Pun Salad

It's that villain, Ollie Garky:

OMG 😂 pic.twitter.com/CDq60JMizH https://t.co/YPyEuLn7Sx

— MAZE (@mazemoore) October 21, 2025

What's that word for something you're rapidly driving toward, but never seem to get to?

Oh, right: "mirage".

Bernie, by the way, has endorsed his fellow "progressive", Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, who's running against (in the D-side primary) current Governor Janet Mills and (if he wins the primary) current Republican Senator Susan Collins. And Platner has provided some comic relief of late, as related by Jeffrey Blehar: ‘I’m Not a Secret Nazi’: Graham Platner’s ‘I’m Not a Witch’ Moment. (NR gifted link)

Jeffrey's article centers on Platner's now-famous Totenkopf tattoo, a onetime favorite design among Hitler’s SS. He quotes from a Guardian article:

Sad to say, I think it's unlikely we will see any comparable video starring either Janet Mills or Susan Collins drunkenly lip-syncing in their underwear.

But Platner has undergone (very painful, hopefully) re-inking as reported in this CNN story:

Yoiks! Pic at the link, which, fair warning, you will not be able to unsee. Think: Cthulhu, run over by an 18-wheeler, on a man boob.

But again, neither Janet nor Susie are likely to do anything comparable.

Also of note:

• Good advice for Republicans. And it comes from J.D. Tuccille: Don’t extend Obamacare subsidies to end the government shutdown.

  The federal government's not-really-a-shutdown lingers on, largely driven by Democrats' insistence on extending pandemic-era subsidies that conceal the real cost of health coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA)—better known as Obamacare. It's not enough that the spending bill under consideration is already bloated with unaffordable goodies that Republicans and Democrats alike support. Democrats have to show themselves battling the Trump administration and see advantage in doing so while fighting to preserve the main legislative accomplishment (bad policy though the ACA is) on which they've staked their reputations for over a decade. This is no way to handle spending, let alone to improve health care.

  "Families across America are opening up letters and researching the new rates online and are seeing how their premiums will skyrocket if Republicans refuse to act on the health care crisis they created by refusing to extend the vital ACA tax credits," Sen. Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.) huffed last week.

  The "vital" tax credits to which Schumer refers are subsidies that reduce the cost of health coverage policies under Obamacare. These subsidies are necessary for political reasons because, as the Cato Institute's Michael F. Cannon puts it, "Obamacare offers junk insurance at outrageous premiums." There's no easy way to hide the low quality of the coverage, but subsidies can take the sting out of the price.

  I follow my Congressional delegation's Twitter accounts, and they say "skyrocketing" a lot. They never, ever, mention that their preferred solution would simply shift these skyrocketing costs to taxpayers.

• As Linda Richman would say: "Discuss". Kevin D. Williamson detects a couple of problems hidden by the hype: Trump's Peace Plan Lacks Both Peace and Plan.

  Like the so-called Abraham Accords, the Israel-Hamas peace plan is a triumph of marketing over substance, packaging over product. Neither of the two central parties to the dispute have, in fact, agreed to any binding terms, and, in fact, neither has signed the 20-point plan. A separate “implementation” document, even more vague than the 20-point plan, was signed by the parties and by their mediators, and that signature commits them to very little beyond a non-enforceable promise “to implement the necessary steps” to end the conflict. A third document, unveiled with great ceremony in the lovely Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, is essentially a celebratory White House press release, and neither of the belligerent parties has signed that one, either.

  Hamas immediately violated the terms of the supposed agreement by failing to return all of the remains of the hostages; the Israelis, to the surprise of no one, immediately resumed airstrikes in Gaza.

  No peace. Also, no plan.

  [Didn't get this item's headline reference, youngster? See here.]

• Similar observations, but with more dirty words. And they are coming from Jeff Maurer: Trump's Gaza Plan is Downright Wilsonian.

  I want peace to take hold in Gaza — I really do. I was thrilled when the hostages came home; being a hostage is a fate so terrible that I wouldn’t wish it on most of my enemies. And the people of Gaza have suffered so much that I won’t even make a cheap joke about how Gaza sounds almost as bad as New Jersey — the suffering is so severe that it transcends a comedian’s impulse to shit on Jersey. I’m hoping for peace, and I mean it when I say that Trump should be given whatever Nobel Prizes, sexual favors, and sugary snack treats he wants if he actually pulls it off.

  But do I think he’ll pull it off? Oh God no, absolutely fucking not. I consider Trump’s 20-point peace plan to be mostly Wilsonian wishcasting mixed with naïveté that supports the quickly-gaining-credence theory that everyone is 12 now. It solves none of the hard problems in the region and demonstrates a deep misunderstanding of who Hamas are and what’s causing the conflict. The plan is basically a prisoner exchange, and that’s great, but those have happened before. Now that the hostages are home, let me explain why I think the wheels are going to fly off this plan like a soapbox derby car built by a kid with an alcoholic father.

  The main problem is that Trump doesn’t know what Hamas wants. They want the destruction of Israel; they have been alarmingly, unequivocally — I’m tempted to say “admirably” — consistent on that point. Hamas is like a horny 17 year-old on prom night: There’s no mistaking what they’re after, and you’d have to be next-level dense to not pick up the signals radiating from every fiber of their being.

  "Wilsonian" isn't a compliment, in other words.

• And with fewer dirty words the NR editorialists are honest enough to point out Hamas Is Already Violating Peace Deal.

  The Middle East peace deal that President Trump brokered earlier this month is reaching a precarious phase, with multiple violations of the agreement by Hamas having triggered a response by Israel.

  On Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance joined negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Israel, urging calm during the delicate phase of implementation.

  Under the terms of the deal, all 48 remaining hostages held in Gaza — both living and dead — were supposed to be returned to Israel within 72 hours of the agreement being accepted by all parties. While Israel did receive the 20 living hostages on time, only 13 of the 28 bodies have been returned.

  But somehow I still prefer Jeff Maurer's accurate metaphor: "There’s more TBD in this deal than there is rat shit in a hot dog."

• And in this hemisphere… Jim Geraghty points out some policy problems closer to home: The U.S. plan to blow up drug boats has some major leaks. (WaPo gifted link)

  Since taking office, President Donald Trump has authorized the U.S. military to strike at least six Venezuelan speedboats the administration suspected of smuggling drugs, killing dozens of people. The first one had 11 people aboard. Would you really need 11 people to smuggle drugs? Or was the number of people an indication that the boat was actually involved in human trafficking? If so, some people on that boat hadn’t yet broken any U.S. laws and didn’t deserve to get blown to kingdom come.

  Then there’s the problem that national security officials told Congress during a closed briefing in September that, as the AP wrote, the boat “had turned around and was heading back to shore” and “was fired on multiple times by the U.S. military after it had changed course.” That doesn’t seem like a serious threat to the United States requiring lethal force.

  And that's just a couple of things. More at the link.

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