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Ruth King

A Desperate Debate Ends in a Draw: Noah Rothman

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/a-desperate-debate-ends-in-a-draw/

What may be the final debate of the Republican primary cycle — indeed, possibly the final debate of the 2024 election cycle — generated more heat than light on Wednesday night. Voters were presented with a Rorschach test. Each candidate hit their notes and met expectations, so voters who watched the debate probably saw exactly what they wanted to see — whatever that meant to them.

Voters who like Ron DeSantis saw him at his best. For the first time in this cycle, DeSantis ran like he was behind in the polls — a prudent calculation, because he very much is. DeSantis didn’t sit back, absorb blows, and stick to his message. Instead, he picked fights, with Nikki Haley in particular, some of which he won. He hammered his closest competitor on transgenderism and the need to prohibit in law access to surgical or pharmaceutical remedies for gender dysphoria in minors. He backed a muscular foreign policy, exhibited his encyclopedic knowledge of policy, and promised convincingly to be a reformer rather than a caretaker in the Oval Office. It was DeSantis’s best primary-debate performance by far.

If you aren’t inclined toward DeSantis, you had plenty to chew on, too. Chris Christie dissected him with the surgical acumen he once applied to Marco Rubio, savaging the governor for being evasive — a charge DeSantis confirmed with his habitual evasions. The Florida governor lent credence to vaccine skepticism, attacked American law-enforcement agencies for prosecuting “one of the biggest abuses of power in our history,” and refused to be pinned down on his commitment to Taiwan’s defense. Even DeSantis’s source of presidential inspiration, Calvin Coolidge, sounded insincere. That nod to the principle of radically limited constitutional government was welcome, but Coolidge’s aversion to the application of state power as a remedy for political controversies or even natural disasters does not bear even a passing resemblance to DeSantis’s record in Florida. That inauthenticity contributed to a conclusion you’ve likely already drawn about the governor.

Joe Biden offers bald-faced lies to all of America about his family affairs Miranda Devine

https://nypost.com/2023/12/06/opinion/joe-biden-is-lying-to-all-of-america-about-his-family-affairs/

A miracle occurred Wednesday. 

President Biden was asked about his involvement in his family’s shady influence peddling schemes at a White house press conference. 

The reporter who asked the question, you won’t be surprised to know, was The Post’s own White House correspondent Steven Nelson — and the only reason he was allowed to ask a question at all was because it happened to be the day when it was his turn to be the reporter assigned by the White House Correspondents Association to represent the rotating “pool” of journalists at White House events and share his information with the other media outlets. 

“President Biden, on Ukraine and also China, there’s polling by the Associated Press that shows that almost 70% of Americans, including 40% of Democrats, believe that you acted either illegally or unethically in regard to your family’s business interests. Can you explain to Americans, amid this impeachment inquiry, why you interacted with so many of your son and brother’s foreign business associates?” 

The president’s eyes narrowed, and his lip curled: “I’m not going to comment on that. I did not. And it’s just a bunch of lies.” 

Nelson followed up: “You didn’t interact with any of their business associates?” 

Prez denies & ditches 

Biden spoke over him: “They’re lies,” he said, before answering: “I did not. They’re lies.” 

Then he turned and walked out of the press conference. 

So, there you have it.

Israel Must Finish the Job in Gaza The future viability of Zionism now hangs on Netanyahu’s next moves By Josh Hammer

https://amgreatness.com/2023/12/04/israel-must-finish-the-job-in-gaza/

For a week now, the world has watched a high-stakes, emotionally draining, and dangerous game being played out in Gaza. What began as a mediated four-day “truce” and swap of 50 Israeli civilians held hostage by Hamas in exchange for 150 convicted Palestinian-Arab terrorists has now been dragged out much further. Hamas, unusually self-aware for a jihadist outfit, has savvily dangled the possibility of the release of ever-more hostages in exchange for further “truce” extensions. Israel, which so greatly values human life that it once infamously bartered over 1,000 terrorists in exchange for captured soldier Gilad Shalit, is all but forced to go along.

But as tantalizing as it is to see more hostages reunited with their families, there are extraordinary costs if Israel prolongs these swaps and continues to indulge the fantasy of a “ceasefire.”

There is the concrete threat of the convicted terrorists freed from Israeli prison. Among those freed during the Shalit swap was Yahya Sinwar, the current leader of Hamas in Gaza (he is subordinate to Hamas’ Doha-based top brass) and mastermind of the Oct. 7 pogrom. On Thursday, in his first publicized statement since the assault, Sinwar minced no words: “The leaders of (Israel) should know, Oct. 7 was just a rehearsal.” That’s quite a threat. How many future Yahya Sinwars have already been freed this go-around? The Times of Israel noted that 55% of the first 117 terrorists released during the current swaps had been held for violent crimes, including attempted murder; 21% belonged to a jihadist outfit.

Pro-Terrorist Mobs Run Wild in New York City “Marchers who have joined the Within Our Lifetime rallies in recent weeks have vandalized buildings like the New York Public Library, including spraying graffiti and breaking glass doors” by Mike LaChance

https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/12/pro-terrorist-mobs-run-wild-in-new-york-city/

Mobs of people waving Palestinian flags and holding signs ran wild in New York City this weekend. Police unsuccessfully tried to contain the crowds at certain points, but the mob was allowed to advance, for the most part.

This type of activity is only increasing, and the temperature keeps rising. The city needs to take control.

Pro-Palestinian protesters took to the streets of New York City again Saturday, storming Times Square after they were rebuffed as they tried to enter the American Museum of Natural History for the second weekend in a row.

The protest, which started at the Upper West Side museum at 2 p.m., included the expectation that demonstrators would enter the institution two hours later for an “anti-colonial tour.”

Around 200 anti-Israel demonstrators gathered outside the museum by 4 p.m., carrying signs and chanting, “Free Palestine,” along with antisemitic slogans like, “there is only one solution, Intifada revolution.”

Within Our Lifetime, the group that organized Saturday’s protest, asked demonstrators to show up to the museum in “small groups” adorned with Palestinian flags and banners, according to an Instagram post…

Marchers who have joined the Within Our Lifetime rallies in recent weeks have vandalized buildings like the New York Public Library, including spraying graffiti and breaking glass doors…

They were also seen going into the Shops at Columbus Circle, another spot they targeted last week.

Trump Just Won Tom Friedman’s Vote

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/12/07/trump-just-won-tom-friedmans-vote/

“What if we could just be China for a day? I mean, just, just, just one day. You know, I mean, where we could actually, you know, authorize the right solutions, and I do think there is a sense of that, on, on everything from the economy to environment.” – New York Times columnist Tom Friedman on “Meet the Press,” May 2010

“I love this guy. He says, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’ I said: ‘No, no, no, other than day one. We’re closing the border and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.’” – Donald Trump on Fox News, December 2023.

Leftists in the press have been falling over themselves lately to warn Americans that a second Trump term in the White House would usher in an era of dictatorship.

The Hill reports that “The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and The New York Times each published stories referencing a ‘Trump dictatorship’ in recent days, arguing a new Trump presidency posed a threat to democracy.”

Alleged Republican Liz Cheney warned that the U.S. is “sleep-walking into dictatorship.”

Robert Kagan wrote “A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending.”

It’s almost as if the left has a central clearinghouse where they get their daily talking points.

Whatever the reason, the left must be genuinely worried about the polls showing Donald Trump beating Joe Biden to start resorting to hysterical rhetoric like this. And since his opponents have already accused him of being a Russian stooge, a liar, a racist, a tax cheat, a traitor, an authoritarian, and an insurrectionist, they need something stronger to capture the public’s attention.

But our question is this: Since when did the left start hating dictatorships?

It’s the left, after all, that has had a long and storied string of romances with actual dictators.

DEI Drives Campus Antisemitism Gerrymandering Jews into an ‘oppressed’ class won’t save universities from a malevolent ideology. By Heather Mac Donald

https://www.wsj.com/articles/dei-drives-campus-antisemitism-harvard-ivy-ackman-israel-bds-b19ebd12?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

Tuesday’s House hearing on campus antisemitism ratcheted up the pressure on American universities: counter the anti-Israel vitriol that exploded in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack or risk losing philanthropic and government support. The leading approach is sure to fail: doubling down on the ideologies and practices that led to the pro-Hamas fever in the first place.

Bill Ackman, the hedge-fund manager leading a Harvard donor revolt, told CNBC on Nov. 6 that he hadn’t previously read Harvard’s DEI statement. Though he had assumed DEI was “for all marginalized groups,” once he read the statement, he realized that “the DEI program at Harvard is limited to specific groups and exploits others.” Instead, Mr. Ackman suggested, DEI should cover all minorities, including Jews and Asians.

Jon Huntsman Jr. halted his contributions to the University of Pennsylvania on Oct. 15 to protest its leaders’ silence in the face of “hate,” which higher ed was “built to obviate.” An open letter to Penn President Liz Magill initiated by alumnus Marc Rowan called for mandatory antisemitism awareness training across the university. The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law has demanded that Penn add modules on antisemitism to the school’s diversity, equity and inclusion trainings.

College leaders are happy to oblige. As Ms. Magill told lawmakers Tuesday, Penn has created an Action Plan to Combat Antisemitism and a University Task Force on Antisemitism. Since antisemitism is “interconnected” to “other forms of hate,” Ms. Magill explained in a Nov. 1 message, Penn is also rolling out a presidential commission on Islamophobia. The university must do better to “reject hate in all its forms,” she said on Nov. 1.

Why Are Islamists Claiming Non-Muslim Land? by Uzay Bulut

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20203/why-are-islamists-claiming-non-muslim-land

For at least the past five years, the government of Turkey has threatened to invade and annex Greek islands in the Aegean Sea.

The Turkish media continues to falsely and repeatedly claim that “152 Greek islands and islets in the Aegean belong to Turkey”. These islands, however, historically and legally… belong to Greece.

Since its inception in Arabia in the seventh century, Islam has spread throughout the world by means of the sword. According to the Islamic law, the world is divided into the “dar al-Islam” (territory of submission to Allah), which denotes regions where Islam prevails, and the “dar al-harb” (territory of war), which refers to non-Muslim lands, yet to be conquered.

Islamists believe that once Islamic colonialism and occupation has taken place, the land conquered is forever Islamic…. Islamic supremacists such as Erdogan believe that because Thessaloniki was once under the occupation of the Islamic Ottoman Empire, it is a Muslim land eternally and must be returned to its rightful owner.

Jerusalem… was also under Ottoman occupation for four centuries (1517-1917). The Jewish people, however, reversing that pattern of Islamic colonialism and imperialism, re-established their homeland, now Israel, in 1948. Islamic supremacists still have not healed from the perceived affront by Israel’s indigenous people to Islamic conquest.

Islamists therefore say they want to reconquer Jerusalem and the rest of Israel. According to doctrine, the only religion that should rule over these lands – or any lands, for that matter — is Islam. Christians and Jews could be only “dhimmis”, second-class, tolerated subjects of an Islamic state where they are only allowed to stay alive on sufferance by paying a high “protection” tax, the jizya.

Theologically, according to Islamic scriptures, Judaism and Christianity are merely distorted versions of Islam. In the Islamic view, originally there was only Islam, which the Jews and Christians later distorted into Judaism and Christianity. All history, in this mindset, is therefore originally Islamic history and all major figures of history such as Adam and Eve are therefore Muslim. All Biblical figures, according to Islam, such as Abraham, David, Moses, and Jesus are also Muslim. So, any place related to them, in that view, is Muslim territory.

Many others see these events as the Jews, who were the indigenous population of Canaan and Judea, having had their land “stolen” by the Ottomans, similarly to how the Turkish military invaded the northern part of the Republic of Cyprus in 1974, or how the Christian Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire was “stolen” by Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II and his troops on May 29, 1453 when they stormed Constantinople and triumphantly entered the Cathedral of the Hagia Sophia, after besieging the city for 55 days.

Many Islamists are therefore obsessed with conquering Israel, Spain and Portugal (al-Andalus), Greece, Cyprus and India for Allah – then the rest of the non-Muslim world.

Newsom Cancels Public Christmas Tree–Lighting amid Planned Pro-Palestinian Protests By Haley Strack

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/newsom-cancels-public-christmas-tree-lighting-amid-planned-pro-palestinian-protests/

California governor Gavin Newsom will conduct tonight’s Christmas tree–lighting at California’s state capitol virtually, amid threats from pro-Palestinian protesters.

The Sacramento Regional Coalition for Palestinian Rights announced that it would protest at the state capitol on Tuesday night — the same night Newsom was set to direct the annual Christmas tree–lighting ceremony. The group told KCRA Channel 3 that it wants to “out governor Gavin Newsom for hiding from the public because he doesn’t want to face their anger at his shameful stance in regard to the genocide in Gaza.”

“Governor Newsom decided to cancel the tree-lighting ceremony rather than face the public that is enraged by his shameful silence on the genocide in Gaza. This certainly doesn’t add up with his past stance with Native Americans,” Yassar Dahbour of the Sacramento Regional Coalition for Palestinian Rights said.

According to the local outlet, California Highway Patrol’s permit calendar originally slated a tree-lighting ceremony for Tuesday evening but had removed the event from the calendar as of Tuesday morning. The ceremony will now be held remotely, and California Highway Patrol has barricaded the area where the tree is located. Signage around the capitol building warns that trespassers will be arrested and prosecuted.

The People Who Mobbed a Jewish-Owned Restaurant in Philly Are Total Psychopaths By Jim Geraghty

https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/the-people-who-mobbed-a-jewish-owned-restaurant-in-philly-are-total-psychopaths/

On the menu today: If you thought the angry mob that gathered outside a Jewish-owned restaurant in downtown Philadelphia Sunday night couldn’t get any more outrageous, wait until you hear how the organizers justified their decisions a day later. It’s rarely been clearer that those who are taking to the streets and chanting aren’t merely pro-peace, as they claim, they’re pro-the-other-side, even when the other side is Hamas and the stakes are therapy for traumatized children. There was a Kristallnacht vibe to the decision to harass a Jewish-owned restaurant and to treat it as an extension of the Israeli government. Meanwhile, the White House apparently believes that a one-paragraph statement of rebuke is all the moment needs. The president who said he chose to run for the Oval Office because “the soul of America is at stake” is strangely quiet at this moment.

I’m Sorry, but These People Are Psychopaths

On today’s Wall Street Journal op-ed page, under the headline, “Higher Ed has become a threat to America,” University of California Santa Cruz professor emeritus John Ellis concludes, “The biggest threat to our future isn’t climate change, China or the national debt. It is the tyrannical grip that a hopelessly corrupt higher education now has on our national life. If we don’t stop it now, it will eventually destroy the most successful society in world history.”

That’s an awfully big accusation. Hyperbolic, probably; let’s not hand-wave away the threats of our runaway $33.8 trillion national debt or Beijing’s aggressive buildup of the People’s Liberation Army. But it’s not completely inaccurate, either. Leftist professors and administrators have cultivated an environment where whoever can organize the biggest, angriest mob wins; left-wing violence is forgiven as de facto speech while right-of-center-speech is restricted for being de facto violence; and your constitutionally protected rights can be completely abrogated without warning or review. And that mentality has spilled out from campuses into our legislatures, courtrooms, newsrooms, and the public square. The politically motivated violence we see in our country today is not all driven by backwoods yokels marching through the streets of Charlottesville with Tiki torches.

I’m sorry, I can’t just drop the topic of that angry mob that gathered outside a Jewish-owned restaurant in downtown Philadelphia Sunday night. I know that a whole lot of people might think it was just an ugly, dumb thing that happened, but it’s over now, damage to the restaurant was minimal, and even the owner, renowned Israeli-born chef Michael Solomonov, doesn’t want to comment on Sunday’s incident. I can’t begrudge him the desire to move on and get back to business.

Officials Reveal New Details About the Bizarre D.C. Area House Explosion: Paula Bolyard

https://pjmedia.com/paula-bolyard/2023/12/05/official-reveal-more-information-about-dc-area-house-explosion-n4924501

At a Tuesday afternoon press conference, Arlington County, Va., officials shared additional information about the bizarre home explosion that occurred in the Ballston neighborhood last night.

According to Arlington County Police Chief Andy Penn, the individual who was in the home at the time of the explosion is deceased. Fire officials found human remains in the house and believe that they belong to the suspect, James Yoo, 56, who owns the home. However, DNA tests have not yet confirmed the identity of the remains. “All factors point to that is this individual, but that has to be confirmed, and it’s going to take time to confirm that as well.”

Penn said the ACPD was called to the home at 844 N. Burlington Street at approximately 4:45 p.m. for reports of possible shots fired. “On-scene investigation revealed that a male suspect discharged a flare-type gun from the residence more than 30 times,” he said. “Officers attempted to engage with the suspect without success. A search warrant was ultimately obtained to allow our officers to secure any weapons to ensure there would be no ongoing threat to the community.”

It’s not clear why police needed a warrant to enter the home of someone firing a flare gun from the residence. Nevertheless, “members of the emergency response team initially attempted to execute the warrant through various forms of communications with the suspect. However, this was not successful.”

They deployed “non-flammable, less lethal chemical munitions to multiple areas within the residence where the suspect was believed to be hiding” in the hope that he would surrender.

Police say their only past interactions with Yoo were to address “calls for service for loud noise” over the past couple of years. 

“We are aware of concerning social media posts allegedly made by the suspect and these will be reviewed as part of the ongoing criminal investigation,” Penn added. 

Prior to the blast, residents of the area were evacuated for their safety, and fire officials turned off the gas to the home. There is no timeline for the investigation, but officials said debris was found “several streets over based on topography,” and 10-12 homes were damaged.