Periodically I step back and try to look at current events in a detached and objective fashion, employing the tools of advanced social science to test if my gut reactions are tracking with reality. The most useful metric from the toolkit of social analysis I’ve found for analyzing events since 2016 when Donald Trump rode down that golden escalator has been the GANI Index. It’s analogous to the GINI Index, which measures wealth inequality in various countries across the globe.
The Gunshow Apocalyptic Novel Insanity (GANI) Index which I developed uses hundreds of data points to determine how closely current events resemble those of a crackpot right-wing apocalyptic novel typed single-spaced in a double-wide, then self-published and sold exclusively at gun shows.
On a scale of 100, the year 2016 scored only 32.345%, meaning that fewer than a third of the news items appearing in Mainstream Media outlets could have been plucked from the pages of such a novel. As you can see from the data below, the Index kept rising as the cascading effects of Trump Derangement Syndrome spread downward from our cossetted elites, through over-rewarded middle-brow media, and finally trickled down to affect the People of Walmart, and homeless drug-addicted psychopaths who live under bridges:
2017: 41.889%
2018: 53.654%
2019: 62.534%
2020: 77.001%
2021: 82.053%
2022: 87.532%
2023: 89.935%
2024: 99.533%
2025: 117.005%
That’s right. The news this year contains 17% more stunning, gobsmackingly implausible events than it would actually be possible to fit into a smudgy, end-times alarmist/extremist novel, of whatever length. And we’re only in October.
Step back and think about that, as I cite just a few of the most recent data points collected.
Exhibit 1: White Liberals Hire Illegal Alien with Long Criminal Record to Run Public Schools in Iowa
To quote the late, lamented Whitney Houston, “I believe that children are the future.” (They’re certainly not the past. That would be our ancestors, whom most of us have forgotten.) And in whose hands would children be safer than in those of someone like Ian Andre Roberts, until recently the superintendent of schools for Des Moines, Iowa? Read all about Roberts and his long, violent criminal record at RVM News:
The Department of Homeland Security on Friday released a summary of criminal charges, convictions, and immigration records for Ian Andre Roberts, an illegal alien who served as superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools until his recent arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Roberts is in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service at the Polk County Jail, DHS said in a statement that described his “rap sheet and immigration history” as revealing “a long record of criminal conduct in the United States,” adding that “he should never have been serving in a role overseeing children in Iowa’s largest school district.”
Roberts is facing illegal weapons possession charges tied to firearms found during a federal search.
According to the Department of Justice, agents executing a search warrant at his residence located three guns: a loaded and chambered 9mm pistol tucked under a living-room seat cushion, a loaded rifle in a master-bedroom closet, and a shotgun behind the master-bedroom headboard.
DHS listed prior offenses and convictions in multiple states. In Maryland, Roberts was convicted in 2012 of reckless driving, unsafe operation, and speeding.
Pardon the mild profanity below, but if there were ever an occasion for an expletive, this might be it:
Holy crap. DHS just released more info on the Iowa school superintendent and illegal alien Ian Andre Roberts. He has a very long, violent criminal record, combined with immigration fraud. He also voted in elections. pic.twitter.com/lZDeRJKmnw
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) October 3, 2025
Exhibit 2: We Must Summon “Radical Empathy”
How did the local liberals, drunk on the heady wine that is White Guilt, respond to the revelation that their latest “diversity gain” was a full-on criminal eligible for immediate deportation? With a page torn from their new gospel, a call for “radical empathy” — not with helpless Des Moines schoolkids, but with the armed foreign fraudster. Breitbart reports:
Des Moines, Iowa Public School Board Chair Jackie Norris, a former chief of staff of First Lady Michelle Obama and a Democrat nominee for Iowa’s open Senate seat, has called for “radical empathy” for Ian Andre Roberts — the illegal alien accused of maneuvering his way into becoming the school district’s superintendent….
Following the arrest, Norris urged the public, parents, and teachers “to engage in radical empathy” for Roberts, even as he is accused of potentially lying on employment eligibility forms about his legal status and lack of citizenship in the United States.
“It seems fitting to take a page out of Dr. Roberts’s book and ask the community to engage in radical empathy as we work through the situation together,” Norris said in a statement:
Radical empathy is the recognition that we can disagree and still empathize with each other. The respect of others’ humanity — this concept will be essential as we wait to learn more.
Norris has sought to push blame off the school board, stating that board members were unaware of any immigration-related issues regarding Roberts. Norris also said that the public and elected officials must “cool down the rhetoric.”
Exhibit 3: Muslims Take Over Airport Chapel, Exclude Christians … in Dallas
In case you’re feeling a little weak or light-headed after that empathy exertion, you can summon extra strength with a quick shot of Diversity. We in the DFW area are positively swimming in it. You might even say we’re drowning. The Dallas Morning News reports:
U.S. Rep. Chip Roy is demanding answers after a notable Florida-based pastor said he was denied access to an interfaith chapel at DFW International Airport.
The incident in question occurred on Sep. 26, when Pastor Tom Ascol attempted to attend a prayer service at a DFW Airport Interfaith Chapel, according to an Oct. 2 letter sent by Roy to DFW Airport CEO Chris McLaughlin. Upon arriving at the chapel, Ascol found the space occupied by “Imam-led Muslim prayer, complete with prayer rugs and participants,” the letter said. …
“The main room had several men kneeling on mats with a Muslim Imam in the far corner and a man praying aloud a Muslim prayer near the door,” Ascol said on X. “I looked through the door, bags in hand, processing the fact that what the travelers in DFW were invited to was, in fact, Muslim prayers. When the man finished his audible prayer, I tried to enter the room to observe. He quickly came and blocked my entrance as the Imam started speaking about the prophet Mohammed. He said there was a chair in the back for me, but that I must take off my shoes.” …
DFW Airport Texas reveal a new prayer room designed primarily for Islamic practices, essentially functioning as a mosque.
With no dedicated church on site, this sole facility excludes non-Muslims pic.twitter.com/bseBz8bxqa
— Islam Invasion (@IslamInvasion) October 3, 2025
Now this incident might seem like an outlier, if it weren’t for the fact that Muslim immigrants in cities across the West are surrounding Christian churches and blocking the entrances so they can engage in loud, public Islamic prayer. They have plenty of mosques where they could do that, of course. But for some reason we’re not allowed to ponder, they prefer to lay siege to our churches. What could possibly be their motive?
TERRIFYING: Thousands of Islamists surround Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne, Australia.
A show of force and pure hatred against Christians.
Just a glimpse of how they intend to treat and wage a war against ‘infidels’ if they become the majority!
Do you get it now? pic.twitter.com/g8XeTlDtkB
— Dr. Maalouf (@realMaalouf) July 8, 2025
Exhibit 4: Democrats Shut Down Government Until We Fund Vasectomies in Zambia
Gateway Pundit and the Tampa Free Press report on some of the funding demands Congressional Democrats are making as the price of ending the ongoing government shut-down, as Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) detailed on the floor of the Senate. Among the spending items which the Democrats regard as non-negotiable are the following:
- $3.6 million for cooking and dance workshops for male prostitutes in Haiti.
- Over $4.2 million for LGBTQ projects in the Western Balkans and Uganda.
- $6 million to subsidize Palestinian media outlets.
- $3 million for circumcision and vasectomies in Zambia.
- More than $833,000 for transgender people in Nepal.
- $500,000 to purchase electric buses in Rwanda.
- $300,000 to sponsor a pride parade in Lesotho.
Watch the senator’s speech yourself, but have some aspirin handy:
OMG.. you cannot make this up..
These are some of the things the Democrats are demanding we fund:
– $3 million for circumcisions and vasectomies in Zambia
– $833k for transgender people in Nepal
– $4.2 million for lgbtq people in the Western Balkans and Uganda
– $3.6 million… pic.twitter.com/maGvy3mLvC— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) October 3, 2025
Along The Stream:
Don’t miss William Kilpatrick’s caustic look at the latest exercise in masochism from the U.S. Catholic bishops: a report warning that one of the greatest threats we face is … Islamophobia.
Join heroic attorney Sidney Powell on The Eric Metaxas Show as she evaluates President Donald Trump’s progress in dismantling the Deep State and returning us to the rule of law.
John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream and author or coauthor of 14 books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. His newest book is No Second Amendment, No First.
