OConnor's Quick Strike

00:09
Hey, what is up, Patriots? This is O'Connor's Quick Strike, and I'm John O'Connor. Three stories the mainstream media won't cover or will completely twist beyond recognition, delivered in roughly 15 minutes or so. No fluff, no BS, no filler, just the unvarnished truth peppered with my own take on what's really going on. We do this every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. As always, if you haven't already, go ahead and just delicately tap that like, subscribe and or follow button.

00:39
Every single one of your delicate taps helps get our message out there to more folks who need to hear it. It's Monday, November 10th, and we've got three stories that perfectly capture the Left's complete meltdown. Democrats surrendering after a 40-day shutdown, woke media brats getting fired for throwing tantrums, and Elise Stefanik taking the fight straight to blue state Democrats. Let's get into it. Tree. All right, Patriots.

01:07
After 40 days of the longest government shutdown in American history, the Schumer shutdown, Senate Democrats finally caved yesterday. And I mean caved. Yesterday evening, during a rare Sunday session, at least 10 Senate Democrats broke ranks and voted to invoke cloture on a funding package that will keep the government open through January 30th. After holding 42 million Americans on SNAP benefits hostage,

01:37
After leaving federal workers unpaid for over a month, after forcing airlines to cancel over a thousand flights in the final stretch alone, Democrats walked away with absolutely nothing guaranteed in return. They get a pinky promise. And no, I'm not exaggerating. They get a promise of a vote in December on extending Obamacare subsidies. Not a guarantee it passes. Not even a guarantee the House will touch it.

02:06
Just the promise of a vote in the Senate. The Democrats who negotiated the surrender? Jeanine Shaheen and Maggie Hassan from New Hampshire and independent Angus King from Maine. They cut the deal with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and got the White House to sign off. Democrats voting yes included John Ossoff, Ben Ray Luan, Raphael Warnock, Tammy Baldwin, Mark Kelly, Jackie Rosen,

02:35
Gary Peters, Dick Durbin, and surprisingly Tim Kaine. Here's the kicker. Chuck Schumer himself voted no. The guy who orchestrated this entire shutdown for 40 days voted against ending it. He went to the Senate floor yesterday and said quote, because of Republicans, Americans are going to suffer immensely as this healthcare crisis gets worse. Therefore, I must vote no. That's rich Chuck.

03:02
You kept the government shut for 40 days and now you're blaming Republicans? Progressive Democrats are absolutely furious. Representative Greg Kassar from Texas said, want health care cuts. Accepting nothing but a pinky promise from Republicans isn't a compromise. It's capitulation. Oh, he's right. It is capitulation. But he's mad at the wrong people.

03:28
His own party played chicken with American families for 40 days and got absolutely demolished. Senator Ruben Gallego said he can't support the deal. Multiple progressives are calling this a surrender. But you know what? Too late. It's happening. Democrats blocked a clean continuing resolution funding at Biden-era spending levels around a dozen times.

03:55
With Republicans holding 53 seats and Democrats plus independents at 47, the GOP needed seven Democrat defections to hit the 60 vote cloture threshold and break the filibuster. Three Democrats, John Federman, John Ossoff, and Raphael Warnock, voted with Republicans multiple times to reopen the government early on. But Schumer held the line with his caucus until the pressure cracked them. Yesterday, those 10—

04:25
crossovers finally delivered the win. Want to know why Democrats finally caved? Ted Cruz called it weeks ago. He said Democrats were dragging this shutdown through Tuesday's elections because they thought the chaos would give them a boost. Well, guess what happened Tuesday? Democrats got wins in New York City. Zoran Mamadani, that Democratic Socialist, snagged the mayor.

04:50
California voters rubber-stamped Gavin Newsom's redistricting scheme to lock in more blue seats. And Virginia and New Jersey governors went Democratic again. But here's the truth. Those wins came despite the shutdown taking public mood. Polls showed Americans blaming the gridlock more on Democratic obstruction than GOP firmness. The shutdown wasn't the magic bullet Dems hoped it was. It just exposed their weakness, turning voter frustration into leverage

05:20
that conservatives couldn't fully capitalize on yet. So what changed between Friday and Sunday? On Friday, Schumer made an offer to Republicans. Reopen the government in exchange for a one-year extension of ACA subsidies. John Thune called it a non-starter. He said Republicans aren't negotiating on Obamacare until the government reopens. By Sunday, Democrats had completely folded.

05:47
They went from demanding a guaranteed extension to accepting a promise of maybe vote sometime in December. The deal includes three full-year appropriation bills for military construction and veterans affairs, agricultural programs including SNAP, and the legislative branch. Everything else gets funded through January 30th on a continuing resolution. Democrats also got language to reverse some of the Trump administration's

06:16
federal employee layoffs. But on their main demand, healthcare subsidies, they got nothing but a promise. Here's what makes this pathetic. This whole shutdown was supposedly about protecting Americans from healthcare costs increases. But during the shutdown, airlines canceled over thousand flights. Snap benefits got cut for 42 million Americans. Federal workers went over a month without paychecks.

06:44
The Supreme Court had to step in and temporarily block orders requiring Trump to fully fund SNAP. Democrats held all these people hostage. Not for a policy victory, but because they thought it would kneecap Trump politically. When it backfired, when Americans started pinning the paint on them, they started to immediately surrender. Senator Angus King admitted it. The question was, as the shutdown progresses,

07:13
is a solution on the ACA becoming any more likely. It appears not. And I think people are saying we're not going to get what we want. So translation, we realize we have no leverage and we're taking whatever Republicans will give us. The bill still has to pass the House and get signed by President Trump, which could take a few more days. But it seems the hard part is done. Democrats blinked. This is the Democratic Party in 2025.

07:43
They'll shut down the government for over a month, hurt millions of Americans, drag their poll numbers through the mud, and then surrender for literally nothing. And Chuck Schumer has the audacity to vote against the deal his negotiators worked out and blame Republicans. Patriots, remember this. When 2026 rolls around, remember that Democrats held your government hostage for

08:08
40 days and accomplished absolutely nothing except making your lives harder. The Schumer shutdown ends not with a bang, but with a whimper. Let's switch to a story about what happens when entitled woke activists finally meet consequences. Last Monday, Conde went and asked, publisher of Vogue, Wired, The New Yorker, and Bon Appetit, announced that they were folding Teen Vogue into regular Vogue

08:36
and laying off several employees, including the editor-in-chief. Now, Teen Vogue has been the bastion of progressive activism disguised as a magazine for years. They endorsed defunding the police, promoted democratic socialism, published pieces defending Hamas. You get the idea. So when the layoffs were announced, about 20 union staffers decided to stage a confrontation Wednesday. They gathered outside the office of Stan Duncan.

09:05
the head of human resources. They demanded he answer for the Teen Vogue decision. They filmed themselves harassing him in the hallway. They refused to go back to work when he told them to. The video is something else. You can watch these entitled brats following Duncan down the hallway asking snarky questions. One of them asks, do you think we're not worth speaking to? Another asks, what counts as congregating? What's your definition of congregating?

09:34
When Duncan tries to leave, someone asks if he's running away from union employees. Duncan stays calm the entire time. He tells them repeatedly to go back to work. He says he can't meet with them because he has other things going on. They keep pestering him. Eventually, he goes into his office and shuts the door. And these geniuses? They were so confident in their righteous indignation that they posted the video on social media.

10:04
Thursday morning, Conde Nast fired four of them. Jake Haluut, a senior political reporter at Wired who covers the Trump White House. Jasper Lowe, a senior fact checker at the New Yorker. Alma Avell, a digital producer at Bon Appetit who's also the vice president of the News Guild of New York and a trans activist. And Ben Dewey, a videographer at Conde Nast Entertainment. The company said they were fired for extreme misconduct.

10:34
and aggressive, disruptive, and threatening behavior. Conde also filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against the News Guild of New York for repeated and egregious disregard of our collective bargaining agreement. Now, the union is furious. They put out a statement claiming these are illegal terminations and an unprecedented violation of their federally protected rights as union members to participate in collective action.

11:04
They're saying Conde Nast is trying to intimidate and silence their members. But here's the thing, when you watch the video, there's no extreme misconduct. There's no threats. What there is is a bunch of entitled employees who think they can harass their boss, refuse direct orders to return to work, and film themselves doing it with zero consequences. And it gets better. One of the fired employees, Alma Avell,

11:34
immediately started a crowdfunding campaign. This person was literally dating one of the laid off Teen Vogue employees. So this wasn't even about defending colleagues. This was personal revenge disguised as labor activism. Jake LaHut defended himself on X saying, sometimes it's a good thing to stand up for your colleagues. Sure, Jake, but when your boss tells you to go back to work and you refuse while filming yourself harassing him,

12:02
That's not standing up for your colleagues. That's insubordination. Red State ran a great piece and I quote, what is most surprising is that Duncan did not coddle these cranks, something that has been seen far too often. He directed them properly to go back to work and after a time he took the appropriate steps and let go of these demanding brats. Unquote. And that's exactly what this is about, Patriots, for years.

12:31
We've watched these woke activists in newsrooms act like they run the companies. Remember the New York Times staff revolt over publishing Tom Cotton's op-ed? These people have operated with impunity because executives were too scared to push back. But it seems something's changed. The media industry is hemorrhaging money. Outlets can't afford to keep employees who are more interested in activism than actually doing their jobs. And executives are finally saying, enough.

13:02
The fired employees are claiming they have a federally protected right to harass their boss and refuse to work. That's not how it works. You have a right to organize. You have a right to collectively bargain. You do not have a right to corner your HR director in a hallway, refuse orders to return to work, and film it all for social media. This is the future, Patriots. The days of woke daycare centers and corporate offices are seemingly ending.

13:32
Companies can't afford to employ activists who think they're entitled to harass executives and throw tantrums when they don't get their way. Actions have consequences, and these four just learned that lesson the hard way. Let's end on a high note. On Friday, Representative Elise Stefanik officially announced she's running for governor of New York. Stefanik launched with a video calling Kathy Hochul the worst governor in America and saying New York has become

14:01
the most unaffordable state in the nation with the highest taxes, highest energy, utilities, rent, and grocery prices. Her strategy is smart. She's tying Hokel directly to Zohan Mandani, the Democratic Socialist who won the New York City mayoral race on Tuesday. Stefanik said Hokel bent the knee to the raging defund the police tax-hiking anti-semi-communist when she endorsed Mandani. The campaign video shows Hokel

14:31
and Mamdani clasping hands at a rally. Hokel's campaign hit back calling Stefanik Donald Trump's number one cheerleader and saying she's trying to bring Trump's chaos and skyrocketing costs to our state. But Democrats are actually worried. New York hasn't had a Republican governor since George Pataki left in 2006. Nearly 20 years of one party rule. Things are changing though.

14:59
Trump made the biggest gains in New York of any state in 2024, improving his margin by 11 points. And in 2022, Hokel only beat Republican Lee Zeldin by 6 points in Deep Blue, New York. A Manhattan Institute poll from October showed Stefanik at 43%, Hokel at 42%. A statistical tie. Stefanik's got serious advantages. She's young. Was the youngest woman elected to Congress at 30?

15:29
She's been re-elected five times. She got name recognition from aggressively questioning university presidents over anti-Semitism. She's tight with Trump and has backing from New York Republican leadership, 56 of 62 county chairs, 34 assembly members, and 12 state senators. Former Governor Pataki endorsed her, quoting,

15:52
The urgency of her candidacy could not be clearer after the election of an openly devout socialist to lead the world's greatest city. Stefanik's angle on Mamdani is political judo. Mamdani barely won with 51%, the lowest winning percentage for a New York City mayor in over 20 years. Even in deep blue New York City, there were voters uncomfortable with a democratic socialist. Those voters are Stefanik's target.

16:21
If Hokel supports Mamdani's agenda, raising taxes, expanding programs, she alienates moderates. If she opposes him, she faces progressive revolt. Hokel is already facing a primary from her own lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado. Stavanec is making this about New York's affordability crisis. Her ads focus on costs, taxes, energy, rent, groceries. She's not even mentioning Trump.

16:49
This is about New York families crushed by Democratic policies. Trump had nominated Stefanik for UN ambassador after 2024, but withdrew it in March because Republicans couldn't risk losing her House seat. Now he's supporting her governor run. Why? Because if Stefanik wins New York, that's a game changer. It breaks 20 years of Democrat control and puts a MAGA Republican in charge of one of the bluest states.

17:17
The election is November 2026, so we've got a year ahead of us. But Stefanik's entry is exactly what Republicans need. She's not playing defense or apologizing. She's taking the fight to Democrats in their own backyard. Patriots, this is what winning looks like. While Democrats surrender after shutdowns and fire their own activists, Republicans are going on offense. Stefanik's running in New York.

17:44
making Democrats defend socialist policies and explain why families can't afford to live there. This is the path forward. Don't retreat, don't apologize, take the fight to blue states and make the Democrats defend their disasters. All right, patriots. Well, that's it for today's O'Connor's Quick Strike. Three stories that showed the left is in total meltdown mode. Democrats caving on the shutdown after 40 days. Woke media activists getting fired for their tantrums.

18:14
and Elise Stefanik taking the fight to the bluest of blue states. Remember, we're winning. We're on offense. They are on defense. I'm John O'Connor. I'll be back Wednesday with three more stories the mainstream media won't tell you. Until then, stay strong, Patriots.