Happy Friday the 13th!
Weirdness around the blue wave in Texas, FAA calls a ground stop over technical difficulties, Nvidia boss resigns after getting caught dipping his wick in a honeypot, Ukraine steps up attacks, Microsoft craters, and an alligator drops in for a smear. Plus an unusually high number of Babylon Bee links.
It’s the Friday LinkSwarm!
- There’s an awful lot of oddities about that blue wave in Texas.
In the night of the 2020 Presidential Elections most Americans recall going to bed feeling certain that Donald Trump had pulled off another solid victory. With Joe Biden drawing mostly small crowds on the campaign trail and spending most of the cycle rarely engaging with the public, it seemed as if Trump was a lock.
When everyone awoke the next morning, they were shocked to discover that Biden was awash in votes from an overnight spike, largely due to mail-in ballots and absentee ballots (at least, that was the narrative). Some called it unprecedented, and the shift completely bucked the vote counts that had been trending throughout election day.
Millions of Americans cried foul; suspicions over the results led to the January 6th protests (which turned into riots after Capitol Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas into the otherwise peaceful crowd). It felt like a coup, and when the Democrat crackdown over the pandemic escalated, it felt like the end of the country was near.
The same feeling is thick in the air after the 2026 Midterms. The most common retort is that this is now the go-to response for any election loss. Democrats claimed the 2016 election was stolen, Republicans claimed the 2020 election was stolen, the accusations arose again in 2024 and today everything is circling back. But does this mean the suspicions are wrong?
Trump recently ignited media outrage when he suggested that some midterms results were fraudulent. In the case of Texas, he might have a point. Something’s not quite right about these Midterm numbers. Let’s examine the facts for a moment…
irst, no voting shift of this magnitude has happened in Texas for at least the past 50 years. Texas, like much of the south, was largely Democrat controlled in the 1970s, but it’s important to keep in mind that southern Democrats at that time were anti-immigration, pro states rights and definitely not the woke creatures we know today.
It wasn’t until the 1990s after a slow process that Texas began to vote Republican, and the basic principles of the state remained intact regardless of the party in charge. The woke ideology of Democrats in our era is completely contrary to these principles, and the abrupt party switch in the recent elections is unprecedented. But lets look at the stats for a moment.
The PollsAfter the 2016 and 2024 elections, most intelligent people don’t trust media polls anymore. There is a clear trend of bias in modern polling and far too many election gurus have been caught producing fraudulent numbers, usually in favor of Democrats.
In Texas, polls have historically underestimated Republicans. In 2022 and 2024, for example, Democrats typically fell short of their polling averages by roughly 3–5 points while Republicans surpassed expectations.
However, in 2026, polls went in the opposite direction by over double the normal point range. The miss on the polls wasn’t three to five points. It was nine in the Senate race. In the governor’s race, it was nearly 11. This is strange, obviously.
Those results are the largest polling misses in modern Texas history, and they ran against the Republicans this time. Not only that, but this massive blue shift happened in the span of only two years.
Okay, so the polls were off…by a lot, in the opposite direction of previous trends, but that just means the Republicans really blew it and their voting base was out to get them more than anyone had predicted. This would mean that GOP candidates must have received far less votes than previous elections. Their base must have stayed home, or some conservatives actually voted blue to “teach Trump and the GOP a lesson” over the Iran War, right?
Actually, no. Texas Republican candidates received almost the same number of votes as they did in previous midterms. There was no mass walkout of conservatives and there was no rebellion of people switching their votes to Democrat.
The Republican Governor Greg Abbott maintained a steady average for midterm votes, with his final tally at 4.59 million. From 2022 to 2026, though, Democrats somehow added an extra 2 million votes to their tally for Gina Hinojosa. It’s kind of a miracle for anyone who understands how election trends work. And there is no immediate explanation that makes sense.
In the Texas House, Democrats garnered around 3 million votes in 2022, but skyrocketed to 5.16 million voted in 2026. Again, Republicans kept to their historic average of 4.59 million votes. Where did the extra 2 million votes for Democrats come from?
Where indeed?
- “FAA Grounds All Flights Nationwide Due to ‘Communication Issue.'”
The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a nationwide ground stop for all flights that have not taken off yet in what Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is describing as a “communication issue.”
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told reporters at the White House on Friday evening that “this was a telecommunications outage throughout FAA.” Mullin reassured Americans that “everybody is safe. There is no reason to be concerned about your loved ones if they’re flying.”
“Out of an abundance of caution, we have grounded all the fights […] There is no indication as of yet that this was a nefarious attack,” he added.
I wonder if the “communication issue” is related to the Microsoft outage mentioned further down.
- “U.S. Supreme Court Allows Continued Big Bend Border Construction. ‘The Government’s interest therefore outweighs any aesthetic, recreational, and environmental harm alleged by respondents,’ the court said.”
In a major judicial development, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) issued a decision Monday allowing President Donald Trump’s administration to continue border construction in Texas’ Big Bend region.
The decision follows a lower court’s order to halt construction last month.
A lawsuit filed by Friends of the Ruidosa Church in April — the current crux of the Big Bend border dispute — alleges that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s waiving of federal rules in order to precipitously build border infrastructure in the region violated a swath of federal rules. The federal rules waived deal mostly with environmental and conservation-related protections.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone granted a preliminary injunction in the matter, stating that the plaintiffs were “likely to succeed on the merits” of at least one of their allegations in the lawsuit.
On Monday, SCOTUS reached a different conclusion, staying the preliminary injunction as requested by the federal government and allowing continued construction in the Big Bend region.
Republicans and ordinary Texans won’t give up on enforcing border security without a fight.
- “Rand Paul Slams Texas Governor-Elect’s ‘Venezuelan Socialist’ Plan To Freeze Electricity Rates.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) took aim at Texas Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa on Tuesday over her pledge to freeze electricity rates on her first day in office, calling it a move “out of the Venezuelan socialist playbook.”
“This will not end well,” Paul wrote, linking to a Fox News report on whether Hinojosa has the legal authority to do it. The post passed 750,000 views within hours.
Hinojosa, the Austin Democrat who unseated Abbott on Nov. 3, says she will act as soon as she is sworn in on Jan. 19. “Within an hour of taking the oath of office, I will declare a high-cost emergency in the state of Texas and issue an emergency executive order to: one, suspend the gas and diesel tax; and two, freeze electricity rates,” she said in a statement quoted by the Texas Tribune.
Paul followed up by quoting an account of what price controls did to Venezuela, from rice to toilet paper, and to its electricity sector.
- Jensen Huang resigns as CEO of Nvidia after suffering a case of Eric Swalwell Syndrome.
On October 29, The New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence viewed his close relationship with Alice Huang (no relation), a Chinese executive tied to Singapore-based Megaspeed (a major NVIDIA customer under investigation for possible diversion of advanced AI chips to China), as involving a Ministry of State Security asset.
Photos from Taipei events dating to 2024, plus earlier classified memos (including one overseen by Secretary of State Marco Rubio), amplified national-security concerns about export controls and influence.
On November 8, Huang publicly admitted in a letter to employees that he had been “unfaithful to my wife,” apologized for the harm to his family, and linked it to the reports; NVIDIA’s board launched an independent investigation.
Shares fell sharply amid congressional requests for briefings and references to FBI scrutiny.
On November 11, the Times reported a second extramarital affair with Kimberly Powell, NVIDIA’s vice president of healthcare who reported to Huang (including accounts of affectionate behavior at a conference).
- Chicom money behind anti-data center referendum.
Taylor Frazier McCollum is a single mom who fought hard over the past two years to keep a data center from being built in her community, based on the popular misconception that modern data centers will use a bunch of water.
While communities may have very valid reasons for not wanting Big Tech to set up Skynet next door (and Americans overwhelmingly voted against data centers at the ballot box), McCollum’s case highlights the absurdity in the mix as well.
Built in the 1970s, the Landover Mall in Landover, Maryland, closed its doors in 2002. It has been a decaying lot for a quarter of a century – a reminder of America’s slow, then sudden, cultural decline.
Snip.
Well, you might not be surprised to learn that McCollum was a useful idiot for the folks over at the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a literal communist group connected to China-based tech mogul Neville Roy Singham, who has been accused of spending $278 million to fund anti-American nonprofits as part of an “extensive Chinese propaganda network.”
- “Flamingo Missile Strike on Oryol Proton Plant & Drone Strike on Saratov Oil Refinery.”
- “Volgograd Oil Refinery Hit By Drones.”
- “Big Drone Strike on Kirishi Oil Refinery in Leningrad: Second Biggest in Russia!
- “Ukraine Just Hit the Factory Making 96% of Russia’s Titanium.”
- “Big Drone Strike On Ust-Luga Port.”
- “Followup: Three Russian Helicopters Lost Over St. Petersburg! x2 Ka-52! Likely Shot Down By Friendly Fire!”
- “Big Drone Strike on Rubicon Unit Drone Operators in Berdiansk: Hit Multiple Times.” This is big news, as Rubicon is famous as Russia’s most skilled drone operators.
- “Ukraine Badly Damaged Key Bridge in Rostov With Drone: Russian Air Defence Fails to Intercept.”
- “Major Russian Railway Bridge in Arkhangelsk Collapses in Two Places: Possible Sabotage.”
- “Drones Hit 123rd Aircraft Repair Plant: Repairs A-50 AWACS, Il-76 & Il-78 Transporters.”
- “Ukraine Hit Buyan-M Corvette in Baltic Sea! MiG-31 Confirmed Shot Down at Saint Petersburg.”
- Ukraine continues to hit Russian logistics, destroying numerous trucks on the major E58 supply road.
- Lex Friedman talks to Preston Stewart and Michael Kofman about the Russo-Ukrainian War. It’s a good general summary of the ebb and flow of the conflict in terms of territory.
- Moldova stops buying Russian gas.
- “LUCAS Drones To Be Built In Containerized Robotic Micro Factories Designed To Be Forward Deployed.”
California robotics company called Machina has been issued a $9 million award for a containerized system to robotically mass-produce Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (LUCAS) airframes close to the point of need. As TWZ has frequently noted, LUCAS drones, and one-way attack weapons like them, are playing an increasing role in U.S. combat operations and military planning.
The award to Machina is the latest example of the Pentagon’s push to use containerized 3D printing and other advanced fabricating systems closer to the front lines to shorten supply chains that could get severely degraded in a major conflict. Decentralizing production of drones also allows units to be more flexible and tailor their own production to their specific needs at any given moment. For instance, a unit can produce variations of multiple designs that are best suited to an upcoming mission instead of having to use whatever they are shipped.
This 18-month contract from the Defense Department’s Organic Industrial Base Modernization Challenge calls for Machina to prove it can build LUCAS drones at deployed locations with its RoboCraftsman system, Ed Mehr, founder and CEO of Machina, told TWZ Friday afternoon. A decision on producing them at scale in many other locales will come later.
Snip.
Initially, the plan calls for Machina to set up so-called “Edge Factories” at two locations in the continental United States, said Mehr. However, the ultimate goal is to be able to deploy them to forward locations in countries like Kuwait.
The Edge Factories consist of the company’s containerized RoboCraftsman manufacturing cells, Mehr told us. A 20-foot by 36-foot system that weighs 120,000 pounds fully installed, it is essentially two robotic arms that form the airframe out of metal using reductive manufacturing based on a variety of requirements. Payload weight, range and other factors are punched into a software system designed by the nTop company and the robotic arms then cut the metal into the desired form factor based on the required specifications.
Machina uses metal instead of composites that many drones are made out of because “not only it is cheaper, it is more widely available and now can be processed with an automated process like ours versus composites, which are all done by hand layup,” Mehr explained.
The capability to do just-in-time war fabrication has been around a while, and presumably Machina’s cells will take it to the next level. Seems kime the sort of thing that owuld have been pretty handy to have a bunch of before Epic Fury kicked off. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
- “Salvadoran forces destroy Haitian gang HQ after internet commenters send coordinates.”
El Salvador is on a scorched-earth mission after Haitian gangs captured four of its aviation mechanics last month.
The mechanics had been working on humanitarian operations provided by the government of El Salvador, as part of the larger relief mission to help the country, which has been ruled by warring gangs since the president was assassinated in 2021.
On November 6, someone posted a photo of a building to X that showed the home of Lanmò San Jou and the headquarters of the “400 Mawozo” gang.
President Bukele of El Salvador told commenters to send him the address so he could destroy it.
And he did.
- “Biden staffer found guilty after telling jury he only dismembered his wife, but didn’t kill her.”
Nepalese man Naresh Bhatt moved to the U.S. as an adult, joined the Army Reserve, became a naturalized citizen in 2017, then joined the White House staff as a government contractor with top-secret clearance.
Oh, and then in 2024, he dismembered his wife, put her body parts in trash bags, and disappeared her.
He told a jury he didn’t kill her though.
- “Missouri Democrat arrested day after being reelected.” “That’s Rep. Anthony Ealy Jr. (D – Grandview), who secured a third term on Tuesday in a decisive victory where he earned 68% of the vote. By Wednesday morning, the 32-year-old attorney was in handcuffs.”
- “FBI arrests Meghan Markle’s dad at Florida retirement home for “troves” of child porn found at properties in the Philippines, Mexico, and LA .” “Philippines police investigating Thomas Markle found more that 7,000 child abuse pictures of girls and boys of Asian, Latin and European descent as young as 10.” how is it even the distant in-laws are pedos?
- “Microsoft Fixes Nearly 1,100 Security Vulnerabilities.” “Microsoft did another four-digit patch drop today, releasing updates to fix almost 1,100 security vulnerabilities in its Windows operating systems and supported software. This month’s Patch Tuesday addresses 63 critical flaws — including a zero-day in Microsoft Outlook — and comes amid important security updates from other software makers, including Adobe, Apple, Google and Mozilla.”
- And speaking of Outlook: “Microsoft Outlook outage stretches on for hours.” I’m not saying it’s a direct result of the patch, but I’m guessing that’s the way to bet…
- An explanation for the Outlook outage that rings true.
Where AI fits (also speculation): not “an AI wrote the bad line”. It’s velocity. Microsoft flagged several recent config changes as suspects and took hours to find one that correlated.
When the volume of change outpaces the humans who understand each change, finding the culprit gets slow and rollbacks get messy. Automate the shipping faster than you automate the understanding, and this is the bill.
The takeaway for every business: your email, chat, files, identity and security tooling now share one failure domain. Today proved it. Have a way to talk to your team that doesn’t live in the same tenant.
You know what doesn’t fix this problem? Offering buyouts to one third of your employees to replace them with AI. (Hat tip: Eric S. Raymond via Instapundit.)
- “Protesters break into Microsoft data center site in Amsterdam as Europe’s backlash spreads.” This is from November 6, so unrelated to the Outlook outage.
- Apple was using shady in-store tactics to push subscription services on users. Whistleblowers helped Louis Rossmann call them on it and now they’ve stopped.
- “Embezzlement scheme at charter school uncovered thanks to excessive breakfast order.”
Two staffers of the International School of Monterey in Seaside, California, were arrested for embezzling $300,000 of the school’s money.
The school became alerted to suspicious activity when they noticed an excessively large order from Costco.
Terry Bumper, the school’s former food services director, also owns a catering business called Flava 2 You, and he allegedly used the school’s account to order $58,800 of eggs, bacon, and potatoes for his personal use.
Bumper is also accused of renting out the school’s kitchen without permission.
The school’s investigation into their food services director uncovered an even bigger financial problem.
The New York Post reports,
His alleged misuse of money led the school to uncover another massive fraud, according to investigators.
Chief Financial Officer Rosa Segura allegedly siphoned more than $238,000 from school funds to pay for personal expenses, including luxury vacations, restaurants, spas, and online shopping, authorities said.
The 45-year-old “made Bumper look like a saint the way she was ripping off the school,” Borges told the Los Angeles Times.
- The James Gunn DC Cinematic Universe Presented By James Gunn is dead. And evidently Man of Tomorrow is such a mess they may not even release it…
- Russia declares war…on pizza.
- How to make your house less attractive to burglars.
- The Professor of Rock has a near death experience.”
- Alligators? In my bagel shop? It’s more likely than you think.”
- Leftist wizard Some Kind Of Act They Could Have Passed To Save America.”
- “Democrats Say They Now Have A Clear Mandate From Voters To Do All The Crazy Stuff They Never Mentioned In Their Campaigns.”
- “Karen Bass Says It Was Unfair For Voters To Judge Her Performance Based On That One Time The Entire City Burned Down.”
- “Promises Kept: Democrats Deliver On Affordability By Making Stocks Way Cheaper.”
- “Heartbroken Eric Swalwell Learns Chinese Intelligence Has Been Seeing Other People.”
- “Newsom Clears Murderers Out Of Death Row To Make Room For People Caught With Plastic Straws.”
- “Baby Relieved He Made It Out Of The Womb Before Democrats Won Midterms.”
- “National Productivity Skyrockets After Microsoft Teams Goes Down.”
- “Colin Kaepernick Briefly Gets Hopes Up Before Realizing Incoming Call Is About His Car’s Extended Warranty.”
- “Taco Bell Employee Fired For Passing Drug Test.”
- “Theologians Announce That All Of Creation Declares The Glory Of God Except For New Jersey.”
- Elderly dog pilates:
I’m still between jobs. Feel free to hit the tip jar if you’re so inclined.
