Meet President “Donald Lame Duck”

(Note: This article appeared originally on November 4, 2026 on Substack) 

By Howard Barbanel

The results from the 2026 midterms could not have been more disastrous for President Trump and the Republicans. Things have to be pretty bad in the mind of John Q. Public and a lot of people have to hate the President a whole lot to deliver the humiliation and drubbing inflicted on Mr. Trump. It was the kind of beat down one might see in an MMA fight on the White House lawn or in professional wrestling.

Some friends have been texting me with assertions that the election was rigged. But the losses were so widespread and in so many red and purple states with sterling election systems (as opposed to California) that that charge is wholly disengaged from reality.

When you manage to turn Texas and Georgia blue, well, that’s some accomplishment. When you manage to lose the House and the Senate and many governorships to boot, that really evinces a special kind of talent. The Democrats couldn’t have done it without Mr. Trump’s help. He crisscrossed the nation telling everyone and anyone that Americans should vote like he was on the ballot. Boy did they ever.

It is axiomatic in politics that you need to be likable. The President has spent the past year or so making himself anything and everything but. I voted for him and I’m a Republican but let’s be honest here, Trump can be as grating as nails on a chalkboard. It all starts with his penchant (or obsession) that he dominate the news on any given day and even in any given hour, even in the middle of the night. He made the mistake of overarching ubiquity during Covid when he made the pandemic all about himself to a point where more Americans were suffering from his tweets and press conferences than from the pandemic itself.

The election outcome highlights his poor judgement. Take a look at his candidate selections – Ken Paxton in Texas was so bad he brought Governor Abbott down with him. In South Carolina, a deep red state if there ever was one, selecting Lindsay Graham’s inexperienced sister was a dud of major proportions. There was a huge laundry list of similarly low-quality candidates across the nation. Popular incumbents who wouldn’t genuflect before his derriere were shunted aside. There was no clear message that addressed the concerns of the average voter. Democrats were laser-focused on “affordability” and Iran. Trump and his candidates were everywhere but the place Americans cared about – their gas tanks, grocery carts and cost of housing. (Mortgage rates, anyone?) The basics. How do you miss that?

His made-up fake war with Canada made things more expensive and irritated states along the border such as Maine and Michigan who trade heavily with that country. His war with Mexico sure didn’t help in Texas. The real war with Iran has been veering up, down and side to side almost hourly with no clear message to the American people about why we are fighting (sorry, tweets don’t cut it) and how and when we’re going to win. The war exploded the cost of gasoline, diesel, natural gas, heating oil and anything derived from petroleum. Since everything we eat gets shipped in trucks and container ships, the cost of fuel translates into more expensive food. Someone living on $70,000 a year (or less) when faced with their half-empty gas tank and then dreading the supermarket check-out feels prices up close and personal. It’s the economy, stupid.

This epic defeat has huge ramifications. Losing the Senate means that the GOP might not recapture it for another six years or more, hobbling any successful GOP Presidential winner in 2028. Losing the House means for the next two years Trump, his family and his allies will be subpoenaed, investigated, impeached and prosecuted nineteen hundred ways to Sunday.  It will paralyze anything and everything in Washington. It will be a ten-ring circus with a new investigation initiated every week.

A Democrat Congress also is very bad for Israel as so many of the new members are hostile to the Jewish State and to Jews in general. Look for a rapid and rabid increase in antisemitism with an Islamist now even in the Senate. It will hobble defense spending, gradually enfeebling our armed forces. This will have the effect of weakening the US and the West and giving remit to bad actors everywhere to wreak even more havoc than we see globally now.

Finally, this kind of rout of Republicans gives Democrats hope of winning the presidency in 2028 – hey, if you can turn Texas, Georgia, Kansas and the Carolinas blue, you don’t need to abolish the electoral college! People like AOC might actually have a shot at becoming President. Imagine Ilhan Omar as Secretary of State. You laugh? Don’t. With a Socialist Congress, a Democrat President could irrevocably transform the country to the extent it will become California or New York.

The bright spot here (if any) is that Republicans have finally been freed from forced obeisance to President Trump. There is nothing good he can do for them anymore. He’s shown that loyalty brings no rewards and lack of loyalty might actually help you get reelected. Trump has a very limited future as a maimed lame duck – but wounded animals can strike out viciously. Look for a lot of drama ahead.

Thinking of Voting Democrat Because Gas Costs a Bazillion Dollars a Gallon?

(Note: This appeared originally on Oct 23, 2026 on Substack)

By Howard Barbanel

Are you thinking of voting Democrat because it’s costing you like a hundred bazillion dollars to fill up your tank or your SUV or pick-up truck? You guys have got to wake up and smell and coffee. Because, ok, things cost more money. Everything you want to buy costs more money. Well, grow-up, put on your big-boy pants and take a good hard look at what’s really happening.

The price of gas and diesel and everything that’s associated with it is up because of the war with Iran. The Democrats have been shouting about stopping this war with Iran. But what are they going to do about that? There are no simple solutions to complicated problems. Do the Democrats propose another chaotic, humiliating unilateral withdrawal like Biden did in Afghanistan and let Iran’s lunatic mullahs run wild across the world fomenting terrorism, attacking the entire West and more alarmingly, go ahead with developing nuclear weapons? Let them go ahead with developing ballistic missiles that can carry those nuclear weapons to all of Europe and even the US?

What is Trump doing in Iran? He is fulfilling the oath of office he took to “preserve, protect and defend” the United States. These crazy mullahs in Teheran have made no secret whatsoever about their intention to destroy the US and our allies by any and every means possible. A regime that has no problem gunning-down 40,000 of their own civilians would have no qualms about dropping a big, fat nuke on New York. Is Trump supposed to let this happen?

The Iranians want to take over the world, force our women into hijabs and bourkas, end democracy, abolish religions other than Islam. They say so. They’ve been saying so for fifty years now. We can’t let these lunatics have a nuclear weapon. I’m sorry, World War Two took about four years to win (six for the Brits). It’s only been about seven months with Iran. Evil can’t be vanquished overnight. We’re winning the war with Iran, but finishing the job will take a little more time and that might mean it’s going to keep costing you a bit more money to fill your car and buy groceries and fly off on vacation but the people during World War Two had a whole lot more to deal with than we do – a much lower standard of living, rationing not only of fuel but of even food and clothes but they stuck with it to make a better world for their children and grandchildren –us.

So, you’re thinking maybe I’m going to vote Democrat? If you think that gas costs a lot of money now and that energy costs a lot of money now? Just wait until the Democrats take power (if you let them) because the Democrats want to ban fossil fuels entirely. Don’t you remember just two years ago they wanted to force you into an electric car? They raised the taxes on and reduced the availability of fossil fuels. It was more expensive when Biden was President and they want to make it more expensive yet. Go to places like California, New York or other deep blue states – they have the highest gas and energy prices in the country with electricity and home heating costing four to five times more than in red states right now. They want to put fossil fuels out of business along with the tens of millions of jobs associated with it. Vote Democrat and you’ll be looking back nostalgically at $4.50 per-gallon gas because under the Dems it will be way, way more than that.

You want to talk about the cost of living? Democrats want to implement huge tax hikes. They want to tax anything and everything that is walking, crawling, sleeping or breathing. Go to any blue state like New York of California and people are paying 50 percent or more of their income in taxes right now. Highest in the nation. They want to tax your estate, your wealth, your capital gains, your income, anything that you buy. Go to Canada and the average person is paying 52 to 55 percent income taxes and their sales taxes are through the roof. Do you really want to live like that? If you’re living in a blue state now, why do you keep voting for this? Florida, which has four million more people than New York has a much better quality of life and run their state government for less than half of what New York State spends (wastes) and the whole state budget of Florida is even less than the budget of the City of New York. Empower Democrats nationally and the tax hikes will be through the roof. The Democrats will repeal every tax cut enacted by Trump and the Republican congress.

You want to vote Democrat? They’re going to throw open our borders again to unrestricted waves of migrants from every corner of the globe just like under Biden. America will become like France or England. Millions of crazy, often criminal (even terrorist) culturally incompatible people will stream into this country and bleed all our resources dry by taking welfare, using our schools and hospitals. Do we want a country with a billion people in it, driving up the cost of housing for Americans and camping out on your front lawns? You forgot that Trump got a grip on the borders. The Dems will throw them back open tomorrow.

Democrats? Soft on crime. Go to any blue state or city and you have Woke district attorneys who don’t want to prosecute, judges who release dangerous felons free on the streets without bail along with unbelievable levels of homelessness all over the place – urinating, defecating and shooting drugs on the streets, vandalizing everything. The soft on crime policies will also carry-over to these crazy riots like during the Black Lives Matter insanity and the recent stampede of virulent antisemitic pro-Hamas rallies that blanketed blue cities. There is an unholy alliance between the Left and the Islamists (strange bedfellows indeed). If you think the recent riots in Paris were something, just wait until they get in power and they won’t arrest or incarcerate anybody, except Republicans probably. Democrats don’t believe in law and order. They cut police budgets, not expand them. 

Vote Democrat? Aside from crime, they also don’t believe in the military. They want to defund the army, the navy, the air force, weapons systems and everything else to divert that money to welfare. We live in a dangerous world but Democrats think that by demilitarizing somehow the world will become a safer place. Really?

Election day is coming. You have got to vote Republican. We know that Trump is far from perfect (but can you imagine if Kamala were elected?) – he can be very erratic and irrational – full of bluster and bombast. But Trump isn’t on the ballot – even if he insists he is because his ego won’t have it any other way. Trump is absolutely not on the ballot but Republicans running for governor, Senate, Congress and many other essential offices are. If you don’t vote for these Republicans, any discomfort you’re feeling now is going to seem like nothing once the Democrats get back into power. Want to see chaos and gridlock in Washington? A Democrat congress will be impeaching Trump sixteen ways to Sunday virtually every day. It will be a madhouse.

Dems are telling you the price of gas is high – but they want to ban gasoline entirely. They want to ban everything. They want to take away your boat, your car, your leaf-blower, your gas barbeque grill, your natural gas fired home heating. Go ahead, vote Democrat.

Tisha B’Av – Remember, Mourn, Endure, Triumph.

                      

Kedoshot -- Some of the girls and women who were slaughtered Al Kiddush HaShem (fo the sanctification of G-d's name) in the October 7th attacks.

Tisha B’Av – Remember, Mourn, Endure, Triumph.

By Howard Barbanel.

There is no sadder day on a Jewish calendar that is rife with them. Tisha B’Av, the Ninth day of the month of Av is a day of fasting, reciting Lamentations, reading the Scroll of Eicha and reflecting on the countless woes that have befallen our people across the millennia.

There is an old joke that says, “all Jewish holidays are, they tried to kill us, they failed, let’s eat.” This is not that kind of a day. On this day they did succeed in killing vast numbers of us and so there is no eating.

It was in the year 586 BCE that the Kingdom of Judea along with the King Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem were destroyed by the Babylonians. Lost forever was Moses’ Ark of the Covenant which contained the tablets of stone engraved by G-d himself, all the holy vessels but more importantly, the direct connection with G-d’s divine presence which rested upon the Holy of Holies each Yom Kippur.

In the year 70 CE Jerusalem and the second Temple fell to the Romans who hauled away the giant Menorah which can be seen carved into the Arch of Titus in the Roman Forum. In the war against Rome more than 800 Jewish villages and towns were destroyed, countless slaughtered and enslaved.

The remnant of Judea rebelled against Rome some 60 years later and the last Jewish stronghold of Betar was overrun putting an end to the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE. A year later the Romans plowed the site of the Temple Mount to erase our presence there. Yet Jews never ceased living in the Land of Israel from that day to this.

But the Tisha B’Av tragedies are not done yet…The Crusades were launched on this day in the year 1096, the Jews of England were expelled in 1290; the expulsion from Spain in 1492; Hitler’s “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” was approved on this day in 1941 and the start of mass deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka began on Tish B’Av 1942. The cumulative generations of Jewish martyrs from all the above are so plentiful that they defy being numbered.

So, what does this have to do with us today? So many of these tragedies occurred far, far in the past. We lack “footage” and images from most of them, relying on the written testimony of our ancestors. How can we wrap our heads around the innumerable dead and mourn for them?

In the Passover Haggadah we say that in every generation there arise against us those who would annihilate us, but the Holy One Blessed Be He delivers us from their hands. Right now, today, in our faces here in the US and across the Earth the Jewish people are confronting a violent tsunami of antisemitism both verbal and physical. Just two days ago we saw a Hitlerian speech by New York’s Mayor Mamdani. Social media is a cesspool of incessant hate.

Chapter Three of the Scroll of Eicha says “You have heard their insults, Lord, all their designs regarding me. The speech and thoughts of my enemies are against me all day long.”

The miasma of enmity against us can seem overwhelming. How best to easily identify with it and mourn? I’d like to suggest recalling all of the young Jewish women who were murdered and sexually violated during the October 7^th invasion of Southern Israel by Hamas almost three years ago. If there is anything that was a greater recent tangible assault on our people and on our honor, I’m at a loss to put my finger on it. In Chapter Five of Eicha, Jeremiah writes “they ravaged women in Zion; maidens in the towns of Judah.” In Chapter Three, “my eyes have brought me grief over the daughters of my city.” In a new Kinah (dirge or lamentation) by Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon about the Gaza war, he writes, “roses were murdered, a desecration of G-d name…how did the precious children of Zion fall into the hand of accursed rapists, the plucked of cheek were given over to the attackers?”

See the screenshot images of some of our murdered daughters accompanying this article and internalize the grief. Beating back the attackers and the would-be annihilators from Gaza, the IDF soldiers transformed grief into rage and rage into resolve. Resolve that the lives and honor of our women and of our children and of our elderly will be avenged, now, before our eyes and future occurrences prevented. What kind of people would we be if we let this go unanswered?

For this we are accused of “genocide,” but if thousands of women in any other country were sullied and grotesquely murdered what would their leaders and their armies do? Chapter Three of Eicha ends by saying “Pay them back their due, Lord, as they have done. Give them a broken heart; may your curse be upon them! Pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the heavens…”

Thankfully, Tisha B’Av is but one day on the Jewish calendar. From our holy ashes a new, bright Jewish future has emerged in Israel. Better to be reviled than pitied. As we have survived past challenges so will we triumph over those of today and tomorrow. The struggle to defend G-d’s truth in the world is never ending. The forces of evil cannot be permitted to prevail. Our 3,500-year Jewish journey will endure and that endurance is the ultimate Jewish victory.