Republicans are licking their wounds after this Tuesday’s ballot box defeats. But there is a lesson to be learned here. The various elections in New York City, New Jersey, and Virginia, viewed collectively, reminded us yet again of a perennial political truth: Americans still care first and foremost about their wallets. Culture war-type issues often generate the most salacious headlines … Still, the economy remains the top political issue. Culture war-type issues often generate the most salacious headlines — and many of the Trump administration’s fights on these fronts, such as immigration enforcement and higher education reform, are just and necessary. Still, the economy remains the top political issue. Unless Republicans get more serious about advancing an actionable economic agenda to provide real relief to middle- and working-class Americans, they risk losing even more ground in next year’s midterm elections. When voters went to the polls this week in New York City, New Jersey, and Virginia, they were often asking the simplest, most urgent questions: Can I pay the rent? Can I fill up my truck at the pump? Can I fill the fridge? Will my job still exist next year? Do I have reliable health care for my children? Across too many districts and communities, those answers remain uneasy. Inflation, while well down from its Biden-era peak, is still stubbornly higher than the Fed’s 2 percent target. Purchasing power is still eroded, and cost-of-living anxieties persist for far too many. For Republicans, this is both a warning and an opportunity. Despite a concerted effort in recent years to rebrand as the party of the common man, including but hardly limited to Teamsters President Sean O’Brien getting a coveted speaking slot at last year’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, too many voters still associate the GOP with tax cuts for the donor class and a general indifference toward the tens of millions of Americans who live paycheck to paycheck. That’s the blunt truth. The perception of corruption in some of the highest corridors of power in Washington, especially when it comes to the influence wielded by the uber-wealthy emirate of Qatar, doesn’t exactly assuage voters’ concerns. If the GOP wants to regain the public’s trust, it must present a compelling vision of what a sound conservative economic stewardship entails in the 21st century. That redefinition begins with a renewed focus on work, dignity, and resilience. The Republican Party must build an economic narrative that centers on taming inflation, boosting wages, rebuilding America’s industrial base, and greater health care security for the paycheck-to-paycheck class. Conservatives should pursue a pragmatic economic nationalism — one that ties together trade policy, manufacturing, energy production, workforce development, and family formation. All proposed economic policies must be explained in concrete, local terms. The relevant questions each and every time should be: How does this policy tangibly benefit the common man, and how can the policy be messaged so that the benefit is clearly understood? The voters Republicans need to reach are not tuning in to wonky policy seminars. They want results: lower energy bills, affordable groceries, job security, and an economy that rewards hard work. The GOP must speak directly to these priorities with honesty and humility. If economic anxiety persists through next fall’s midterms, voters will punish whichever party appears more indifferent to their struggles. The Trump administration and Republicans across the country need to get to work fast. That means more Trump-signed executive orders, within the confines of the law, that can provide real economic relief and security to the working men and women of America. And it certainly means a concerted congressional attempt to bolster the economic prospects of the middle and working classes, perhaps through the Senate’s annual budget reconciliation process. Inflation must finally be tamed — including the Fed raising interest rates, contra Trump’s general easy-money instincts, if need truly be. Private health savings account access must be expanded and the ease of acquiring private health care must finally be divorced from the particular circumstances of one’s employment. More jobs and supply chains must be reshored. Concerns about child care affordability and parental leave availability must be addressed. And even more of our bountiful domestic energy must be extracted. These are just some of the various policies that voters might reward at the ballot box next fall. Our searing cultural battles will continue — and they matter, greatly in fact. But when a family can’t afford its groceries or gas, such debates tend to fade into the background. Republicans must rebuild trust with voters on the most fundamental issue in American politics — the promise of economic opportunity and security. It’s always dangerous to over-extrapolate and glean clear national lessons from a few local elections, such as those that were held this week. But all three of the biggest races — New York City mayor and New Jersey and Virginia governor — had final winning margins for Democrats greater than most polling suggested. That seems like a clear enough rebuke. Accordingly, the Trump administration and Republicans across the country must deliver real economic results on the real economic issues facing the American people. If they don’t present a compelling economic vision and execute that vision capably and efficiently, there likely will be even greater electoral damage next fall. That could all but doom the remainder of the Trump presidency. And what a disappointment that would be. READ MORE from Josh Hammer: Reject Radical Mamdani: NYC Mayor Race Has National Ramifications Louvre Heist Encapsulates a Western Culture That Will Not Defend Itself Democrats Still Haven’t Learned Any Lessons To find out more about Josh Hammer and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM

In a policy pivot as consequential as it is symbolic, Germany is now offering cash for departure instead of promises of sanctuary. And across Europe, the asylum era that once defined a continent’s conscience is being quietly, systematically dismantled. Germany’s latest move on migration may lack the theater of fences or flashpoints, but its implications run deeper. In November 2025, Berlin confirmed it would offer financial incentives to roughly 2,000 Afghan nationals stranded in Pakistan — many previously approved for relocation — if they voluntarily abandoned their resettlement claims. The offer includes several thousand euros, paid in stages, under a “voluntary return assistance” program. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt was blunt: “If we assume that people have no possibility of being admitted to Germany, we offer them some perspective, and this is linked to making a financial offer for a voluntary return.” (RELATED: Trump’s Cash-for-Departure Plan: A New Approach to Immigration?) The nation that once cast itself as the moral anchor of the 2015 refugee crisis is now underwriting exits. This is more than bureaucratic housekeeping. It is an ideological correction. The nation that once cast itself as the moral anchor of the 2015 refugee crisis is now underwriting exits. The gesture is pragmatic, even humane, but unmistakably transactional. And Germany is hardly alone. In Sweden, the government introduced a tiered program in March 2025, offering up to €5,000 to asylum seekers who agree to leave without appealing their rejection. Those who delay receive less. Those forcibly deported, just €1,000. In Finland, a similar system offers €5,300 to those who depart within 30 days of rejection, dropping to €2,000 thereafter. (RELATED: The Scandinavian Lesson: What Malmö Warns Us About America’s Sanctuary Cities) Denmark — the continent’s most unapologetic skeptic of open migration — offers as much as €27,000 to Syrians who opt to return home. Uptake has been limited, but Danish officials insist it is cheaper, fairer, and more sustainable than endless accommodation. Austria, meanwhile, responded to the fall of the Assad regime in late 2024 by launching a review of Syrian asylum cases. By mid-2025, it had initiated more than 8,000 revocation proceedings, offering €1,000 in return support to those who choose to go voluntarily. Even the Netherlands has joined the rethink. In September 2025, it signed a letter of intent with Uganda to open a “return hub” for rejected asylum seekers who cannot yet be repatriated to their home countries, a logistical halfway house between deportation and limbo. These are not anomalies but coordinates in a broader pattern. In March 2025, the European Commission proposed legal authorization for “return hubs” outside the EU, essentially outsourcing parts of the asylum process. Commissioner Magnus Brunner described the plan as a pragmatic necessity: “We’re creating the legal frame, not the content. Member states must have the tools to manage returns responsibly.” The backlash has been loud but predictable. Amnesty International condemned the move as “legally troubling and ethically fraught,” warning of “offshored responsibility” and weakened safeguards. But while critics debate the ethics, Europe has already moved on to the arithmetic. Back in Berlin, Chancellor Friedrich Merz has expanded the recalibration. His administration has begun revoking blanket protections for Syrians, arguing that with Assad gone, the legal justification for sanctuary no longer holds. “The generosity shown in 2015 cannot be the permanent template,” Merz said. “We must align our values with our capacity.” That phrase, align our values with our capacity, could serve as Europe’s new migration credo. It reflects not hostility, but exhaustion. Not cruelty, but coherence. Governments are recognizing what many citizens already know: compassion cannot function without consent. (RELATED: Poland’s Fusion of Hard Borders and Human Duty) Critics will call this a moral retreat. In reality, it is a return to policy realism. A system that loses domestic legitimacy cannot sustain its global virtue. After nearly a decade of political whiplash and social strain, Europe’s leaders are not turning hard right; they’re turning back to arithmetic. They are replacing open-ended aspiration with measurable governance. The United States should take note. At its southern border, America faces the same dissonance between moral promise and managerial capacity. Europe’s experience demonstrates that empathy without enforcement is not a sustainable policy. Laws must be enforceable. Resources must be finite. Public consent must be preserved-or the entire system collapses under its own contradictions. Germany’s new approach does not end asylum. But it ends the illusion that asylum can remain limitless, unconditional, and politically untouchable. The “cash-for-exit” program is not a betrayal of Europe’s conscience; it is its reckoning. The continent that once measured its virtue by how many it could welcome is now measuring survival by how many it can responsibly send home. Europe is not closing its doors. It is, with compensation and quiet dignity, guiding people back toward them. And that — quieter than a wall, but far more consequential — may be the real border of the future. READ MORE from Kevin Cohen: Ireland Just Sealed Its Fate on Mass Migration The Terrorists’ New Weapon — Doxxing LEOs How Cuba Is Becoming Beijing’s Caribbean Outpost

As a conservative columnist and lover of humor pieces, I’ve felt orphaned ever since Paul Krugman deprived us of his failed prophecies in The New York Times. I now approach the papers each day without enthusiasm, trapped in melancholy, and hardly ever find an article stupid or reckless enough to make me laugh. But I persist in my search, and lately I’ve discovered a rising star. Yes, there’s still hope. This is the second time a piece by William A. Birdthistle has managed to brighten my day. The man, who served as director of the Division of Investment Management at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from 2021 to 2024, doesn’t seem particularly thrilled about Donald Trump being president. A worthy heir to Krugman’s fallible forecasts. Let the fun begin, folks! In December 2024, in his article “How Private Funds Could Hurt Americans Under Trump,” he announced the end of the world. But since the apocalypse failed to arrive, now, a year later, he’s raising the stakes — prophesying in the Times nothing less than a new 1929 crash: “Trump Is Pushing Us Toward a Crash. It Could Be 1929 All Over Again.” Well done. The important thing in life is to play hardball. A worthy heir to Krugman’s fallible forecasts. Let the fun begin, folks! Context: Birdthistle didn’t care for Trump’s Great Gatsby-style Halloween party. Perhaps he would have preferred a theme inspired by The Godfather, Police Academy, or even Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth — the true starting point for fake AI videos. The author suggests that the revelry symbolizes our age’s decadence and financial excess, although seeing a bunch of rich and powerful men partying simply means… there’s a bunch of rich and powerful men partying. I imagine Birdthistle believes the wealthy shouldn’t have fun so as not to offend those who aren’t as wealthy, but that would be as reasonable as asking the poor not to be sad, because that would upset those who have everything. In a truly acrobatic performance, the author tries to grab the reader’s attention by comparing today’s speculative boom with the 1920s before the 1929 crash. It’s surprising that someone who held his position for three years would hate everything related to abundance, prosperity, and investment so much. He also criticizes Trump’s deregulation, claiming that millions of citizens could face major losses due to what he calls “risky and opaque investments” (is there anything riskier or more opaque than the Biden Administration’s “renewable energy” and electric car investments that nobody wanted?). He concludes by saying that prosperous markets are built on regulation and that Trump ignores the historical lessons that prevented past collapses. If we’re going to talk about historical lessons, regulation, and past collapses, one place comes to mind where there’s all the regulation in the world, a daily history lesson, and a permanent collapse: Cuba. The formula for total regulation was also tried in the Soviet Union — and I don’t know, I wasn’t there, but I seem to recall no one was in a position to throw a grand Halloween party during the Soviet bloodbath, or any kind of party that wasn’t to glorify the dictator. Perhaps it’s not Trump who needs to review the historical lessons. It must be dreadful to have devoted so many years to the study of economics, law, and politics — and brilliantly so, judging by the academic accolades and honors Birdthistle proudly lists — only to end up writing in The New York Times that a new 1929 crash looms over the United States because Trump threw a Halloween party. I suspect there’s something missing in this whole story: Mr. President, perhaps you should have invited Birdthistle to the party. I’m sure he would have shown up dressed as a 1960s coal miner. READ MORE from Itxu Díaz: Mamdani: The Miracle Hair-Growth Salesman Who Claims to Have Found the Master Formula Friends, Lovers, and Everything in Between Bloody Zombies No Longer Shock Our Streets

from SGT Report: Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, truth teller and former Asst. secretary of the treasury under Ronald Reagan, returns to SGT Report to discuss the absurdity of the Fed’s “case” against Tyler Robinson and the obvious coverup for a nation state the size of New Jersey which appears to be the much more likely […]

by Martin Armstrong, Armstrong Economics: COMMENT: Marty, I will see you on the beach. I sold everything. I live in a targeted white neighborhood. I should have moved in 2016 when you did. I agree —stick a fork in New York; it’s done. I am just glad I finally sold my house after months. JD REPLY: I […]

by Harold Hutchison (DCNF), All News Pipeline: CNN political commentator Bakari Sellers claimed Wednesday that Democratic Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani of New York City was not a leader in the Democratic Party. Mamdani defeated former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York and Republican mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa in Tuesday’s general election and will succeed independent Mayor Eric […]

Lamb of God release pro-shot live video for new single Sepsis –captured at Aftershock Festival 2025