Democrats Ascendant

The US Democratic Party has had a major win in the 2026 midterm elections, taking control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Clearly, the war on Iran would have had a big impact on how people voted as the war itself directly led to a rapid rise in the cost of living.

Here's a few things to consider overall:

1. Donald Trump has regularly attacked or criticised the Pope. The Pope is an American, and many people in the US are Catholic. This may have turned off many from voting Republican.

2. ICE raids have alienated many voters in regions where immigration is an issue. I'm thinking areas like Texas, where people have relatives on the other side of the border with Mexico. While voters want immigration controls and secure borders, they do not want this to be over-the-top. Interestingly, Texas has elected its first Democratic Senator in decades.

3. The cost of living keeps coming up time and again. Rising prices are due to the war in the Middle East, but also tariffs which Trump uses as a weapon. Democratic candidates who talked about the cost of living during their campaigns have gone on to poll very well.

4. Those Epstein files won't go away, get those files fully released and let's see some arrests.

5. The Democratic Party candidates more closely resembled the voters, thus, they were able to connect with people better. The GOP looks pale and stale.

6. Darline Graham for the GOP gained her Senate seat through being the sister of Sen. Lindsey Graham who died in office just months ago. She was resoundingly defeated and justifiably so, her appointment smacked of nepotism. 

The Republicans have a lot of ground to recover, their only hope in the short term being that the Democrats may implode with infighting. The Democrats, for their part, had better deliver on their promises, as clearly, the voters have woken up.

Alan Jones Dies Aged 80

F1 racing legend Alan Jones has died aged 80. The Australian won his F1 drivers championship in 1980. I looked around for footage of his driving style and found this, Argentina 1980. He won that grand prix, along with four others, and a further five podium finishes to take the championship. 

His driving was aggressive, and this footage shows him unafraid to put the power down. As a man, he was the nicest bloke you'd ever meet.

Strikes on Iran Kick Off Before Mid-Terms

Uh oh, this will escalate.

Iran Will Respond

Iran has issued a statement saying that if they're attacked again, they consider anything in reach a legitimate target. I assume, therefore, that this includes civil targets as well as military; thus, airports, desalination plants and such are fair game. 

Granite Construction (NYSE: GVA)

One of my favourite companies is Granite Construction, a civil contractor based in Watsonville, California. For investors, they show steady growth, and yet have a relatively low price. That's because they're faced with historical charges related to debt; many investors classify them as a turnaround stock, which I believe ignores their core role of building infrastructure. 

Check them out, they're often overlooked as they're doing real business, and not chasing the latest fad. They have a pipeline of work, called CAP, Committed and Awarded Projects to the tune of $7.5 billion.

https://simplywall.st/stocks/us/capital-goods/nyse-gva/granite-construction/news/granite-construction-gva-q3-results-rekindle-the-cash-flow-d/amp

Granite Construction came into this Q3 2026 release with the stock already grinding higher, up about 6.7% over the past month and another 1.6% today to roughly $123. The move looks modest next to the headline. The company just posted record quarterly revenue of about $1.8b and record adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of $283m.

Banking System Collapse

Clif High has the annoying habit of being right about a lot of stuff. What he does is look at internet traffic and how that is trending, and from that he's able to predict events, at least in the short term. 

Crisis in Poland - Coup?

What is going on in Poland? Judging by what is going on there, whether a coup or not, I'd say Poland's continued membership of the EU seems doubtful. 

Is AI Creating Sludge?

It isn't being talked about enough; AI requires clean human-created content to be useful, but AI is cannibalising that content, which is creating sludge, or low quality content. Further, people search the web for answers and search engines like Google make money from that activity. But now, people are spending more time on AI, but the revenue is not following.

Candace Owens Scores a Win

American lawyer, Michael William Lebron explains the legal reasoning behind Podcaster, Candace Owens victory over Emmanuel Macron in a Delaware court. Despite having an expensive set of lawyers, Macron has stuffed up badly. 

Republicans' Epstein Problem

The just released report by the US House Committee on the Judiciary Democrats raises many questions. You can read it here: https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2026-10.hjc-dems-staff-report-epstein-and-trump.pdf

"A growing body of evidence demonstrates that Donald Trump was an active participant in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women during the mid-to-late 1990s. The Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are doing everything they can to keep the American people in the dark about it."

Is It Over for MBS?

MBS may face a palace coup within days. 

New Zealand Election 2026

Early voting has commenced for the New Zealand General Election, with the final day for voting being November 7th. What appears significant is that the two major parties cannot get over 30% in public opinion polls. Usually, they can be expected to be polling in the 30's and 40's. 

Finally, the voters have woken up to the Uniparty spewing their lies. The candidates are uninspiring, very ordinary the lot of them. They'd struggle to run a school fundraiser, so no wonder the country is falling apart.

I've made a decision about who I'll vote for, and all I can say is my party vote will NOT be for a party currently in Parliament. Every single one of the current bunch is untrustworthy.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/2193053/gap-narrows-between-national-and-labour-in-new-poll

Investigate Jared Kushner

Donald Trump's son-in-law needs to be investigated. 

Meghan Markle's Possible Legal Issues

News channels around the world are reporting allegations made by Thomas Markle Jnr, regarding his father Thomas Markle. Thomas Markle is the father of Meghan Markle, the wife of Prince Harry.

Meghan Markle put out a statement saying that she knew of these allegations as early as 2018. Later, this date has been adjusted to January 2019, but still, she knew of the allegations many years ago.

Here's an issue many are not reporting; Meghan Markle and her husband signed widely reported and hugely valuable contracts with Spotify and Netflix. 

Did Meghan Markle disclose that allegations had been made about her father, and that she had communicated with the UK police about those allegations? 

Contracts with the likes of Netflix come with routine clauses, the first of which is a morals clause, then, the second clause is a nothing is being withheld. The latter is covered by a section related to representations and warranties, which includes third parties.

Where a production relies on the reputation of the subject, these clauses are present to protect the value of the investment and provide recourse if that value is damaged. Given that Ms Markle has admitted to knowing of these allegations, the question arises; did she disclose this to Netflix?

Liam Lawson Can Sing!

F1 driver, Liam Lawson has appeared on stage in Austin along with his guitar. He has a nice tone when singing, and he appears composed when on stage. So, potential then, but he'll need a bit of voice training before he goes pro.

Anyway, good luck to Liam Lawson, and here's hoping he can get a podium finish driving for Racing Bulls.

Quality Rant About Musk

A good rant this, and I agree with some of it, especially as it relates to Elon Musk acquiring his wealth via government contracts. Musk styles himself as an entrepreneur but in reality he's a creation of the US taxpayer and has zero imagination.

Thomas Markle Snr Set Up?

Everything being reported at the moment is very sketchy. What is the factual basis for these allegations?

Mortgage Defaults Increase

Are mortgage lenders holding back on reporting defaults? In the US, a report by Moody's suggests the real rate of mortgage defaults, deferrals, and distress events is much higher than publicly disclosed. 

Who Broke Bodybuilding?

Here's a good rundown on the world of bodybuilding and the monopolistic practises of organisations involved in organising the sport.

Forget EVs, Hydrogen-Based Synthetic Fuels Are the Answer

In 2025, Japanese car manufacturers partnered with ENEOS to provide cars that run on 100% renewable liquid fuel. This is the right thinking. 

EVs are useless and offer very little utility. They're expensive, and the batteries require minerals that are very scarce. When it comes to electricity, the power grid does not exist to recharge a large fleet of cars, and even if it did, there is no installed generation capacity to supply the electricity. The whole notion is a pipe dream and extreme foolishness. 

I predict that within 10 years, many top car brands will simply disappear. They'll be talked about the way people mention Studebaker or DeSoto today. And those dinosaurs will be companies that headed down the EV cul-de-sac.

https://global.toyota/en/newsroom/corporate/42597288.html

With support from the Green Innovation Fund of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), ENEOS will provide synthetic fuel produced at a demonstration plant completed in September 2024 within its Central Technical Research Laboratory. This fuel will be supplied to vehicles for transporting guests provided by Toyota and Mazda, as well as vehicles for transporting related parties provided by Suzuki, Subaru, and Daihatsu. The synthetic fuel to be used has been confirmed in advance by Suzuki, Subaru, Daihatsu, Toyota, and Mazda to be able to operate similarly to gasoline.