With the horrific violence the left calls down on any who dissent from their insanity people have quietly, but firmly, resolved to put an end to this at the ballot box. The most quiet among those ordinary people are honest, liberal Democrats who have been left politically homeless by the insanity of the modern Democrat Party. Republicans should not make the mistake, after this election, of assuming those people have become newly minted conservative Republicans. This is the self-defense election for them as they pray and hope for a rational, responsible, patriotic liberal party in the mold of Harry Truman, Adlai Stevenson, and JFK to rise from the ashes of modern Democrats’ self-immolation. The Insane Clown Posse will be sent packing this election. And all the advance work by their heralds in polling companies and the establishment media will only serve to torch those heralds. So, let’s get to some numbers and specific races…

Republicans will pick up 17 seats in the House (the number that actually sticks in my head is 27, but I have to give some tribute to conventional metrics) and five in the Senate.

The most prominent Senate race in the country between Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico in Texas is not close. Paxton will win by 12 points.

In Michigan, Mike Rogers will not just beat Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, he will crush him by close to 20 points or better.

At least one Republican, maybe two or, even three, Republicans will win statewide in Minnesota for the first time in decades. Sadly, Republican Michele Tafoya will narrowly lose the Senate seat to Democrat Peggy Flanagan.

Among actual, legitimate ballots, Republican Steve Hilton will trounce Democrat Xavier Becerra in the California Governor’s race. I don’t have a good sense of how effective California Democrats’ magic mail-in ballot machine will be this cycle, but I suspect the Democratic groundhog will see its shadow and California will get four more years of ridiculously expensive insanity and fraud.

In Maine, Republican Susan Collins will handily defeat Democrat Troy Jackson by nine points after all the polls showed her behind by about that much. Didn’t have to go against history on that one. This is how things always turn out for Collins, as hope springs eternal for Maine pollsters until it is invariably brought back to earth on election day.

In the battle of the pine forest titans in New Hampshire, Republican John Sununu will beat Democrat Chris Pappas, a sitting Democrat Congressman.

In Kansas, Democrat Adam Hamilton squares off against Republican Incumbent Roger Marshall for Senate. Kansas Republicans are nervous about it. They needn’t be. Hamilton is pastor of the biggest Methodist Church in the state. Alas, it is a far-left activist church. Actual Christians are fed up with and disgusted by Democrats trying to push abortion-loving, gender-bending, gay marriage, big government activists as Christian, while denying all the commands of Jesus and the prophets and the Apostles. Those Christians will speak in a roar with their ballots this cycle against this rank blasphemy. (Though it won’t hurt if the Kansas GOP does serious outreach to authentically Christian Churches these last few weeks.)

The shock of the night will be how handily Republican Bruce Blakeman defeats incumbent Democrat Kathy Hochul for Governor of New York, slowing that state’s decline into the financial abyss, UNLESS…

New Jersey Republican Justin Murphy pulls off a sleeper race to unseat Democrat incumbent Senator Corey Booker. I’m not predicting this one, just watching it. Over the years, Booker has become a caricature of himself and a part of me thinks New Jersey voters might be ready to send the Democrats’ answer to Sesame Street’s Grover into retirement.

Alas, in my beloved old home state of Illinois, Democrat J.W. Pritzker will easily win re-election, not because people love him so much, but because Republicans are in absolute disarray in that state this cycle. My feelings about Illinois are like Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s were about Russia: I love my old homeland, but can’t tolerate what the communists have done to it.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, at least until November4th.

If you’re not reading Coffee & Covid on a regular basis, here’s a few nuggets from recent editions:

The investigation of Ilhan Omar: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. This is a big story; it earned 3 days coverage, and it’s only just getting started.

The mysterious disappearance (and equally mysterious reappearance) of James Talarico in the most critical days of a major campaign: Thursday, Friday, Monday.

The Science Summit and the Golden Age: Friday special edition.

The legality of Flock cameras: Monday.

Globalists take another hit to the solar plexus: Soros panics, Rubio Guts International Criminal Court >

Get Real: the origins of Hamas and why something like October 7 was always part of the program >

Rubio’s speech in Greece; some say it is the best he’s ever given, defending Western civilization. From Victor Davis Hanson >

In the Senate Judiciary Committee investigating the weaponization of the Biden DOJ, it was disclosed on Wednesday that Special Counsel Jack Smith had compiled a spreadsheet with over 640,000 names of citizens who donated to Trump’s campaign, bought red MAGA hats and otherwise committed perfectly legal acts in support of Donald Trump. A mountain of personal information was collected on all these innocent people.

Congratulations if you make the list! I went to a Trump rally, bought Trump coins, jigsaw puzzles and pint glasses, and donated $45 and $47 to his campaigns. So you might say I have a vested interest in our country remaining in the hands of Republicans, since Democrats are vowing vengeance against us, from Susan Rice down to the scrum over at Blue Sky. Rice was Biden’s ambassador to the UN, who stated publicly that there will be no “forgive and forget” for MAGA when Democrats come back into power. Thanks to Jack Smith, they now have a starting hit list.

Nevertheless, I’m honored to have (most likely) made the 640,000 Roll Call of Honor.

Read more here; it’s the second topic down from Ilhan Omar >

Most of the time, Trump does things that make me dance a jig; sometimes, things that make me cringe. Has anyone really figured out this force of nature we call “President”? When I consider where we were under Biden (or whoever that was, pulling the strings) and where we were headed, the current outlook appears to be an outright miracle. I think people forget how degraded and weak and filthy our country was, just a few years ago. Six foot-plus drag queens were welcomed to the White House, traditional Catholic churches were under surveillance by the FBI, the law was being stretched to cover practically anything a Trump supporter did, including speaking at their children’s school board meetings.

Now our country is respected around the world, massive deals are being made to the benefit of the American people, the government is no longer aimed at us like a loaded cannon, and the future looks bright, especially for our children who will benefit from the downstream effects of all the diplomacy and deals the Trump team is making, not to mention their Trump accounts!

I’ve been reading The Counter Revolution; The Fall and Rise of Donald Trump and the MAGA Movement by Victor Davis Hanson, a historian I greatly respect. He has written the book from his best non-partisan viewpoint; that is, not as an apology or glossy ad for Trump. He views Trump as the classic tragic hero, in a Shakepearean sense; a man of great gifts with one fatal flaw. Trump’s flaw, according to Davis, is his mouth (or his texting thumbs). Hanson, like most of us, wish Trump would give it a rest sometimes.

There’s another theory, though; that Trump deliberately teases his critics by saying and posting things that keep them occupied and out of his way while he pursues the next big deal, which bursts onto the public stage without anyone knowing it was even in the wings. Like the Alaska pipeline deal that was announced on Wednesday. He definitely knows how to tweak his detractors and keep them busy while he works.

Lest anyone think I am a mindless Trump supporter and thus my conclusions invalid, let me just say there are plenty of things I would change if I could. I imagine Melania at night, lamenting, “Oh, Donald, we’ve talked about the cussing…” And there are more substantive things than the language. That’s where the lefties are wrong about us; we’re not a cult that blindly follows the leader off the side of a cliff. We measure the good against the bad, as it is reasonable to do. No leader, but one, has ever been flawless.

Ever since the kerfuffle about the $20 burrito, online arguers have been back-and-forthing about the economy. It all started in August with a post on X about affordability:

“​​One of our TPUSA college students gave me his take on affordability: ‘A burrito shouldn’t cost $20,’” he posted to X on Wednesday. “Yeah, a lot of this is a hangover from Covid and Biden-era inflation, but the lived experience is the same: It just feels like basic things cost too much.”

Many older folks scoffed, and noted that a burrito doesn’t cost $20 if you make it yourself, or at least pick it up yourself without delivery service. Others warned that we should not dismiss the younger folks so glibly. Yes, they may consider UberEats and GrubHub as necessities of life; they had to grow up during the lockdowns, when such things seemed like life preservers. Did their two-income parents even teach them to cook? Young people may not be profligate so much as uneducated. In any case, the whole online debate highlights the way many young people feel about the economy.

Here’s a post Peggy Tierney picked up from the internet discussion:

It’s Not the Economy; It’s the Lifestyle >

We had our Hero-Doctors here in the US: Peter McCullough, Ryan Cole, Lee Merritt, Simone Gold, Pierre Kory, Mary Talley-Bowden. They spoke up for us, giving us alternative treatments, and calling out the misdirection from the government and Big Pharma. Dr. Kory, testifying before Congress, brought the name “ivermectin” to the public. Though few, these doctors were public enough to let the Administration know that there was significant opposition to their plans. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say the truth-telling doctors saved our lives.

Now. Reiner Fullmich. He’s the one we haven’t heard much about, but to whom we owe a debt. He was the first to call for Nuremburg 2.0, asserting that those who perpetrated the covid fraud, must be tried for crimes against humanity. A German citizen, he was seized by German authorities on his way to the US in 2022, and he’s been in German prisons ever since.

He has recently been relocated to a new prison, a strategy used effectively against the J6 guys and nicknamed “diesel therapy” which keeps prisoners disoriented, friendless and cut off from outside supporters. His friends are asking people to write him in his unhappy situation. It is a kindness that satisfies our obligation to the corporal works of mercy; most of us will never physically visit the imprisoned, but we can write to them.

Address as follows, and don’t forget that international postage requires the $1.75 global stamp:

Reiner Fullmich
JVA Lingen
Kaiserstrasse 5
49809 Lingen (Ems)
Deutschland /
Germany

Read more here >

Bishop Strickland continues to teach the faithful from his website, Pillars of Faith. There are many opportunities to learn, from weekly podcasts to daily inspirations:

Scripture Study: weekly reflections on Scripture >

Vatican II reading challenge: We’re on Lumen Gentium now >

Arise and Shine, morning prayer inspiration >

If you watch social media much, you’ll have noticed the glut of videos lately, featuring dancing, singing, bike-riding, basketball-shooting bishops and priests in the sanctuary. There seems to be an impulse right now for clerics to show how super-cool they are. Never mind the deposit of faith, what’s important is to turn the sanctuary into a nightclub or gymnasium. It almost feels like a competition to see which cleric is the most “synodal.” Did you know that Cardinal Cupich of Chicago has now theologized dancing as synodality? Not
surprised.

Read more hear about the swinging prelates here, from Liz Yore >

Many of us find reasons to stay up too late at night, as we cram our schedules and become consumed with issues
that we actually have no control over. There are many strategies for sleeping better, but the first step is to realize
how important sleep is to your quality of life.

Catholic fitness coach Chase Crouch puts it this way >

The statistics on weird-identifying kids tell the story of heavy outside influence, rather than any sort of organic phenomenon. Ten years ago, girls identifying as gay or transgender jumped 300%. It’s my opinion that the “coming out” of Bruce Jenner as a fashionable (large) woman in 2015 was part of a much bigger psy-op to wreck kids, and it worked… Until 2025, when President Trump declared only two sexes, not 72, and cut off funding for all the gay parades and holidays funded by the Federal government. Now the number of teenage girls identifying as any combination of the alphabet soup has been reduced by half. It was important to someone that girls not be fertile.

Read more about the strange history of transgenderism from Peggy Tierney, here:

Read more about the strange history of transgenderism from Peggy Tierney, here >

Once the mid-terms are over, Trump is in the fourth quarter of his presidential post (counting Trump 1.0). I think some mighty big changes will happen in the next two years. One of the biggest may be monetary. Your best preparation is to understand our current monetary system. It may be a heavy lift for non-economists, but there are several books that make it comprehensible.

Moral Money, by Eric Sammons. Great exposition of the principles of currency, what makes one more effective or moral than another, written from a Catholic point of view.

Good As Gold: How To Unleash the Power of Sound Money, by Judy Shelton. Discusses sound money, and how the gold standard could improve the lives of people around the world.

And speaking of money… Here’s the tariff and Federal revenue meter as of October 15, 2026:

From https://www.usdebtclock.org

Revenue from all taxes (income, payroll, estate tax) 5.5 trillion
Tariff revenue 185 billion or approximately 3%
Tariff revenue as a percentage of income tax only is approx. 6%
So my fondest hope that tariffs will replace the personal income tax is still a ways away.

We’re likely to hear a lot more about this in the future, so it’s important to have some idea of how it works and how it may be best used. Block chain facilitates cryptocurrency, and it is much more useful than that. I’m not a techie, so I had to start very simply. Some preliminary resources:

What Is Block Chain >

Block Chain Explained >