November 18, 2025 — Today's Conservative Cartoon

In this episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” Victor Davis Hanson and Jack Fowler discuss what President Donald Trump needs to tell Americans about prices and when they can expect to come down.   Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words” from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to VDH’s own YouTube channel to watch past episodes.  Jack Fowler: The supermarket, Victor, is still a tough place to conquer, despite inflation reduced and despite some prices, eggs and other things, we hear are down. My wife the other day, who cooks some Italian food, even though she’s Irish, she buys ricotta, says, “I’m looking at this thing. It cost me seven bucks. A few years ago, it cost me four bucks.” These little anecdotes, it’s hard to—  Victor Davis Hanson: Yes. I just got my insurance bill for cars. It’s outrageous. You know what I mean? It’s like the price of a used car. So, [President Donald Trump] needs to say the following: “I left in 2020 with a 1.7 inflation rate. [Former President] Joe Biden borrowed $7 trillion. Economists like Larry Summers said, ‘Don’t do this. Do not borrow money and put it into people who are coming out of the lockdown with pent-up consumer demand, when the supply chains are still endangered, and there’s not enough goods and services to supply the demand that has not expressed itself for two years but now will be flushed with entitlement cash.’ And he did it anyway.”  And in 2022, we had 9.1% inflation, but he needs to say, “Joe Biden had 5.1 inflation on average every year of his four years. I came in on Jan. 20. I’ve only been in there little over 10 months, and the inflation rate is about where it was when I came in, about 2.8 or something, 2.9, getting close to 3. And so, we are addressing it, but it’s going to take me another two or three or four months to come down.”  On the tariffs, he’s doing what he always should have. He’s doing “Art of the Deal.” He had very high punitive tariffs. On this program, we said we didn’t understand the logic of tariffing Britain or Israel or Australia, who had, they had deficits, and we had surpluses with them. But I think what we saw with Switzerland when they sent over their grandees to lower the tariffs from, I don’t know, 30 or 40, down to 15, now he’s going to the point where the official policy of the United States will be reciprocal tariffs. And if you think that is not sufficient, you can make up the difference by investing in the United States with companies to lower your tariff costs and to give us an economic stimulus.   So, I think you’re going to see a lot more reciprocal tariffs rather than punitive tariffs. And that’s going to help too. So, but you’re right, that does temporarily drive up prices, although Forbes and The Wall Street Journal said they didn’t think that it’s resulted with more than a 1% increase that can be attributable to the tariffs so far. But when they come down, it’ll be good.  We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.  The post Victor Davis Hanson: What President Trump Needs to Tell Americans About Prices appeared first on The Daily Signal.

A woman was arrested and charged with child neglect on Nov. 9 for allegedly leaving her children in a filthy apartment full of human and animal feces, Michigan police said.Police were called to a residence on South Francis Street over a possible break-in, but instead found the "deplorable conditions" that led them to arrest 31-year-old Teriomas Tremice Johnson, according to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office. 'It defies understanding how parents blessed with the gift of a child could show such cruelty.'Deputies found a 12-year-old girl, a 9-year-old girl, and a 9-year-old boy alone in the apartment. There was no working plumbing, and the children were forced to defecate in a cardboard box. Police said three cats also lived in the home and all of the sinks were clogged.The sheriff's department also said that the children only sporadically attended school.The children were placed into the custody of their fathers by Children’s Protective Services.Johnson is facing three felony charges of second-degree child abuse. Each charge may be punishable by up to 10 years in prison. She had been on probation for 36 months after a conviction on retail fraud and other charges.The sheriff's department posted two photographs from the apartment on social media.RELATED: Police rescue 2 children from freezing home with 'overwhelming' smell of dog feces and urine: 'Like a punch to the face' "It defies understanding how parents blessed with the gift of a child could show such cruelty," said Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard. "The complete lack of compassion and humanity is heartbreaking, and I am eager to see justice served for this unconscionable act."Bond for Johnson was initially set at $250,000, but Magistrate Angelena Thomas-Scruggs revoked the bond after the suspect threw a chair and yelled an expletive at the official, according to the sheriff's office.The School District of the City of Pontiac said the district is cooperating with the police investigation.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

New York City has elected a self-professed socialist as mayor. Critics worry about Zohran Mamdani’s inexperience, his approach to law and order, and his views on Israel and Islamic radicalism. But the most urgent issue inside the walls of City Hall is his economic agenda.Mamdani promises “free” bus transit, a freeze on rent increases, a $30 minimum wage, government-run grocery stores, free child care, and higher taxes in a city already crushed by some of the nation’s highest tax burdens. His brand of socialism isn’t subtle. It’s explicit — and guaranteed to fail.A movement confident in free enterprise can beat socialism — first in the arena of ideas, then at the ballot box. But only if we choose clarity over imitation.Many on the right treat Mamdani’s victory as cosmic justice for a deep-blue city that keeps moving left. Others welcome his rise, convinced that showcasing a hard-left mayor will repel voters nationwide. That might be true. It might also be fantasy.New Yorkers didn’t elect Mamdani so conservatives could score a talking point. His win advances ideas — and conservatives must decide whether they still believe ours are better.When the right copies the leftMocking government-run grocery stores is easy. Yet national Republicans just embraced government ownership in Intel — a massive corporation that dwarfs any Manhattan supermarket. Some even support a federal sovereign wealth fund to buy equity across private industry, handing Washington the power to pick winners.Mamdani demonizes Wall Street and high earners who keep the city solvent. Republicans respond by demonizing “big pharma” and pushing policies that treat major U.S. innovators as villains.Mamdani wants to redistribute income with New York’s already-extreme tax code. Some on the right now call for $2,000 government checks to lower-income households — financed with borrowed money and paid back by business owners already hit with $350 billion in new tariff taxes this year.Mamdani would freeze rents because, in his telling, landlords “make a killing.” His economics ignore taxes, insurance, utilities, and maintenance costs that devour margins across New York’s rental market. Yet GOP proposals on health care routinely blame insurers for “making a killing while the little guy suffers.” The overlap with left-wing rhetoric isn’t coincidence. It’s drift.High grocery prices fuel Mamdani’s push for government-run grocery stores. He blames “capitalistic greed.” Republicans answered high beef prices by accusing meat companies of “price fixing.” Again, the same logic — just delivered with a different logo.Resurrecting failed policiesMamdani’s worldview mirrors the same interventionist thinking that powered the Affordable Care Act. Subsidies, mandates, and price controls promised relief. They delivered higher premiums, higher costs, and lower-quality care.Conservatives should highlight that failure. Instead, too many mimic the left’s solutions — regulation dressed up as populism, government expansion sold as “tough on corporations,” and class warfare renamed as “standing up for workers.”If Mamdani’s win teaches anything, it’s that conservatives must draw a bright line: free enterprise or the road to socialism. Blurring that line weakens the argument and cedes the moral ground socialism feeds on.RELATED: Mao tried this first — New Yorkers will not like the ending Bettmann/Getty ImagesThe real fightThe conservative movement faces serious internal debates — debates worth having. But Mamdani’s election exposes one fight we cannot dodge: the fight for limited government and competitive markets.We cannot counter socialism with lighter versions of the same policies. We cannot attack Mamdani’s economic program while pushing our own price controls, government takeovers, and redistribution schemes. A movement that refuses to defend free enterprise won’t defeat socialism. It won’t even understand the threat.Mamdani comes into office with plenty of flaws. New Yorkers will feel the consequences soon enough. But conservatives face a choice: defend our own principles or mimic the left and call it “the new right.”A movement confident in free enterprise can beat socialism — first in the arena of ideas, then at the ballot box. But only if we choose clarity over imitation.

Apple is gearing up to release the iOS 26.2 update in December, with beta 3 now available to developers. Here's everything new in the update.

Good Tuesday morning. Here is what’s on President Trump’s agenda today: 11:00 AM  THE PRESIDENT participates in an Arrival Ceremony with the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of…