his favorite meme of himself. He picked one depicting him as a Chinese dictator, apparently referencing Mao Zedong.

First of all, really funny; second, Mbappe isn’t Chinese; and third, Mao Zedong is dead and evil, so who cares.

But alas, within days, the soccer star and La Liga’s president issued official apologies. That was, of course, after Chinese sponsors pulled the plug on the French player (or perhaps the CCP volun-told the companies to do so.)

All because someone made a funny joke about Mao Zedong.

The guy contributed to the deaths of tens of millions of people. Mao’s kill count surpasses Hitler and Stalin; he’s got them by more than 25 million bodies.

But we shouldn’t be surprised. This is exactly what happens when global corporations get a taste of that sweet Chinese revenue: the CCP’s demands become the same as their own.

And soccer isn’t the only sport guilty of this communist grifting.

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Hey y’all, welcome back to Unfit to Print.

BLACK VICTIMHOOD IS A TEAM SPORT

Most three-year-olds are still learning how to tie their shoes but a young soccer sensation is already dribbling circles around his opponents.

Unfortunately, Nevada Pierre’s parents have apparently already taught him another one of America’s favorite pastimes: making everything about race.

The pint-sized Florida phenom went viral Monday, but not for his soccer skills. According to child entertainer Ms. Rachel, the young boy was “kicked out of the league” because he is “too good at soccer.”

“The police were called on a 3 year old Black boy because he’s too good at soccer,” Ms. Rachel said on Instagram. “The cops showed up at the game.”

Former NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III jumped in and called the situation ridiculous.

There was a problem with the story, though.

It wasn’t true — at least not the version that the internet racial grievance crowd was telling.

Read more

Today marks one year since we launched State of the Day on Substack. It’s been a hell of a ride so far, and much of the credit goes to you, our readers. Thanks for being here.

If you thought this year was something, brace yourself. The year ahead is shaping up to be just as, if not more, consequential, and we’ll be here to cover it all.

The Iran War: Will it drag on, escalate, and put American lives and interests at greater risk? What will it mean for our national security, economy, and reputation abroad?

The Midterms: Will Republicans hold on to power, or will voters give them a brutal reality check?

Artificial Intelligence: Technological advancements have human consequences. Will the working man become obsolete? Must humans fall for technology to rise?

The Economy: Costs are going up, and so are calls for socialism. How do economic failures affect the everyday American?

Corruption and Abuse of Power: Why do the elites get a free pass? Whether the people in question are in the current administration, the opposition, or somewhere in between, we’ll follow the facts wherever they lead.

If any of these issues matter to you, keep reading. If you want the most out of State of the Day, become a paid subscriber.

This week, we’re offering 40% off monthly and annual subscriptions (that’s $6/month for a full year, or $60 for the entire year when you pay annually).

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Hey everyone,

Welcome to State of the Day,

The GOP’s latest Happy Meal is sending voters home hungry…

Presented by: Kailo

Kailo: The Remedy For Pain Anywhere On Your Body

For swimmers it’s the shoulder, for runners it’s the knees, and for seniors well, it could be anywhere. Aches, pains, soreness and stiffness can strike various parts of the body — but with Kailo, you’ll be prepared no matter where it hurts! This reusable pain patch that sticks onto your skin (anywhere there’s pain) and peels off without leaving residue. Put it on your tennis elbow, sore lower back or any place you need it.

• Non-habit forming because Kailo is drug-free

• Saves you money vs. other wraps and bandages because it’s reusable

• Works 20X faster than painkillers, relieving pain in as little as 60 seconds

• Great for swimmers, joggers and bodybuilders because it’s waterproof

Become one of the millions who’ve turned to Kailo for fast, reliable pain relief!

Click HERE to get a special deal on Kailo!

Mike Lawler Put The Fries In The Bag. But It’s Not 2024 Anymore

Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, fighting to keep his congressional seat, tried to recreate one of the most memorable moments from Trump’s 2024 campaign: his stint working at McDonald’s.

Unfortunately for Lawler, the sequel was nothing compared to the original.

When Trump donned the apron at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s, it became one of the defining images of the 2024 election. It was a bit ridiculous, entertaining, and quintessentially Trump. But beneath the spectacle, it reinforced an important political message: Trump understood the Americans forgotten by Washington.

Two years later, Republicans seem to have forgotten that last bit.

Trump’s McDonald’s stunt wasn’t meant to prove to voters that he could make a mean McDouble. It showed that, contrary to the political establishment, he understood voters’ struggles and would actually do something about it.

That promise helped deliver the GOP a trifecta in the swamp. Voters wanted lower prices, MAHA, an end to endless wars, and a government that put their interests before corporate lobbyists and political insiders.

Republicans had an opportunity to turn that coalition into a lasting political realignment. All they had to do was deliver.

Spoiler warning: they didn’t.

Instead, the GOP has spent much of its time in power undermining the very thing that got them there.

MAHA supporters bristled at the administration’s order to boost domestic glyphosate production; another war in the Middle East is squeezing Americans’ wallets; and some of the loudest advocates of mass deportations are accusing the White House of hiding statistics on the effort.

Meanwhile, many elected Republican officials have traded policymaking for loyalty, defending the White House instead of giving voters a compelling reason to keep them in power.

That leaves Republicans in a bind.

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They can’t distance themselves from Trump after spending the last two years defending him. But they also can’t run back the 2024 playbook.

They’re no longer the outsiders promising to fix Washington. They’re the establishment they promised would finally be held accountable.

Republicans want the political benefits of Trump’s populist messaging without delivering on the policy.

That’s why Lawler’s McDonald’s moment falls flat. The apron is the same, but the political appetite has disappeared.

And the man at the top isn’t making things any easier.

At a Sunday rally in Georgia, Trump encapsulated many people’s frustrations with the current administration. The president acknowledged advisors had warned him against talking about the country’s oil profits while Americans were getting hammered at the pump.

In other words, don’t brag about oil companies getting rich while Americans are paying a fortune just to get to work.

But, in true Trump fashion, he said it anyway:

“I don’t give a damn. I’m gonna say it. We’re making a freaking fortune.”

From The Editors’ Desk

Why So Many Men Aren’t Working — Keith Humphreys and Brent Orrell, The Atlantic

Some 6.7 million working-age American men have dropped out of the labor force, but a shortage of jobs may not be the problem. The Atlantic argues that video games, porn, weed and sports betting have made it easier than ever for men to check out of working life. The average jobless man now spends five and a half hours a day watching TV and movies alone.

Businesses Warn Another Round Of Price Increases Could Be Coming — Jack McGeever, Daily Caller News Foundation

Americans still reeling from inflation could be in for another round of sticker shock. Businesses are warning that rising energy costs, tariffs and expensive shipping could force them to hike prices as existing contracts expire. Gas prices already jumped 9.1% in September, and the Federal Reserve’s latest report suggests more pain could be on the way for consumers.

Republicans race to avoid a civil war over Israel — Shelby Talcott, Semafor

The GOP’s growing divide over Israel could become a major headache for JD Vance in 2028. While Trump remains firmly aligned with Netanyahu, Vance is trying to thread the needle between pro-Israel hawks and an increasingly skeptical America First wing. Semafor reports that frustration with Netanyahu is simmering even inside the White House, while younger Republican voters are far less supportive of the Israeli government than their elders.

How Florida Took the Lead in Battling Big Tech — Arian Campos-Flores, Wall Street Journal

Florida is becoming ground zero for the fight against Big Tech, and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis isn’t waiting for Washington’s permission. His administration has gone after Meta, Discord and OpenAI over concerns about child safety, privacy and AI harms. The Wall Street Journal reports that Florida’s aggressive approach is putting it at odds with President Trump’s preference for keeping government regulation of AI to a minimum.

Democrats Are Losing Trust in Mail-In Ballots — Natalie Fertig, Washington Sun

After years of defending mail-in voting, some Democrats are suddenly souring on the practice. Fears that Trump could interfere with ballot delivery are driving more voters to cast their ballots in person, the Washington Sun reports. In Ohio, absentee ballot requests are down 28% compared to 2022, while early in-person voting has surged 196%.

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Hey y’all, welcome back to Unfit to Print.

THE DEVIL’S NEW PLAYGROUND

The devil works hard, but apparently artificial intelligence works harder.

Last week, Denver Archbishop James Golka asked Father Chad Ripperger, a prominent Catholic exorcist, to take a yearlong break from public speaking and interviews.

No one seems to have told his AI impersonator.

While watching YouTube over the weekend, my husband encountered a video that looked and sounded exactly like Fr. Ripperger.

In the video, the Fr. Ripperger clone warned that having mirrors facing your bed could open a demonic portal, allowing evil spirits to enter and confuse your mind while you sleep.

As a practicing Catholic and a fan of Fr. Ripperger, Msgr. Stephen Rossetti, Fr. Carlos Martins, and other prominent exorcists, I was confused. I’ve watched a lot of podcasts and read a lot of books about demonic possession. None of them mentioned mirrors.

After some digging, I discovered the video came from an apparently AI-generated YouTube channel using Ripperger’s name and likeness. It had amassed thousands of subscribers and dozens of videos purporting to share his spiritual teachings.

I couldn’t find any evidence of Ripperger himself ever warning that mirrors are spiritual portals.

But guess where I did find such advice?

A website called Occult World.

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Hey everyone,

Welcome to State of the Day,

The bots may not be conscious yet, but our brains are on the menu.

AI Was Supposed To Replace Us. Now Our Brains Are Inside Data Centers

Your utility bills are climbing, sprawling data centers are swallowing your communities, and residents are fighting desperately to keep these industrial behemoths out of their backyards, all to fuel an AI boom that threatens to make more and more of us replaceable.

And as if replacing human beings weren’t enough, the clankers are being built with pieces of us.

Yes, you read that right.

The National University of Singapore is now home to 20 biological computing units that make up an experimental biological data center — a nauseating phrase in and of itself, but the details are somehow worse.

They’re using millions of living, human-derived neurons to process information. We’re not just talking about conventional computer chips, but actual human neurons grown from stem cells in a lab, connected to electrodes on silicon chips and kept alive by a dedicated life-support system.

I’ve watched quite a few sci-fi movies in my time (Alien is one of the best movies ever made) but somehow, a real-life data center has managed to make my skin crawl more than any horror flick.

And here’s the part that should really give you nightmares: The cells can learn.

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Welcome to your weekly Drain Pipe, a guide to what’s driving the news in The Swamp.

By now we’ve become well acquainted with the Deep State. For a decade or more, it’s become clear that some of the most important power players in Washington are people you’ve never heard of. America has been riven by power hungry middle managers with Bruce Springsteen T-shirts and Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History bumper stickers.

On Friday, the Department of Justice indicted Nikki Floris, the head of former FBI Director Christopher Wray’s Foreign Influence Task Force, the Orwellian name for Wray’s internal team downplaying tips that may substantiate President Donald Trump’s concerns about election interference and neutering factual information about Hunter Biden’s laptop as Russian disinformation. (“I am basically running a shadow government inside the FBI right now,” Floris told her colleague, an FBI official who prepared the President’s Daily Brief for Trump.)

Floris assured Congress under oath she did not have any knowledge of the Laptop From Hell — a big fat fib, the New York Post’s Miranda Devine reports.

Meanwhile, ousted USAID employee Marcia Mundt, who once oversaw $1 billion in “democracy promotion” abroad — a euphemism for achieving the electoral outcomes America likes — was caught red-handed by saying explicitly (and bitterly) that she was ready to apply these methods at home.

While Americans may hope the FBI and CIA are tracking down drug cartel kingpins and courting intelligence sources in Beijing, these washed-up national security officials are instead issuing warnings about election interference in a barely concealed bid to discredit Republicans and strengthen their control over the levers of democracy.

We’ve seen this playbook for ten years.

In December 2016, James Clapper strong-armed his counterpart at the National Security Agency into participating in the conspiracy to tie Trump to election interference by Russia, calling it a “team sport.”

A decade later, one gets the sense we’re at ever greater risk of total domination under what paleoconservative Paul Gottfried described as the “managerial state” — an illiberal, unaccountable, and fundamentally mediocre bureaucracy operating in the shadows.

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