After a record-tying federal government shutdown, Congress is held in even lower repute than before:
Voters have a less favorable opinion of House and Senate leaders in the aftermath of the 43-day government shutdown, with House Speaker Mike Johnson suffering the worst decline.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 36% of Likely U.S. Voters have a favorable impression of Johnson – down from 45% in May – including 19% with a Very Favorable opinion of the Louisiana Republican. Forty-one percent (41%) now view Johnson unfavorably, including 30% with a Very Unfavorable impression. Twenty-three percent (23%) are not sure.
But do most people focus on President Trump, however, blaming him for the shutdown? Apparently not. While Rasmussen Reports indeed showed Congress’s approval plummeting to historic lows post-shutdown, President Trump’s job approval ratings proved more resilient but still took a hit. Based on daily tracking from Rasmussen — America’s most frequent presidential pollster — Trump’s numbers held steady in the low-to-mid 40s through early October but eroded gradually as the 43-day shutdown dragged on, bottoming out around November 12, the day it ended. Disapproval climbed, driven by independents and even some GOP softening on his handling of the crisis. Post-shutdown, there’s been a modest rebound.
Record-length federal government shutdowns, over budget impasses.
President Donald Trump this week elaborated more on how he would deal with health care subsidies and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), suggesting an account for citizens where payments can be made for health-related issues. Trump wrote in a Nov. 8 post on Truth Social that Senate Republicans should direct hundreds of billions in funding away from insurance companies and into people’s accounts, allowing them to purchase their own health insurance.
“Trump Proposes ‘Trumpcare’ Alternative to Obamacare; Sec. Rollins Says SNAP Benefits to Be Restored by Monday,” NTD News at The Epoch Times (November 16, 2025).
If this sounds awfully familiar — like the gist if not the wording of Bush Era medical-financial reforms — we may have to wait and see. But Obamacare long ago betrayed its promise of reducing healthcare costs overall. Might there be hope?
There will be more to come on this, here, but for now: what has the president actually said?
November 8, 2025 (Truth Social post): Trump urged Senate Republicans to end ACA subsidies to “money sucking Insurance Companies” and instead “BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE, and have money left over.” He framed this as a way to “save the bad Healthcare provided by ObamaCare.”
November 11, 2025 (Fox News interview with Laura Ingraham): Trump elaborated slightly, suggesting Americans could “negotiate their own health insurance” with direct payments, calling it “so exciting, and dubbing it “Trumpcare” or “whatever you want to call it — anything but Obamacare!”
November 13, 2025 (Bill signing event): He reiterated the plan, stating, “We’re gonna pay a lot of money to the people. They’re gonna go out and buy their own health care, and we’re gonna forget this Obamacare madness.”
Maybe you saw the lights. Or maybe you just caught the news on Tim Pool’s show. It was an important story: a big solar storm that, had it been just a tad more intense could’ve taken down computers (which are in your watch and toaster) as well as the electric grid.
Why, yes, it could have ended our civilization, which is now utterly dependent on easily-overloaded electrical circuits and electronic components.
Actually, it was two sets of solar storms. And they had nothing to do with manmade global warming or MAGA politics or the death of Hollywood:
A severe (G4) geomagnetic storm lit up skies across the Northern Hemisphere overnight (Nov. 11-12), with vivid northern lights visible across Canada, the U.S, and as far south as Mexico.
The incredible display followed the arrival of multiple coronal mass ejections (CMEs) — eruptions of magnetic field and plasma from the sun — launched by sunspot AR4274, one of the most energetic sunspot groups of the current solar cycle. The ongoing storm ranks among the strongest of Solar Cycle 25 and last night’s peak at G4 clocked in as the third strongest geomagnetic storm this solar cycle. The first two CMEs struck in quick succession last night, compressing Earth’s magnetic field and unleashing spectacular aurora shows that lasted well into the night.
Daisy Dobrijevic, “Severe geomagnetic storm sparks northern lights across North America and as far south as Mexico,” Space.com (November 12, 2025).
This was a set of real events that took place this past week. Thankfully, we live on to talk about manmade global warming, MAGA politics, and the death of Hollywood.
As Rona Barrett likes to say, keep thinking the good thoughts.
It has been two months. On September Fifth of this year, Paul Jacob brought up the strange case of mysterious deaths of politicians for the anti-establishment Alternative für Deutschland party, in Germany. Dr. John Campbell discussed the odds on YouTube:
But it is no longer just six or seven AfD politicians who died suddenly before the recent election.
You may have seen headlines noting that 3I/ATLAS has changed colors again. You may also have seen reports that it has broken up, as one might expect of a comet this size.
The truth?
It has indeed changed colors.
And no, it has not broken up. Latest reports suggest that it is quite intact.
The color change is not shocking: changes in color have occurred roughly once every month or so. The initial color was reddish; in mid-approach (August-September) it appeared greenish; at perihelion, last month, it turned blue.
The headlines about 3I/ATLAS “breaking apart” appear to stem from misinformation or AI-generated videos circulating online. Neither NASA, ESA, nor peer-reviewed studies report a breakup.
No fragmentation: Post-perihelion images (e.g., November 5 from R. Naves Observatory, Spain) show a compact, fuzzy “ball of light” with a diffuse greenish-white coma (~0.6 arcmin diameter) but no visible tail or fragments. SOHO/LASCO C3 data confirms residual sunward jets and four faint tails from outgassing, not breakup. Mass loss is ~13–50% from evaporation (half-life ~6 months), but the nucleus (est. 1–6 km wide) remains whole.
Activity and trajectory: It’s outbound at ~62 km/s on its hyperbolic path (eccentricity >5), showing non-gravitational acceleration from outgassing recoil. Position: In Virgo constellation (RA 13h 26m 52s, Dec -06° 46′ 12″), low on the eastern horizon before dawn (~8–12° altitude). Magnitude ~14 (fading to ~18 by mid-Nov), visible with 15–25 cm telescopes from Nov 11.
Inexplicable Increase in Speed: An eleventh anomaly can be added to Avi Loeb’s official count. On October 29th, the interstellar object sped up and moved a bit outward from the Sun. Loeb figured to accomplish this the object wuld have to eject one-sixth its mass. A week later? Nothing observed. No ejecta. The likelihood of an artificial object just went up — or it being a form of life itself became a possibility. So far? No good explanation for the non-gravitational alteration in trajectory has been offered.
China released new data and images of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS (C/2025 N1) in early November 2025, filling a gap during the U.S. government’s ongoing shutdown. The key release came from the China National Space Administration (CNSA) on November 6, showcasing images captured by the Tianwen-1 (Zhurong) Mars orbiter. These were taken on October 3, 2025, from approximately 30 million km away during the comet’s closest approach to Mars (about 0.2 AU, or 30 million km).
Details of the images: The sequence, obtained using the orbiter’s High Resolution Imaging Camera (HiRIC) with a 15.2-inch aperture, reveals a bright nucleus surrounded by a diffuse coma (thousands of kilometers across) and faint dust tails. The resolution is sharp enough to show structural details like asymmetric outgassing jets, though not as fine as Earth-based telescopes due to distance. CNSA described it as “one of the closest probe-based looks at the object to date,” highlighting its role as a testbed for the upcoming Tianwen-2 asteroid sample-return mission in 2025.
Scientific insights: Spectral analysis from the images confirms elevated CO₂ and CO emissions, consistent with pre-perihelion data, and no signs of fragmentation. Chinese astronomers noted the coma’s greenish tint from CN and C₂ fluorescence, aligning with September observations.
NASA, citing the federal government shutdown, has furloughed ~15,000 NASA employees and halted most non-essential operations, including public data releases and non-critical science processing, has not yet released any new post-perihelion images of 3I/ATLAS as of November 7, 2025.
Because of NASA’s silence, outrageous speculation is rampant. Who knows? Maybe some of it is warranted.
Today is the 33rd of the federal government shutdown, caused by a failure of Congress to pass a Continuing Resolution (CR) to carry on funding the Leviathan.
On Halloween, returning from Florida, President Trump again urged Senate Republicans to “end the filibuster,” calling Democratic blocks a “ransom” for “illegal alien healthcare.” In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote: “It is now time for the Republicans to play their ‘TRUMP CARD,’ and go for what is called the Nuclear Option — Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW!”
Vice President J.D. Vance echoed this after a Capitol GOP lunch, confirming that military pay continues despite shutdown.
But SNAP benefits do not. And the failure of Obamacare looms.
Now, what Trump is advising, here, has been in the past called “the nuclear option,” defying Senate tradition by allowing a simple majority to rush through the CR to re-open the government despite Democratic demands that the party gets nearly everything it wants, all in this CR and not in separate bills. This includes re-upping Obama-era subsidies (tax credits) under the Affordable Care Act as well as re-legislating (as opposed to re-litigating) their defeat in the Big Beautiful Bill this summer, which did indeed cut some of their key projects overseas.
If the Senate went “nuclear,” it wouldn’t be the first time. The 60-vote threshold has been established through repeated bipartisan understandings and incremental changes:
In 1975, Democrats lowered the cloture threshold from 67 to 60 votes, a compromise to curb abuse while preserving minority rights.
The Senate has already partially nixed the supermajority multiple times via majority vote, often in partisan fights:
2013: Democrats eliminated it for most nominations (under Majority Leader Harry Reid) to confirm judges.
2017: Republicans extended this to Supreme Court justices (under Mitch McConnell) for Trump’s picks like Neil Gorsuch.
2025: Republicans themselves invoked it twice earlier this year for Trump cabinet confirmations and budget reconciliation tweaks.
These changes didn’t fully end the filibuster but carved out exceptions, demonstrating that it is indeed alterable by simple majority.
Trump’s advice would go further: a full elimination for legislation (beyond nominations), potentially via a Senate parliamentarian ruling or direct vote change. Critics like Sen. John Thune (R-SD) call it a “bulwark against bad things,” fearing Democrats could later ram through statehood for D.C./Puerto Rico or court-packing. Moderates like Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) warn it would “inflict lasting harm” on the Senate’s deliberative role.
Note that this Sixty Percent requirement is a supermajority requirement, a republican tradition that alters the democratic element of our politics away from simple majoritarianism to a more reserved procedural practice. In effect, this means sometimes there will be stalemates, at least when the two contending parties each play the role of intransigent.
In other words, the game is Chicken!
Though some might notice a resemblance to MAD: Mutually Assured Destruction.
On Monday — Day 34 — the Senate reconvenes at 10 a.m. (ET), and could feature a 14th vote on H.R. 5371 (the CR), but Democrats signal continued blocks without ACA concessions, and without restoration of cuts made in July 2025 (OBBBA) and legal clarity that contingency funds can be used during a shutdown.
If you are thinking that both of these could best be handled outside a stop-gap CR, you are probably right — and that is what most Senate Republicans are thinking — but Democrats are negotiating from a position of weakness. So they threaten to halt the whole process. It’s all they can do to grasp some victory from 2024’s electoral defeats.
Physicist Brian Cox is more than a little annoyed. He keeps seeing online videos of “himself” saying things that he has never said. And he complained on X:
Michio Kaku has even more cause for complaint: false video of him yammering on about 3I/ATLAS appears to have been more numerous. And he, too, protests. See for yourself on his website:
But how much misleading of the public is going on? Isn’t the standard reaction to do a double take the first time you see one of these fakeries, and then spot it out for what it is within half a minute?
AI is not quite that convincing. Yet. There are tells.
And the fact that the videos show these scientists saying outrageous things about our solar system’s third official interstellar visitor is a pretty big clue. (Though it is worth noting that Michio Kaku has scientifically studied UFOs, and may not be quite as negative to “believers” as is Brian Cox.)
Meanwhile, 3I/ATLAS continues to surprise scientists. Just be a bit cautious with media reports. You do not have to use AI or thrill over every UFO rumor to pass for a “nobber.”
Take the New York Post’s recent story by Ben Cost: “Possible alien spacecraft 3I/ATLAS makes unusual shift while hurtling towards the Sun.” Terrible title, for it suggests that, before perihelion, the putative comet was heading towards the Sun. It wasn’t. And isn’t.
“Manhattan-sized comet 3I/ATLAS allegedly executed an unusual maneuver while approaching the Sun earlier this week, fueling theories that it could be an extraterrestrial spacecraft.” Astounding! But is it true?
Oh. That word “allegedly” — who alleges?
Not Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb. He writes about the “First Evidence for a Non-Gravitational Acceleration of 3I/ATLAS at Perihelion.”
The non-gravitational acceleration was measured at the perihelion distance of 1.36 times the Earth-Sun separation (defined as an astronomical unit or `au’), equivalent to 203 million kilometers. It had two components in the orbital plane of 3I/ATLAS:
· A radial acceleration away from the Sun of 135 kilometers (=9×10^{-7}au) per day squared.
· A transverse acceleration relative to the Sun’s direction of 60 kilometers (=4×10^{-7}au) per day squared.
If 3I/ATLAS is propelled by the rocket effect of ejected gas, then momentum conservation implies that the object would lose half its mass over a characteristic timescale equal to the ejection speed divided by the measured non-gravitational acceleration.
Ben Cost’s word “maneuver” suggests (to this reader) a purposive act rather than a mere alteration of physical behavior. But that is not what Loeb . . . “alleges.”
We have to have a wait-and-see attitude — which is what Loeb insists upon and what he has been saying all along, even as he also insisted that we must consider the possibility that this ninth-degree anomalous object is artificial in origin.
For the record, these appear to be the list of Avi Loeb’s observed 3I/ATLAS anomalies:
Ecliptic Alignment: Trajectory aligned within 5° of the solar system’s ecliptic plane (0.2% likelihood by chance).
Sunward Jet (Anti-Tail): A persistent forward-pointing jet toward the Sun, not an optical illusion as in typical comets.
Extreme Mass: ~1 million times heavier than ‘Oumuamua and 1,000 times heavier than Borisov (>5 km diameter, ~33 billion tons), while moving faster (<0.1% likelihood).
Fine-Tuned Flybys: Arrival timing optimized for close passes by Mars, Venus, and Jupiter (~tens of millions km), unobservable from Earth at perihelion (0.005% likelihood).
Nickel-Rich Composition: Gas plume shows excess nickel over iron (resembling industrial alloys) and high nickel-to-cyanide ratio, unlike any known comet (<1% likelihood).
Low Water Content: Gas plume only 4% water by mass, far below typical comets (which are water-dominated).
Extreme Negative Polarization: Light shows unprecedented -2.7% negative polarization at small phase angles, unseen in comets or asteroids (<1% likelihood).
Wow! Signal Coincidence: Arrival direction within 9° of the 1977 “Wow!” radio signal origin (0.6% likelihood).
Blue Spectral Surge at Perihelion: Unexpected blue glow (bluer than the Sun), defying dust-reddening in comets; possibly from ionized CO or a “hot engine” source.
Which would make the current observation of trajectory alteration the tenth, wouldn’t it?
Loeb has emphasized that these low-probability coincidences (cumulative odds <1 in 10¹⁶) warrant further scrutiny, though he rates natural origins as most likely. These contribute to its “4/10” ranking on his Loeb Scale (0 = natural; 10 = technological).
But in yesterday’s post, Loeb added the information about course alteration. According to observations, 3I/ATLAS experienced
· A radial acceleration away from the Sun of 135 kilometers (=9×10^{-7}au) per day squared. · A transverse acceleration relative to the Sun’s direction of 60 kilometers (=4×10^{-7}au) per day squared.
This means, in layman’s language:
3I/ATLAS has demonstrated an extra “push” directly outward, away from the Sun, beyond what gravity alone would cause. (Which means that the pre-perihelion trajectory, which was scheduled to reach its perihelion — closest-to-Sol — point in late October, would now move further outward and definitely not be “hurtling towards towards the Sun.”)
3I/ATLAS has also demonstrated an extra “push” forward as it swings around the Sun, again due to non-gravitational effects (e.g., asymmetric outgassing).
Meanwhile, UFO enthusiasts/nobbers are upset that NASA hasn’t released any recent images of the object. They aren’t buying the “government shutdown” excuse. The complaint seems to be that the summaries of data so far distributed require more editorial work than merely relaying some data. How hard is it to put the most recent photos up on NASA.gov?
Apparently harder than getting an AI to fake videos of Brian Cox and Michio Kaku.
“The mystery surrounding the generous billionaire who contributed $130 million to cover US military salaries during the government shutdown has been resolved,” explains InterNewsCast.com. “The benefactor is none other than Timothy Mellon, heir to an oil fortune.”
Former President Donald Trump revealed on Thursday that this significant donation was made by a ‘friend’ as a patriotic gesture towards the military and the country.
“He called us recently and said, ‘I’d like to make up for any shortfall due to the Democrat shutdown. I want to contribute personally because I have a deep love for the military and for our nation,’” Trump shared.
Describing the donor as ‘a great American citizen’ and ‘a substantial man,’ Trump noted that the individual wished to remain anonymous, which he found remarkable given that most people in politics seek recognition.
The Pentagon later confirmed that the Department of Defense had indeed received the contribution on Thursday, ensuring that service members’ salaries would be paid. The donor had been kept anonymous, but the New York Times revealed the billionaire’s identity on Saturday.
Mellon, 83, is a member of one of America’s wealthiest families. Paul Jacob has mentioned, on this site, Timothy Mellon’s cousin Christopher Mellon (the former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence) in articles related to UFO disclosure. Both are members of the extended Mellon family — a prominent Pittsburgh-based dynasty founded by 19th-century banker Thomas Mellon and including figures like Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon (grandfather to Timothy). Timothy (born 1942) is the son of Paul Mellon (1907–1999), while Chris (born 1958) is the son of Karl Negley Mellon (1938–1983).
The family’s collective net worth is estimated at around $14 billion.
Women miss the ancient experience of being mainly with women, says Camille Paglia:
How Christendom replaced Jesus-as-God with Hitler-as-the-Devil — historian Alec Ryrie elaborates his thesis (discussed in these pages before) as developed in his newest book:
As the House of Representatives hold hearings on “UAPs,” ufologist Richard Dolan speculates what it all means. Caution — he believes that ETs are here now:
Meanwhile, the transit of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS is on the other side of the Sun; it’s gone past perihelion; and NASA is not releasing any better images of the object, under cover (not implausible) of the federal government shutdown. Lots of discussion on YouTube. From all over the map. Happy searching. And for a search engine, try Freespoke.com.
On October 16, 2025, the Anglican Communion split, officially, into two, with the breakaway group calling themselves the actual Anglican Union, and the churches aligned with the Church of England and the incoming Archbishop of Canterbury condemned as something close to heretics.
But that’s not the kind of thing we follow here at ThisIsCommonSense.org.
Speaking of big splits, Mt. Etna may be in the process of splitting into two, with a huge hunk of the mountain predicted to slide off in the Mediterranean Sea. That would be a disaster of possibly horrific proportions. In early June a massive eruption caught world attention. It may be worthwhile to follow current reporting.
But that is also not a topic for these pages.
More relevant are secessionists movements in these United States, with the recent votes, these last few years, in eastern Oregon, in which more than a dozen counties are in effect petitioning the Oregon legislature to be let go, so they can be united with Idaho. It’s called the “Greater Idaho Project,” and Paul Jacob has written about this in these pages.
The occasion for this update is the nifty map and article at Brilliant Maps.
