National Security

• Assange’s plea deal: The Biden administration agreed to a deal with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange that will allow one of America’s most wanted criminals to avoid prison in the U.S. Assange will plead guilty to violating the Espionage Act for his illegal recruitment of individuals to “hack into computers and/or illegally obtain and disclose classified information.” Assange had been facing a sentence of over 175 years but instead will get a five-year sentence for time already served in a UK prison and will be free to travel back to his home country of Australia. Barack Obama commuted traitor Bradley “Chelsea” Manning’s 30-plus-year sentence after just seven years for his role in sharing thousands of classified U.S. military documents with Assange. Now, Joe Biden is following suit by letting Assange off the hook with little other than a slap on the wrist. Mike Pence blasted the deal because “Assange endangered the lives of our troops in a time of war and should have been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” The plea deal, he said, is yet another “miscarriage of justice” from the Biden administration. Assange disseminated classified documents indiscriminately to the world. Meanwhile, the DOJ is seeking to throw the book at Donald Trump for simply possessing classified documents.

• Russia says the U.S. is a party to Ukraine war: On Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry called the U.S. ambassador to issue a protest over Ukraine’s recent missile strike against Russian forces in Crimea that killed four and injured over 150 others. Moscow alleged that the missiles Ukraine used in the strike were longer-range missiles provided by the U.S. and stated that America “has effectively become a party” to the war and that “retaliatory measures will certainly follow.” What those potential retaliatory measures might consist of was not disclosed. Russia’s war against Ukraine has effectively bogged down to a war of attrition, with the larger, more heavily armed and equipped Russian forces slowly advancing. As the war drags on, the U.S., along with its NATO allies, has increasingly provided arms and weapons to Ukraine, a move that has drawn the ire of Moscow.

• Biden allows Iran to run voter stations on U.S. soil for the Islamic Republic’s presidential election (Daily Wire)

• Pentagon doesn’t know if it funds dangerous biological research in China, new audit reveals (Just the News)

Government & Politics

• Parts of Biden student loan forgiveness plan blocked by judges (Washington Examiner)

• More spying on Americans: We’re living in something of a surveillance state, but like frogs in a pot of slow-to-boil water, we just don’t seem to care. Word of yet another example of this encroachment on our liberty comes from the struggling Washington Post, which says the U.S. Postal Service “has shared information from thousands of Americans’ letters and packages with law enforcement every year for the past decade, conveying the names, addresses and other details from the outside of boxes and envelopes without requiring a court order.” As might be expected, postal inspectors say they only allow such encroachments when it can “help find a fugitive or investigate a crime.” But, as the Post adds, “a decade’s worth of records … show Postal Service officials have received more than 60,000 requests from federal agents and police officers since 2015, and that they rarely say no.” Apparently, this is nothing new. As the Post points out, “In 1798, Vice President Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter that his fears of having his private communications exposed by the ‘infidelities of the post office’ had stopped him from ‘writing fully & freely.’” Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

• Civil Rights head Kristen Clarke criminally referred: More than three years ago, and to no avail, we warned against Joe Biden’s appointment of racist Kristen Clarke to head the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, and now we’re seeing the fruits of that bad decision. As The Daily Signal reports, Clark is being “hit with three ethics complaints and a criminal referral Monday.” The filing is based on Clarke’s hiding of her arrest for a domestic violence incident and its subsequent expungement when she was awaiting Senate confirmation. Clarke’s ex-husband, Reginald Avery, says Clarke attacked him with a knife, slicing his finger to the bone, while they were married in 2006. In short: She committed perjury. According to the complaint, which AG Merrick Garland will likely ignore, “Kristen Clarke’s conduct is egregious. Senator Cotton asked her a straightforward question, and she willfully and knowingly gave a false answer. Kristen Clarke claims that she had an ‘option’ not to disclose this incident. This assertion shows an utter disregard for the role of the United States Senate in evaluating the worthiness of a nominee for confirmation.”

• Alarm-puller Bowman on the verge of primary defeat: It’s said that there’s nothing so dangerous as a cornered animal, and such was the case Saturday in the South Bronx, where alarm-pulling Jew-hater Jamaal Bowman, an incumbent House Democrat and “Squad” member facing a stiff primary challenge, took to the stage before 300 or so true believers and let loose with an unhinged and hate-filled rant. “We are gonna show f***ing AIPAC the power of the motherf***ing South Bronx,” Bowman yelled, referring to the pro-Israel organization that has thrown its support behind Bowman’s more moderate Democrat primary opponent, Westchester County Executive George Latimer. What a class act this Bowman is. What a fine and hopeful example this former middle school principal sets for our young people. Polls have shown him to be down double digits on the eve of today’s primary, and an ouster like this couldn’t happen to a scummier leftist scumbag. Fellow Squad member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was also there with Bowman on Saturday, and the stench of this one is likely to stay with her for a while. Fellow House Democrat Ritchie Torres called “the level of profanity here … so shocking as to be unbecoming of a Member of Congress.”

Top races to watch in New York, Colorado, Utah, and South Carolina primaries (Washington Examiner)

• Humor: Trump preps for debate against Biden by going to nursing home and arguing with dementia patients (Babylon Bee)

Economy

• California’s budget-busting mismanagement: In May 2022, California Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom boasted about the state’s then $100 billion budget surplus: “No other state in American history has ever experienced a surplus as large as this.” Two short years later, the surplus is long gone, and in its place is a nearly $50 billion deficit. This is all thanks to Newsom and the state’s Democrat-dominated government’s massive spending, a problem that only seems to be getting worse, as they passed a $300 billion budget over the weekend. Newsom sought to frame the budget as an agreement that “sets the state on a path for long-term fiscal stability.” But GOP state strategist Rob Stutzman observes that California Democrats’ squandering of a $100 billion budget surplus “suggest that the California progressive dream — the California way — isn’t such a great model of governance.” Meanwhile, the low-tax state of Florida, led by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, is on the opposite side of the management spectrum. The Sunshine State now boasts the lowest debt per capita of any state in the country. Furthermore, U.S. News and World Report now ranks Florida as the best state economy in the nation.

• Biden admin says it’s approved more oil drilling permits than the Trump admin. Its own data show otherwise. (Washington Free Beacon)

Culture

• Jews beaten in LA: It’s hard to believe this is happening in 21st-century America, but it’s true. On Sunday morning, mobs of pro-Hamas hoodlums attacked Jews outside the Adas Torah synagogue in Los Angeles, blocking entrance into their house of worship and disrupting a planned peaceful rally. Apparently, only one person was arrested. Let’s be clear about something: These weren’t Trump supporters who carried out this mini pogrom in one of the nation’s most diverse big cities. These were vile Jew-hating anti-American pro-Hamas scum. In short, they were Biden supporters. And somehow missing from the president’s statement was the part about how he’s ordered Attorney General Merrick Garland to use whatever resources are necessary in order to apprehend the thugs responsible for the assault and to prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. As Erick Erickson put it, “Progressive activists are literally hunting for Jews street by street in LA and the Democrats on MSNBC insist Trump is the second coming of Hitler.” It’s long past time for a Sister Souljah moment from Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats, but we’re not holding our breath. It’s pretty clear that they’ve staked their political fortunes on the world’s oldest hatred.

• American Spirit: Texas Rangers rebuff Rainbow Mafia: Of the 30 Major League Baseball teams, all but one have bent the knee to the Rainbow Mafia by instituting a “Pride Night” game during their home season. The lone MLB holdout heralds from the Lone Star State — the World Series champion Texas Rangers. The Rainbow Mafia has successfully pressured ball clubs to acquiesce to its demand that “Pride Month” be recognized and celebrated, but the Rangers have steadfastly refused, citing the club’s long-standing commitment “to make everyone feel welcome and included in Rangers baseball.” Baseball should be about baseball, not promoting some other agenda like a special interest group’s deviant sexual behavior. But because the Rainbow Mafia cannot tolerate even one MLB team not celebrating it, its Leftmedia cohorts like NBC News run negative stories in a long-running campaign to get the Rangers to ultimately cave to their demands. Thankfully, the Rangers have stood strong and should be commended for doing so.

• U.S. airbase authorizes troops to wear “Pride Patch” alongside real badges of honor (The Federalist)

World

• October 7 victims file a $1 billion lawsuit against UNRWA for “aiding and abetting” Hamas (Hot Air)

• Israel’s “intense” operations in Gaza “about to end” with attention to move to Hezbollah: Netanyahu (Washington Examiner)

• Israeli Supreme Court rules ultra-Orthodox Jews must be drafted into military, threatening Netanyahu’s coalition (National Review)

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