Cross-Examination

• Bin Laden’s letter resurfaces: Increasingly, it seems, the communists have given us the ropes with which to hang ourselves, and one of the sturdiest of those ropes is China’s TikTok, which this week enabled the dusting off and viral spread of the 22-year-old terrorist screed known as Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to America.” The 4,000-word Islamist rant was a justification of al-Qaida’s war against the West and the 9/11 terror attacks that murdered nearly 3,000 Americans. In it, bin Laden claimed that the creation of Israel was a “crime which must be erased” and that the AIDS epidemic was “a satanic American invention.” Never fear, though, as TikTok has “cracked down” on the spread of the letter via its platform. “Content promoting this letter clearly violates our rules on supporting any form of terrorism,” said a TikTok statement issued yesterday. “We are proactively and aggressively removing this content and investigating how it got onto our platform.” The commies then tried to pooh-pooh its role in the spread of the vile document, especially given the rank Jew hatred within it and the larger expressions of leftist anti-Semitism in big cities and on college campuses across America. Commenting on the surprising popularity of the letter among young people and Jew haters, conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey marveled, “Every one of these people is a leftist, and they’re all concluding that Osama Bin Laden was the good guy.”

• The killer college professor: It took authorities long enough, but they finally made an arrest in the violent death of 69-year-old pro-Israel demonstrator Paul Kessler at a rally in the LA suburb of Thousand Oaks. As we noted at the time, Kessler got into a “physical altercation” with a pro-Hamas thug during which he “fell backwards and struck his head on the ground,” but the lack of information about his killer was, well, curious. As it turns out, that pro-Hamas thug, Loay Alnaji, is a 50-year-old computer science professor at Ventura County Community College, and he was arrested yesterday morning and charged with felony involuntary manslaughter and battery causing serious bodily injury. But what about “hate crime” charges? As the New York Post reports, Alnaji “has posted pro-Palestine messages on his personal social media pages.” Surely he wasn’t offended by Kessler’s haircut or his striped shirt when he smashed in his head with a megaphone. Sadly, this is what our colleges and universities have come to. As The Heritage Foundation’s Mike Gonzalez writes, “The oppressor-oppressed worldview that paints democratic Israel as the ‘oppressor’ and Palestinian terrorists as the ‘oppressed,’ so prevalent on college campuses, is pure Marxism.”

• Xi the dictator gets a standing ovation and an anti-fossil fuel deal: China’s strongman Xi Jinping got the recognition he wanted on his summit trip to the U.S., even if Joe Biden later referred to him as a “dictator.” Asked to clarify, Biden said, “Well, look, he is. He’s a dictator in the sense that he — he is a guy who runs … a communist country that is based on a form of government totally different than ours.” We suppose it takes one to know one. After the summit, Xi showed up at a banquet featuring dozens of America’s top business execs and received a standing ovation. Most important, Xi won a favorable anti-fossil fuel agreement that serves only to weaken the U.S. Biden agreed to increase efforts to shut down more American fossil fuel production in order to benefit so-called renewable energy. Regarding the deal, Daniel Turner, founder and head of Power The Future, observed: “The agreement speaks heavily about advancing — doubling down and tripling down on renewables, wind and solar. The majority of them are made in China.” Put another way, Beijing just won a big manufacturing contract at the expense of American taxpayers, all while the ChiComs will keep polluting away.

• Trump ungagged: In the New York City civil fraud show trial of Donald Trump, a woefully biased Democrat judge named Arthur Engoron had imposed a gag order on the former president to keep him from inconveniently exercising his First Amendment rights. And once again, Engoron has been corrected. As Fox News reports, Appeals Court Judge David Friedman “has lifted the gag order imposed on former President Donald Trump in his civil fraud trial stemming from state Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit against him and the Trump Organization.” Yesterday, we noted that the Trump legal team had called for a mistrial, arguing that the “tangible and overwhelming” Trump hatred of Engoron and his principal law clerk has “tainted” the case. Perhaps they have a point, no? “I am pleased to see the Appellate Court restore some much-needed respect for constitutional rights in this political circus being orchestrated and enabled by the State Attorney General’s office,” said Trump lawyer Alina Habba. Donald Trump, however, was somewhat less restrained, calling Engoron “a disgrace” and James “the Worst and Least Respected Attorney General in the United States.”

• Hunter’s fake news: In the Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction Files, Tulane University will be featuring a class titled “Media Polarization and Public Policy Impacts” in which one of the listed lecturers is Hunter Biden. The lectures will reportedly focus on media topics, including the problem of “fake news.” And no, this report is not fake news. Hunter is one of 10 guest speakers, but glaringly he is the only one without any official job title listed. So, will Hunter be explaining how to get members of the federal government to spike legitimate stories, like his laptop, by labeling them “fake news” or “Russian propaganda”?

• Tough times for the woke Miss Universe pageant: Here’s some good news to take into the weekend: The 2023 Miss Universe pageant, which takes place tomorrow in El Salvador, has filed for bankruptcy. How, you ask, could the financial meltdown of the iconic pageant be construed as good news? Well, because it jumped the shark when it began to include “transgender” contestants. As Fox Business reports, “Thai business tycoon and transgender activist Anne Jakrajutatip … bought the organization for $20,000,000 in 2022. Jakrajutatip, who has international fame as a transgender celebrity, described the purchase at the time as ‘a strong, strategic addition to our portfolio.’” As it turns out, though, not so much. “I think the outrage about a trans woman coming to Miss Universe and preaching, ‘Bring the power back to women,’ couldn’t be more of an oxymoron,” opined TV host, reporter, and 2022 Miss Universe pageant judge Emily Austin yesterday upon hearing the news. “Socially and morally it’s just wrong. And people are starting to catch on that.” Indeed, let’s hope people keep catching on.

• Santos bows out: Scandal-plagued freshman Congressman George Santos announced that he will not seek reelection in 2024 after the House Ethics Committee released its investigation into his 2022 campaign, which found “substantial evidence” of criminal behavior. Immediately after the Republican won his New York seat, flipping it from Democrats, accusations arose that he had engaged in deceitful and unethical behaviors in the running of his campaign. The bipartisan committee unanimously voted to refer Santos to the Justice Department, stating that his conduct “warrants public condemnation, is beneath the dignity of the office, and has brought severe discredit upon the House.” He faces a 23-count indictment that includes charges of wire fraud, money laundering, and lying, charges to which he has pleaded not guilty. The remaining question is whether the House will vote to expel him before his term ends.

• Pelosi hammerman found guilty: On Thursday, a federal jury found David DePape guilty of assaulting and kidnapping Paul Pelosi, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband. DePape is scheduled for sentencing in early December, though he still faces a state-level trial over charges of assault, burglary, and elder abuse. Mr. Pelosi, who is still recovering from the incident, testified during the trial that he was awoken that night when “the door opened and a very large man came in with a hammer in one hand and some [zip] ties in the other hand.” DePape demanded to know “Where’s Nancy?” before beginning his assault. An emotional DePape took the stand in his own defense, claiming that he had not intended to hurt Pelosi, felt bad about it now, and would apologize to Pelosi if he saw him in person. We’re still waiting for leftists to apologize for falsely pinning the attack on the Right.

Headlines

• Atlanta to host 2025 MLB All-Star Game after outcry over Georgia’s voting laws (Fox Sports)

• Biden not expected to be charged in special counsel probe (Daily Wire)

• Biden signs temporary spending bill that heads off a government shutdown (NPR)

• CNN stealth edits headline that said Jewish homicide victim “fell and hit his head” (Washington Free Beacon)

• Gavin Newsom ignores intelligence warnings, strengthens ties with CCP-linked climate group (Washington Free Beacon)

• What could go wrong? $12 million NIH lab in Colorado will import and infect bats from Asia (Daily Mail)

• Armed homeowner who defended family in driveway shootout says his Second Amendment rights in “jeopardy” (Fox News)

• Supreme Court declines to reinstate Florida law regulating drag shows (National Review)

• Anheuser-Busch’s marketing chief to finally exit after Bud Light’s Dylan Mulvaney fiasco (New York Post) | Bud Light paid Mulvaney six figures to destroy its brand (PJ Media)

• Humor: Californians set up President Xi dummy so Newsom will keep the cities clean all the time (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.