JD’s wife has posted this on Facebook:

In dangerous heat conditions at Ironman Louisville, JD put in a GREAT effort with a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and about a 17 mile run until needing 3 bags of IV fluids and some medical attention from severe dehydration. He’s all good. THANK U to all his awesome, unbelievable friends who cheered him on. No one can do this physically or mentally without the love and support of family and friends!!

I have no words to express how hard that sounds. Glad JD is OK.

[guest post by Dana]

After her husband’s death was confirmed, Yulia Navalnaya released a video in which she addressed the Russian people. Completely shattered and yet defiant, Navalnaya bravely reassured her husband’s supporters that she “will continue to fight for the freedom of our country”:

“Vladimir Putin killed my husband…The most important thing we can do for Alexey and for ourselves is to keep fighting more desperately and more fiercely than before… We know exactly why Putin killed Alexey three days ago. We will definitely find out exactly who carried out this crime and how it was carried out. We will name names and show faces.”

Moscow claims that the accusations are “absolutely unacceptable.” Yeah. Whatever.

In the face of grief, Yulia Navalnaya shows both grace and courage. She understands her loss is also a great loss to freedom-seeking Russians. She knows that her husband was not just a Putin critic but a brave man who relentlessly mocked Putin and his cronies, and threatened them at every turn with his wit and smarts. And especially because he remained bold and brave despite their cruelty. Putin could no longer abide that. I pray that Yulia Navalnay is made of the same stern stuff as her husband. I pray that despite, or because of her grief and anger, Putin finds himself outraged by another Navalny troublemaker speaking freedom and refusing to stand down.

She certainly has her work cut out for, given that the presidential election is March 15 and her husband’s supporters are being arrested:

Arrested for leaving flowers, Navalny mourners fear worse to come. At least 366 people were detained over the weekend, leading to concern that the arrests could signal greater government repression ahead of Russia’s elections in March.

In contrast to the courageous Yulia Navalnay, the Board of INSPIRE, which sponsors a Women’s Day event in Canada , demonstrated anything but courage. To the contrary:

Leah Goldstein seemed like a natural fit to be the keynote speaker at an International Women’s Day event in Ontario, Canada, next month. A Canadian cyclist, she made history as the first woman to win a grueling 3,000-mile bike race across the United States. But in January, five months after accepting the invitation, Goldstein was told she was no longer invited to speak.

Can you guess why she was disinvited? Sure you can:

The cause, the event organizers said, was “a small but growing and extremely vocal group” that took issue with Goldstein’s service three decades ago in the Israeli army.

“Our focus at INSPIRE has been and will always be to create safe spaces to honour, share, and celebrate the remarkable stories of women and non-binary individuals,” the women’s empowerment group said in a statement. “In recognition of the current situation and the sensitivity of the conflict in the Middle East, the Board of INSPIRE will be changing our keynote speaker.”

Oh, bullshit. Quite clearly they are not about honoring, sharing, and celebrating the remarkable stories of women. Only certain women… What a disgrace. To show such disrespect to an invited keynote speaker because she served in the military is an Israeli Jew is enraging. But sadly, unsurprising.

On her website, Goldstein a posted about incident:

It has taken me a while to wrap my head around your decision to remove me as INSPIRE’s International Women’s Day “Inspire Inclusion” Keynote Speaker. I was hurt. I was angry. But most of all I was heartbroken.

I’ve been a speaker for nearly 10 years and have told my story in front of real estate agents, business managers, garbage collectors, CEOs, motorbike dealers, government agencies and many diverse women’s groups. Not once has someone (to my face, to the organizers, nor anonymously) ever claimed to have been offended by my presentation. Not once.

I must assume you hired me because I speak about overcoming sexism and failures. Correct? I speak to inspire and motivate. I speak about obstacles, and how to overcome them. I speak about bravery and growth and standing up for one another.

I don’t believe you hired me because I was a soldier and a cop. While these jobs are part of my story (and I’m very grateful to have had these experiences), they do not define me as a human being. As a Jewish woman, I would never be offended if a Palestinian woman were to speak about her obstacles and life journey. I thought that’s what women were supposed to do for each other – listen and support!

Instead, it seems you have chosen to give in to threats and hate – and this is the saddest part. You removed me and made a statement to your audience, without even giving me a chance to make my own. Why wasn’t I contacted personally? Don’t you think I at least deserved that tiny shred of dignity?

I will not pursue legal action, although I have been advised to do so. That’s not who I am. Right now, I am sad. I’m mad. And I am so disappointed. For now, I can only live in hope. I hope for peace. I hope that humans can learn to treat each other with respect and love. And I hope the future includes brave women who understand the fragile thread holding all of us together.

A smart and direct response from a classy woman. Shame on the women’s group for knuckling under to the outraged few. I hope the whiny-ass babies on the Board at INSPIRE find their missing spine. Are they afraid Goldstein will bite? Do they think she’ll attack them? Or are they just afraid of the worst possible thing they can imagine happening: Goldstein standing at the podium, sharing her life story, and graciously encouraging and lifting up women of all stripes – while being an Israeli Jew?

–Dana

[guest post by JVW]

I saw this item in a post written by Madeline Kearns at NRO titled “Public Pianist Takes on Authoritarians in London.” It interests me because I am actually somewhat of a fan of the YouTube channel of Brendan Kavanagh, a boogie-woogie pianist who records himself playing in public spaces such as airports, train stations, parks, and malls, along with his interactions with the crowds who watch him. He oftentimes invites audience members who play to join him for duets or take over the piano entirely to play different genres of music, or to provide vocal accompaniment. As with any YouTuber, some of his stuff is no doubt contrived and scripted, but I’m a fan of boogie-woogie so his videos are usually a harmless way for me to pass time while doing something else around the home.

But Mr. Kavanagh had a rather real encounter with onlookers a couple of weeks back. Here is how Ms. Kearns describes it:

Brendan Kavanagh, or “Dr. K,” was playing the public piano at London’s St Pancras station, while a friend filmed him for a live-stream to his YouTube channel. He was approached by Chinese nationals with Chinese flags who wanted to use the piano but asked that he not film them.

One of the women explained that she works for Chinese TV and can’t show her face on other channels. But Kavanagh wasn’t having it.

“We are in Great Britain, we are not in China,” Kavanagh said, explaining that in Britain, people are free to film in a public place, and those not wanting to be filmed are free to simply walk away.

Events then took a strange turn when one of the group, a young man, accused Kavanagh of being racist and began shouting at him when he touched one of the women’s flags.

This brought a London policewoman onto the scene, and she immediately instructed Dr. K to stop filming her interaction with him, as well as to not publish the film of the Chinese nationals to his YouTube channel. To his everlasting credit, Dr. K was having none of it, and Ms. Kearns excerpts their exchange as follows:

Officer Kerry: The matter is, they [the Chinese nationals] say you’ve been making communist comments at them. . . .

Kavanagh: No, I said they were waving a communist flag. That’s all I said. . . .

Officer Kerry: They’ve requested that the video where they approach gets deleted and not used on your channel. . . .

Kavanagh: No, they don’t have that right.

Officer Kerry: Because there’s money being made, and they work for a company where their faces can’t be shown on TV or somebody else’s channel.

Kavanagh: You’re not their private security agent.

Officer Kerry: I’m not their private security agent.

Kavanagh: And we’re in a free country. We’re in a free space. We’re not causing any trouble. The problem is not from us, Kerry. The problem is they are coming over telling us what to do. And playing the piano. Now fair is fair, but you are not their private security guard.

Officer Kerry: I never said I was and I’m having a conversation with you.

Kavanagh: And we’re in a free space, in a free country.

Officer Kerry: There’s an allegation being made and that’s why I’m talking to you.

Kavanagh: What’s the allegation? You told me to stop filming and now you say there’s an allegation. The camera never lies. That’s why I’m filming.

Officer Kerry: The reason why I’m asking you not to film it is because I know you’re putting it on your YouTube channel.

Kavanagh: It doesn’t matter where it goes. We’re in a free country. Sorry. We’re in a democracy. We’re not in China. And that’s not racist. That’s the truth. That’s what our forefathers fought for.

Officer Kerry: Exactly. But you can’t say things like that either. You can’t just say things like that.

Kavanagh: What? That we’re in a free country.

Officer Kerry: No. “We’re not in China.” We’ve got Chinese people. . . .

Kavanagh: Listen, Kerry. If I was over in China and I started laying the law down to Chinese people at the piano, telling them what they cannot do. Do you think that’s appropriate? They came over here. The guy started shouting at me. They were saying “You’re not allowed to film, you’re not allowed to film!” And I said, “Sorry, we’re in Britain. I’m allowed to play.” And I said, “You’re waving a communist flag.” And then he said, “You’re racist.” So, if I’ve done anything wrong, tell me.

Because Dr. K refused to knuckle-under to the outrage of an English bobby doing the bidding of members of a totalitarian society, Officer Kerry eventually tired of the exchange and departed the scene. She of course comes off looking awful in this exchange, and though I feel that in a small way she deserves the derision she will likely receive from the nearly 10 million people who have viewed this video to date, I can’t help but feel a measure of pity for her since she no doubt was trained in all of the intersectionality and social justice nonsense which would perhaps lead her to believe she was at least some bit in the right.

But I am saving my real contempt for the Chinese nationals who tried to enforce their nasty authoritarian will while visiting an (ostensibly) free nation. I have special contempt for the man who tried to manufacture a battery charge because Dr. K had touched the flag of one of the Chinese groups. In a comment on the post, Dr. K links to a YouTube video by the anti-CCP Chinese-American journalist David Zhang, who believes this was an coordinated operation by CCP agents, testing the limits of how far they can push people in the West.

This reminded me of a similar situation I observed probably six or seven years ago outside a hotel in San Diego. I saw security having a discussion with two Asian men. I don’t know for sure that they were Chinese, perhaps they were not, but given the relative population sizes among countries in what we used to refer to as the Orient, they likely were. What was apparently happening is that the older of the two men was smoking a cigarette right next to the hotel’s revolving door, standing maybe only four or five feet away. Security was trying to explain to him that he had to move farther away from the door in order to smoke. The man didn’t (or pretended not to) speak English, so a younger man who seemed to be an assistant of sorts was translating. But no matter how patiently it was explained to the man that he had to move farther out, he stubbornly refused. I didn’t wait around to see how it all ended up, but I remember being a bit peeved that this visitor to our country had so little respect for our rules and regulations.

I think it’s pretty clear that China is more than willing to probe societies in the West to find just how susceptible we are to tolerating their thuggish ways. Recall that just a little over a year ago we discovered that the CCP was operating rouge police stations in New York City, Los Angeles, and at least one other U.S. city, dedicated to monitoring the behavior of Chinese citizens living here under our freedoms. Chinese nationals, many of whom are here on student visas, also have been found to enforce repressive Chinese laws while living here, not only on their own countrymen but also sometimes on Americans whose freedoms offend their totalitarian sensibilities.

The West has failed miserable in managing the rise of China as an ambitious influencer in free societies. Britain suffers from residual guilt over their Asian colonialism, but our country has no good excuse for our passivity. Donald Trump seems to have the willingness but not the deftness to challenge China, and Joe Biden simply lacks the intestinal fortitude. Either way, we’re not looking at any viable solutions anytime soon. So much the worse.

– JVW

[guest post by JVW]

Of course I refer to California, and especially to a huge dysfunctional city/county like Los Angeles. From CalMatters with bolded emphasis added by me:

Jesus Mares got a lifeline during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to rental support from one of Los Angeles’ leading homelessness agencies, he had a roof over his head.

He had been bouncing between sleeping in his car and hotel rooms. The taxpayer-subsidized room in a South L.A. duplex provided stability until he could get back on his feet, he’d hoped.

It went well for a while, he said. Then Mares quickly noticed things were amiss with the nonprofit, known as HOPICS. He went through several case managers who Mares said didn’t come to see him.

Then came the eviction notice. HOPICS, which has received about $140 million in Los Angeles city, county, state and federal funding over the last three years for a program known as rapid re-housing, was months behind on paying his rent, according to Mares and his former landlord.

Altogether, 306 residents of Los Angeles County lost their homes thanks to HOPICS failing to keep up on the rent subsidies. While the CalMatters piece assures us that “more than half were then placed in permanent housing or sent to temporary sites,” there are apparently 119 formerly-housed souls who are unaccounted for, though in interviews with former program participants CalMatters has ascertained that at least some of them are on the streets or are living in their automobiles. Perhaps others are incarcerated or even dead. Where did it all go wrong? According to documents reviewed by CalMatters, it was the usual mix of ineptitude such as a failure to properly vet middlemen who connected homeless residents with housing, utter and complete laziness like ignoring repeated warnings from landlords that the rent was in arrears, and that annoying sort of progressive grandiosity which in this case was taking on far too many clients than the program could properly manage.

Naturally, HOPICS (which stands for Homeless Outreach Program Integrated Care System) blames their problems on an embarrassment of riches, i.e. the piles and piles of COVID money that the government was happy to shovel into the economic furnace over the past three years. The program hired the aforementioned middlemen, many of them from fly-by-night nonprofits that suddenly sprung up when the government started making it rain with all of the Jacksons, Grants, and Benjamins that they were feverishly printing late at night. You won’t be surprised to hear that HOPICS found some “questionable charges” on the invoices submitted by these middlemen, and investigating them started clogging up the whole payment process. And, of course, the eviction moratoriums being extended well beyond the point when the pandemic had started to subside ensured that there was no real urgency for HOPICS to act in a timely manner.

HOPICS itself is a division of Special Service for Groups (SSG), which is an outfit so well-managed and tightly run that their homepage still loads a pop-up window which decries the Atlanta massage parlor shootings of March 2021. So apparently none of their $149.1 million budget in 2022 (up from $84 million in 2018; the pandemic sure was a boon to some organizations) went to updating the website.

There’s more, much more, about the nexus between private nonprofits and taxpayer money, about the history of HOPICS from its founding in the early 1980s to today, about why the organization turned so readily to middlemen to place people in homes (spoiler: it was partially about fooling landlords), and about how the organization’s alleged due diligence in checking and double-checking these invoices has led to some landlords being owed upwards of $200,000 for the past two years and has put much of this in our county court system. It’s the usual story about a program operating under the premise of good intentions going awry through the randomness of the human element, and how undertaking charitable works can be fairly big business these days in a county like Los Angeles and a state like California (SSG has at least eight executives making somewhere between $200,000 and $320,639, and overall a healthy $66.4 million out of 2022’s total expenses of $147 million went to wages and benefits for employees). What’s the old joke about the missionary who ended up owning a diamond mine in Rhodesia? He went there to do good, and he ended up doing very well.

But the best coda to this story is that there is a quote from our dear old friend, former U.S. Representative Katie Hill, who is now a deputy director at HOPICS and who has spent a good portion of her non-Congressional career in the social services racket. She is still immersed in the contemporary psychobabble by which the the Millennials explain their foibles: “This is a lot of money that has gone towards a program that has shown that it can house a lot of people. It’s not perfect in any way, shape, or form, and it’s evolving, and we’re learning as we go.”

– JVW

[guest post by Dana]

Let’s go!

First news item

NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby explains ‘what’s harsh‘:

TV Globo’s @RKrahenbuhl: “So, besides saying that he doesn’t have confidence in these numbers, the President went further to say that innocents will die and that this is the price of the war. You also said that.”

Kirby: “I have indeed.”

Krähenbühl: “Don’t you think this is insensitive? There’s being very harsh criticism in about it. For example, the Council of American-Islamic Relations said it was deeply disturbed and call on the President to apologize. Would the President apologize?”

Kirby: “No.”

Krähenbühl: “And does he regret saying something like that?”

Kirby: “What’s harsh — what’s harsh is the way Hamas is using people as human shields. What’s harsh is taking a couple of hundred hostages and leaving families and anxious, waiting and worrying to figure out where their loved ones are. What’s harsh, is dropping in on a music festival and slaughtering a bunch of young people just trying to enjoy an afternoon. I could go on and on. That’s what’s harsh. That is what’s harsh and being honest about the fact that there have been civilian casualties and that there likely will be more is being honest, because that’s what war is. It’s brutal. It’s ugly. It’s messy. I’ve said that before. President also said that yesterday. Doesn’t mean we have to like it. And it doesn’t mean that we’re dismissing anyone of those casualties each and every one is a tragedy in its own right…It would be helpful if Hamas would let [Gazans] leave….We know that there are thousands waiting to leave Gaza writ large and Hamas is preventing them from doing it. That is what is harsh.”

Second news item

Denmark’s plan for the integration of immigrants from mostly Muslim countries:

Now they are being forced to leave their home under a government program that effectively mandates integration in certain low-income neighborhoods where many “non-Western” immigrants live.

In practice, that means thousands of apartments will be demolished, sold to private investors or replaced with new housing catering to wealthier (and often nonimmigrant) residents, to increase the social mix.

The Danish news media has called the program “the biggest social experiment of this century.” Critics say it is “social policy with a bulldozer.”

The government says the plan is meant to dismantle “parallel societies” — which officials describe as segregated enclaves where immigrants do not participate in the wider society or learn Danish, even as they benefit from the country’s generous welfare system.

Third news item

President Biden has a long-shot challenger:

Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota has decided to challenge President Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination and will launch his 2024 campaign on Friday in New Hampshire, where he will file to appear on the state’s primary ballot.

…

Phillips said he has studied polling data and is alarmed about the prospect of Trump beating Mr. Biden, should the 2024 election end up becoming rematch of the 2020 race.

“I think President Biden has done a spectacular job for our country,” Phillips said. “But it’s not about the past. This is an election about the future.”

Fourth news item

Why, just why!:

The United States allowed Iran’s foreign minister to visit New York City this week to address the United Nations, drawing the ire of critics who insist the Biden administration should never have allowed him into the country.

“Iran-backed terrorists have attacked our servicemembers and are currently holding Americans hostage, but the Biden administration has granted a top Iranian official a visa — welcoming this regime on U.S. soil with open arms,” Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, wrote on social media platform X.

“The appeasement must end,” she added.

Iranian activist and firebrand Masih Alinejad had an even stronger reaction to his presence in the U.S.:

It’s shocking that Amir Abdullahin, the Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic, is on American soil discussing the Hamas attacks on Israel. This is the very regime that has openly championed and bankrolled terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah for years. By welcoming a representative stained with the blood of innocent Americans and Israelis, the U.S. sends a chilling message. History is clear: appeasing murderers doesn’t bring peace, it invites more violence. Every day, brave Iranians defy tyranny in pursuit of democracy. America must not extend hospitality to their oppressors. We should impose strict sanctions, stand resolutely against these tyrants, and align ourselves firmly with the true, freedom-loving people of Iran.

Also concerning the U.S. and Iran:

…the Biden administration is trying to tell you that the outbreak of attacks on Americans by Iranian-backed and -funded militia groups and proxies is simply a coincidence. It has nothing at all to do with Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas (an Iranian-backed and -funded proxy) and Hezbollah (an Iranian-backed and -funded proxy). Remember: According to Joe Biden’s administration, the attacks on Israel and the attacks on Americans in the Middle East are “separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.”

“Death to America,” Iran says.

“It’s negotiable,” the Biden administration responds.

Why is this happening? Joe Biden’s national-security team is obsessed with renegotiating the Iran nuclear deal begun under the Obama administration. Whatever Iran’s actions to date — and whatever comes next — Biden’s team wants to leave the door open to its dream of a new nuclear deal with Iran. In its thinking, if Americans were fully aware of Iran’s actions, we’d demand a tougher response, and that would scuttle any chance of new negotiations. In short, Joe Biden’s administration doesn’t think you can handle the truth about Iran’s pattern of malign intent and its authorship of the region’s upheavals.

Fifth news item

Horrific news:

An intensive manhunt is still underway for a suspect in Wednesday’s shooting rampage at a bowling alley and a restaurant that left at least 18 dead and 13 injured in Lewiston, Maine, according to authorities…Robert Card, 40, is facing an arrest warrant for eight counts of murder and should be considered armed and dangerous, police said. He is a certified firearms instructor and a member of the US Army Reserves, according to law enforcement…The rampage in Maine is the deadliest US mass shooting since the Uvalde school massacre.

Additionally:

Card recently reported mental health issues, including “hearing voices and threats to shoot up the National Guard Base in Saco” and was reported to have been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks during summer 2023 and subsequently released, a police bulletin said.

A note was found in suspect’s home but does not provide a motive for the shooting.

Sadly, a children’s league was at the bowling alley time of the shooting.

Sixth news item

I guess this is Russia “winning”:

Russia has freed up to 100,000 prison inmates and sent them to fight in Ukraine, according to government statistics and rights advocates — a far greater number than was previously known…The Russian prison population, estimated at roughly 420,000 before the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, plummeted to a historic low of about 266,000, according to Deputy Justice Minister Vsevolod Vukolov, who disclosed the figure during a panel discussion earlier this month.

Russian forces are now heavily reliant on prisoners plucked from colonies with the promise of pardons…

During a White House Press Conference today, John Kirby discussed the ways the Russian military had been treating their own soldiers including executing them.

This should come as no surprise as Russia State Media been quoting Stalin for a while

“Those who panic get shot” https://t.co/vEzdxHKgtZ pic.twitter.com/tQcgcCuLyH

— Prune60 (@Prune602) October 27, 2023

Seventh news item

We’ll fly you anywhere to move out of NYC:

Mayor Eric Adams is ramping up efforts to fly migrants to the destination of their choice, figuring it’s cheaper than sheltering them for months on end. And he’s simultaneously warning that those opting to stay in New York may be in for a winter of sleeping outside with shelters full.

“When you are out of room, that means you’re out of room,” Adams told reporters Tuesday. “Every year, my relatives show up for Thanksgiving, and they want to all sleep at my house. There’s no more room. That’s where we are right now.”

…

The city has been at odds with the White House over the lack of a national remedy to the migrant surge, pitting Adams against President Joe Biden. One-way plane tickets, even international ones, are cheaper than the cumulative daily, per-migrant cost that has risen to $394 this month from $363 in the city.

Eighth news item

New hope for continued aid to Ukraine?:

There’s a renewed hope for approving additional aid to Ukraine after House Republicans resolved their speaker paralysis, and as some hard-right lawmakers critical of new funding hint at a viable path to vote on it.

One month ago, then-Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., voted with 93 Republicans to cut off Ukraine aid. Now, as speaker, Johnson said he’s asked White House staff “bifurcate” aid to Israel and Ukraine. But he emphasized that the U.S. must stop Russia’s advances.

“We can’t allow Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine because I don’t believe it would stop there,” Johnson said in an interview on Fox News the day after he was sworn-in. “And it would probably encourage and empower China to perhaps make a move on Taiwan. We have these concerns. We’re not going to abandon them.”

Johnson added that he wants “accountability” over how the money is spent as lawmakers “have a stewardship responsibility over the precious treasure of the American people.”

Ninth news item

Maine Dem rep changes mind on weapons ban after mass shooting:

Rep. Jared Golden, a Marine Corps veteran who lives in Lewiston, Maine, said Thursday that in light of the recent mass shooting in his hometown he was changing his view on banning assault-style weapons.

“Humility is called for as accountability is sought by victims of a tragedy such as this one,” Golden said at a news conference alongside other officials.

Arguably the most conservative Democrat in the House, Golden said that “I have opposed efforts to ban deadly weapons of war like the assault rifle used to carry out this crime.”

“The time has come for me to take responsibility for this failure,” he said. “Which is why I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles like the one used by the sick perpetrator of this mass killing.”

MISCELLANEOUS

Never drink anything near Putin pic.twitter.com/mQy8IjDbXS

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 26, 2023

Have a great weekend.

—Dana

[guest post by Dana]

Let’s go!

First news item

Last night, President Biden made his case for support and funding to Ukraine and Israel. Here are a few excerpts from his speech tonight. I’m posting a generous portion:

The terrorist group Hamas unleashed pure unadulterated evil in the world, but sadly, the Jewish people know, perhaps better than anyone, that there is no limit to the depravity of people when they want to inflict pain on others.

The President also recognized the Palestinian people’s right to live free of Hamas:

I also spoke with President Abbas, the Palestinian Authority, and reiterated that the United States remains committed to the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and to self-determination. The actions of Hamas terrorists don’t take that right away.

Like so many others, I’m heartbroken by the tragic loss of Palestinian life, including the explosion at the hospital in Gaza, which was not done by the Israelis. We mourn every innocent life lost. We can’t ignore the humanity of innocent Palestinians who only want to live in peace and have an opportunity.

The President also tied Israel and Ukraine together. Effectively so, I think:

Hamas and Putin represent different threats, but they share this in common. They both want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy — completely annihilate it. Hamas’ stated purpose for existing is the destruction of the state of Israel and the murder of Jewish people. Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people. Hamas uses Palestinian civilians as human shields, and innocent Palestinian families are suffering greatly because of them.

Meanwhile, Putin denies Ukraine has, or ever had, real statehood. He claims the Soviet Union created Ukraine. And just two weeks ago, he told the world that if the United States and our allies withdraw — and if the United States withdraws, our allies will as well — military support for Ukraine would have, quote, a week left to live.

But we’re not withdrawing.

On why it’s vital that Putin not succeed in his quest to destroy Ukraine:

Why does this matter to America? So let me share with you why making sure Israel and Ukraine succeed is vital for America’s national security.

You know, history has taught us that when terrorists don’t pay a price for their terror, when dictators don’t pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos and death and more destruction. They keep going. And the cost and the threats to America and the world keep rising.

So if we don’t stop Putin’s appetite for power and control in Ukraine, he won’t limit himself just to Ukraine. He’s — Putin’s already threatened to remind, quote, remind Poland that their western land was a gift from Russia. One of his top advisers, a former president of Russia, has called Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania Russia’s Baltic provinces.

These are all NATO allies. For 75 years, NATO has kept peace in Europe. And has been the cornerstone of American security. And if Putin attacks a NATO ally, we will defend every inch of NATO, which a treaty requires and calls for.

We’ll have something that we do not seek. Make it clear — we do not seek — we do not seek to have American troops fighting in Russia or fighting against Russia.

Beyond Europe, we know that our allies, and maybe most importantly our adversaries and competitors, are watching. They’re watching our response in Ukraine as well. And if we walk away and let Putin erase Ukraine’s independence, would-be aggressors around the world would be emboldened to try the same.

About Israel:

In Israel, we must make sure that they have what they need to protect their people today and always. The security package I’m sending to Congress and asking Congress to do is an unprecedented commitment to Israel’s security that will sharpen Israel’s qualitative military edge, which we’ve committed to: the qualitative military edge. We’re going make sure Iron Dome continues to guard the skies over Israel. We’re going to make sure other hostile actors in the region know that Israel’s stronger than ever and prevent this conflict from spreading.

About Ukraine:

On Ukraine, I’m asking Congress to make sure we can continue to send Ukraine the weapons they need to defend themselves and their country without interruption, so Ukraine can stop Putin’s brutality in Ukraine.

What I did not hear from Biden was a commitment to victory in this fight. Hamas, Iran, and Russia cannot merely be contained. This is no time to hedge, or to meet evil halfway. We have draws in chess, but this is not chess. This is a fight for our way of life and it must be won.

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) October 20, 2023

Second news item

Always courageous, feminist Phyllis Chessler pulls no punches:

I have pioneered women’s rights for more than 50 years.

Sadly, I must conclude that what was once a diverse and independent-minded movement has become hijacked by a “woke” death cult.

Those American feminists left standing, including the icons among us, primarily favor gender over sex identity; are pro-trans rather than pro-biological-womankind; and are more obsessed with the alleged occupation of a country that has never existed (Palestine, Gaza) than they are with the occupation of female bodies in Gaza — where girls and women are forced into child and polygamous marriages, made to veil and, together with male homosexuals, “honor” killed by their families.

At this horrifying moment in history, when Hamas, an ISIS-like, Taliban-like terrorist group, has savagely and sadistically murdered, tortured, mutilated, raped and burned Israeli civilians alive, including babies, young women and grandmothers, I note a terrible silence, a moral failure, among those women, including women activists, who live in freedom in America.

The bottom line:

We cannot believe feminists’ almost absolute silence after Hamas launched its terrorist attack against Jews this month — which included raping young women next to their dead friends and then parading them, bloodied between their legs, through Gaza streets.

Rape in a war zone is considered a crime — as long as the victims are not Jews.

Third news item

Just heartbreaking:

Tearful mourners on Monday gathered in prayer at a mosque and placed white and yellow roses at the gravesite of a 6-year-old Muslim boy stabbed to death by a man who police say targeted him and his mother because they were Palestinian Americans.

…

Police said the 6-year-old and his mother Hanaan Shahin, 32, were attacked by their landlord on Saturday in Plainfield Township, about 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Chicago. The boy was stabbed 26 times while his mother suffered multiple wounds. She was expected to survive.

The assailant attempted to choke the mother and said “You Muslims must die,” CAIR said, citing text messages that Shahin sent to the boy’s father from the hospital. The man then stabbed the woman and child repeatedly with what police described as long, military-style knife with a serrated edge.

From one of the mourners:

“It’s heartbreaking. This child did not deserve to die from what happened overseas,” Juhie Faheem, one of the mourners and neighbor of the family in Plainfield Township.

“What happened in Plainfield is going to make people understand that this hits closer to home and this child was murdered for being Muslim, but he easily could have been any race, any ethnicity.”

The brutal killing of the little boy took place a week after the Hamas terror attack on Israel.

Fourth news item

Sidney ‘Release the Kraken’ Powell pleads guilty:

Sidney Powell, who advised Trump during the final frantic weeks of his bid to remain in power despite losing the election, pleaded guilty Thursday to six misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with performance of election duties…Powell’s guilty plea, which she entered in a court hearing in Atlanta, makes her the first member of Trump’s close advisers to admit to crimes related to the 2020 electio…Powell was sentenced to six years probation and will be left without a criminal record if she complies with all aspects of the agreement, Judge Scott McAfee indicated. She also must write an apology letter to Georgia citizens.

Powell also agreed to “testify truthfully” against her co-defendants, which could be very bad news for Trump.

Fifth news item

Term limits on Supreme Court?. Playing politics:

A group of Democratic senators introduced a bill Thursday that would radically change the makeup of the Supreme Court, amid ongoing concerns over court ethics and its increasingly conservative makeup.
The legislation would appoint a new Supreme Court justice every two years, with that justice hearing every case for 18 years before stepping back from the bench and only hearing a “small number of constitutionally required cases.”

Only the nine most recently appointed justices would hear appellate cases, which make up a bulk of the court’s work. All living justices would participate in a smaller subset of cases under the court’s “original jurisdiction,” such as disputes between states or with foreign officials.

Sixth news item

A solid analysis of the massive media failure this past week and a half:

Other media outlets didn’t exercise the same patience. Instead of waiting for more information, nearly all of them ran with the accusations from the terrorist group as if they were facts. That’s how eager they were to create a moral equivalency between Israel and Hamas.

The result of their careless journalism was actively misinforming millions about a serious situation and triggering a chain of deadly consequences. Even as the story developed and more information came out, the outlets were slow to react, much less issue corrections. By Wednesday there was overwhelming evidence that Israel was right and almost everything these outlets had originally reported was straight-up wrong. There is even clear evidence the casualty count was not remotely accurate, as confirmed by multiple intelligence agencies from other countries.

Seventh news item

Over at The Bulwark, Jonathan V. Last points to the reasons why he believes President Biden has done a stellar job with Israel:

Given Israel moral, rhetorical, and concrete support.

Rallied Europe to Israel’s cause.

Pulled the main body of the Democratic party even further away from its radical, anti-Israel fringe.

And pushed Israel to be more attentive to humanitarian concerns in its campaign against Hamas.

Eighth news item

I thank @POTUS Joe Biden for his powerful address. Together, we will not allow hatred destroy freedom, and we will not let terrorists destroy democracy.

Ukraine is grateful for all the U.S. support and its unfaltering belief that humanism, freedom, independence, and rules-based…

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 20, 2023

Ninth news item

If you haven’t yet heard NYC Mayor Adams’ speech on Israel, do so:

Gotta give credit to NYC Mayor Eric Adams for this phenomenal speech on Israel. It’s a few minutes that everyone should watch. pic.twitter.com/SBbJDNmQA1

— Eli Klein (@TheEliKlein) October 13, 2023

Have a good weekend.

—Dana

[guest post by JVW]

I chickened out on the headline, but Charlie Cooke over at NRO has it exactly right: Joe Biden is an Asshole. We have discussed this now and again with respect to his denial of his seventh grandchild and his failure to own up to his son Hunter’s tawdry and embarrassing lifestyle along with his general peevishness and grouchiness, and Charlie Cooke makes it plain:

He’s an asshole. Can we not all see it? For those who cannot conceive of truth without triangulation, I will freely stipulate that Donald Trump is an asshole, too — and that, in some ways, he’s an even worse one. But that does not let Biden off the hook. President or not, Biden is a decrepit, dishonest, unpleasant blowhard. He’s a nasty, corrupt, partisan fraud. He is, as Shakespeare had it, “a most notable coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise breaker, the owner of no one good quality.” Biden is twice as irritating as he believes himself to be, and half as intelligent into the bargain. From the moment he arrived on the scene — nearly 50 years ago, Lord help us — he has represented all that is wrong with our politics. A century hence, his name will be set into aspic and memorialized under “Hack.”

The court stenographers (as Rush Limbaugh used to call them) still want us to believe that Joe Biden is a lovable, grandfatherly, figure who — ok, sure — may from time to time lash out in a rather startling manner but who otherwise is dedicated to restoring honor and dignity to the White House. Pish posh. He’s a raging jackass, a man who was only about half-bright to begin with and now has lived long enough to witness his mind turning to mush in his dotage, which in itself has made him infinitely more irascible and stubborn. Mr. Cooke continues:

At Axios, Alex Thompson reports the apparently surprising news that Biden “has such a quick-trigger temper that some aides try to avoid meeting alone with him.” Among the president’s favorite admonitions are: “God dammit, how the f**k don’t you know this?!,” “Don’t f**king bullsh*t me!,” and “Get the f**k out of here!” Per Thompson, these revelations are important because, like his refusal to acknowledge his own granddaughter, they threaten to damage Biden’s “carefully cultivated image as a kindly uncle.” But that image is for cretins and sycophants. Joe Biden has never been a “kindly uncle” — or anything approaching one. For his whole life, Joe Biden has been a plodding mediocrity with a Delaware-sized chip on his shoulder. What about him, I wonder, would not lead him to shout stupidly at people? He’s a bully. Check. He’s insecure. Check. He’s senile. Check. He is hostage to his precarious record of lies. Check. His anger is as inevitable as the sunset.

The President’s eruptions of sputtering episodes of rage are apparently even directed at young female staffers. It was just the other day that an older powerful white male speaking harshly to young women aides was considered to be absolutely unacceptable and an unquestioned abuse of authority. These days, with a progressive establishment desperate to keep Democrats in power and stuck with a truly wretched human being as party leader, the media is finding it harder and harder to cover for this pompous jerkwad. Not that they don’t try. The same Axios article which related President Biden’s awful temper took some ameliorating steps to explain them away by dutifully quoting an unnamed Biden aide who insists that the Boss’s temper-tantrums and barbed outbursts demonstrate a measure of respect for the unlucky recipient. They also quote unnamed employees of Team Biden as pondering whether more public displays of his temper would help assuage concerns by the voters that the 80-year Chief Executive lacks passion for the job, somehow ignoring the fact that Biden has on many occasions shown his prickly and pugnacious side, never really to any positive effect save for his most devoted fans.

Whether it’s in lashing out at other branches of government, his repeated lies and fairy-tales, or the simple bullying of his overmatched staff, Joe Biden has proven conclusively that he is unfit for the office which he holds. Given that this has been the trend for our Chief Executives in recent years and that there is a very strong chance that next year’s election will come down to two grossly unfit choices offered up by our two major political parties, we seem to be entering into the dying days of the American experiment. It was fun while it lasted, but we voters proved to be incapable of keeping our Republic, just as Benjamin Franklin seemed to foreshadow nearly a quarter-millennium ago.

– JVW

[guest post by Dana]

Let’s go!

First news item

Loose lips sink ships and all that:

Former President Donald Trump acknowledged on tape in a 2021 meeting that he had retained “secret” military information that he had not declassified, according to a transcript of the audio recording obtained by CNN.

“As president, I could have declassified, but now I can’t,” Trump says, according to the transcript.

CNN obtained the transcript of a portion of the meeting where Trump is discussing a classified Pentagon document about attacking Iran. In the audio recording, which CNN previously reported was obtained by prosecutors, Trump says that he did not declassify the document he’s referencing, according to the transcript…The transcript of the audio recording suggests that Trump is showing the document he’s discussing to those in the room. Several sources have told CNN the recording captures the sound of paper rustling, as if Trump was waving the document around, though is not clear if it was the actual Iran document.

“Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this,” Trump says at one point, according to the transcript. “This was done by the military and given to me.”

Trump was complaining in the meeting about Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley. The meeting occurred shortly after The New Yorker published a story by Susan Glasser detailing how, in the final days of Trump’s presidency, Milley instructed the Joint Chiefs to ensure Trump issued no illegal orders and that he be informed if there was any concern.

“Well, with Milley – uh, let me see that, I’ll show you an example. He said that I wanted to attack Iran. Isn’t that amazing? I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was him,” Trump says, according to the transcript. “They presented me this – this is off the record, but – they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him. We looked at some. This was him. This wasn’t done by me, this was him.”

“All sorts of stuff – pages long, look. Wait a minute, let’s see here. I just found, isn’t that amazing? This totally wins my case, you know. Except it is like, highly confidential. Secret. This is secret information. Look, look at this.”

“Secret” and “confidential” are two levels of classification for sensitive government documents.

Second news item

Trump attorneys Jim Trusty and John Rowley step down:

Trusty and Rowley also said they will no longer represent Trump in a pending federal criminal probe into his efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election to President Joe Biden.

They say it’s because of the move to Miami but this was not planned as of yesterday. pic.twitter.com/Fe7PKGnPBj

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) June 9, 2023

Third news item

Mitt Romney, consistently reasonable and thoughtful::

“Like all Americans, Mr. Trump is entitled to the presumption of innocence. The government has the burden of proving its charges beyond a reasonable doubt and securing a unanimous verdict by a South Florida jury.

“By all appearances, the Justice Department and special counsel have exercised due care, affording Mr. Trump the time and opportunity to avoid charges that would not generally have been afforded to others.

“Mr. Trump brought these charges upon himself by not only taking classified documents, but by refusing to simply return them when given numerous opportunities to do so.

“These allegations are serious and if proven, would be consistent with his other actions offensive to the national interest, such as withholding defensive weapons from Ukraine for political reasons and failing to defend the Capitol from violent attack and insurrection.”

Fourth news item

More aid to Ukraine as the spring offensive is underway:

Today, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced a new security assistance package, underscoring the unwavering U.S. support for Ukraine. This package, which totals up to $2.1 billion and includes critical air defense and ammunition capabilities, is being provided under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI)…

The capabilities in this announcement include:

Additional munitions for Patriot air defense systems;
HAWK air defense systems and missiles;
105mm and 203mm artillery rounds;
Puma Unmanned Aerial Systems;
Laser-guided rocket system munitions;
Support for training, maintenance, and sustainment activities.

Fifth news item

Brutal and heartbreaking account from Ukraine:

Winter was hell. Now a new hell has begun.

You know how psychologically, if you are hit once, it hurts. The second time you get hit, it doesn’t hurt as much. And the third time, when you are hit like that, it seems to be the norm.

But then a new constellation of events forms: your friends and relatives are fighting at the front line, and you begin to lose them. A close friend died before the New Year. It was a time of crazy grief for me. A new emotional phase begins, when you can’t understand why. You saw death in the beginning, but now it touches you directly.

Before, just a few rockets came down during air raids. Now, the Russians have developed their tactics to intimidate civilians. We face near-nightly barrages around Kyiv. As soon as the attacks start, all the car alarms go off. We wake up to horrible explosions. You watch the huge red balls flying, and you don’t know where they’re headed. On one night last month,¹ for example, the Russians launched six Kinzhal missiles, nine Kalibr-type cruise missiles, three anti-aircraft ballistic missiles, six Iranian suicide Shahed drones and three Orlan-type reconnaissance UAVs. During a recent attack, my balcony doors were blown out by the shock wave.

When the raids start, we all run to the basements. Sleepy children are picked up by their mothers and carried. We sit there for three or four hours. By then, it’s morning. You come back to the house, have a coffee, take a shower, and go to work. The first time, you can do it. By the third day, you don’t have the strength anymore.

Everybody talks about stress, all the time. It’s a pain we share. We had more or less already adapted to the lack of electricity and such things. We took precautions; we bought generators and some other equipment. We warmed up in each others’ apartments so there was as little space as possible to heat. But now that a more psychological phase of the war has begun, we hardly sleep at night, and we still have to go to work during the day. In these conditions, you come to an emotional dead end. You don’t understand what to do next.

Everyone tries to think about something else. At work, I look at my colleagues, and we have no energy at all. The management suggested that we should all take five days off to go to the mountains somewhere—maybe the Carpathians or Poland, where we won’t hear the explosions every night. We can’t go for a break in the woods closer to home, because they have all been laid with mines.

For many, our nervous system is at its limit. I take sedatives both for sleep problems and psychological problems. The most horrifying thing, it turns out: you can’t live without a future. You live and you don’t know what awaits you. You don’t know how to organize your daily routines, or how to plan anything. You have no future, and this makes life eerie and terrifying.

Sixth news item

Bipartisan concern in Congress over potential LIV/PGA merger:

The PGA Tour’s planned merger with Saudi-backed LIV Golf has sparked a surprise bout of bipartisan harmony on Capitol Hill: Conservatives and liberals are uniting to thrash the deal.

Some lawmakers are calling for congressional investigations. Others are looking to the Justice Department and other federal regulators to first explore the case for blocking the move on antitrust grounds. Only after regulators act, they say, is there likely to be appetite for Congress to enter the picture — even as a majority of its members are openly wary of the deal.

…

Scores of members of Congress have criticized the golf mega-merger, warning that it would help consolidate the Saudi government’s U.S. influence despite deep bipartisan concerns about its human rights record.

What a difference a money makes:

Many are also calling PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan a hypocrite, noting that he said one year ago, “I think you’d have to be living under a rock to not know there are significant implications” to players aligning themselves with Saudi Arabia.

Seventh news item

Texas putting buoy barrier in Rio Grande:

Texas is set to deploy a buoy barrier in the Rio Grande as part of plans to deter migrant crossings, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Thursday.

He shared the news after he signed six bills related to border security. Funding will come from $5.1 billion approved by the state legislature to secure the border.

“What we’re doing right now, we’re securing the border at the border,” Abbott said. “What these buoys will allow us to do is to prevent people from even getting to the border.”

The first 1,000 feet of buoys will be deployed at Eagle Pass, which Steve McCraw, director of the state’s Department of Public Safety, called “the center of gravity for smuggling.” The first deployment will cost under $1 million and will begin “pretty much immediately.” Officials did not share a more specific number for the cost of the barrier.

…

Officials hope the buoys will act as a deterrent to prevent migrants from entering the water. While there are ways to overcome the buoys, which can range in size, it will take a lot of effort and specialized skills.

Eighth news item

House reaction to Trump being indicted is about what you would expect:

WITCH HUNT.

— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) June 8, 2023

Today is indeed a dark day for the United States of America.

It is unconscionable for a President to indict the leading candidate opposing him. Joe Biden kept classified documents for decades.

I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump…

— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) June 9, 2023

President Trump is indicted on the day we unveiled significant findings related to Joe Biden’s corruption.

Makes you wonder.

— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) June 9, 2023

Let’s be clear about what’s happening: Joe Biden is weaponizing his Department of Justice against his own political rival.

This sham indictment is the continuation of the endless political persecution of Donald Trump.

— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) June 9, 2023

For comparison, go back and read Mitt Romney’s response (#3).

Ninth news item

The federal indictment against Donald Trump has just been unsealed. You can read it in full here.

The charges:

The 44-page indictment filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida alleges that Trump “endeavored to obstruct the FBI and grand jury investigations and conceal retention of classified documents.” The indictment names Walt Nauta, an aide to Trump who served as a White House valet, as a co-conspirator.

The indictment lists 37 counts in all against Trump:

31 counts of willful retention of classified documents
1 count of conspiracy to obstruct justice
1 count of withholding a document or record
1 count of corruptly concealing a document or record
1 count of concealing a document in a federal investigation
1 count of scheme to conceal and one count of making false statements and representations.

At least four of the charges carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

Have a good weekend.

–Dana

[guest post by Dana]

Let’s go!

First news item

Second firm hired by Trump found no 2020 election fraud:

Former president Trump’s campaign quietly commissioned a second firm to study election fraud claims in the weeks after the 2020 election, and the founder of the firm was recently questioned by the Justice Department about his work disproving the claims.

Ken Block, founder of the firm Simpatico Software Systems, studied more than a dozen voter fraud theories and allegations for Trump’s campaign in late 2020 and found they were “all false,” he said in an interview with The Washington Post.

“No substantive voter fraud was uncovered in my investigations looking for it, nor was I able to confirm any of the outside claims of voter fraud that I was asked to look at,” he said. “Every fraud claim I was asked to investigate was false.”

Just yesterday, Trump appeared at a rally and whined to supporters that the 2020 election had been stolen, despite two firms hired to analyze the results arriving at the same conclusion: no substantive fraud was uncovered.

Yesterday, as the one-trick pony took the stage at a rally, he proceeded to whine that the 2020 election had been “rigged,”

…CNN published excerpts from a draft RNC report exploring the reasons Republicans underperformed in the 2022 midterms. One conclusion stood above the rest: Voters are tired of hearing about election fraud.

“The American people want to move forward and rarely, if ever, are concerned about what happened in the past. The balance of survey data makes it clear that voters are done with the 2020 and 2022 elections. They have no patience for endless conversations relitigating previous elections from Democrats and Republicans,” reads the draft. “Those who don’t heed that lesson from 2022 will be more likely to lose in 2024 and successive cycles.”

Second news item

Targeting civilians again because that’s what a genocide looks like:

Russia launched a barrage of long-range cruise missiles at Ukraine in the early hours of Friday morning, according to Ukrainian officials.

At around 4 a.m. local time (9 p.m. ET), 23 missiles were launched from Russian aircraft in the Caspian Sea area, along with two drones, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. Twenty-one of the missiles were intercepted by Ukrainian air defenses, it said.

But missiles did hit the central Ukrainian cities of Uman, in the Cherkasy region south of Kyiv, and Dnipro.

Uman: Officials say the death toll in Uman stands at 20, including three children. At least 18 people have been wounded.

According to Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Ihor Klymenko, there were 46 apartments inside one of the buildings that were hit, of which 27 were completely destroyed. He said it may take a day to clear all the rubble.

Note that this strike has caused more civilian casualties in a single incident since January when an apartment was hit in Dnipro in January. Also, as of this morning, the death toll stands at 20 including 3 children

Ukraine Minister of Foreign Affairs DmytroKuleba responded to the latest strike:

Missile strikes killing innocent Ukrainians in their sleep, including a 2-years-old child, is Russia’s response to all peace initiatives. The way to peace is to kick Russia out of Ukraine. The way to peace is to arm Ukraine with F-16s and protect children from Russian terror.

(cc to Gov. DeSantis)

And pointing out what has now become obvious:

Types of weapons that, we were told, would ‘provoke Russia to escalate’ if supplied to Ukraine but never did:

Artillery
MLRS
Air Defense
Tanks
Long-range missiles

F-16s will not either. Giving Ukraine F-16s will deter Russia rather than ‘provoke’ it. Time to take this step.

Thoughts about Ukraine’s urgent need for F-16s and our reluctance to provide them:

Ukraine must be ready soon for an offensive. Europe understands the urgency but doesn’t have the stockpiles. The US has the necessary ATACMs and F-16s gathering dust but refuses to provide them. Why? The answers are disturbing. Putin hopes for another long, frozen conflict that doesn’t put enough pressure on his domestic problems to crack his regime. That offers him hope of offramps and negotiations that only empower him, as has happened for the past decade. Tragically, influences in the Biden White House also seem to want this. Sullivan, Burns, Kerry, treating this like the Cold War where the evil they know is better than the uncertainty of victory, even if it means undermining the counteroffensive against a war criminal regime. Ukraine needs long-range fires and jets to free all its territory and people and end this war. Everyone understands this, including SecDef Austin, who has been trying his best. But the politicians don’t want to burn figurative bridges with Putin–or real bridges to Crimea. Sullivan can be a moral idiot, but here it’s costing many thousands of lives. The US must declare its strategic and political goals for this war. At Ramstein they again were unwilling to provide the decisive advantage Ukraine needs, dragging out the war as Putin desires. The national security of the US can be served in no better way than Ukraine defeating Russia decisively. Any result with Russia still occupying Ukraine will be a huge loss for the US and all democracies. Don’t negotiate with terrorists. Give everything now for Ukraine to win.

Third news item

Would a true ally of the United States do this:

China resumed construction of a military base in the United Arab Emirates, a move likely to alarm US officials and increase concerns that another US ally in the Middle East is drawing closer to China.

According to leaked US intelligence documents obtained by The Washington Post, construction has resumed at a Chinese military base just outside Abu Dhabi.

…

China in recent months has made an audacious power play in the Middle East, organising a diplomatic thaw between longtime rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran. Beijing has exposed the limitations of US influence in a region where it’s long been the dominant international power.

Fourth news item

On day two of testimony from E.Jean Carroll:

And, in perhaps the most heated moment of the day, Tacopina questioned why she wouldn’t have screamed if she were being sexually assaulted.

“I’m not a screamer. You can’t beat up on me for not screaming,” she replied, growing agitated. “I’m not beating up on you. I’m asking you questions,” Tacopina said.

“Women don’t come forward. One of the reasons they don’t come forward is because they’re always asked, why didn’t you scream?” Carroll told the courtroom. Women are told, she said, “You better have a good excuse if you didn’t scream.”

At that point, Carroll raised her voice. “I’m telling you: He raped me whether I screamed or not,” she exclaimed.

“Do you need a minute, Ms. Carroll?” Tacopina asked.

“No,” she replied. “Go right on. I don’t need an excuse for not screaming.”

This was puzzling:

Tacopina also questioned Carroll about a 2017 email referencing Trump between her and her friend Carol Martin, in which Martin wrote: “As soon as we are both well enuf to scheme, we must do our patriotic duty again …” Carroll responded: “TOTALLY!!! I have something special for you when we meet.”

When Carroll testified, as she had also done Wednesday, that she couldn’t recall what the email meant, Tacopina asked how she could remember details from the alleged rape from at least 27 years ago but couldn’t recall anything about a six-year-old email.

“Those are facts that I could never forget,” Carroll said of the alleged attack. “This is an email among probably hundreds of emails between Carol and I that I have no recollection of.”

Fifth news item

This is disgusting. On the same day that Mike Pence testified before a federal grand jury as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation, his former boss did this:

Micki Larson-Olson, a QAnon supporter who said she considers Trump the “real president,” was convicted last year of unlawful entry on Capitol grounds. On Thursday night, she met Trump for the first time at the Red Arrow Diner in Manchester. [Ed. She was pointed out to Trump: “Where is she?” Trump asked. He sought her out and, absent any solicitation, told her to “hang in there.” Trump later pulled Larson-Olson, who was among the hundreds arrested and convicted for their participation in the January 6 riots, toward him for a photo. ]

…

Larson-Olson was introduced to Trump as a “Jan. 6er,” and he signed the backpack that she said she was carrying with her that day and waived her past security so he could embrace her. “Listen, you just hang in there,” Trump said, calling her a “terrific woman” and kissing her on the cheek. Trump said it was “so bad” what has been done to Jan. 6 “patriots.”

On Jan. 6, Larson-Olson climbed the scaffolding set up for Joe Biden’s inauguration and held on when police tried to remove her…she “refused” to leave the platform and has “absolutely no regrets” about her actions that day…Larson-Olson said she believes that the members of Congress who voted to certify Biden’s presidential election should be executed…“The punishment for treason is death, per the Constitution. I believe every single person, every single person that stole a voice from our collective voice of ‘We the people, of the people, for the people, by the people,’ deserves death, and no less than that.”

Larson-Olson added that she “would like a front seat of Mike Pence being executed” and that he should be the “No. 1” person on her list of those who committed treason.

Unfuckingbelievable.

Sixth news item

Surprising results from Fox News poll:

One of the key takeaways from the poll published Thursday night was the finding that 61 percent of Americans surveyed are in favor of banning all assault weapons, while only 45 percent of Americans believe more citizens carrying guns is a solution to lowering gun violence.

The idea that more “good guys” carrying guns will lower gun violence has been a popular talking point on the right for many years.

Broken down by partisan affiliation, however, 61 percent of Republicans believe more citizens carrying guns will lower gun violence – while only 27 percent of Democrats agreed.

Additionally, the poll found that the vast majority of Americans are in favor of additional gun buy restrictions:

— Requiring criminal background checks on all gun buyers (87%)
– Improving enforcement of existing gun laws (81%)
— Raising the legal age to buy a gun to 21 (81%)
— Requiring mental health checks on gun buyers (80%)
— Allowing police to take guns from those considered a danger to themselves or others (80%)
— Requiring a 30-day waiting period for all gun purchases (77%)

Seventh news item

The DeSantis v. Disney or Disney v. DeSantis saga continues as Republicans double-down:

The Florida Senate passed legislation late Wednesday that would get rid of a development agreement between Walt Disney World and its special district signed before the district’s board was replaced with government appointees, further escalating Florida Republicans’ feud with Disney despite the company filing a lawsuit over those attacks hours earlier.

…

The bill will now go to the Florida House, which is also controlled by Republicans and is likely to pass it. If it becomes law, the legislation would throw a further wrinkle into Disney’s lawsuit, which already alleges that the board’s attempt to revoke the development agreement violates the U.S. Constitution’s Contract Clause, which states that “[n]o State shall … pass any … Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts.” Disney’s lawsuit asks for the court to overturn the board’s decision to revoke the development agreement, leaving the agreement in place, and also asks the court to overturn laws that overhauled Disney’s special district, returning the district to how it was before Republicans’ attacks.

This is nuts. Again, how does the DeSantis attack on one of the state’s most successful businesses make even a little bit of sense? What if another successful business in the state criticizes a DeSantis bill, is he going to go to war on them too?

A 2019 study found Disney dominates the Central Florida tourism industry, according to Oxford Economics, and produced: $75.2 billion annual economic impact for Central Florida. 463,000 jobs. $5.8 billion in additional state tax revenue.

Anyway, the “new sheriff in town” shot himself in the foot even before officially announcing a run for the presidency.

Eighth news item

I love this:

The first Barbie doll representing a person with Down syndrome was released by Mattel “to allow even more children to see themselves in Barbie,” the company said.

“We are proud to introduce a Barbie doll with Down syndrome to better reflect the world around us and further our commitment to celebrating inclusion through play,” Lisa McKnight, the executive vice president and global head of Barbie & dolls at Mattel, said in a statement.

Enough with the bobble-headed, bleached-blonde, giant-boobed toothpicks being presented to young girls as some sort of idealized “beauty”!

Have a great weekend!

–Dana

[guest post by Dana]

Donald Trump has now arrived at his Trump Tower residence where he will stay until his arraignment tomorrow. Tapper says that his arrival is being covered by media outlets like it was O.J. in a white Bronco. While I dislike this overused word, the event is without question, “unprecedented”. Trump’s arrival comes after it was reported that the former president is opposed to having cameras in the courtroom. As his attorney explained, “It will create a circus-like atmosphere at the arraignment… (Oh, the irony…) Anyway, the lawyer also pointed out that if there were cameras in the courtroom, it would raise security concerns and that it would “be inconsistent with Donald Trump’s presumption of innocence”. News outlets have petitioned the judge presiding over the arraignment to allow cameras in the courtroom. Judge Juan Merchan is expected to rule on that today.

And since we’re talking about a former U.S. president arriving in New York so that he can appear for arraignment after being indicted by a grand jury, let’s not forget that Donald Trump isn’t just any former president: he is also the current 2024 Republican frontrunner. Last week, we discussed whether an indictment would or wouldn’t hurt his chances in the election, or if it might not have any impact at all. If the polling below is any indicator, he may just benefit from the proceedings. But of course, it’s still early days.

First, a pre-emptive strike: Yes, I know it’s the Trafalgar Group and that they are the conservative polling outfit that botched the prediction of a 2022 “red wave,” as well as having their their methodology questioned. And yet this polling is so curious that I’m inclined to share it. While it’s unsurprising that Trump continues to lead the pack (loyalists have certainly rallied around him post-indictment) and that DeSantis follows, it’s a bit surprising to see that Liz Cheney (?!) is making such a strong showing (and in double digits). What do you think is going on?

Post indictment poll: Trump surges to a 33-point lead over Ron DeSantis

Trump — 56% (+12 from Mar 14)
DeSantis — 23% (-9)
Cheney — 10%
Pence — 4%
Haley — 4%
Pompeo — 1%
T. Scott — 1%

Trafalgar (B) | 1,123 LV | Mar 31- Apr 2https://t.co/xSvJDDiVqK pic.twitter.com/EZa1fbdIZB

— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) April 3, 2023

Details of the poll:

3 polls conducted–before Trump declared he would be indicted (3/14-19), after Trump declared he would be indicted (3/22-25), and after the actual indictment (3/31-04/02) • 1079, 1082, 1123 Respondents
• Likely GOP Presidential Primary Voters
• Response Rate: 1.4%, 1.4%, 1.5%
• Margin of Error: 2.9%
• Confidence: 95%
• Response Distribution: 50%

–Dana