Poetic Justice
Buck Banks | Nov. 24, 2025
After wandering away from D.C. for 54 days in the wilderness,
The House returned with some kind of collective mental illness.
They seem uninterested in legislating,
Focused instead on threats and censurings,
Leaving the nation to marvel in wonder at their childish pettiness.
Verbatim
“This is one of the biggest flashing red light warning signs we’ve seen yet for Republicans. If every House district in the country shifted left by this same amount — about 15 points — we would be looking at a blue wave far worse than 2018.”
— Republican strategist Matt Whitlock, writing on X, on the Tennessee special House election last night.
“There is a temptation is to describe what happened yesterday as somehow a ‘new low.’ Our somnolent, gibbering, incoherent, deeply corrupt President, surrounded by his fawning toadies, unleashed a torrent of dehumanizing racist bile, disinformation, and threats. … But it’s not a new low. It’s the same old low. A scene we’ve seen repeated so often there is a kind of numbness to it. Outrage did not ensue.”
— Charlie Sykes
“It’s a criminal offense—war crimes or murder are criminal offenses. Hegseth doesn’t have the immunity that the President of the United States does.”
— Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), quoted by Time, on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s role in the boat strikes.
Numerati
11.6 Million People
LAist.com: Voters notoriously do not show up for off-year elections in the same numbers, as say, a presidential election. But given how consequential Prop. 50 was, there was a lot of curiosity about how many voters would participate. The answer? About 11.6 million people — a turnout of 50% statewide. It’s not as high as California’s last special election in 2021 on whether to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom — turnout then was 58.4%. But it’s a solid showing for California, especially for an off-year special election. In fact, it’s on par with California’s 2022 midterm elections, which saw 50.8% turnout.
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$110 million
Donald Trump has golfed 79 days out of 317 days since returning to office (24.9% of the presidency spent golfing), according to didtrumpgolftoday.com. The estimated cost to taxpayers for Trump’s golf since returning to office: $110,600,000.
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470
Reuters: “At least 470 people, organizations and institutions have been targeted for retribution since Trump took office – an average of more than one a day. Some were singled out for punishment; others swept up in broader purges of perceived enemies.”
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$11.8 billion
Despite wider economic uncertainty hovering above this year’s holiday season, shoppers turned out in big numbers for Black Friday — spending billions of dollars both in stores and online, reported CBS News. Adobe Analytics, which tracks e-commerce, said U.S. consumers spent a record $11.8 billion online Friday, marking a 9.1% jump from last year. It was a slight increase from the company’s spending estimate of $11.7 billion.
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49% to 24%
A new Yahoo/YouGov poll found that more Americans are unhappy with President Trump’s stances on the economy and cost of living, with almost twice as many (49%) saying the president has helped raise prices rather than lowering them (24%). The survey also found more Americans (38%) now blame Trump more for inflation than his predecessor, former President Joe Biden (31%).
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