Justice

• Jury rules Daniel Penny not guilty: Common sense prevailed just minutes ago, as the jury in the case of New York City subway hero Daniel Penny declared him not guilty on the remaining charge of criminally negligent homicide after having deadlocked last week on the most serious charge of second-degree manslaughter, which could’ve put him behind bars for 15 years. Penny’s attorneys wanted the judge to declare a mistrial, but the judge instead urged the jury to consider that lesser charge, which would’ve carried a sentence of up to four years. This lesser charge was a diabolical attempt to coerce a weary jury into considering a “compromise” charge after having rejected the gross overcharge of second-degree manslaughter — and we have woke Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg to thank for what the New York Post editorial board called an “obscene” request. Lest you think Bragg is the worst of it, get a load of what the founder of New York’s Black Lives Matter chapter, Hawk Newsome, had to say about the dismissal of the most serious charge: “Today, white supremacy got another victory. Today, the KKK, the klansmen, the evil in America got another victory.” We hope we’re wrong, but we suspect we’ll hear more racial rabble-rousing in the hours and days ahead.

• Satire: Daniel Penny judge tells jury to go back and deliberate again until they come back with the correct verdict (Babylon Bee)

Foreign Policy

• Regime change in Syria: Bashar al-Assad fled Syria over the weekend as rebel troops entered the capital city of Damascus. It was a stunning and rapid collapse of the dictator’s regime in the more than decade-long civil war. Assad’s government quickly crumbled after the unexpected fall of Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city, to rebel forces last week. His exit marks the end of the brutal 50-year reign of his family dating back to 1971, when Hafez al-Assad, Bashar’s father, took control of the country. Assad has fled to Russia, where Vladimir Putin, who has long provided support for the dictator, is giving him and his family asylum “on humanitarian grounds” — which Assad afforded to few Syrians. “At long last, the Assad regime has fallen,” Joe Biden said. “This regime brutalized, tortured, and killed literally hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrians.” Donald Trump also weighed in, saying the U.S. “SHOULD HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT,” while also turning his attention to Russia and Ukraine, calling for “an immediate ceasefire and negotiations” there too. His coming presidency certainly offers an opportunity for peace.

Government & Politics

• Trump vows to pardon J6 rioters on day one (Just the News)

• Trump names Alina Habba as White House counselor (Just the News)

• Tim Walz says he and Kamala lost because Americans didn’t want a “more positive message” (Not the Bee)

• Biden’s historic disappointment: A new poll belies the laughable claim among some high-profile Democrats that Joe Biden is among our nation’s most achieved and admirable presidents. In fact, the survey from J.L. Partners found that U.S. voters relegate Biden to the bottom of the presidential rankings spanning the last 55 years, during which nine presidents were elected. According to The Washington Times’s Valerie Richardson, “About 14% of voters polled ranked Mr. Biden in the top two, while 44% placed him in the bottom two for a net score of negative 30, below [Richard] Nixon, who scored negative 25.” So much for being lionized as George Washington reincarnate.

• Blackburn rolls out DOGE legislation: The government efficiency efforts of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy were given a boost last week as Tennessee Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn announced that she would introduce a package of bills in support of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE, it seems, has gotten Washington’s attention. Of Blackburn’s bills, Fox News reports, “They would seek to move federal agencies out of Washington, D.C., freeze federal hiring and salaries for one year, and get federal workers back in the office.” What’s not to like? Perhaps more important, though, is that DOGE has already gotten at least a modicum of bipartisan support. Florida Democrat Congressman Jared Moskowitz has joined the House’s GOP-led caucus, and Musk has expressed his eagerness to have Moskowitz and other Democrats on board. It’s long, long overdue, but it appears that government efficiency is an idea whose time has finally come.

• Revisiting an ominous climate-change arrest: Back in March, the Biden-Harris administration’s Department of “Justice” arrested a man named Michael Hart on charges related to “smuggling potent greenhouse gases.” It was a precedent-setting arrest for a decidedly odd “crime,” and the DOJ’s announcement at the time didn’t allay our concerns. “It is illegal to import certain refrigerants into the United States because of their documented and significantly greater contribution to climate change,” said Assistant AG Todd Kim of the DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “We are committed to enforcing the AIM Act and other laws that seek to prevent environmental harm.” That AIM Act bears watching, and the Biden administration bragged about it last week in a final report on its climate enforcement efforts. As Fox News reports, “The EPA worked to implement the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act, which requires the agency to reduce hydrofluorocarbons, a synthetic compound commonly used for refrigeration or air conditioning, by 85% by 2036.” On the bright side, we suspect Donald Trump’s EPA nominee, former New York Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin, might have something to say about the Environmental Prison Agency’s thuggishness going forward.

Economy

• Powell preserved: Jerome Powell is poised to remain at the helm of the Federal Reserve. Powell, you’ll recall, waited a painfully long time to hike interest rates during the explosive inflation that resulted from Bidenomics, further inflaming the situation. Nevertheless, Donald Trump appointed Powell in 2018, and the president-elect says that when he reenters the Oval Office in January, Powell will remain chair of the Fed. Part of the calculation may have to do with the fact that Powell’s term is up in 2026. Moreover, according to Reuters, “Last month, Powell said he would refuse to leave office early if Trump tried to oust him, arguing that removing him, or any of the other Fed governors, ahead of the end of their terms is ‘not permitted under the law.’” Either way, it’s a de-escalation. The question is how long that will last.

National Security

• Court upholds TikTok ban: A federal appeals court ruled Friday that Chinese Communist spyware can indeed be banned in the U.S. due to concerns about national security. The commonsense decision, handed down by a three-judge panel, thus upholds a federal law requiring that TikTok separate itself from its Chinese ownership if it wants to keep serving up addictive content to Americans. The DC Circuit “rejected arguments by TikTok and several of its star users that the ban was an unconstitutional infringement on free speech,” The Wall Street Journal reports. Judge Douglas Ginsburg wrote, “The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States. Here the Government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States.” There are indeed First Amendment considerations here, but as the Journal’s editorial board rightly put it, “The Constitution is not a suicide pact, as the saying goes, and the First Amendment is not a license for foreign adversaries to propagandize America’s youth.”

Culture

• A realtor’s free speech and religion are under assault: Can one’s political beliefs limit one’s career opportunities? It certainly seems so, if the ordeal of a Virginia realtor is any indication. As The Christian Post reports, “Wilson Fauber, a Staunton, Virginia-based realtor with a career spanning four decades, appeared before the Virginia Association of Realtors on Wednesday in a hearing to determine whether he violated the National Association of Realtors’ Standard of Practice 10-5.” For those not familiar with the standards governing the publicly expressed opinions of property sellers, this “standard” was adopted in 2020. It says realtors “must not use harassing speech, hate speech, epithets, or slurs based on race, color, religion, sex disability, familial status, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity.” Fauber’s thought crime? Apparently, he posted his support for the traditional biblical view of marriage on social media … in 2015. Said Fauber’s attorney, Michael Sylvester, “He loves everyone. He serves everyone. He doesn’t hate anyone, he doesn’t discriminate against anyone, but he stands with the Word of God.”

• Supreme Court justices take heat for using male pronouns to address trans-identified female ACLU lawyer (Christian Post)

• Notre Dame hosts first Mass since 2019 fire (AP)

Misc.

• NYPD releases new photos of UnitedHealthcare CEO’s alleged assassin (NY Post)

• South Korean President Yoon’s impeachment vote fails after ruling party boycotts it (NPR)

• Humor: Thirteen more people Biden is considering pardoning (Babylon Bee)

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