Cross-Examination

• Judge orders Epstein files unsealed: Some 177 former “high-profile associates” of the late sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein may be running for cover on New Year’s Day following Judge Loretta Preska’s order to have “unsealed in full” the court documents containing the names of his friends and associates. Will the names of those who flew on the pedophile’s infamous “Lolita Express” finally be revealed? Will the public finally be made privy to the rich and powerful who may have engaged in Epstein’s crimes? This is happening now, years after Epstein’s “suicide,” thanks to a defamation case raised by Virginia Roberts, one of Epstein’s victims, against Epstein’s cohort Ghislaine Maxwell. The judge’s order is likely causing a stir across the Atlantic among the royal family, as Prince Andrew has been accused by Roberts of sexual assault. Stay tuned, as it’s a good bet that over the next two weeks actions will likely be taken to prevent the judge’s order from being realized.

• Biden to apprentices: You’re fired: As employers across the U.S. complain about the lack of skilled workers at their disposal, the Biden administration is taking decisive action — albeit not the kind of action that will improve things. Instead, Team Brandon is focused on improving the — wait for it! — diversity, equity, and inclusion of union apprenticeship programs. Indeed, as the Wall Street Journal’s opinion page observes, the Biden Labor Department has proposed an onerous 776-page rule “that purports to clarify a two-page 1937 law regulating apprenticeship programs.” Such programs have long helped workers train for a skilled trade while earning a paycheck under the supervision of experienced workers. As the Journal notes: “They are a common low-cost way for employers to train workers in trade occupations such as plumbing and construction. They can also serve as a worker pipeline for newer industries such as cyber-security and green manufacturing.” Unfortunately, they’re now being overly regulated and sufficiently wokened to provide gender-appropriate bathrooms for all and “personal protective equipment” that fits “according to each apprentice’s size and body type.” If employers think there’s a shortage of good employment candidates now, just wait.

• Foreigners control 2% of U.S. Over the last decade, foreigners have been buying up millions of acres of U.S. farmland — so much so that as of December 2022, “foreign persons held an interest in over 43.3 million acres of U.S. agricultural land.” According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, that total was a 3.4 million-acre increase over the year prior “and represents 3.4 percent of all privately held agricultural land … and nearly 2 percent of all land in the United States.” Who are these foreign entities buying up U.S. farmland? While the majority of foreign-owned U.S. farmland belongs to friendly nations such as Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, and the United Kingdom, a number of purchases are tied to countries that aren’t our friends — Venezuela, Iran, Syria, Cuba, Russia, and, of course, China. The Senate sought to include a block on allowing China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea from buying American farmland in the National Defense Authorization Act, yet it failed to match up with the House’s version and was stripped from the legislation. Both Republicans and Democrats have voiced concern over foreign ownership of U.S. farmland, with Senator Tom Cotton arguing that at best it doesn’t serve America’s interest and “at worst, these purchases undermine our security.” Back in September, Senator John Fetterman contended that “the Chinese government and other U.S. adversaries should own zero, zero agricultural land in our country.” Regarding China specifically, Fetterman added: “They’re taking back our pandas. We should take back all of their farmland.”

• Kamala’s “Reproductive Freedoms” tour: On Tuesday, Kamala Harris announced that she will soon be crossing the country engaged in a pro-abortion tour. Dubiously dubbed the “Reproductive Freedoms” tour, Harris plans to criss-cross the country “building a coalition and community to fight for reproductive freedom.” Harris justifies her tour by claiming that “there is a full-on attack in our country against the ability of people to just make decisions about their own body and their life.” Of course, Harris makes no mention of the hundreds of thousands of fatal attacks on the bodies of preborn babies annually. Harris’s tour is scheduled to begin in Wisconsin on January 22 in recognition of the 51st anniversary of the now-overturned Roe v. Wade decision. It is clear that Democrats see abortion as a winning campaign issue for them going into the election. And with Joe Biden now sinking below Harris in national polls, this is an opportunity for her to raise her profile on a popular platform issue with Democrats with the possible aim of pushing Biden out.

• Taking hot air literally: If you’ve been losing sleep over the calamitous effects of cow farts on our planet’s climate, you aren’t likely to be soothed by the warm wind from a UK study that says we humans are heating the globe simply by breathing. As NDTV reports: “Exhaled human breath can contain small, elevated concentrations of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), both of which contribute to global warming. … Experts explained that methane and nitrous oxide in the air we exhale make up to 0.1% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. So once you factor in the farts and burps being produced by humans, it becomes clear that humans are fueling global warming by just exhaling from lungs, scientists said.” But while these findings might seem troubling, they also come with a simple solution — a solution that every concerned leftist can immediately employ: they can stop breathing. Interestingly, the New York Post picked up the story, but its accompanying X post was fact-checked thusly: “Breathing is carbon neutral. All of the carbon exhaled came from carbon plants extracted and stored.” Whew. Perhaps we humans can breathe easy after all.

• New York Reparations Commission: It didn’t pan out well for Democrats in California, but no matter; Democrats in New York are bound and determined to follow the Golden State’s folly. On Tuesday, Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill authorizing a state task force to study the possibility of enacting race-based reparations for the Empire State’s black residents. Hochul will now appoint a nine-person task force that will provide recommendations to the state legislature on possible means to redress past discrimination. While acknowledging that talk of reparations makes “a lot of people instinctively dig in,” Hochul asserted that was due to people not “really thinking about what it means or why we need to talk about it.” Really? Not thought or talked about enough? That’s pure gaslighting. Hochul then went full woke by arguing, “I challenge all New Yorkers to be the patriots and rebuke — and not excuse — our role in benefiting from the institution of slavery.” Does Hochul mean all people living in America today have benefited from the institution of slavery, including the descendants of slaves? Like California, this task force will only result in extreme and ridiculously costly “solutions” that only promise greater racial division.

• Only two dozen laws passed this year: Those who believe, as Thomas Jefferson did, that a government which governs least governs best will be thrilled by the news that our 118th Congress passed a paltry 24 bills during 2023 — which makes this the least (numerically) meddlesome, least mischievous Congress since 1989, the first year of the George H.W. Bush administration. Of those 24 pieces of legislation, only 20 have so far gotten Joe Biden’s signature, while the other four await. Left-leaning Axios seems somehow troubled by this news, noting: “It’s the product of not only divided partisan control of Washington, but infighting within the House Republican majority that has routinely ground legislative business to a halt. That includes the three-week period this fall in which Congress was paralyzed Republican’s inability to find a replacement for ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy.” To this we say boo hoo, and we’d remind them that, at least to conservatives, Speaker Mike Johnson is a significant upgrade in more ways than one. Further, we’d pass along to Congress this age-old encouragement on behalf of those who prefer a healthy dose of Beltway gridlock: Don’t just do something! Stand there!

• Will pro-Hamas insurrectionists get the J6 treatment? We haven’t yet heard from Attorney General Merrick Garland, but we’re sure his spirited denouncement is being crafted as we go to press. After all, Garland was swift and forceful in his condemnation of all the January 6 participants — most of them tourists but some of them undercover FBI agents and others cop-assaulting thugs — and we’d expect nothing less this time around from the attorney general, who will no doubt “follow the facts wherever they lead.” Or not. As Fox News reports, “Dozens of anti-Israel protesters were arrested on Tuesday after staging an illegal rally inside the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., an act led by activist Linda Sarsour, according to reports.” The pro-Hamas crowd was calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, chanting clever ditties like, “Not another nickel, not another time, no more money for Israel’s crimes,” and carrying signs that read, “Stop Arming Israel.” It’s the third such protest in the Capitol, and we doubt it’ll be the last.

Headlines

• Colorado Supreme Court disqualifies Trump from 2024 ballot (Fox News) | Ramaswamy pledges to “withdraw” from Colorado ballot amid Trump removal (The Hill)

• Biden border crisis shatters record with 14,509 illegal immigrants encountered in one day (Washington Examiner) | Study: 59% of non-citizen migrants use welfare (American Thinker)

• Gaza hospital boss admits he’s a Hamas commander, used medical facility as terror base (National Review)

• Pentagon announces new international mission to counter attacks on commercial vessels in Red Sea (AP)

• Jim Jordan subpoenas Merrick Garland over DOJ’s alleged efforts to spy on Congress (Daily Wire)

• Fresh allegations of plagiarism unearthed in official academic complaint against Claudine Gay (Washington Free Beacon)

• Ketanji Brown Jackson slapped with ethics complaint over husband’s income (Fox News)

• Biden “feels so much younger” than 81 as wife, aides reportedly warn him to slow down (New York Post) | Biden is reluctant to accept his “old age,” aides say (Axios)

• New York Dems target Chick-fil-A for being closed on Sundays (MRCTV)

• Philadelphia LGBTQ activist charged with rape of minors (CBS News)

• “Gender nonsense”: Multiple New Jersey school districts scrap transgender policies (Daily Wire)

• Washington’s women’s volleyball team retracts scholarship from trans recruit after finding out he’s male (MRCTV)

• EVs are bad in winter and costly and time-consuming to repair (Daily Signal)

• Tesla “recall” is nothing of the sort (Hot Air)

• Policy: Biden migrants proposal proves U.S. border crisis could end tomorrow (New York Post)

• Humor: New Seventh-Day Adventist Chick-fil-A closed Saturday, open Sunday (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.