Things Are Changing Fast

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Bob Ehrlich

Less than twelve months ago, the Democrat Party’s progressive wing was in firm control of the good ol’ USA.

The cover-up of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline was in full throttle, with only periodic breaks of truth peeking out from behind the White House’s iron curtain. The four criminal cases cooked up to derail Trump’s re-election were proceeding apace, albeit with a degree of cringe, owing to the essential weaknesses and selectivity of the prosecutions.

To boot: Trump had been hit hard with a $430,000,000 civil judgment in New York. But civil cases were only about money. The thought of breaking and jailing DJT was the accelerant for the “Stop Trump” chorus.

Around the country, DEI reigned supreme in corporate C-Suites. Migrants continued to pour over the border. The DOJ’s speech control ops were operational and (mostly) under the radar.

And, with few exceptions, the gender-bending initiative that has placed biological men in women’s athletic contests (and women’s locker rooms) had successfully shamed most (but thankfully not all) female athletes into silence.

And then the whole progressivism gig suddenly spiraled out of control.

A brutal performance at the first (and only) Biden face-to-face with Mr. Trump ended the mental acuity charade. A vice president with the lowest approval numbers in vice presidential polling history was hastily installed by Democrat elders, to the consternation of many party faithful.

The two state prosecutions began to sputter from both ethical issues (Georgia) and perceived political bias (New York). The extent of the (forced) cooperation between Biden’s agencies and social media platforms (focused on fading pro-Trump narratives) was exposed.

And then Harris chose the uber progressive Tim Walz to be her running mate, rather than the attractive high polling, swing state Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro — one of many strategic blunders committed by her campaign.

Nov. 5, 2024 was of course the inflection point — now followed by daily headlines reflecting the remarkable economic-cultural-and foreign policy 180s taking place at blinding speed.

On immigration, daily raids now take down the “worst of the worst” criminal aliens from our streets, to protests from hard left politicians, Hollywood actors, and media wokesters.

On the economy, a renewal of Trump’s original tax cuts and the return of “drill baby, drill” plus no new taxes on tips, overtime, and Social Security benefits will feed supply side fans while the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) focuses on fraud, waste, abuse, and redundancy to increase efficiency and achieve savings for a broken, debt-ridden federal budget.

On culture, the counter-revolution is rolling.

Not a day goes by without some large corporation announcing a pull back on DEI and/or ESG. Now Mark Zuckerberg and META are fully invested in the restoration of free speech on social media, even down to parroting X’s “Community Notes” rather than censoring edgy or controversial speech.

To boot: One cannot watch a college or NFL football game without players (winners and losers) openly professing their faith out loud and proud. Geez, even the woke NFL is newly enthused about patriotism and the people in uniform that protect us from the bad guys.

And then there are the devastating California wildfires at once horrific, and instructive. Horrific for familiar reasons: loss of life; loss of homes; loss of communities. An unmitigated disaster of historic proportions.

But also instructive as Americans (again) gain an up-close look into the failure of a woke left coast leadership that prioritizes progressive values over preparedness, and sound water and forestry practices.

Twelve short months later, America is back to two genders…“Stay in Mexico”… a southern border …”1776”… parent power …“maximum pressure” … presidential press conferences …the lab leak theory … even Diet Coke and “YMCA.” Don’t blink.

Bob Ehrlich is a former governor of Maryland, member of Congress and state legislator. He is the author of five books on American politics and opinion pieces that have appeared in America’s leading newspapers and periodicals. He and his wife, Kendel, can be seen and heard on their weekly podcast, “Bottom Line with Bob & Kendel Ehrlich.”

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Trump urges Putin, Zelenskyy to make a ‘deal’

Published on October 19, 2025

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From The Center Square

By Sarah Roderick-Fitch

President Donald Trump hosted President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday afternoon, in hopes of inching Ukraine and Russia closer to peace.

Trump told the media Friday evening that the two had a “very good meeting, a very cordial meeting.”

However, the president said that he has told both Eastern European leaders to stop the war and “go by the battle line wherever it is or else it gets too complicated.”

“The meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine was very interesting, and cordial, but I told him, as I likewise strongly suggested to President Putin, that it is time to stop the killing, and make a DEAL! Enough blood has been shed, with property lines being defined by War and Guts,” the president posted to Truth Social Friday evening. “They should stop where they are. Let both claim Victory, let History decide!”

The president pleaded with the leaders to stop shooting, “no more Death, no more vas and unsustainable sums of money spent.”

The meeting comes a day after Trump had a “lengthy” and “productive” conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which the two agreed to meet in Hungary.

One of the topics of interest during the bilateral meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy is Ukraine’s desire to purchase U.S. Tomahawk missiles.

During a news conference between the two leaders, they both emphasized their desire to reach a peace agreement. However, Zelenskyy underscored the need for more weapons, including the Tomahawks.

Zelenskyy suggested a trade between Ukrainian drones for U.S. Tomahawk missiles, which the president suggested he would be open to the exchange. However, the president appears to be reluctant to sell Tomahawks, potentially leaving the U.S. short in case they are needed.

The president indicated that the threat of Tomahawks may be bringing Putin to the table; however, he noted that the Russian president wants to end the war, acknowledging that “bad things can happen” with the missiles.

Overall, the president appears confident that he can solve the war. “I am the mediator president,” Trump told the media.

Trump addressed concerns that Putin is trying to buy more time in wanting to meet, which he acknowledged.

The president said he is eager to strike a peace deal between the two countries, noting that he thought the war would be easier to solve, adding that there is a lot of bad blood between the two leaders.

Sarah Roderick-Fitch

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Trump Blocks UN’s Back Door Carbon Tax

Published on October 19, 2025

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From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By David Blackmon

Has the time come for America to seriously reassess its participation in and support for the United Nations (U.N.)?

It’s a question that some prominent people are asking this week after the increasingly woke and essentially useless globalist body attempted to sneak a global carbon tax in through the back door while no one was looking.

Except someone was looking, as it turns out. Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee, who chairs the powerful Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and is part of the majority on both the Senate Judiciary and Senate Foreign Relations Committees, said in an X post Thursday evening that this latest bit of anti-American action “warrants our withdrawal from the UN.”

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in his own X post on the matter on Wednesday that the Trump administration “will not allow the UN to tax American citizens and companies. Under the leadership of POTUS (President Donald Trump), the U.S. will be a hard NO. We call on other nations to stand alongside the United States in defense of our citizens and sovereignty.”

On Friday afternoon, Mr. Rubio took to X again to announce the news that efforts by himself and others in the Trump administration succeeded in killing an effort to move the tax forward during a meeting in London. However, the proposal is not fully dead – a final vote on it was simply delayed for a year.

The issue at hand stems from an attempt by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) – an agency of the U.N. – to impose net-zero rules on fuels used for seaborne shipping operations. The Trump administration estimates the imposition of the new requirements will increase the cost of shipping goods by about 10%, thus creating yet another round of inflation hitting the poorest citizens the hardest thanks to the globalist obsession with the amount of plant food – carbon dioxide – in the atmosphere.

Known as the IMO Net-Zero Framework, the proposal claims it would effectively “zero out” emissions from the shipping industry by 2050.

The potential implications if the U.N. ultimately succeeds in implementing its own global carbon tax are obvious. If this unelected, unaccountable globalist body can levy a carbon tax on Americans, a concept that America’s own elected officials have steadfastly rejected across the terms of the last five U.S. presidents, what would then prevent it from imposing other kinds of taxes on the world to support its ideological goals?

President Trump’s opposition to exactly this kind of international intrusion into America’s domestic policy choices is the reason why he has twice won the presidency, each time de-committing the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accords.

It has become increasingly obvious in recent years that the central goal of the global climate alarm movement is to dramatically raise the cost of all kinds of energy in order to force the masses to live smaller, more restricted lives and make their behavior easier for authoritarian governments to control. This camel’s nose under the tent move by the U.N. to sneak a global carbon tax into reality is just the latest in a long parade of examples that serve as proof points for that thesis.

At some point, U.S. officials must seriously reassess the value proposition in continuing to spend billions of dollars each year supporting and hosting a globalist organization whose every action seems designed to inflict damage on our country and its people. Now would be a good time to do that, in fact.

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.