"What Happened to Telegrams?" (opens in separate window)

the ancient parable

saturday, october 10th, 2026

I will throw you in prison. I want Chinese-style communism to happen inside of the democratic party right now. I want to do cultural revolution shit." -- Hasan Piker, DSA Spox.

Translation: Chuck Schumer knows that the Democrats have already been thwarted from rigging the election, from flooding the polls with illegal immigrant voters, with dead voters, with voters who moved out of state but still got mail-in ballots sent to their old addresses, with voters registered as living in Walmart parking lots, and so on. Chuck Schumer knows that the Civil Rights Division of DOJ is sending hundreds of lawyers to observe the action in swing state polling places. ICE might even be on hand to see who turns up.

So, Chuck Schumer is pretending that the Republicans will try to do what the Democrats actually did in several previous elections (including the last midterm, 2022, viz., AZ, GA, NV), and would have liked to do in this midterm, but can’t. The Democrats will holler like crazy about it before the election to plant this idea in credulous minds. They will jump up and down going woo-woo-woo on Election Day itself to water the idea. And after the election they will blitz every critical precinct with lawsuits to prevent the vote from being certified, using select “activist” judges to issue TROs and writs to delay election results and de-legitimize the vote.

And if none of that avails — which it won’t — they’ll call out their ground troops, Antifa, BLM, Free Palestine, LGBTQ2S+, the furious transsexuals, the hysterical cat ladies, and suchlike to make a giant ruckus so as to provoke the president to invoke emergency powers to quell the mayhem. And then they’ll point at Mr. Trump shrieking, “See! Tyrant!”

Chuck Schumer is such a shithead. Everybody knows that he intends for the Democratic Party to inflict lawfare and commit warfare on the midterm election (in that order), and hence on the American people, behind an Alinsky-grade cloud of gaslight claiming the other side is doing it.

Of course, it’s the president’s constitutional duty (Article II, Section 3) to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. You have seen that Mr. Trump is taking a good deal of care vis-à-vis this midterm election to avoid any hint of interference. You can infer that’s at least one reason we have seen no indictments of the Deep State sedition artists operating so brazenly since 2016.

By the way, doing what’s possible to make sure that only citizens can vote is taking care to faithfully execute the law, in case there’s any question about that. A September 25 SCOTUS decision in Department of Homeland Security v. League of Women Voters (No. 26A308), a 6-3 majority (usual suspects dissenting) paused by lower-court judge Sparkle Sooknanan that had blocked the Dept. of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system — further proof that the Lefty-left won’t abide any restrictions on who can vote.

The SCOTUS stay allows state and local officials to match their voter rolls against federal Social Security records, to sort out who can legally vote. AI could do this with novel efficiency. The catch is, states’ participation is voluntary. Only twenty-seven states have moved to participate in this record-sharing. Another catch is that SCOTUS waited, for unknown reasons, before issuing their ruling until well into the “90-day rule window” (in the National Voter Registration Act) that doesn’t allow actual changes in the voter rolls during this period, only identification of problems. We’ll see if any of that dissuades non-citizens from attempting to cast a vote.

You have to wonder why the Democratic Party is acting like they’ve already won the midterms. After ten years of narrative control through their allies in the network media and what’s left of the major newspapers, the Democrats apparently believe that if you assert an outcome often enough, Oprah Winfrey style, it will come true.

It’s just another gaslighting op. Look at the Democratic Party’s marquee candidates, a ragtag and bobtail of avowed jihadis, communists, neo-Jacobins, and plain old creeps such as Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, Melat Kiros in Colorado, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez in New York, Angie Nixon in Florida, James Talarico in Texas, and Troy Jackson up in Maine. The old Chuck Schumer / Hakeem Jeffries wing of the party pretends to support this rabble, who have declared they are merely running under the party’s banner for convenience and aim to deep-six the likes of Schumer and Jeffries at the first opportunity.

Will the Democrats still try to cheat their way through the midterms despite the obstacles and disincentives piling up around them? Probably, yes, because that will trigger conflict between the states and the Feds, and post-election chaos is what the party needs to keep hope alive, as they like to say. They want the results to remain in limbo as long as possible, with maximum lawfare around it to further confuse and confound the outcome. It’s in their nature. They are the scorpion riding the frog across the river in the ancient parable.

© 10.2.2026 by James H. Kunstler, "ClusterFuck Nation".

A Day In The Life.

Up at 9:45a on Saturday, a very cool 52°F, partly-overcast sky, breezy morning, I upped the heat to 75° briefly, made coffee, fired-up the Win-7 Pentium HP Desktop to let its 32 million lines of code load, skipped breakfast, had a couple smokes in the garage and checked the leftover errands list. Zero. I scanned the weather -- updastes on the Nor'easter -- and the breaking news websites, tuned into a "CP Show" Podcast 12-3 on local WSBA-910, and relaxed for the rest of the morning.

I'd forgotten to upload the week's "Journal" and List files to my server, and had to wrong October 4rd file -- it was 2025's 10_03 file, so it previewed wrong immediately -- and I had to find and fix that nagging little HTML typo, Drat it. I finally found the mistake around 10a on Saturday, corrected it, and re-sent the needed files back up to the server, and that took care of it.

I had pain and weakness again, after yesterday's excursion to Saubel's Market w/ Sherry, so after a couple mugs of Kona Opio Coffee, I hit the LR couch, w/ some 250mg of aspirin and the heating pad. Once again, I spent a lot of the day on the LR couch, fending-off the R/S pain, by just sleeping under medication. I did manage to get a few small condo chores done, watch the 6p local FOX43 evening news, and switched to Discovery's "Ancient Aliens" until 1a, and unplugged.

Up at 9:30a on Sunday, a cloudy, drizzly-rainy, 57°, breezy, cold morning, I upped the heat, made coffee, had breakfast and scanned the weather and news websites. I got ready for the day, started the first of two loads of laundry, and had a 2hr snooze on the LR couch. After a couple of small condo chores, my R/S hip and leg pain returned, and I laid down on the couch with the heating pad, and fell asleep for almost 3hrs, again. Also, time for some maintenance to my Chemex "Ottomatic" brewing system now, after a couple months.

Back up to watch the evening news, I had dinner, and switched to the 2026 Bahrain F-1 Gran Prix highlights, and to History's "American Pickers" until 1:30a, and bagged it for the night,

Up at 9:30a on Monday, a mostly sunny, breezy, cool 62°, I made coffee, tuned into the ongoing "CP Show", and scanned the news and weather websites. A nice, cool, dry week is forecast I had a light breakfast, got ready for the day, and left to run some errands. One errand was to drive to my Wednesday eye surgeon app't. so I'd know exactly where it was, and save some time on the trip. Back home by 2p, I did some condo chores, took a 2hr snooze, and scanned the airline hijacking articles: here we go again.

And here we go again with a possible worldwide plague, courtesy of Russia.

I had dinner around 5:30, watched the 6p evening news and switched to History's "The unXplained Mysteries" and "Deadline To Disaster" until 1a. Lights out.

Up at 8:30a on Tuesday, a sunny, dry, cold 46°, breezy morning, I upped the heat, made coffee, and scanned the news and weather sites. i also tuned into the "CP Show", from 9-12. My scheduled Weis (Enola, PA) was running late, Sherry would be here around 1p, and it took me longer-than-usual to get to "awake" status. Sis picked me up at 8:25a, and we drove to the Eye Drs' Office, got registered and started the testing and paper procedures process. After over 4hrs, I was finally back home, eyes so dilated that I was blind from the sun, despite sunglasses, and I had some of Sis' Zero Alarm Chili (delicious) for lunch, and headed for the LR couch.

A 2hr nap turned into a 4hr+ nap, and not all dilation drops had lifted, so I washed-out my eyes w/ bottled water, and feel better when it finally cleared. After some dinner, I watched the evening news, switched to Discovery's "Ghost Adventures" until 12:30a, and unplugged for the night.

Up again at ZERO DARK THIRTY on Thursday, I had planned to get to the Wellspan Stony Brook Lab Offices, and get lab work done, but I inadvertently had a mug of Kona Coffee with Half&Half creamer -- and to fast on everything -- sod the day's plans were scuttled. I'll try for tomorrow. I went to sleep on the LR couch, w/ very little pain, and woke occasionally every 2hrs, during the afternoon, to get a smoke and have something to eat. The day was gone, I watched the evening news, and switched to a couple of History's series until 1a. Lights out.

Up at 9a on Friday, a blue sky, sunny, 49° morning, I made coffee, scanned the weather and news websites, and checked the day's 'list'. Dave and the Landscape Maintenance Crew would be here after lunch, and after working on Sis' gardens at her condo. I had a lot of voicemail messages on my ancient flip-phone to answer or delete, and clean-up the memory.

Dave and Ian, from River Rock Landscaping, arrived at 2p, after doing maintenance on Sis' condo, and within 3hrs, had my place cleaned for Winter. I called Sherry, caught a short 1hr snooze after they finished, I tipped them nicely, and they left. It was almost dark by 6p, so I closed the condo, watched the evening news and switched to History's "Mysteries from Above" and "The Unexplained" until 1a, and unplugged.

Today starts a new week, here in the "Journal" and, with the Labs still needing to get done next week -- the Drs are threatening me now! -- and a quick physical for my upcoming eye surgery, I have a clear week, and will talk to Sherry over the weekene, about her busy life. It is what it is.

The Riots In France Are A Warning For America.

The riots in France last week stand as a warning to the United States and all western countries: mass immigration will split your country in two, and the two sides will eventually go to war.

The unrest, which quickly spread from the suburbs of Paris to encompass much of the country, were a stark contrast to the scenes just a few days earlier when Pope Leo XIV drew massive crowds at every stop on his four-day papal visit. Some 800,000 people lined the Avenue des Champs-Élysées for an open-air Mass in Paris, catching the media and civil authorities by surprise. France is supposed to be a secular country, after all. The Red-Green alliance of leftists and Muslims is staging a show of force, rioting in the streets of France. Pay attention, we’re next.

But the pope’s popularity on the one hand, and on the other, the riots that erupted across France a few days after his departure, illustrate the extent to which France today is not a single country or nation. It is not one people. There is ancient France, the true France, which despite the French Revolution and state-enforced secularism is still deeply Catholic, “the eldest daughter of the Church.” That is the France that showed up for Pope Leo.

The other France is the one we saw rioting in the streets last week. News reports said the unrest began in Créteil, a suburb of Paris, over the poor condition of the public schools, and that disaffected high schoolers, fed up with overcrowded classes and dilapidated buildings, took to the streets spontaneously. From there, the rioting supposedly spread organically across the entire country in a matter of days.

There are a few problems with this narrative, beginning with the images and footage of the riots posted all over social media. What we see are not protests of the state of public education, but the wanton destruction of schools, violent attacks on firefighters and police and even teachers, and all the indications of central organization and planning.

Among the “protesters,” we don’t see a broad cross-section of French society but overwhelmingly nonwhite males, immigrants and the children of immigrants. The barricades are being raised largely by Muslims of North African and Middle Eastern descent. Outside many schools, students weren’t chanting about funding cuts or classroom conditions, they were chanting “we are antifascists” and other such slogans. In Marseille, rioters flew the flag of Algeria and Hamas, not the tricolor. It was the same at a number of high schools that saw rioting. It’s pretty obvious what’s going on, and who is behind the unrest.

This is the Red-Green alliance of the socialist/Antifa left and Muslim immigrants, operationalized to bring the country to its knees through widespread rioting ahead of national elections next year. Indeed, the office of France’s prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, on Friday made public that French intelligence is assessing the riots as orchestrated by proxies of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s far-left party La France Insoumise (“France Unbowed”), or LFI. Mélenchon, who has denied LFI’s involvement, is running for president.

In short, what is happening in France is that the communists and the Muslim migrants are joining forces, testing their strength on the eve of national elections. It might be illegal to say so in France, but these are ethnic riots, a show of force by unassimilated Muslim migrants and their hard-left revolutionary allies, who believe they are strong enough to overpower the native majority.

France has always been a tangle of contradictions and a center of spiritual conflict. It was the heart of Catholic Europe but also the cradle of revolutionary terror. It has been both the defender of Christendom and the Catholic Church’s greatest enemy, home of both the Jacobins and the Vendée. Today it is the same: a nation whose majority is still defined by its Catholic faith and heritage, but whose leaders have opened the country to civilizational enemies from the Muslim World that seek to destroy the true France and replace it with something else.

But this isn’t just about France. The events unfolding across the Atlantic should cause alarm to us here in America, because the same forces at work there are at work here. An alliance of leftist and Muslim immigrants are emerging as a potent political force in the United States. This alliance is responsible for elevating people like Zohran Mamdani to the mayorship of New York City. It’s responsible for the U.S. Senate candidacy of Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.

Muslim immigrants to the West of course do not share everything in common with the radical left. Especially on issues like women’s right, transgenderism, gay marriage and the sexual revolution in general, they are not aligned. But those are disagreements for another day. For now, they are aligned above all in their desire to tear down western institutions and the Christian faith on which they were built.

What that will look like in America we have yet to see in full. But if you want to get a rough idea, look at the riots in France. If we don’t put an end to Muslim immigration, that’s what our future holds.

© 10.5.2026 by JOHN DANIEL DAVIDSON, "The Federalist".