News of the Week for October 7th, 2024
- Election 2024
- Abortion
- Gun Rights
- Hide the Decline
- Obamacare
- War & Terror
- National News
- Economy & Taxes
- International News
- Opinion
Election 2024
Trump Has Lost Omaha, and It Could Cost Him
In electoral news that might end up mattering, Nebraska’s second district (encompassing the Omaha metropolitan region on the eastern side of the state) looks to be as good as gone for Donald Trump, who narrowly won it in 2016 and who was handily beaten there in 2020. He now trails Harris 53–42 in this congressional district, and given 2020’s outcome, don’t bet on a miraculous polling miss to bail him out. (Nebraska, like Maine, allows its electoral votes to be apportioned per district, not simply awarded as a bloc to the statewide winner.)
Trump’s Team Is Trying to Stop — Or Heavily Redact — the Release of Jack Smith’s Election Fraud Report
The former president’s lawyers are trying to get ahead of what could be his campaign’s October surprise.
Vance refuses to say Trump lost in 2020, sparking debate’s biggest clash
Sen. JD Vance refused to acknowledge that former president Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, setting off one of the most contentious exchanges in Tuesday night’s vice-presidential debate with Gov. Tim Walz.
Senate Republicans make sudden change in ad strategy amid cash crunch
The NRSC is canceling its independent ad reservations and redirecting it to hybrid ads, made with the candidates.
NC Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson didn’t vote on state’s Helene emergency declaration, records show
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who has called on Gov. Roy Cooper to deploy more resources to help people in western North Carolina, was the only Council of State member to not vote on Cooper’s request to declare a state of emergency, records show.
Speaker Johnson lays out agenda for Republicans as they fight to hold House majority
Speaker Mike Johnson laid out on Tuesday a policy agenda should Republicans take the majority next year that extends the tax cuts approved when Donald Trump was president, reduces the size of the federal workforce and gives parents more choice on where they can send their children to school.
Prosecutors: Trump ‘resorted to crimes’ after losing 2020 election
Donald Trump “resorted to crimes” after losing the 2020 election, federal prosecutors said in a court filing unsealed Wednesday that argues that the former president disregarded the advice of his vice president and other aides and is not entitled to immunity from prosecution over his failed bid to remain in power.
Steve Bannon threatened to ‘ruin’ Trump aide who refused to protect Chinese mogul: report
Steve Bannon threatened to ruin the life of a former Donald Trump political advisor if he didn’t help protect a fugitive Chinese billionaire from rape charges, according to a new report.
Nevada might elect a felon to the Legislature, marking a first
Jovan Jackson, the Democratic candidate in heavily Democratic Assembly District 6, has a string of arrests, Medicaid sanctions and a felony conviction for his part in a 2015 armed robbery, records obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal show.
Minnesota GOP Senate candidate: ‘The bad guys won in WWII’
As the control of the Senate hangs in the balance, GOP candidates across the country are facing a similar problem: Troubling and bizarre past statements, both in-person and on social media, are coming back to haunt them. But in Minnesota, Royce White is an even more extreme case.
Thou shalt not vote for Trump. These prominent Latter-day Saints view that as a command from God.
He fails the “character test” spelled out in the faith’s scriptures, they argue, and is morally “unqualified” to hold the nation’s highest office.
Trump Is Trying to Make Up Ground by Reaching Out to Voters Who Hate Politics
The Trump campaign has faced criticism over much of its machinery, but operatives from both political parties say they see its efforts to reel in low-propensity voters as an edge.
Abortion
Dobbs Decision
Online Abortion Prescriptions Doubled After Roe v. Wade Overruled
Online prescriptions for direct-to-patient abortion drugs more than doubled in the year following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the federal right to abortion, new research has found. However, barriers to online pharmacy access still limit access to abortion care, the researchers say.
Gun Rights
Fourth Circuit weighs meth user’s Second Amendment rights
That user, Stephen Simmons, argued that his status as a substance abuser shouldn’t be relevant to his illegal gun charge.
Supreme Court Will Hear Gun Industry Challenge to Mexico’s Lawsuit
“Simply put, Mexico’s suit threatens to undermine American sovereignty and constitutional liberty, and it has no business in this country’s courts.”
Hide the Decline
Environment &“Green Energy”
Rule of Law vs. Eco-obstruction
The activist climate fringe finds their cause in trouble. Their termite cause is losing to consumers who want the best energies in terms of price and reliability; losing with taxpayers who are on the hook for ‘energy transition’ bribes; losing with the public that is tired of the rhetoric, exaggeration, and now targeted inconvenience. And, losing with nature as energy sprawl accelerates with industrial wind, solar, and batteries.
Obamacare
Government in Healthcare
Campaigner who ignited euthanasia debate in Hungary dies
A prominent Hungarian campaigner who attempted to change the law on euthanasia, and shifted public opinion in the process, has died aged 47.
War & Terror
Norway is mulling building a fence on its border with Russia, following Finland’s example
Norway may put a fence along part or all of the 198-kilometer (123-mile) border it shares with Russia, a minister said, a move inspired by a similar project in its Nordic neighbor Finland.
Eight killed in terror shooting in Jaffa, many more wounded
The shooting, which the MDA designated a mass-casualty incident, occurred near a light rail station in the central Israeli city.
White House believes Iran is preparing imminent ballistic missile attack against Israel
Iran is poised to launch a ballistic missile attack on Israel soon, the White House warned Tuesday, instantly ratcheting up fears of all-out war in the region.
China’s Patriotic Rhetoric Takes a Violent Turn
‘Hate education’ becomes buzzword in China after stabbings of foreigners, while online pleas for compassion are stifled
IDF Rescues Yazidi Girl Held by Hamas in Gaza for a Decade
ISIS kidnapped Sido in 2014 in Iraq and sold her to a Hamas terrorist.
UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius
The UK has announced it is giving up sovereignty of a remote but strategically important cluster of islands in the Indian Ocean after more than half a century.
China ‘rejected US pleas to co-operate in Houthi crisis in Yemen’
Kurt Campbell, the deputy secretary of state, says Beijing encouraged the Iranian-backed rebels to attack other countries’ ships in the Red Sea
U.S. Wiretap Systems Targeted in China-Linked Hack
AT&T and Verizon are among the broadband providers that were breached
Britain has agreed to cede the Chagos Islands to Mauritius
The Chagossians seem set to benefit less than China
Trump ‘asked Putin for advice’ about whether the US should help arm Ukraine
Donald Trump reportedly asked Vladimir Putin for his advice on whether the US should help arm Ukraine at their first in-person meeting.
A craven surrender
The handover of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius represents a mindless and unjust capitulation to a foreign power
National
What Happened to Tucker Carlson?
The strange journey of a pundit, Trump whisperer, and potential 2028 presidential candidate.
California Leads the Way in Undermining Freedom of Speech
The point of the First Amendment was to take speech out of the realm of politics. But progressives don’t think anything should be beyond politics. Consider the newly enacted California statutes that put political speech in the sights of government officials, who’d have free rein to sue anyone for speech, including satire, they didn’t like.
The Republican Revolution Class of ’94 Meets Again
Lindsey Graham was feeling sentimental.
81-year-old man sentenced to prison for cloning giant “Montana Mountain King” sheep for captive trophy hunting
An 81-year-old Montana man was sentenced Monday to six months in federal prison for illegally using tissue and testicles from large sheep hunted in Central Asia and the U.S. to create hybrid sheep for captive trophy hunting in Texas and Minnesota.
Scandal! Science Busts Allegedly Bogus Neurological Science
This is how the scientific method is supposed to work. For years, a neuroscientist and National Institutes of Health official named Eliezer Masliah led the field in researching dementia, Parkinson’s, and other neurological diseases. His work became primary bases for developing experimental treatments, offering hope for these scourges of human aging.
How Two Billionaire Preachers Remade Texas Politics
Last December, Sid Miller, the Texas commissioner of agriculture, posted a photo of himself brandishing a double-barrel shotgun on X and invited his followers to join him on a “RINO hunt.” Miller had taken to stumping in the March primary election against incumbents he deemed to be Republicans in Name Only. Not long after that, he received a text message from one of his targets, a state representative named Glenn Rogers. “You are a bought and paid for, pathetic narcissist,” it began. “If you had any honor, you would challenge me, or any of my Republican colleagues to a duel.”
Gun, transgender rights, porn cases loom as US Supreme Court returns
The U.S. Supreme Court launches its new nine-month term on Monday with several major cases already on its schedule – involving guns, transgender rights, online pornography and more – and with the possibility of confronting legal disputes that may arise from the Nov. 5 presidential election.
He sends models down the runway in just tape. Meet the controversial Miami designer
Both explained that the models themselves place the most intimate part of the attire, a patch, on their privates, first. After that order of business, the visionary begins painstakingly affixing the strips onto the landscape of flesh.
Judge Blocks California Law Restricting “Materially Deceptive” Election-Related Deepfakes
The judge concluded that the law, AB 2839, likely violates the First Amendment, and therefore issued a preliminary injunction blocking it from going into effect.
Teacher fired for refusing to use trans student’s pronouns awarded $575K in lawsuit
A Virginia school board must fork over more than $500,000 to a former French teacher who was fired in 2018 for refusing to use a transgender student’s preferred pronouns.
Chinese Graduates of ‘High Risk’ Shanghai University Charged with Lying about Trip to Sensitive Military Drills
Five Chinese nationals who studied in Michigan were charged by the Justice Department yesterday with lying to federal agents about their visit to the site of a major military exercise with Taiwanese troops in the state, the FBI said in a court filing.
Fiore convicted of fraud after using money for fallen officer’s memorial for own gain
A jury convicted the former Las Vegas city councilwoman of seven federal wire fraud charges. Each charge carries a maximum of 20 years in prison.
UC faces lawsuit for following federal law, stopping illegal aliens from being employed on campus
In January, UC said that hiring illegal aliens could make the school ‘subject to civil fines, criminal penalties, or debarment from federal contracting.’
‘They Can Control the Weather,’ Claims Marjorie Taylor Greene After Deadly Hurricane Helene Kills More Than 200
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) weighed in on the deadly hurricane which wreaked havoc in her state of Georgia and across the southern United States on Thursday, suggesting that the hurricane had been controlled.
‘Trump Bible’ one of few that meet Walters’ criteria for Oklahoma classrooms
Bids opened Monday for a contract to supply the state Department of Education with 55,000 Bibles. According to the bid documents, vendors must meet certain specifications: Bibles must be the King James Version; must contain the Old and New Testaments; must include copies of the Pledge of Allegiance, Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights; and must be bound in leather or leather-like material.
The Latest in the Nasty Bakersfield College Story
Bakersfield College fired tenured history professor Matthew Garrett because he criticized the school’s DEI mania, coming up with a flimsy pretext for doing so, and violating various procedural rules. Garrett sued and won.
Columbia updates policy to define race-neutral practices as discriminatory
Columbia University recently updated its anti-discrimination policy in which the school now states that race-neutral policies that have a ‘disproportionate impact’ constitute discrimination.
Economy & Taxes
The dock strikes that threaten trade and the freeports that fail to boost it
US east coast labour unions are set to cause serious disruption to container shipping
ILA Longshoremen Strike at East and Gulf Coast Ports
“An analysis by J.P. Morgan estimated the daily cost of a port strike by East and Gulf Coast port workers would cost the U.S. economy between $3.8 billion and $4.5 billion per day as operations slow.”
Who Will Man the U.S. Manufacturing Boom?
The United States is witnessing a boom in manufacturing investment, stimulated by massive government subsidies, but the skilled workforce necessary to support it is severely lacking.
Dockworkers’ Union’s Mafia Connections Are Not Ancient History
Most people are aware of the historical mafia connections of the International Longshoremen’s Association, the East Coast dockworkers’ union. On the Waterfront, starring Marlon Brando, came out in 1954. Many of the mafia connections to transportation were laid out by congressional committees in the 1950s and 1960s, then by prosecutors in the major mafia trials of the 1980s and 1990s.
Never Reason from an Accounting Identity
Economic confusion all around
That’s Just How We Do Things Here
The dockworkers’ strike should make it clear that allowing unions to stonewall technological advances has massive costs.
Stakeholder Capitalism/ESG: A Bank CEO Forgets Whom He Works For
ING is a large, listed Dutch bank. That means that its purpose is (or ought to be) to deliver return to its shareholders. And yet, it appears that its CEO believes that it is part of the bank’s purpose to fight the fight against climate change. It’s not. That’s a matter that is up to individuals, should they choose to give up this or that, and, if for anyone else, democratically elected governments.
Trump’s Tariff Proposals Would Raise Tariff Rates to Great Depression-Era Levels
Former President Donald Trump’s proposals to impose a universal tariff of 20 percent and an additional tariff on Chinese imports of at least 60 percent would spike the average tariff rate on all imports to highs not seen since the Great Depression.
Blowout US employment report reinforces economy’s resilience
U.S. job gains increased by the most in six months in September and the unemployment rate fell to 4.1%, pointing to a resilient economy that likely does not need the Federal Reserve to deliver large interest rate cuts for the rest of this year.
U.S. job creation roared higher in September as payrolls surged by 254,000
Nonfarm payrolls surged by 254,000 in September, up from a revised 159,000 in August and better than the 150,000 Dow Jones consensus forecast.
Automate the Ports
The dockworkers’ strike is over, but America’s ports will be some of the least efficient in the world whether they are open or closed.
Investing in High-Quality Data Pays Off
On Thursday, two former heads of the Bureau of Labor Statistics — one appointed by President Obama, the other appointed by President Trump — sounded the alarm bell in The Wall Street Journal.
International
Communist Cuba’s dwindling ration book spreads more hunger across the island
Cuba’s socialist revolution is providing even less food in its ration book, which Cubans have depended on for basic food items over the past six decades. Corruption, mismanagement, and the inherent failures of socialism have led to a worsening food crisis, spreading more hunger across an island already barely surviving.
Cuban opposition leader says Castro dictatorship fears another massive uprising
After his arbitrary arrest last week, prominent Cuban opposition leader Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet is certain the communist Castro dictatorship is dreading another massive uprising like the island-wide protests that took place on July 11, 2021. Dr. Biscet points out that his arrest, along with the arrests of other dissident leaders, indicates the regime fears it will not survive a second July 11th.
Mexican President Vows Justice After Army Kills Six Migrants
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday that soldiers who opened fire and killed six migrants in a highway chase on her first day in office would face justice.
Opinion
The Carlson op
David Samuels takes up the case of Tucker Carlson in his overlong Tablet essay “Op nation.” Circling around the subject of conspiracy theories, Samuels makes some arguable and some compelling points. When he comes to Tucker Carlson, he is over the target.
Op Nation
Why Tucker Carlson became America’s conspiracist-in-chief
Do We Need to Abolish Grading?
An unpersuasive new book suggests that academic scorekeeping hurts students.
Las Vegans are panic buying toilet paper. Here’s why they shouldn’t
Big-box warehouse stores across the Las Vegas Valley saw their shelves cleaned out of toilet paper early Wednesday, with shoppers panic buying because of the massive East Coast dockworkers strike.
Antonio Gramsci, Cultural Marxism, Wokeness, and Leninism 4.0
If you want to understand the present moment, especially how similar Wokeness seems to Mao’s Cultural Revolution, you have to understand the Italian communist Antonio Gramsci. Gramsci wrote a series of essays and books while imprisoned by the Italian fascists in the 1920s and 1930s that are referred to as his Prison Notebooks. These are the birthplace of Cultural Marxism, which James Lindsay argues has evolved into “Identity Marxism” since. Once you understand Gramsci, you can easily understand what is going on with our society at present and understand more clearly than ever why it must be resisted.
Deep Dive: The Problematic Rise of the Woke Right
When Unbridled Populism Corrupts the Right
Bathrooms with a view: Cutting windows into student restrooms is a new level of weird
At the risk of stating the obvious, South Western’s elected school board is making some strange decisions.
Caveat Emptor
A few days ago, Iran launched approximately two hundred ballistic missiles at Israel. Some of Iran’s missiles were hypersonic missiles traveling 10,000 miles an hour. Israel, the United States, and other allies were mostly able to stop the missiles. A few days before, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced Iran was within weeks of producing enough uranium for a nuclear bomb.
The DARVO of “You’re Divisive!”
DARVO is an acronym that refers to a particular abusive behavior that applies when the abuser is caught or called out. It stands for Deny, Attack, and Reverse the roles of Victim and Offender: DARVO. DARVO takes many forms, but in wedge operations it very frequently takes the form of being divisive and then accusing the people who call it out of being divisive. It fits the mold: Deny: “I’m not divisive!” Attack: “You’re divisive!” in such a way that it Reverses the roles of Victim and Offender. In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay explains this simple, common, Machiavellian trick used to steal power by divisive elements.
Misinformation Is Bad. Prohibiting It Is Worse
A proposed Australian law aimed at blocking false content would likely be applied selectively—and thereby further erode public trust in mainstream information sources.
Slog and Sacrifice
You don’t have to be religious to appreciate what millennia of religion have given us.
