Posts on Saturday, November 30, 2024

The myth of Laocoön is tragic. In vain, he warned his countrymen in Troy against opening the gate to the colossal wooden horse left behind by Greek invaders. However, he was blinded by the gods who then had him killed by giant sea serpents. So, it is not as if it has not been foretold. As a matter of fact, it has been the subject of countless essays, speeches, and novels. We cannot plead ignorance. In retrospect, the “Rivers of Blood” speech by British Member of Parliament Enoch Powell, a modern Laocoön, on April 20, 1968, ranks as a milestone. It marked a historical break with the politely restrained,

The Biden administration moved on Thanksgiving eve to bar future coal leasing in the Powder River Basin, one of America’s most coal-rich regions, according to multiple reports. The Pow der River Basin, a region that spans parts of Montana and Wyoming, accounted for about 43% of U.S. coal in 2019, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The administration made its move to formally end coal leasing in the area and roll back previous approvals for development plans on Wednesday as Americans prepared to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday, according to E&E News. “The decision is to make no federal coal

In a move that could have seismic implications for NATO’s strategic capabilities, two critical undersea communication cables in the Baltic Sea—lifelines of military coordination among NATO allies—were severed in what increasingly appears to be a calculated act of hybrid warfare. The timing of these incidents, coming mere hours after the Biden administration authorized Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied ATACMS long-range missiles against Russian targets, raises the unmistakable specter of a coordinated response by Russia, with China’s complicity, aimed at halting NATO’s ability to act decisively during a crucial moment in this escalating conflict. The severing of these cables appears to be more than a mere act of sabotage.

San Jose State volleyball player Blaire Fleming built a prosperous athletic resume en route to the epicenter of national controversy. Many of Fleming's past competitors had to settle for losses along the way. Fleming is the leader in kills for a San Jose State team that will compete in the Mountain West tournament final Saturday against Colorado State. The athlete's spiking ability has been a competitive asset and a point of outrage by critics, including President-elect Trump, amid the controversy over Fleming competing against women as a transgender athlete. But the team and coach Todd Kress have ridden the power of Fleming's spikes back to the conference final

John Morgan is a major donor to the Democrats and like many people in his party right now, he is unhappy about the way the Kamala Harris campaign burned through more than a billion dollars with little to show for it. Morgan is now claiming that he never wanted Harris to be the 2024 Democratic nominee. He also suggests that no matter what she says about future runs for office, she is finished. He recently appeared on FOX News to discuss this. Transcript via Real Clear Politics: "She can never run for president again. She ran once and got zero delegates. She got 8% of California. I begged them not to put her up.

The trans war against women’s sports continues apace. The current high-profile battleground is women’s college volleyball, where a man pretending to be a woman on the San Jose State University (SJSU) team has caused even members of his team to revolt. (X) Co-captain Brooke Slusser and Associate Head Coach Melissa Battie-Smoose have spoken out about their concerns, causing Battie-Smoose to be removed from her position and Slusser to endure intense pressure. Both have joined a lawsuit against the Mountain West Conference, hoping to prevent men from usurping women’s places on volleyball teams. The lawsuit alleges, among other things, SJSU suppression of female athlete’s concerns about the male player,

Bill Clinton already wrote and sold his memoir, the imaginatively named, My Life, written and published back in 2005, but like his wife, one memoir is never enough and so Bill has another one, Citizen, that chronicles all the exciting stuff he’s been up to for the last two decades. Hillary Clinton is on her fourth memoir (believe it or not) and Bill needs to pull his weight here. The trouble is that while Bill’s memoir 1.0 was at least justified because he was the president of the United States, he hasn’t done anything since then, unlike Hillary, who really didn’t do much, but at least is out there

In January 1933 the Oxford Union voted 275-153 to approve the motion: “That this House refuses in any circumstances to fight for King and Country.” The proposition became known as the Oxford oath. Winston Churchill was not amused. While others counseled that it be dismissed as youthful folly, he declined to ignore the proceedings at Oxford. Rather, he declared it “a very disquieting and disgusting symptom” and proceeded to explain why it troubled him (as Martin Gilbert puts it in the fifth volume of his Churchill biography, The Prophet of Truth, 1922-1939): "My mind turns across the narrow waters of [the] Channel and the North Sea, where great nations

A top Democratic leader is pointing fingers at “MAGA” Republicans, accusing them of threatening Congressional Democrats on Thanksgiving— just one day after members of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet picks received bomb threats on their front doors. Congressman Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) implicated that Trump supporters were hurling violent threats to Democrats with messages that included bomb threats and swatting— the practice of making prank phone calls to emergency services to bring about the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers to a particular address.

More than three weeks after election day, commentators still try to explain the results. The more “establishment” the commentator, the more likely they are to discuss less relevant details and miss the main point. The Democrats lost the 2024 election because of bad policies that failed very publicly. Those failures lingered through Biden’s entire term. Their nominee could not recover from those failures. The Democrats began their term with a trillion dollar + spending bill. That spending caused inflation by sending too many dollars after the same goods and services in the U.S. economy. Prices of all consumer goods exploded to previously unknown heights.

WASHINGTON — Democrats spent Thanksgiving eating crow — privately confessing that President Biden’s handling of the border crisis fueled voter outrage and the Republican sweep of the White House and both chambers of Congress. Lawmakers, aides and sources close to powerful Dems finally admitted after President-elect Donald Trump’s resounding victory over Biden’s successor, Vice President Kamala Harris, that the party’s permissive lurch on the border helped doom them in 2024. (Photo) “We destroyed ourselves on the immigration issue in ways that were entirely predictable and entirely manageable,” a Democratic senator confided to The Hill under the condition of anonymity. “We utterly mismanaged that issue, including our Democratic caucus here.

I don’t always agree with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services, but I can’t help but feel a bit of healthy schadenfreude at the prospect of America’s corrupt health care establishment getting the bitter taste of well-deserved disruptive medicine. Kennedy isn’t exactly a conservative. He’s on the record supporting abortion, and he has a long track record of working not just in environmental conservation (which I support), but in advancing climate alarmism, which I consider not only wrong, but disruptive for freedom, prosperity, and environmental protection.

The Iranian regime's sudden willingness to negotiate following Trump's reelection is nothing more than a tactical maneuver. It seeks to buy time, stave off tough sanctions, and delay decisive action while advancing its nuclear program, while waiting out Trump. This is a familiar strategy, designed to outlast the Trump administration and neutralize any efforts to hold the regime accountable. Such deceptive overtures must be recognized for what they are — a fake truce to secure the Islamic Republic's survival and expansion. The West must stop deluding itself into believing that any deal with such a country can succeed.

Joe Biden's staffers have reportedly been 'triggered' by his inability to hold the tradition of the outgoing president taking 'departure photos' with White House employees. Biden was set to depart the White House in January no matter who won after he declined to seek a second term in July. Now, however, he'll be handing the presidency back to Trump after Kamala Harris was soundly beaten by Biden's predecessor. The staff, however, has apparently reached a new low in terms of morale, launching into unhappy groupchats about not getting their goodbye pictures.

Vladimir Putin’s alleged secret love child is living in France and working as a DJ under a pseudonym — with her fake identity linked to a dead ally of the Russian president, according to a report. Elizaveta Krivonogikh, 21, who is believed to Putin’s youngest daughter, is reportedly living and working in Paris under the names Luiza Rozova and Elizaveta Olegovna Rudnova, according to an investigation by Ukrainian TV station TSN. The stunning discovery was made using leaked airline manifests, which matched Krivonogikh’s date of birth and phone number with one of her aliases.

It was a not-so-merry message. Former Republican Congressman David Jolly ripped Democrats on MSNBC Friday — specifically the network’s “Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski — for giving President-elect Donald Trump “parity to traditional American values.” Jolly took issue with Scarborough and Brezinski, who came under fire after meeting with Trump, 78, at his palatial Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida two weeks ago. “Don’t just say we’re going to give equity to Donald Trump, which some people are doing in the Democratic Party, in media, among the electorate,” Jolly pontificated on “Deadline: White House,” according to a clip shared by Mediaite.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to serve as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), gave “thanks to God” for his family and the success of the “MAHA movement” on Thanksgiving. In a holiday Instagram post showing his family, Kennedy wrote, “I give thanks to God for all the extraordinary gifts of a year guided unerringly by Providence: my wife Cheryl, my children including Amaryllis without whom my campaign would have faltered”:(Snip) Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, who married Bobby Kennedy III in 2018, served as her father-in-law’s campaign director while he was still running for president, and remains a “proud steward

President-elect Donald Trump played DJ in chief at his private club Mar-a-Lago on Thanksgiving —spies told Page Six — as his BFF Elon Musk grooved at his VIP table. Also at the Thanksgiving dinner, sources said, was “Rocky” star Sylvester Stallone, 78, former Patriots coach Bill Belichick, 72, and his young girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, 24, as well as Trump’s family members including wife Melania and son Barron. Said a source: “Melania looked very svelte and chic in a brown/orange fall colored dress with long sleeves with bursts of color in squares. Eric and Lara [Trump] were there, as was Elon Musk and his mother Maye, and Tiffany Trump and her husband.”

The damage done by President Joe Biden’s migration policy pushed a large share of undecided swing voters to support Donald Trump during the last week of the 2024 campaign, according to a report by BluePrint2024, a pro-Democrat polling firm. The polling data helps to explain why Democrats are moving closer to blaming Biden and his pro-migration border chief — Alejandro Mayorkas — for their political disaster. “We destroyed ourselves on the immigration issue in ways that were entirely predictable and entirely manageable,” a Democratic senator told the Hill for a November 29 report.

Daniel Penny's family said they were left in awe at his strength as he spent Thanksgiving with them despite a jury in New York preparing to deliberate his manslaughter case. The marine's mother Gina Flaim-Penny said the family were focusing on being grateful for what they have, telling the New York Post: 'We’re blessed and grateful for everything we do have. We have each other.' Daniel reportedly gathered at his maternal grandmother's home to mark the occasion, alongside his mother and his younger sister Taylor Penny, 24, while other family members Facetimed into the meal.

All appeared to be well between Donald Trudeau and Justin Trudeau in an all-smiles photo of the president-elect and the Canadian Prime Minister at Mar-a-Lago Friday night. The liberal PM Trudeau has often clashed with Trump but facing re-election in 2025, he appears intent on working with his counterpart, even as Trump threatens Canada and Mexico with high tariffs. A person familiar with the details called it a 'positive wide-ranging dinner that lasted three hours.' The official said topics included trade, border security, fentanyl, defense, Ukraine, NATO, China and pipelines, as well as the the Group of Seven meeting in Canada next year.

The Washington Examiner quotes Della Volpe, polling director at Harvard’s Kennedy School Institute of Politics and a loyal Democrat, on what the Democrats need to do to try to regain power. Much of what Volpe says is sensible, but I want to focus on just one point: his identification of the Democratic Party with democracy. You see it all the time. Loss of faith in the Democratic Party equals loss of faith in democracy, attacks on the Democratic Party equal attacks on democracy, and so on. Volpe writes: Millions of Americans aren’t shifting right — they’re walking away.

Joe Rogan argued that the establishment media that once was friendly to President-elect Donald Trump has since been engaged in a years-long "psy-op" to convince Americans he is dangerous. "The Joe Rogan Experience" is one of the world’s most popular podcasts, and Rogan is seen as having been one of the key players in the 2024 election, for interviewing Trump and then endorsing his bid for the presidency in the 11th hour. The podcaster has since mocked the media for losing their credibility with voters and alienating lifelong liberals like himself. On Thursday's episode, with comedians Shane Gillis, Mark Normans, and Ari Shaffir, Rogan recalled how friendly people in entertainment and

Officially, Donald Trump will not be inaugurated until January 20, but his impact to-date and his actions are already demonstrating early governance and how he will proceed as President. He makes no apologies for his plans, and he’s essentially started his term. How can anyone dispute his selection of Tom Homan as Border Czar? Homan has made it clear that he will begin to protect our national security by removing criminals and the cartels. And he’s warned anyone who wants to stop him and protect these illegal migrants will be committing a felony:

For the 2024 election cycle, Alex Bruesewitz had a significant role with the Trump-Vance campaign as a social media advisor. The social media presence, podcast interviews, and other outreach efforts certainly played a role in President-elect Donald Trump emerging victorious earlier this month. Even after the election, especially as Democrats are still in serious disarray, Bruesewitz doesn't look to be done. In a detailed post over X on Friday, Bruesewitz called out the Democrats' operation, specifically with "influencers" like David Hogg, who was part of those pushing for Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) being selected as Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate.

Recently, writing in the Acton Institute’s Religion and Liberty Online, a Texas high-school teacher, Auguste Meyrat, brilliantly formulated the most precise description of education in post-COVID America: vegetative education. As he writes, “Teachers in past decades have been faced with two choices: educating students with challenging material and frequent grading or engaging them with fun projects and participation grades.” What is he talking about? (Snip) What does modern classroom instruction look like these days? To put it mildly: A lot of it is not very good.We can abolish the federal Department of Education, offer lip service about bolstering parental rights and abolishing DEI policies. But unless we acknowledge the hollowness

There is no doubt that MSNBC's Joy Reid is insufferable. We see regular examples of it. Even for Thanksgiving, she couldn't just put her animosity aside for a moment and talk about people coming together. As we reported, instead she preached at Trump voters, saying people had a right to fear them and might not want to celebrate with them because they voted for an autocracy. Then she sought to cast MAGA as whining over the issue -- even as she was whining about Trump supporters. It was bizarre as she claimed no one seeks to understand liberals,

A few days ago, the Gateway Pundit featured a story about Trump border czar Tom Homan saying that if Denver Mayor Mike Johnston decides to defy federal law on illegal immigration, he’ll go to jail. This was the exact exchange between Homan and Sean Hannity: Sean Hannity: Tom, you heard this mayor out there in Colorado. I want to get your reaction to it, and I want you to be clear about who has jurisdiction—the federal government or state and local governments. And if you’re a sanctuary state or city, are you breaking the law? Tom Homan: You’re absolutely breaking the law.

The Hill on Friday floated Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) as a potential contender for the 2028 Democrat Presidential nomination. Amie Parnes, a senior congressional correspondent for The Hill, included Ocasio-Cortez as the last name on a list of seven Democrats who could be contenders for the nomination in 2024. One Democrat strategist, speaking anonymously, told the outlet that Ocasio-Cortez can “cut through the BS and tell it like it is,” adding she “doesn’t talk like Washington.” However, Ocasio-Coretz’s very progressive record could hinder her odds if she does run, according to some Democrats.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flew to Florida on Friday to have dinner with President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club after Trump threatened to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products. Trump threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico if they don’t stop what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across their borders. He said he would impose a 25% tax on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders. A person familiar with the details called it a “positive wide-ranging dinner that lasted three hours.”

The growth of classical education schools is astonishing. The numbers keep rising; there is no sign that the movement is beginning to plateau. Schools open, networks are created, charters are authorized, and kids fill the seats. [Snip] The reason for the loss cannot be ignored; the departure is an indictment of leftist theories of learning. Classical schools treasure precisely what leftist principles reject: old books and Great Books, Western Civilization, memorization, religion, dead languages, high art. [Snip] Every shift of public school children to classical schools erodes the authority of progressive schooling.

A quiet revolt is stirring in women’s sports: Female athletes are saying “enough” and refusing to play unfair match-ups against biologically male opponents. This season, woman volleyballers at the University of Wyoming, Utah State, the University of Nevada, Reno and Southern Utah have forfeited games against San Jose State instead of playing against a reportedly transgender athlete on the Spartans, Blaire Fleming. The Boise State squad not only forfeited twice during the regular season, it made the painful decision to sit out the Mountain West Conference semifinals game against the Spartans. With coaches being fired for spelling out the issues here, the team’s statement still made it obvious: