Gavin Newsom is wrong on just about everything else, but he got this one right

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As both of my regular readers know, I am opposed to capital punishment. It is my position that we should not kill anybody, unless it is absolutely necessary, and if we have a prisoner so securely held that he cannot prevet his own execution, he is, by any rational definition, helpless. If he is helpless, it is not necessary to kill him.

Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) is commuting the capital sentences of all 548 people on death row in the Pyrite State, although technical problems exist. This is no surprise, given that he imposed a moratorium on executione when he entered office in 2019, and California has not actually executed anyone since 2006. But some families are very upset:

Her son was raped, murdered. Newsom’s death row decision brings ‘soul-hurting pain’

By Michael McGough | November 6, 2026 | 6:42 PM PST

Among the 548 inmates sentenced to death in California is Robert Rhoades, who abducted 8-year-old Michael Lyons as he walked home from school in Yuba City on May 16, 1996, then tortured and raped him before stabbing him more than 70 times.

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A few items in the news

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I am working on tomorrow’s Highlights of the Week. A few important items are too long for the format so I will give them the space they need today.

ITEM 1: Presidents traditionally leave a letter for their successor. This week, the New York Times revealed the letter Trump left for Biden. The original was written with a black Sharpie.

Ludwig von Mises Was Right: America Has Become a Daycare Center for Economic Failure

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A century ago, Ludwig von Mises warned that socialism couldn’t repeal economic reality. Today, America has perfected capitalism without consequences, where profits are private, losses become public, and Uncle Sam runs an economic daycare center funded by taxpayers. From Soviet collapse to Venezuela’s economic disaster, history keeps delivering the same lesson: government cannot manufacture prosperity by subsidizing failure. Yet Washington keeps trying, armed with trillion-dollar deficits and apparently fewer than two functioning brain cells.

White House officials brief after FAA declares nationwide ground stop for all aircraft

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The Federal Aviation Administration declared a nationwide ground stop for all U.S. airports earlier today. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told the press the Federal Aviation Administration’s nationwide ground stop for all aircraft is due to a “telecommunication outage” and that the American public should have “no fear.”

The Cost of Free: The Era of Rage Politics

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Our founders still speak to us. Their writings, their essence, their shadows, still traverse the corridors of governance. For millennia, they discerned the reasons for the decline of nations, meticulously steering clear of errors while acknowledging that their work remains humanly imperfect. With faith in God, they persevered.

We had a script but insisted on going our own way.

Red Votes, Green Money: When MAGA Starts Smelling Like the Swamp

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I voted for Trump three times and voted red again in 2026. But I didn’t vote for another Middle Eastern war or to turn the White House into a family ATM. With billions flowing through Trump family business ventures and Saudi money financing Jared Kushner’s investment firm, something smells like a Washington swamp rat. Maybe it’s all legal. Fine. Open the books. Because if foreign money smelled rotten when the Bidens were involved, it doesn’t suddenly smell like roses when Republicans cash the checks. I voted for America, not a royal family.

Trump warns Democrats

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You can investigate us, we can prosecute you

During the election campaign, Communist Democrats repeatedly threatened to launch expensive investigations of President Trump, his family, his Cabinet members, his supporters and any corporation official whoever said something nice about Trump.

The party is full-blown communist. It will indeed purge the military of any qualified general or admiral with wild claims of war crimes. The party is Jafar coveting Aladdin’s lamp. The story ends well as I recall, with Jafar using his last wish to become a genie—and instantly winds up trapped in Aladdin’s lamp.

Oh how I want that happy ending.

Ebola 2026: The Next Pandemic Is Knocking. Did We Learn Anything?

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Ebola is back, and humanity may be preparing to repeat its greatest pandemic mistakes. With thousands reportedly dead, no proven vaccine for this strain, and governments still dodging accountability for COVID-era failures, the question isn’t whether another pandemic could happen. It’s whether we’ve learned anything—or whether fear, censorship, and bureaucratic incompetence will once again prove more contagious than the virus itself.

Four A.M. in Athens: A Long Road to Athens

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Athens. I am taking a taxi from my apartment at 3 a.m. The taxi driver is waiting by the curb, petting a stray cat.

He is smoking a cigarette and he wants to know why I am up “so damned early.” My driver played college basketball in the US back when he still had hair. He enjoys cussing in English. “Is just more fun.”

We get in the cab. Athens nightlife is still going strong.

Delayed Accountability in the American Political Class is Itself Criminal, Part 2

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The dire consequences of deferred justice

Failing to prosecute politically connected wrongdoers promptly, and with the same severity applied to ordinary citizens, emboldens further and more brazen misconduct by the individuals who escape consequence. Furthermore, non-enforcement itself functions as an incentive structure to others contemplating corrupt actions. And a justice system that appears, case after case, to apply one set of rules to the politically connected and another to everyone else breeds cynicism and corrodes public trust in the institutions responsible for enforcing the law.