From a New York Times news article on the sentencing of a U.S. Navy engineer who tried to sell nuclear secrets to Brazil:

In a statement that he read in court, Mr. Toebbe said he had brought shame and trauma to his children and wife by his actions. He said mental health challenges that his family faced and his own stress at work had led to his drinking heavily. He said he then began to think that democracy in America was under threat and that he needed to take action to save his family and get them out of the country.

"I recognize now that I was in the midst of a nervous breakdown," Mr. Toebbe said.

Now where in the world would Toebbe have possibly gotten the idea that "democracy in America was under threat"?

Some votes are still being counted and the final results are not clear, but I've seen enough to draw some conclusions from yesterday's election.

Donald Trump is a drag in a general election in purple states. In Georgia, Republican Governor Brian Kemp, who Trump doesn't like, won about 53 percent of the vote, while Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker, who Trump likes, was at 48 or 49 percent of the vote. Likewise, in New Hampshire, Governor Chris Sununu, who has distanced himself from Trump, won with about 57 percent of the vote, while Republican Senate candidate Dan Bolduc, a Trump fan, attracted only about 44 percent of the vote. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the Republican success story of the night, won reelection with roughly 59 percent of the vote despite being denounced by Trump as "Ron DeSanctimonious." There are some outliers—J.D. Vance won the Ohio Senate race despite being allied with Trump—but overall, it was not a good night for Trump. Perhaps this realization will make Republican primary voters think twice before choosing Trump-allied candidates, or Trump himself, in primaries in 2024.

The November 1 election in Israel was the topic of my column this week. Please read the full column in Newsmax ("Why 2024 Hopefuls Should Pay Attention to Bibi's Victory") or in the New York Sun ("Bibi III: Israel Could Emerge as an Economic Light Unto the Nations") by clicking the hyperlinked headlines.

"Teachers Unions Pay to Mail Falsehoods to Massachusetts Voters" is the headline over my latest piece at Education Next. The falsehoods relate to the Massachusetts ballot initiative that would raise taxes on those with incomes over $1 million. Please check out the full story by clicking the hyperlinked headline.

The Biden administration's attempt to make a political prisoner out of a former aide to President Trump, Steve Bannon, is the topic of my column this week. Please check the full column out at Newsmax ("Why Steve Bannon Should Be Freed") and at the New York Sun ("Free Steve Bannon").

The 200th birthday of the Sunday Times of London is the topic of my column this week, which also looks at the connection between the press and freedom. Please check out the full column at Newsmax ("Liberty Still Depends on a Free Press Leading the Way"), Reason ("The Press Idolizes Politicians. Instead, It Needs To Hold Them Accountable.") and the New York Sun ("Extraordinary Effort in the Cause of Freedom").

Missile defense was the topic of my most recent column. Please check out the full column at Newsmax ("Greet Missile Threats With Defense, Not Just Deterrence") and at the New York Sun ("As War Clouds Scud, Missile Defense Emerging as Potential Game-Changer").

The stock market decline was the topic of a recent column of mine. Please check out the full column at Newsmax ("What's Driving Stocks Downward?") and at the New York Sun ("Could Slumping Stock Market Be Signaling Bearish Outlook on America's Political Prospects?").

Toward the end of a book review by Scott Gottlieb in the Wall Street Journal comes this passage:

We now know that scientists at the Wuhan Institute were performing research on coronaviruses by infecting animals whose immune systems had been engineered to resemble that of humans—a line of research that could have helped a virus adapt to infect people. We know that there was an outbreak of a flulike illness at the institute in the fall of 2019, around the time the virus is believed to have made its jump to humans. We know that scientists at the Wuhan Institute conducted research on novel coronaviruses in labs that took only basic precautions to guard against spread outside the lab. And [the head of the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Shi Zhengli] never disclosed to the World Health Organization the full sequences of the viruses she had in her possession. We don't know, for example, if the Wuhan Institute had the strain found in the pangolins in March 2019.

"Kissinger Warns on Education Wokeness as National Security Threat" is the headline over a blog post I wrote for Education Next. The full post is available by clicking the hyperlinked headline.

"Biden Administration Is Expanding Taxing and Spending at a Rate That Is Staggering," "Was Mikhail Gorbachev 'Woke'?" and "After British Retreat, Chinese Communists Imprison Children's Book Authors" are three recent columns that I am only now getting around to posting and linking to here. They all appeared at the New York Sun and can be read there by clicking on the hyperlinked headlines.

A press release from Governor DeSantis about the response to Hurricane Ian includes the following about licensing:

· Temporary Veterinarian License Application: The Florida Board of Veterinary Medicine has a 30-Day Temporary Veterinarian License available to out-of-state veterinarians who do not currently hold a Florida Veterinary License but wish to come to Florida to provide relief veterinary services.

· DBPR EMERGENCY ORDER 2022-02 waives the $200 application fee for the issuance of a temporary license to out-of-state veterinarians, effective with the date corresponding with the effective date of Executive Order 22-218, as amended by Executive Order 22-219....

· DBPR Emergency Order 2022-01 extends the renewal deadline from September 30 or October 1, 2022, to October 31, 2022, for the following licenses:

Ross Douthat, writing in the New York Times, under the headline "Will Nostalgia Kill the British Right":

At the moment the electoral sweet spot for right-of-center governments in the Western world is a mixture of cultural (not religious) conservatism and relative economic moderation — an anti-libertarian right-wing politics, favorable to the welfare state and skeptical of immigration, that appeals to constituencies buffeted by globalization and anxious about national identity....

But Truss has gone in the opposite direction, not just with her tax-cut push, but with a push for expanded immigration — a double-down on a 1980s growth prescription, a Reagan-Thatcher nostalgia trip, that's carried the Tories away from their own constituents and earned her party absolutely apocalyptic poll numbers.

What would a serious U.S. response to Chinese meddling in U.S. elections look like? My latest column tries an answer. Please check out the full column at Newsmax ("Stop China's Meddling in Our Democracy—Disrupt Their Dictatorship") and at the New York Sun ("Could China's Social Media Campaign to Sway U.S. Voters Ignite a More Vigorous Response?").

The dozen largest contributions to a ballot initiative campaign for a Massachusetts tax increase were all from teachers unions or affiliates, I report at Education Next. Please check out the full story, headlined "Tax Tenure?"