Mid-Day Digest
THE FOUNDATION
“In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” —Thomas Jefferson (1798)
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IN TODAY’S DIGEST
- Hospitals Are for Sick People, and We Don’t Mean Jihadists
- Executive News Summary
- Whistleblowers: FBI Targets Pro-Trump Agents
- Oregon Drug Legalization Predictably Backfires
- Apartheid College Campuses
- SCOTUS Ethics and Dems’ Political Grandstanding
- By the Time Abortion Makes the Ballot, the Battle’s Over
- DAILY FEATURES: Videos, Best of Right Opinion, Short Cuts, Memes, and Cartoons.
ON THE WEB
- Linda Moss Mines: Grassroots History: Land Deals, Pirates, and Foreign Policy Issues
- RNC: Bidenomics Pain Continues
FEATURED ANALYSIS
Hospitals Are for Sick People, and We Don’t Mean Jihadists
An Israeli operation to root out Hamas from a hospital base coincided with other related news.
Nate Jackson
Four events yesterday all related to the war Israel is now waging against Hamas after jihadists slaughtered 1,400 innocent people on October 7. Those events tell us a lot about where things stand, including a significant military campaign on the ground in Gaza.
We’ll start with some good news. An estimated 300,000 people attended a pro-Israel rally in Washington, DC. Among them were scores of family members of Israelis who are still being held hostage by Hamas terrorists.
“We are all standing here in unity with you,” Republican Senator John Barrasso told them. “For the family members, you have seen the face of terror, the horrors, the brutality. We are heartbroken by that. We stand with the people of Israel and that is very heartfelt.”
The rally was bipartisan, too, showing that some Democrats actually get it. “When Hamas says ‘from the river to the sea,’ they mean all of present-day Israel should be a Jewish-free land,” explained Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in a pointed rebuke of a few of his Democrat colleagues. “In fact, Hamas has said that what they did — the horror that they did on October 7 to the Jewish communities near the Gaza border — they should do to all Israelis. Just look at Hamas’s founding document. It says, ‘Is that a Jew behind the tree? Cut down the tree so you can shoot him.’ That is the evil of Hamas. Never, never, never will we forget the evil of Hamas.”
Unsurprisingly, the pro-Israel attendees felt no need to yell or display racist or genocidal slogans, or to tear down statues, or to get in fights. There were American and Israeli flags, not terrorist ones.
That doesn’t mean the event was free of such ugliness. “Heil Hitler!” yelled one anti-Israel protester among other vulgarity. A genocidal fascist dictator of the German Left is precisely the model for today’s Islamofascist killers.
Neither are U.S. government employees unanimous in supporting our ally Israel. The second event was that more than 400 staffers across 40 government agencies sent a letter to Joe Biden yesterday calling on him to “urgently demand a cease-fire,” seek “de-escalation of the current conflict by securing the immediate release of the Israeli hostages and arbitrarily detained Palestinians,” and to help restore basic utilities in Gaza.
The moral equivalence is appalling. Israel is retaliating to make sure Hamas cannot continue carrying out the very mission Schumer pointed out. Before commencing military operations, Israel told Palestinian civilians to flee Gaza and gave them many days to do so. Hamas and Egypt wouldn’t let them. As for utilities, maybe if Hamas used all that foreign humanitarian aid to serve the population instead of making missiles and allowing its billionaire leaders to live it up in Qatar, water and electricity wouldn’t be a problem.
As House Speaker Mike Johnson said to loud cheers at yesterday’s rally, “The calls for a cease-fire are outrageous.”
Speaking of Johnson and the House, event number three yesterday was the Senate blocking the House bill providing $14.3 billion in aid to Israel. Typical of Washington, many in Congress and the White House want to tie that aid to Israel with about four times as much for Ukraine. That $100 billion combo platter includes money for other national security priorities too.
There’s a lot to be said here and too little room to say it, but we’ll make two key points. First, Republican support for Biden’s seeming blank check to Ukraine has dwindled, so it’s predictable that the GOP-controlled House would want to separate the two. Second, however, combining them actually does make some sense given that Russia and Iran are increasingly collaborating with weapons, money, and resources against U.S. interests around the globe.
Finally, on the ground in Gaza, Israeli forces entered the Al Shifa hospital in a battle that illustrates a lot about the two sides in this conflict.
It’s unlike the lie about a hospital that the American Leftmedia helped Hamas tell last month. As our Douglas Andrews deftly put it: “It wasn’t an airstrike, it didn’t hit a hospital, it didn’t kill hundreds, and Israel didn’t do it. But other than that, the reporting was accurate.”
This time, Israeli troops actually did enter the hospital to fight Hamas, though the Leftmedia is still propagating fake news. “Israel says Hamas militants are using hospitals as shields for fighters but hasn’t provided evidence of that,” harrumphs the Associated Press, which oh by the way had photographers embedded with Hamas during the October 7 attack.
If anybody could provide evidence of Hamas’s use of human shields and hospital bases, you’d think it would be, oh, maybe AP photographers.
Perhaps the AP could consult with other outlets. PBS, The Washington Post, and Human Rights Watch each documented Hamas terrorists operating in that same hospital going as far back as 2006. Hamas attacked Palestinian rival Fatah from the hospital in 2007, hid there during war in 2008 and 2009, and used it as a headquarters in the war in 2014.
CNN reported just Monday that “Hamas has a command node under the Al-Shifa hospital, uses fuel intended for it and its fighters regularly cluster in and around Gaza’s largest hospital.”
Or maybe the AP could ask Team Biden. According to National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, “We have information that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad used some hospitals in the Gaza Strip, including Al Shifa, and tunnels underneath them, to conceal and support their military operations and to hold hostages.”
Yes, Hamas literally built a base below the hospital — which probably cost some of that aforementioned humanitarian aid money — specifically for the purpose of creating media headlines around the world about an “Israeli assault on a hospital.” It’s a sick game played by deranged Islamofascists with a religiously motivated death wish. And today’s media often falls for it because journalists are increasingly invested not in the story but in The Narrative™.
In any case, the war in Gaza is far from over. That’s also true of the war for hearts and minds in the West, though a rally of 300,000 people certainly provides some hope.
Executive News Summary
Stopgap spending bill, Secret Service stops Naomi Biden’s car theft, Big Sister controls NY, and more.
Douglas Andrews, Thomas Gallatin, & Jordan Candler
Cross-Examination
GOP passes stopgap spending bill: It was beginning to look like déjà vu all over again, with House Republicans scrambling to keep the federal government from shutting down due to lack of funding. This time, though, the results are different, as the House yesterday overwhelmingly passed a temporary bill to keep the government running through the beginning months of 2024. The vote was 336-95, with the entire Democrat caucus voting with 127 Republicans for passage. Any bill that gets more Democrat support than Republican support should be viewed suspiciously, and this one is no exception. Ninety-three Republicans voted against it, including the conservative House Freedom Caucus, mostly because the bill didn’t contain any spending cuts or funding for our southern border. Despite this — or because of it — the bill now heads toward almost certain passage in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Less than a month into his new gig, House Speaker Mike Johnson is already faced with the scenario that led to the ousting of his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy. But as we noted yesterday, Johnson called this stopgap measure “a necessary step” while vowing that things will be different next year with individual appropriations bills. Let’s wait and see.
White House cocaine saga: The White House finally released photos of the infamous baggy of cocaine discovered in the White House this summer. The photos show a cubby locker open and entirely empty except for the small bag of cocaine. The story of the cocaine’s original discovery location changed multiple times, beginning in the library and then eventually ending up in a locker. The Secret Service conducted an investigation, dubiously concluding that it was unable to identify a suspect. So why is the White House now releasing these photos months after cocainegate has effectively blown over?
Secret Service stops Naomi Biden’s car theft: Crime is growing in Biden’s America, especially in the nation’s capital. Joe Biden’s own granddaughter Naomi was a recent victim, as several criminals attempted to break into her car in her Georgetown neighborhood. She was not on the scene at the time, but her Secret Service detail was and intervened, leading to a shootout as the suspects fled. The Democrats’ soft-on-crime polices are coming home to roost, but most Americans don’t have their own security detail to protect them from criminals. And to make matters worse, in Democrat enclaves like Washington, DC, citizens are not allowed to carry firearms to protect themselves.
A different kind of flash mob: In Memphis, Tennessee, a mob looted a FedEx truck that was stopped in traffic. The mob of predominately black males descended on the truck and, using an unidentified tool, broke open the back of the 53-foot trailer and proceeded to grab boxes and flee. An estimated $10,000 in damages and stolen items was caused by the thieves. Thus far, law enforcement has arrested only three men involved. Such smash-and-grab operations are becoming a growing problem in Biden’s America.
Petgrave arrested in hockey death: This story has flown mostly under the radar, but it appears that justice may yet be served on hockey goon Matt Petgrave, who killed former NHLer Adam Johnson when his raised skate blade slashed Johnson’s throat during a collision in an Elite Ice Hockey League game in Sheffield, England, last month. Petgrave was arrested yesterday, although authorities didn’t name him. Weirdly, he’d received a standing ovation at the game just prior to his arrest. Two weeks ago, we asked whether this was manslaughter, and it appears that British law enforcement agrees. When one watches the video, it’s near impossible to view Petgrave’s raised leg as accidental, as a natural hockey movement. Petgrave is known as a dirty player, having led his league in penalty minutes last year. He’s also black, and one wonders whether his race has something to do with the lack of coverage. Hockey is a necessarily violent sport, but it’s exceedingly rare to see a player die on the ice at any level. That’s because hockey players know how dangerous their skate blades are, and because they never raise them intentionally — not even the game’s nastiest players. What Petgrave did was different and a radical departure from hockey norms. Petgrave isn’t a murderer, but he’s a vicious and reckless goon, and he’s rightly been arrested.
Eighth-grader banned for “blackface”: An eighth grade student in California received a two-day school suspension and is banned from all future school sporting events after he was accused of wearing blackface. Days after attending a high school football game where he wore eyeblack under his eyes on his cheeks and chin — like countless football players of every color across the country do every week — the student was called into the principal’s office, where he was told he was guilty of what was characterized as “offensive comment, intent to harm.” The only racist in this story appears to be the principal, who falsely assumed racial intentions. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has come to the student’s defense, sending a letter to the school to immediately rescind false and frivolous blackface disciplinary actions. Former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Hollywood entertainer Jimmy Kimmel, and a host of other prominent leftists can get away with real blackface. This young kid obviously can’t even just be a football fan.
Big Sister controls New York: She’s following your posts. That’s effectively the message that New York Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul sent when she announced her social media surveillance monitoring program. Hiding behind the convenient guise of combating “hate speech,” Hochul said that her administration would be collecting social media data in order to police people’s online speech. Clearly, the governor has little to no respect for the First Amendment. The government’s job is to protect speech, not to protect people from speech. Meanwhile, when it comes to actual hateful speech, Hochul equivocates, refusing to name those most guilty of spreading hate — namely the pro-Hamas crowds that have descended on New York calling for an end to Israel. According to recent data, hate crimes against Jews in New York City have risen by 214% since October of last year. Of the 101 recorded hate crimes last month in NYC, 69 were anti-Jewish compared to eight that were anti-Muslim.
GOP senator flexes on Teamsters boss: On Senator Markwayne Mullin’s X page, he calls himself a “Christian, proud husband, father to six, strong conservative” and says he brings “Oklahoma values to the U.S. Senate.” Those values were on bold display yesterday during a Senate hearing, at which he stood up and challenged Teamsters Union President Sean O'Brien to a fight, as the committee’s chairman, ancient Vermont Socialist Bernie Sanders, tried to play peacemaker. “You want to run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults and we can finish it here,” said Mullin, who’d taken exception to O'Brien’s penchant for online bullying. Said O'Brien in response, “You stand your butt up, big guy,” to which Mullin happily obliged. Mullin is a former MMA fighter, so he brings a unique and refreshing toughness to The World’s Greatest Deliberative Body. And O'Brien is no doubt lucky that things didn’t escalate from there. “Maybe you run your mouth in New Jersey,” said Mullin on Fox News. “I don’t know. I’m not from New Jersey. But this is some thug that’s a mob boss, so you’re supposed to be intimidated because he’s the boss of the Teamsters.” Clearly, Mullin wasn’t intimidated. And good on him.
Muslim-turned-atheist converts to Christianity: There was a remarkable moment over the weekend, as Aayan Hirsi Ali, a courageous and vociferous critic of radical Islam who had turned to atheism, announced her conversion to Christianity in an essay published Saturday on UnHerd. As The Federalist’s John Daniel Davidson observes, “Ali, previously a Member of the Dutch Parliament, is human rights activist and writer known for her controversial views about the compatibility of Islam and Western culture.” Ali is a woman of the Left, so the sweep and degree of her conversion are yet be fully understood. But at the end of her essay, she seemed sufficiently humble: “Of course, I still have a great deal to learn about Christianity. I discover a little more at church each Sunday. But I have recognized, in my own long journey through a wilderness of fear and self-doubt, that there is a better way to manage the challenges of existence than either Islam or unbelief had to offer.”
Headlines
Biden, Xi meet amid disputes over military and economic issues (Reuters)
Biden admin renews sanctions waiver giving Iran access to $10 billion from Iraq (New York Post)
Senate blocks $14.3 billion in aid for Israel (National Review)
Hundreds of pro-Israel demonstrators left stranded on tarmac after bus drivers coordinate anti-Semitic strike (National Review)
One hundred Harvard faculty members sign off on pro-genocide slogan “From the river to the sea” (Daily Wire)
Columbia student sues organization behind “doxxing truck” for defamation (National Review)
Senate tests new tactic to end Tuberville blockade of military promotions (Washington Examiner)
Trump to remain on Michigan ballot after judge rejects 14th Amendment challenge to eligibility (Fox News)
Tim Burchett accuses “bully” Kevin McCarthy of elbowing him as tempers erupt in Congress (Washington Examiner) | Ethics complaint filed against former speaker after hallway altercation (Roll Call)
Hunter Biden to teach class on “fake news” at Tulane University (The Federalist)
Finnish parliamentarian Paivi Rasanen acquitted over “hate speech” for sharing Bible verse (Washington Stand)
Policy: Break off this China engagement (National Review)
Satire: Hamas says all the AK-47s found in Gaza hospital were strictly for medicinal use (Babylon Bee)
For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.
Whistleblowers: FBI Targets Pro-Trump Agents
The bureau continues to retaliate against the reformers in its midst — especially those who hold the wrong political views.
Douglas Andrews
When J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI was snooping on Martin Luther King Jr. back in the 1960s, they at least suspected him of being a communist and a sexual libertine, and perhaps even to have been an enthusiastic witness to a sexual assault.
It’s a sign of just how far the bureau has fallen, then, that these days it targets its own agents, especially those who they suspect aren’t communists at all but instead are merely supporters of the former and perhaps future president, Donald Trump. As The Washington Times reports:
More whistleblowers have stepped forward to tell Congress that high-ranking FBI officials are targeting agents, specifically former military members, for their political beliefs and trying to force them out of the bureau. A Marine and other military veterans at the FBI have been accused of disloyalty to the U.S. because they fit the profile of a supporter of former President Donald Trump, according to two disclosures sent to lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee.
The whistleblowers said Jeffrey Veltri, deputy assistant director of the bureau’s security division, and Dena Perkins, assistant section chief, specifically pursued employees who served in the Marine Corps or other military branches. They stripped the agents of security clearances, which sidelined them on the job and pushed them toward the exit, according to the disclosures.
“Whistleblowers play an essential part in identifying and rooting out waste, fraud, abuse, mismanagement, and corruption within government agencies,” said House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan in response. “All Americans owe them a debt of gratitude for their service and sacrifices. Our committee strongly supports their efforts to shine a light on abuses of power, and we will not tolerate retaliatory conduct against any whistleblower.”
Let’s hope so.
What does the FBI have to say for itself? Initially, not much of anything. And then it responded with a statement of righteous indignation:
It is wholly irresponsible of The Washington Times … to include outrageous and demonstrably false allegations that the FBI singled out former military employees. It is offensive that The Washington Times chose to publish, on Veteran’s [sic] Day, such baseless, unsubstantiated claims and include the names of FBI employees, one of which is a veteran. The FBI has not and will not retaliate against individuals who make protected whistleblower disclosures. We do not target or take adverse action against employees for exercising their First Amendment rights or for their political views. The FBI is proud to have many veterans in our workforce and we thank all veterans for their service.
Well. Normally, we might be sympathetic toward the bureau, especially given that the rot within it is understood to be on or near the J. Edgar Hoover Building’s 7th floor, where its leadership resides. And we might suspect that what we have here is a one-off, a disgruntled employee. But not this time. The FBI no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt because this sort of crackdown isn’t new. It’s part of a pattern. Some might say it’s even par for the course.
Indeed, we wrote about the FBI’s efforts to purge the conservatives from its ranks back in October of last year, especially its whistleblowers. Our Mark Alexander wrote at the time that one of these whistleblowers — Special Agent Steve Friend, an FBI SWAT member and an eight-year veteran agent — was one of the more than 20 agents who’d come forward to Congress with formal complaints about the bureau’s rot. In August 2022, Friend — who didn’t even vote for Donald Trump in the 2020 election — was tasked with a SWAT raid against a January 6 riot suspect, but he refused because of what he believed to be the “overzealous” politicization of the J6 investigations leading to an ever-wider target list. “I have an oath to uphold the Constitution,” he told his superior. “I have a moral objection and want to be considered a conscientious objector.” For that, he was suspended, his credentials were seized, his security clearance was revoked, and he was escorted out of his Daytona Beach office building.
You’d think congressional Republicans would be incensed by this sort of retaliatory behavior, but you’d be wrong — or at least partly wrong. Instead of punishing the bureau with the power of the purse, the GOP is rewarding it. As one of those intrepid FBI whistleblowers, Steven Friend, recently posted on X: “Last year, I brought protected whistleblower disclosures about FBI weaponization to House GOP. They used it to go on TV and get elected. I lost my career and am under FBI investigation. Today the House GOP voted to give the FBI a $300 million HQ. Soulless demons. Go to hell.”
It’s hard to blame Friend for being furious. And who could blame future whistleblowers if instead of coming forward they decide to keep mum, decide that it’d be best to keep quiet about the bureau’s corruption rather than risk the career-wrecking retaliation?
What Jim Jordan said last year in the wake of the initial purge holds true today: “The law is clear. You don’t retaliate against whistleblowers.”
Oregon Drug Legalization Predictably Backfires
Now the state’s enlightened residents are left picking up the pieces.
Emmy Griffin
Over the years, the morally relativistic point presented about illicit drugs was that part of the problem with them was that they were illegal in the first place. If drugs were legal, this reasoning went, fewer people would be tempted to use them because the lure of rebellion attached to them would be taken away.
The fallacy in that sort of thinking is writ large; and as a culture, we are paying for that sort of illogic with increasingly bad policies spearheaded by the Left. It spills out into other talking points as well, particularly regarding incarceration — i.e., arresting people for drug possession is apparently racist. Possession is a common charge against criminals, and sometimes it’s the only charge that can be brought even when there are bigger suspected crimes at play.
Enter the state of Oregon, which three years ago decriminalized all drugs. Proponents hoped to encourage drug addicts to take advantage of state-funded rehab programs and to get clean. They aimed for Oregon to be the example for other states to follow.
That meant no more arrests for possession. People could use meth and fentanyl without fear of being busted. The worst that can happen to addicts is they get a ticket and have to pay a $100 fine. But if they call the hotline given to them by the police officer who issued the citation and get help, they don’t even have to pay the fine.
It’s no surprise that Oregon’s social experiment is going badly. Just like in major cities rife with drug use, addicts sprawled on the sidewalks are disrupting business, feces litter walkways and streets, and people have been allowed to become zombies, which is devastating to families and communities.
According to The Wall Street Journal, “Some 6,000 tickets have been issued for drug possession since decriminalization went into effect in 2021, but just 92 people have called and completed assessments needed to connect them to services, according to the nonprofit that operates the helpline.” That’s a success rate of 1.5%. In other words, a complete and utter failure.
On the next ballot, Oregon residents are looking to re-criminalize hard drugs, but to have lasting success, they still need to address the incentive structure. Jail time wasn’t stopping users. Neither was free help. What’s left to try?
How do you help someone who doesn’t want help? Well, perhaps along with criminal consequences, involuntary rehab might be the next step. People who are strung out and reliant on drugs aren’t exactly free or able to make decisions that are in their best interest. Addicts are slaves to their drug of choice. Many do not have the willpower to take on the beast of withdrawal or to get clean and sober without a push or a strong support system. On the flip side, putting someone through involuntary rehab may not have the lasting effects of voluntary rehab because the person didn’t choose that path himself.
Another course of action is confiscating the drugs. This, however, is not a realistic solution either. As long as drugs are big business and are being allowed to flood over the southern border by our feckless leadership, there is no real way to stem the flow.
Criminalizing hard drugs is a good step in the right direction, but this is a battle that will need to be fought on many fronts with the understanding that many of the people under the influence of drugs aren’t in a position to help themselves. Oregon is learning this lesson the hard way.
Apartheid College Campuses
Leftist indoctrination is teaching young people an old hatred — that of Jews and Israel.
Samantha Koch
In the 1930s and ‘40s, Jews were treated as less than human and shipped off to concentration camps to face incomprehensible torture and death. Those of us who have listened to and read about those accounts have often wondered how it would have been possible to unite so much of the German population on dehumanizing a group of people, while turning a blind eye to the savage pain and suffering inflicted on them solely based on their existence.
Yet the explosion of anti-Semitism across the Western world has put many of us in disbelief. The year 2023 is beginning to feel like a repeat of history, but with the added reach of social media fueling the rage and hatred against the Jewish community.
Jewish and pro-Israel college students have been barricaded in their campus libraries and openly threatened by their classmates. They have listened to their professors lift their voices in celebration of the heinous acts committed against unsuspecting Israeli citizens just weeks ago and openly call for the genocide of all Jewish people by reciting the phrase, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
Apparently, joining in the resounding chants of slogans in the courtyard, park, street, or public square that call for the total eradication of Jewish people — not just in Israel, but across the globe — has become acceptable and worthy of commendation.
Jewish students at Cornell University recently gathered to speak at a public hearing to describe their personal experiences of anti-Semitic attacks. They sought additional safety measures for protection against pro-Hamas groups who now feel justified in targeting them simply because they exist.
One of the students who spoke was a young woman named Amanda Silberstein. She described having to walk through her campus every day while seeing numerous areas with spray-painted words such as “F*** Israel” and “Zionism = Genocide,” and regularly being confronted with pro-Hamas organizers who shout the Palestinian genocidal slogans in her face. It is unclear if these screeching banshees know that they’re calling for the death of her and others who are of the Jewish faith. Many seem to be under the delusion that these expressions are simply about demanding freedom for the people of Gaza. Silberstein articulated it perfectly for those who are clearly uneducated on the matter: These phrases “are not about Palestinian life, but about Jewish death.”
Silberstein also painted a picture that, apart from the reference to social media, could easily and eerily interchange 1940s Germany with the behavior currently taking place at today’s so-called public education institutions: “Imagine that you frequent Jewish events on campus. Imagine that you live in a Jewish sorority house. Then imagine that you’re scrolling on your phone one day, only to discover that a fellow student wants to shoot up the kosher dining hall, and quote 'gang rape all Jewish pig-women on campus.’”
Even while she detailed the current horror confronting many young adults, protesters who had planted themselves throughout the listening audience — who could have taken the opportunity to consider the gravity of the words they are speaking — decided to cut off Silberstein and other speakers who were sharing their direct experiences of being threatened, harassed, and targeted by yelling: “Free Palestine! Anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism!”
Kenneth Marcus, head of the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, explained that prior to October 7, the rise of anti-Semitism had already been surging at an alarming rate. Reports of Jews being excluded from groups and sororities, or Jewish students feeling the need to hide their identity altogether for their own safety and well-being, were coming in at a higher rate every day.
After the events of October 7, the incidents of discrimination against Jewish students on college campuses have escalated beyond measure.
Marcus recounted a situation at the State University of New York at New Paltz, where two students were kicked out of a sexual assault survivors club because of their Jewish identities. He noted another incident at the University of Vermont, where a Jewish student faced exclusion from a book club for the same reason.
He went on to explain that these blatant discriminatory beliefs are now being taken on by student organizations, including law reviews, that “have adopted rules, including bylaws and changes to their Constitutions, that prevent anyone from speaking to their groups who is a Zionist or a supporter of the state of Israel.” Most importantly, he emphasized that this was not just a matter of not wanting to hear opposing political viewpoints; rather, based on your identity, these particular individuals would not be permitted to speak on any subject whatsoever.
This is unbelievable in the year 2023, in a country where our founding principles are based on individual liberty and justice for all, where we were founded on the idea of being able to worship freely and live side by side with people of all cultures and faiths. Even so, the Left’s agenda is to program the next generation into a society with no humanity whatsoever. Leftists have been very effective in pushing this.
These are our future doctors, lawyers, engineers, business owners, and government officials. If this is what they are doing as students, imagine the world they will create as our future builders and leaders.
SCOTUS Ethics and Dems’ Political Grandstanding
The Supreme Court adopts a written code of ethics in an effort to dispel the Democrats’ vacuous criticism.
Thomas Gallatin
Politicians rarely engage in good faith arguments. Indeed, in Washington today, good faith might as well be equivalent to unicorns — in theory they may exist, but no one has ever actually seen one.
In recent months, congressional Democrats led by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (RI) have waged a smear campaign against the U.S. Supreme Court, and specifically against originalist, constitutionally faithful justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
Whitehouse has dubiously charged the justices with unethical behavior due to the fact that they happen to have wealthy conservative friends. Based on this and several recent Court rulings leftists don’t like, Democrats and their cohorts in the Leftmedia have insinuated that the Court has effectively gone rogue and become political.
The Democrats’ claims are spurious, and they know it. But it’s all intended to build a narrative, no matter how erroneous, that supports their political objective, which is to discredit the current Court — and, better yet, get the Court to bend to their political desires or even set the stage for packing the Court with more leftist justices.
Unfortunately, the Democrats’ ruse has been working. So, in an effort to defend the Court’s constitutionally delineated authority and coequal position within the three distinct branches of the federal government, Chief Justice John Roberts has effectively fumbled the political ball.
For the first time in its history, the U.S. Supreme Court has adopted a written code of ethics. The 15-page code clarifies the expectations for the justices to the public. “The absence of a Code … has led in recent years to the misunderstanding that the Justices of this Court, unlike all other jurists in this country, regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules,” the justices state. “To dispel this misunderstanding, we are issuing this Code, which largely represents a codification of principles that we have long regarded as governing our conduct.”
Justice Roberts evidently believes Democrats, and more specifically Whitehouse, have been voicing good faith arguments. Nothing could be further from the truth.
If Roberts believed this first-ever published code of ethics would silence the Democrats’ criticism of the Court, then he was dead wrong. This decision played right into the Democrats’ scheme, as evidenced by Whitehouse’s response.
He gleefully pounced: “Well, step one is done: The Supreme Court has at last acknowledged that it needs to have a code of ethics.” With the ball now in his court, he shot back: “Is there a place where you can file a complaint against a Justice? Do we get a public report at the end?”
Of course, what Whitehouse is after is to get the Court to capitulate to his demands that Congress be empowered to hold the justices to account. This has everything to do with politics and nothing to do with adherence to law or the Constitution.
Democrats will now beat their political drum, alleging that the Court’s code of ethics is yet more evidence that the country is being held captive by rogue justices.
The question now is this: Will Roberts continue to fall for the Democrats’ charade, or will he ignore this for the obvious bad faith politicking that it is?
By the Time Abortion Makes the Ballot, the Battle’s Over
To defeat abortion at the ballot box, pro-lifers ought to begin by getting more Americans to go to church.
Daniel McCarthy
The fight over abortion in America is as much a religious contest as a political one.
Until the pro-life movement recognizes this, it will keep getting shocked by referendum results like those in Ohio last week, which planted a right to abortion in the state’s constitution.
Opponents of abortion are not theocrats; on the contrary, so devoted are they to the separation of faith and law that they think it would discredit the pro-life cause to tie it too closely to religion.
The movement’s leaders prefer to argue from neutral premises acceptable even to secular liberals: objective science, they insist, proves a fetus is a human life.
Progressives often point to science as a moral authority, on questions ranging from climate change to gender and various disparate impacts and outcomes correlated with race.
But this is philosophically naive whether pro-lifers or progressives do it.
Even if science accurately describes a thing, it cannot say whether the phenomenon is good or bad; those judgments rely on prior moral commitments.
This is where the pro-life movement meets defeat.
The moral assumptions of most pro-lifers are more religious than those of other Americans.
That’s not a bad thing, but it suggests that to defeat abortion at the ballot box, pro-lifers ought to begin by getting more Americans to go to church.
Gallup’s 2023 survey of who identifies as pro-life or pro-choice tells the tale.
“Pro-choice” self-identification leads in most categories: among all adults (52-44), among women (55-41), among whites (51-46), and people of color (54-40).
Men are narrowly divided; Gallup has them favoring the pro-life label 48-47.
But in the category of “religious service attendance,” pro-lifers predominate.
Those who attend church weekly identify as pro-life 66-28.
Even those who attend less regularly, between weekly and monthly, favor the pro-life designation 56-41.
Among those who seldom or never attend, however, the balance is reversed: they identify as pro-choice 64-31.
The difference is not down to mere physical presence in a church building — the point is that attending services regularly is a sign of strong religious convictions.
The Catholic Church authoritatively teaches that abortion is a sin, and the more conservative Protestant denominations and Orthodox Jews broadly concur.
Of course, many people who belong to a religion don’t believe what it teaches, but these members tend not to be the ones filling the pews every Sunday.
If more voters were like those who attend church regularly, referendums in red states like Ohio would be winnable for abortion opponents, and they would have a better chance in less Republican-leaning states, too.
But with an electorate composed of voters whose moral outlook is not shaped by religion, defeat is almost certain.
Better communications strategies won’t help sell abortion bans to people who don’t already agree that abortion is wrong: it’s like trying to sell sirloin to vegans.
Pro-lifers are not the only ones who have this problem, of course.
Libertarian conservatives are constantly disappointed to discover how persistent public demand for government services is.
Progressives have their own frustrations with voters — especially those who continue to vote Republican, even for Donald Trump, despite being told that it’s immoral, deplorable and undemocratic to do so.
Liberals have all the communications firepower of the mainstream media at their disposal, and plenty of billionaire backing, too, but they still can’t talk voters out of what millions of them already want.
Efforts at persuasion aren’t futile, but they have to take account of the difference between what people already believe and what they would have to believe — what their core moral convictions would have to be — in order to embrace a pro-life, libertarian or fully progressive agenda.
Family, church, school and college are the institutions that form moral commitments; we have a culture war because these institutions are on different sides.
Families are disintegrating and schools are failing; the strongest religious institutions are generally conservative, while higher education is run by progressives.
So highly educated social liberals do battle with highly religious conservatives, as moral anarchy or mere utilitarianism prevails among the less educated and non-religious — which happens to be the kind of voter that makes Ohio a Trump state.
Neither cold scientific reason nor beautiful natural-law syllogisms made today’s pro-lifers pro-life: their churches did that.
If the movement needs more voters, the obvious way to make them is the same way existing opponents of abortion were made.
A political party can’t do that, and expensive ad campaigns won’t.
All a party can do is work with the material on hand: meeting voters where they are and getting the most pro-life (or libertarian, progressive or otherwise) results possible within an existing moral framework.
That’s not enough for those who want to save souls now — but the place where that happens is in the pews and the pulpit.
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VIDEOS
Officer Friendly Kills Himself — Four LA County sheriff’s deputies die within a 24-hour period … and each of them by his own hand.
Hockey Player Arrested for Manslaughter — UK police have arrested Matt Petgrave on charges of manslaughter over the death of fellow hockey player Adam Johnson after a horrific incident that took place two weeks ago.
A Woman’s Lie Ends NFL Player’s Career — An NFL kicker was cut from the team following rape allegations. He was never charged, as evidence shows he was not present when the crime occurred.
Leftmedia Hypocrisy: Porn and Mike Johnson — Leftmedia outlets make themselves sound compassionate while spewing vice and hate. Peter Heck has examples of their hypocrisy from this week to show you why the Left doesn’t care about “democracy,” decency, or civil liberties.
Scholastic Books Are Coming for Your Kids — Kirk Cameron talks about his new book, The Fox, the Fair, and the Invention Scare, as well as the rise of inappropriate books for children in schools and why it matters to fight back.
Reverse Market Crash: The Worst Possible Economic Outcome — While traditional market crashes are characterized by rapid declines in asset values, a reverse market crash involves an excessively rapid rise in market values, leading to potentially dangerous economic consequences.
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For more of today’s columns, visit Right Opinion.
SHORT CUTS
Useful Idiots
“There are people who seem to be upset that there are rabbis and other people of faith out here asking for ceasefire. And it’s bizarre because you would assume that if you are a religious leader, if you are a faith leader, that your number one priority would be to look into your faith, into the teachings of your faith, and to say, ‘I oppose violence.’” —Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN)
“By me calling for a ceasefire with my colleagues and centering humanity, I am uplifting deeply what it actually means to be Jewish.” —Congressman Jamaal Bowman (D-NY)
“They label us anti-Israel, they label us anti-Semitic, and they label us terrorists. They lie about us and they smear us. But we know the truth and the truth stands. … We are bound by our faith to demand a ceasefire now.” —Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-MO)
“Ceasefire means there is no military solution, only a diplomatic and cultural solution.” —Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)
Dezinformatsiya
“Israel says Hamas militants are using hospitals as shields for fighters but hasn’t provided evidence of that.” —Associated Press
Credit Where It’s Due
“October 7 made clear that this bloody cycle must end and that Hamas cannot be allowed to once again retrench, re-arm, and launch new attacks — while continuing to use people in Gaza as expendable human shields. … They have proved again and again that they will not abide by cease-fires, will sabotage any efforts to forge a lasting peace, and will never stop attacking Israel.” —former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
“I’m really struck by something in the last 30 or so days, especially as the White House … confirmed that one of the estimated 240 hostages kidnapped by Hamas … is a three-year-old American child. There are people in the United States, loud voices, who, shown this crisis in which there are Americans and innocent people, innocent Israelis, taken hostage, are actually rooting for the hostage takers. And we see these images seemingly every day of Americans ripping down posters of kidnapped kids. Kidnapped children. … I’ve never seen anything like this.” —CNN’s Jake Tapper
For the Record
“The war going on in Israel today is not just war between Israel and Hamas. It is a war between Judeo-Christian civilization and radical Islamic barbarism. Israel is on the frontline of that war, and all of Western Civilization, especially the United States, stands in the crosshairs.” —Gary Bauer
The BIG Lie
“We’ve been very serious on dealing with the crime that we have seen just across the country.” —White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
Hot Air
“I don’t believe any politician can stop what is happening now. This [energy] transition is much bigger than any one party in the country … it’s not gonna happen. People are moving because the science is telling us we have to move in this direction. It’s not political. It’s not ideological.” —climate czar John Kerry
“Climate change … is the ultimate threat to humanity.” —Joe Biden
Belly Laugh of the Day
“Someone 45 years of age couldn’t do what [Biden] does every day, but he does it.” —MSNBC’s Mike Barnicle
Non Compos Mentis
“Look, there’s lots of anti-Semitism. I happen … to be married to a rabbi, and I happen to really believe in my faith. And there’s a lot of homophobia. And I happen to be the first out lesbian as a labor leader in the country ever. And so this kind of attack of identity — that’s all rolled into it too.” —American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten
Observations
“Having first rejected the Christian faith … our secular elites are now rejecting all those other good things that sprang from it, and positing a very different sort of society. Instead of a society that embraces rationality and freedom and human rights, they offer something from the pagan past: a society that embraces power and violence and domination.” —John Daniel Davidson
“Even if science accurately describes a thing, it cannot say whether the phenomenon is good or bad; those judgments rely on prior moral commitments. This is where the pro-life movement meets defeat. The moral assumptions of most pro-lifers are more religious than those of other Americans. That’s not a bad thing, but it suggests that to defeat abortion at the ballot box, pro-lifers ought to begin by getting more Americans to go to church. … Better communications strategies won’t help sell abortion bans to people who don’t already agree that abortion is wrong: it’s like trying to sell sirloin to vegans.” —Daniel McCarthy
And Last…
“It’s become really confusing dealing with the left lately because when they call someone Hitler you’re not sure if they mean it in a good way or a bad way.” —Frank J. Fleming
TODAY’S MEME
For more of today’s memes, visit the Memesters Union.
TODAY’S CARTOON
For more of today’s cartoons, visit the Cartoons archive.
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