1) The Animal House Shutdown Is Over

Kudos to President Trump, Speaker Johnson, and Senate Majority Leader Thune.

The House voted 222 to 209 to reopen the government.

Six Democrats voted yes:

Two Republicans voted no:

What did Schumer and his caucus achieve by imposing five weeks of turmoil, disruption, and a $60 billion price tag on the American people. Squat.

They got nothing.

This reminded us of the immortal scene in Animal House when the gang is kicked out of school:

Otter: I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part!

Bluto: We're just the guys to do it.

Substitute Schumer for Bluto and you understand the futile and stupid shutdown.

2) We Just Keep Racking up Victories at UP

The proxy advisory firms that drove the ESG boom are now squarely in the Trump administration's cross-hairs:

This is the end result of a three-year highly-influential investigative project at UP where we rated the big investment firms on how they voted on ESG shareholder resolutions that violate their fiduciary duty. When we started the project, the firms were voting 60% of the time for ESG resolutions and we’ve helped cut that in half to 30%.

Our study exposed that the worst abusers were the two massive proxy service advisory firms: ISS and Glass-Lewis that had gone completely woke.

Now, Trump wants to get rid of them and bring an end to the proxy service racket.  We have a plan to do just that, which we will release in the weeks ahead.

3) Another Government-Created “Affordability Crisis”

Speaking of government stupidity (see Item 1) why keep doing the same thing over and over and expect a different result?

4) It’s Fossil Fuels Forever at the Brazil Climate Party

So much for “net zero” foolishness.

Yesterday, at the Brazil Climate Boondoggle, the Paris-based International Energy Agency poured buckets of cold water realities on the global delegates: fossil fuels are more popular now than ever before.

IEA predicted that global demand for fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas will keep growing till the middle of this century - at least.  The reason for the changed forecast is a sharp difference between what countries SAID they would do and what they are actually doing:

Until this year, all three of the IEA's scenarios for fossil fuel saw demand leveling out or falling this decade. The new most likely scenario predicts that global demand for secure and affordable energy will boom. That ain’t windmills.

The reaction of most COP 30 delegates to these findings ranges from exasperation to bed-wetting.  A few realists are apparently meeting to discuss how they will operate in a world that increasingly doesn't have room for their brand of hysteria.  

Just who are the climate “deniers” now?

5) The Laziest Generation?

In yesterday’s HOTLINE, we lamented that young men and women in their 20s and early 30s aren’t getting married.

Sage Economics has just done a fascinating analysis of Gen Z-ers, and finds they are dour and depressed. What would they do without their iPhones?

The chart below shows that consumer sentiment for young adults between 18 and 34 years old is at the lowest level in at least 50 years. They are even more forlorn today than their peers were in 2008 and 2009 during the mortgage meltdown mini-depression.

Why? We think one obvious answer is that this age group has been indoctrinated by the schools (since kindergarten) and the media to believe that Trump is evil and the world may be coming to an end. What a downer.

What’s sad is, as Sage puts it, “historically the youngest consumer segment (18-34) has been far more optimistic than the oldest (55+). Not so in 2025. As of September, the gap between 55+ sentiment and 18-34 sentiment is the largest on record.”

It’s true that the job market has softened over the past year or so, but the jobs are out there for those who really want a paycheck.

We also wonder if this pampered snowflake generation is just plain allergic to hard work. Instead, too many text and watch videos and complain about their raw deal when in reality, no generation in American history ever had it so good.

Incidentally, the relatively high unemployment of Gen Zers also helps explain why they aren’t getting married. Women don’t marry unemployed men.

6) You Can’t Win With These People

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