Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A federal jury on Nov. 16 convicted David DePape, the man who was accused of attacking Paul Pelosi, the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), with a hammer last year at the Pelosis’ San Francisco home.

Mr. DePape, 43, could face decades in prison.

During a several-day-long trial this week, Mr. DePape said that he was “sorry that he got hurt,” referring to the 83-year-old Mr. Pelosi. “I reacted because my plan was basically ruined.”

Mr. Pelosi suffered a skull fracture after he was hit in the head with a hammer during the Oct. 28, 2022, incident, which occurred at his San Francisco home just days before last year’s midterm elections. Ms. Pelosi, who was the speaker of the House at the time, was in Washington.

According to police body camera footage that was taken during the night of the attack, officers opened the door to see Mr. DePape and Mr. Pelosi both holding what appeared to be a hammer. As police told Mr. DePape to drop the tool, he responded that he wouldn’t and appeared to strike Mr. Pelosi while off-camera.

Other footage that was released by police this year appears to show Mr. DePape breaking into the Pelosi home.

He was charged with attempted kidnapping and assault on account of a federal official’s performance of official duties. He pleaded not guilty. The jury convicted him on both charges.

During testimony this week, Mr. Pelosi said that he was awakened that night when Mr. DePape entered his bedroom while holding zip ties and a hammer. The suspect repeatedly said, “Where’s Nancy,” referring to his wife, according to Mr. Pelosi.

“I recognized I was in serious danger, so I tried to stay as calm as possible,” he testified.

Defense attorney Jodi Linker argued during the trial that Mr. DePape didn’t commit a federal crime because he wasn’t driven by Mrs. Pelosi’s official duties as speaker. Instead, she argued, his firm belief in what she described as “conspiracy theories” motivated him to bring down the ruling class in the United States.

Ms. Linker did not contest some of the facts in the case as the hammer strike was recorded by police body cameras. Mr. DePape also admitted to his actions while testifying in his own defense.

The suspect told the jury he wanted to kidnap Nancy Pelosi, interrogate her, and break her kneecaps if he found her to be lying. But after breaking into the home he instead found her husband, then age 82, asleep in his bed. Mr. DePape said the attack was a reaction to his original plan going awry.

Police recovered zip ties in the bedroom and in the hallway near the front door, plus a roll of tape, rope, a second hammer, a pair of gloves, and a journal in Mr. DePape’s backpack, according to court records.

“The Pelosi family is very proud of their Pop, who demonstrated extraordinary composure and courage on the night of the attack a year ago and in the courtroom this week,” the spokesperson said. “Thankfully, Mr. Pelosi continues to make progress in his recovery.”

Mr. DePape’s former girlfriend, also the mother of his children, recently told the New York Post that Mr. DePape appeared to be under duress during the trial, and she claimed that he was pressured by officials.

“His testimony lasted about 15 to 20 minutes, but he broke down and cried three or four times,” Gypsy Taub, a nudist activist, told the paper. “It was as if he wasn’t even present in the room and sat there, frozen.”

She said, “[I] already had doubts that his confession to police was false because it was only on audio, but I am glad the jury was able to see him testify and will be able to decide on the authenticity of that confession.”

Previously, Ms. Taub also said that her former partner had progressive viewpoints but noted that he had significant mental problems. Several years ago, she claimed to local media he disappeared for months before returning and claimed to be Jesus Christ.

Days after he was arrested, U.S. immigration officials confirmed that Mr. DePape is a Canadian national who was in the United States illegally, having overstayed his visa years ago.

Mr. DePape still faces state charges, including attempted murder, in connection to the attack. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges.

Lear Zhou and Reuters contributed to this report.

Argentinians return to the polls on Sunday, November 19 to elect the next president in a consequential runoff election. Voters will choose between incumbent Finance Minister Sergio Massa and right-wing libertarian Javier Milei. The election results will shape Argentina’s social and macroeconomic outlook in coming years.

Ep. 24 Argentina’s next president could be Javier Milei. Who is he? We traveled to Buenos Aires to speak with him and find out. pic.twitter.com/4WwTZYoWHs

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) September 14, 2023

As Goldman writes in its election preview note, polls point to a tightly contested race, with a majority showing Milei having a slight edge in voter preferences. A significant fraction (around one third of polls), however, suggests that Massa is in the lead. In general, polls in Argentina have a poor track record and in this electoral process they have systematically failed to capture shifts in voters’ sentiment. To add to the uncertainty, Massa was seen as outperforming Milei in the final presidential debate last week.

In the August primary elections (PASO), Javier Milei’s La Libertad Avanza party surprised by taking the lead, followed by the center-right coalition Juntos por el Cambio whose presidential ticket would be led by Patricia Bullrich. Massa’s left-leaning Peronist coalition, Unión por la Patria, finished third. In the October first round election, in turn, Massa topped most expectations with an improved performance and finished first. Milei came in second place without a significant change in support, and Bullrich disappointed and finished a distant third.

After the first-round election, part of the Juntos por el Cambio coalition, the faction led by Ms. Bullrich and former President Mauricio Macri, announced their support for Mr. Milei. While the bloc represented by the Radical Party decided not to formally endorse any of the candidates, some members have publicly sided with Mr. Massa.

Following Sunday´s results, investors will turn their attention to economic policy announcements. In the short term, the highly managed exchange rate will be a critical variable to follow. After the August primary elections, the government weakened the exchange rate by about 22% to 350 ARS per Dollar. Subsequently, the exchange rate was kept frozen at this level until this week, when a crawl resumed (1.0% so far this week). Nevertheless, pass-through was high and inflation accelerated considerably after the post-PASO devaluation and as a result, the real exchange rate is now even more overvalued than before the August devaluation.

Parallel exchange rates, for their part, continue to trade at a significant spread over the official rate (162% for the informal market exchange rate and around 145% for the bond (MEP) and equity (CCL) implied rates) and the futures market anticipates a meaningful depreciation in the months ahead. Pressures in both markets, however, eased after the first-round election showed Massa first, having increased significantly following Milei’s outperformance in the August PASO.

Likewise important, in the coming months there are significant payments scheduled to the IMF (around US$0.9bn in December and US$1.9bn in January) and foreign currency bond holders (approximately US$1.5bn due in interest payments in January). In the meantime, the EFF program with the IMF remains off track, and in our view its realignment will take time.

Regardless of the election winner, Goldman writes that a swift change in economic policies is imperative. The accumulated imbalances in the economy have grown too large and must be addressed promptly. The bank expects the economy to contract for the second year in a row in 2024, annual inflation is tracking at close to 150% and is expected to continue to rise in the coming months, the exchange rate is overvalued, international reserves are at critical levels, net reserves are significantly negative (around -US11bn), the fiscal imbalance persists, sovereign bonds trade at distressed levels, and the government lacks access to international financial markets. All in, if policymakers do not steer macro policy in a more orthodox direction, the macro adjustment could impose itself sooner or later, bringing a loss of control of the process and even higher social and economic costs.

Authored by Ryan McMaken via the Mises Institute,

Israel, Hamas and the United States are reportedly close to announcing an agreement to pause ongoing hostilities in order to free dozens of women and children being held hostage in Gaza.

According to the Washington Post, the release could begin within the next several days – and would mark the first sustained pause in the conflict.

Under the terms of a six-page agreement;

• All parties would freeze combat operations for at least five days.
• During this period, an initial 50 or more hostages would be released in batches every 24 hours. 
• It is unknown how many of what is believed to be 239 hostages will be released.
• The halt is also intended to allow humanitarian assistance to flood in, including fuel, which would arrive from Egypt.

According to the report, an outline of the deal was created during several weeks of talks in Doha, Quatar – where Israel, the USA and Hamas – indirectly represented by Qatari mediators, hashed out the logistics. Until now, it was unclear if Israel would agree to it.

“We are not going to comment,” said a spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in Washington late Saturday.

Concern about the captives — two of whom Israel said were found dead — along with the rising number of Palestinian civilian casualties have steadily increased pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. More than 100 countries — but, notably, not the United States — have called for a full and immediate cease-fire.

The decision to accept the deal is difficult for Israel, said one person familiar with the situation who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations. While there is strong domestic pressure on Netanyahu to bring the hostages home, there are also loud voices in Israel demanding that the government not barter for their release. -WaPo

On Friday, Israeli National Security Council head Tzachi Haegbi told the press that a decision had been made by the war cabinet to agree to a limited ceasefire only after “a massive release of our hostages … and it will be limited and short, because after that we will continue to work towards achieving our war goals.”

Netanyahu, meanwhile, insisted on Saturday that the offensive would continue despite a decision last week to allow the first consistent flow of fuel back into Gaza since the start of the war. Israel has notably cut off all but a minimal amount of food, water, fuel and medicine.

REMINDER: reports of a temporary ceasefire agreement should not be treated as fact until confirmed by Israeli officials.

— Israel War Room (@IsraelWarRoom) November 19, 2023

Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)

Authorities are continuing to investigate whether the man arrested for the death of Paul Kessler at a dual protest between Israel and Palestine supporters earlier this month will be charged with a hate crime, Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko announced Nov. 17.

“We have not ruled out a hate crime,” Mr. Nasarenko said during a press conference Friday. “The investigation into an alleged hate crime is ongoing. There are still four search warrants that remain outstanding, the returns of which we are awaiting. But at this moment in time, we do not have the elements of a hate crime satisfied.”

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office arrested Loay Alnaji, 50, a computer science professor at Moorpark College, Wednesday morning at his home in Moorpark.

He pleaded not guilty Friday in Ventura County Superior Court. His bail was reduced from $1 million to $50,000, and his attorney Ron Bamieh said he expected Mr. Alnaji to be out of jail within hours, according to the Ventura County Star.

Mr. Alnaji was charged with one felony count of involuntary manslaughter and one count of felony battery causing serious bodily injury. The District Attorney also added a special allegation of personally inflicted great bodily injury to each charge, which would add to his penalty or prison time if convicted.

“We did not file murder [charges] because there was no intent on the defendant’s part to commit one,” Mr. Nasarenko said Friday.

Authorities are continuing to investigate the incident and asking for the public’s help to establish what happened during the altercation.

Law enforcement and the district attorney’s office were able to piece together video and digital footage of the event to establish a clear sequence of events leading up to the confrontation. The new pieces of evidence and the technology used allowed the district attorney to file criminal charges.

Although the county has not charged Mr. Alnaji with a hate crime, authorities haven’t ruled it out.

“What we are looking for in particular is whether or not the acts, the impact, the force, was accompanied by specific hate speech, specific statements or words, that demonstrate an antipathy, a hatred toward a specific group,” Mr. Nasarenko said. “We don’t have that at this point.”

Detectives and the district attorney’s office inspected more than 600 pieces of evidence and talked with more than 60 witnesses in the past two weeks. The investigation started hours after Mr. Kessler died in the early morning hours of Nov. 6 following an altercation at a protest in Thousand Oaks the day before.

According to witness accounts from Nov. 5, Mr. Kessler was standing on the corner of Westlake and Thousand Oaks boulevards—a popular spot for protests—where about 75 to 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators were rallying.

It was the third time the group had protested in the area since Oct. 7, when Israel was invaded by the terrorist group Hamas, which resulted in the killing of about 1,400 and the kidnapping of more than 200. Israel subsequently began bombing Gaza in retaliation.

Mr. Kessler, 69, of Thousand Oaks, was allegedly struck in the face during the altercation at the rally and fell on the ground, hitting his head on the pavement. He died early the next morning of a traumatic brain injury, according to the county’s medical examiner.

“We want to continue to remember and honor Paul Kessler and the tragic loss of life that has occurred,” Mr. Nasarendo said Friday.

The district attorney and Sheriff Jim Fryhoff met virtually with the Kessler family briefly on Wednesday, Mr. Nasarenko said.

“They are mourning,” he said. “They are grieving, and they are asking for privacy during this very difficult period.”

Mr. Kessler worked in medical sales for many decades and taught sales and marketing at many satellite college campuses, according to Mr. Nasarenko. He leaves behind a wife of 43 years and a son, he added.

“We want to continue to remember and honor Paul Kessler and the tragic loss of life that has occurred,” Mr. Nasarenko said Friday.

Less than a day after JPMorgan came up with this pearl of a headline after the shocking news that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had unexpectedly been ousted by his own (incompetent) board for being “not consistently candid” (whatever that means, details of what actually happened have yet to be revealed)…

… the drama surrounding Altman’s departure just took a turn for the even more dramatic, because according to reports in the WSJ and Verge, OpenAI’s investors are “pressing the board” to reinstate Sam Altman back as CEO, and none more so than Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella who was “furious” by the ouster, Bloomberg reported, and has been in touch with Altman pledging to support him whatever steps he takes next.

The WSJ adds that while Altman is considering returning, he has told investors that he wants a new board, which inexplicably includes such woke luminaries as Helen Toner (whose tweets are protected of course), the director of strategy at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (which means she does nothing at all), and who is perhaps best known for her support of the malignant fraud espoused by SBF that is “effective altruism” better known as virtue signaling covering up flagrant crime and fraud.

Who is Helen Toner, and why did she fire @sama?
Insane effective altruist. Sam never should have trusted her…https://t.co/C45Wg3zGM6

CC: @adamdangelo

— Martin Shkreli (e/acc) (@wagieeacc) November 17, 2023

Besides Toner, OpenAI’s current board consists of chief scientist Ilya Sutskever (who also co-founded OpenAI and leads its researchers, was instrumental in the ousting of Altman this week, according to sources), Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, and former GeoSim Systems CEO Tasha McCauley, wife of actor Joseph Godron-Levitt. Unlike traditional companies, the board isn’t tasked with maximizing shareholder value, and none of them hold equity in OpenAI. Instead, their stated mission is to ensure the creation of “broadly beneficial” artificial general intelligence, or AGI.

The now former (and soon-to-be again current) CEO also discussed starting a company that would bring on former OpenAI employees, and is deciding between the two options. Altman is expected to decide between the two options soon, the WSJ said, although the Verge notes that the former CEO is “ambivalent” about coming back and would want significant governance changes.

Altman holding talks with the company just a day after he was ousted indicates that OpenAI is in a state of free-fall without him. Hours after he was axed, Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president and former board chairman, resigned, and the two have been talking to friends and investors about starting another company. A string of senior researchers also resigned on Friday, and people close to OpenAI say more departures are in the works.

The OpenAI board has been subjected to intense criticism over its decision, made public late Friday afternoon in a blog. post  Several people, including co-founder Greg Brockman and three senior researchers have departed from the company in protest.

Besides Microsoft, which is the leading shareholder in OpenAI, venture capital firm Thrive Capital is also working to orchestrate efforts to reinstate Altman. The motive is clear: Microsoft invested $13 billion into OpenAI and is its primary financial backer. Thrive Capital is the second-largest shareholder in the company. Other investors in the company are supportive of these efforts, the people said.

Then again, Microsoft is probably not all that angry: according to the Sam Bankman-Fried funded Semafor, “only a fraction of Microsoft’s $10 billion investment in OpenAI has been wired to the startup, while a significant portion of the funding, divided into tranches, is in the form of cloud compute purchases instead of cash” which gives the software giant whose stock last week hit an all time high and is about to surpass Apple as the world’s most valuable company, leverage as it sorts through the fallout from the ouster of Altman.

The report goes on to note that “Nadella believes OpenAI’s directors mishandled Altman’s firing and the action has destabilized a key partner for the company.” It is also unclear if OpenAI, which has been racking up expenses as it goes on a hiring spree and pours resources into technological developments, violated its contract with Microsoft by suddenly ousting Altman. At the same time, Microsoft has rights to OpenAI’s intellectual property so if their relationship were to break down, Microsoft would still be able to run OpenAI’s current models on its servers. This is critical because Microsoft has made OpenAI’s products such a key part of its offerings, from Windows to Microsoft Office to GitHub, that anything involving that underlying technology would have an instant and adverse material impact on the $2.75 trillion company’s bottom line.

That’s why since Friday, Silicon Valley has been buzzing about what could happen to this key partnership, including whether Microsoft and other OpenAI investors might attempt to reinstate Altman as CEO (which, as we now learn, is in process).

On Saturday in a note to employees, OpenAI Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap said the company’s leaders “still share your concerns about how the process has been handled, and are working to resolve the situation,” according to an internal memo reviewed by Semafor. Lightcap shared new insight into the board’s decision, clarifying that there was no “malfeasance or anything related to our financial, business, safety, or security/privacy practices.”

That struck a different tone than the board’s statement on Friday that said Altman was “not consistently candid” with directors. Instead, Lightcap characterized it as a “breakdown in communication” between Altman and the board and added that the leadership has full faith in interim CEO Mira Murati.

The exact reason for Altman’s firing remains unclear. But for weeks, tensions had boiled around the rapid expansion of OpenAI’s commercial offerings, which some board members felt violated the company’s initial charter to develop safe AI, according to people familiar with the matter.

In the wake of her bipartisan censure by the U.S. House of Representatives for saying that the Biden administration ‘supports genocide’ in Gaza, a planned speech by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) was canceled by Arizona State University (ASU).

The censure, introduced by Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA), accused Tlaib of promoting false narratives about Hamas’ attacks on Israel and calling for the destruction of the state of Israel​​. Notably, 22 Democrats joined the majority of Republicans, while four Republicans voted against it on free speech grounds.

While ASU didn’t point to the censure, the timing couldn’t be more obvious. Instead, the university on Friday told The Center Square (via Just the News) that her speech wouldn’t happen on school grounds because the group organizing the event failed to adhere to proper protocols.

“Organizers of events using ASU facilities must be properly registered with ASU and must meet all university requirements for crowd management, parking, security, and insurance,” said a spokesperson. “In addition, the events must be produced in a way which minimizes disruption to academic and other activities on campus. The event featuring Congresswoman Tlaib was planned and produced by groups not affiliated with ASU and was organized outside of ASU policies and procedures.“

Tlaib, the first Palestinian American woman in Congress, has been a vocal critic of the Israeli government. The clip which got her in hot water shows pro-Palestine protesters chanting “from the river to the sea” – a refrain which Tlaib described as “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate.”

Tlaib defended her position on the House floor, stating that her criticism was solely directed at the Israeli government and arguing that labeling such criticism as antisemitic sets a dangerous precedent​​.

I am the only Palestinian American serving in Congress, and my perspective is needed here now more than ever. I will not be silenced and I will not let anyone distort my words.

I’m from Detroit, where I learned to speak truth to power, even if my voice shakes. pic.twitter.com/bXhGPCcKat

— Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (@RepRashida) November 7, 2023

The canceled ASU event was planned by groups opposing Israel’s military actions against Hamas and was expected to address issues pertinent to the Palestinian perspective.

In response to the university’s decision, Students for Justice in Palestine at ASU, one of the event’s sponsors, criticized the university for stifling free speech and Palestinian voices on campus. The cancellation and the surrounding events highlight the ongoing and complex debate surrounding free speech, academic freedom, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the United States.

“Rashida Tlaib must be heard on campus as the only Palestinian member of Congress who plans to speak on an American issue at this event,” the group stated. “ASU cannot claim to hold free speech as a principle while denying Palestinians their voices on campus.”

 

 

 

 

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Amazing how quickly the left starts eating its own when one of them attempts free speech contradicting establishment orthodoxy, eh?

Authored by James Bovard via The Mises Institute,

The TSA has been promising to end its boneheaded ways for more than 20 years. Flying out of Dallas International Airport last week, I ruefully recognized that all TSA reform promises are malarkey.

As I neared the end of a TSA checkpoint line, I saw two women loitering behind a roped off section for CLEAR, a new biometric surveillance program that works with 35 airports and coordinates with TSA. CLEAR involves travelers standing in photo kiosks that compare their faces with a federal database of photos from passport applications, driver’s licenses, and other sources. The Washington Post warned that airport facial recognition systems are “America’s biggest step yet to normalize treating our faces as data that can be stored, tracked and, inevitably, stolen.”

Though the CLEAR program is purportedly voluntary, TSA agents at Washington National Airport recently threatened long delays for any passenger who refused to be photographed by CLEAR, including U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR). Merkley said that TSA falsely claimed there were signs notifying people that the facial scans are optional. But the clock is ticking down on seeking voluntary cooperation. TSA chief David Pekoske announced in March that “eventually… we will require biometrics across the board.”

“Idle hands are the tool of the devil,” as the old saying goes, and the same is true of cell phones. I raised my phone camera, snapped a few shots of the women, and the howling commenced.

“What are you doing?” screamed a young woman wearing a CLEAR jacket.

“You can’t take my photo!”

“But you’re scanning people’s eyeballs,” I replied. What could be more intrusive?

“That doesn’t matter because you can’t take our photo – it’s not allowed!”

She sounded as if I had desecrated a federal temple.

I gave her a Chesire cat smile. With her three-inch artificial fingernails, I wondered if she planned to audition for a Dracula movie. Her colleague speedily exited, perhaps to summon police to end my assault. But if airport officials had sought to seize those photos, they would have faced a legal ruckus.

The queue finally reached the stern middle-aged TSA dude sitting behind plexiglass who checked identification and boarding passes. He stared at my driver’s license and then gave me an intense look. TSA considers a “cold, penetrating stare” a terrorist warning sign, but I assumed this guy was above suspicion. I was tempted to ask how many TSA Watch Lists included my name thanks to TSA bashes I wrote for New York Times, USA Today, New York Post, Washington Times, and other publications. Was this TSA dude reading about how the TSA chief denounced me in 2014 for “maligning” TSA agents?

TSA protocols make flying vexing without making travelers safe. As I approached the luggage scanner, I removed my wallet and stuffed it in the bottom of my carry-on bag. More than 500 TSA agents have been fired for robbing passengers. In July, three TSA agents at Miami International Airport were arrested because they pilfered property “while the passengers were distracted with their own screenings and not paying attention to their items,” the New York Post reported. A TSA agent admitted to partnering with another TSA employee to steal a thousand dollars a day, including grabbing cash from wallets sent through TSA x-ray systems.

TSA decrees are wildly inconsistent, but every command is presumed sacrosanct. Flying out of Washington Dulles Airport the prior week, I was told to keep my laptop in my courier bag. Fine by me. In Dallas, a TSA drill sergeant wannabe barked orders for everyone to remove their laptops and lay them out before sending through the x-ray machines. TSA agents have been caught selling stolen laptops on eBay, so I tried to keep an eye on my computer.

TSA lunacy also obliged me to modify my attire. Instead of good ol’ blue jeans, I was , wearing Dockers. Prior to entering TSA’s Whole Body Scanner at Washington National Airport for a recent flight, I did everything right – emptied my pockets, removed my belt and boots, and sported a friendly smile (ok, not that friendly). But as I exited the scanner, a TSA supervisor grimly announced, “We have to do a supplemental patdown.”

“What the heck are you talking about?” I groused. 

He pointed to the large screen next to the scanner that showed the problem: an illuminated thin line directly in front of my groin.

“That’s the zipper on my pants,” I exclaimed.

“Sir, we have to do a supplemental patdown. If you want it conducted in a private room, we can do that,” came the rote TSA reply.

“Hell no. Let’s do it where the TSA surveillance cameras record the search.”

Never, ever go into a private room with TSA agents.

A tall, heavyset TSA agent with his hair tied in a bun atop his head came up and began vigorously grappling my ankles. Did TSA agents have a daily quote for groping or what? As I left the checkpoint, I muttered about TSA standing for “Too Stupid for Arby’s.”

 Dockers were slightly less likely to trigger this boneheaded alert than blue jeans. But it wasn’t my fault that TSA screeners failed to detect 95 percent of the test bombs and weapons during covert tests by federal inspectors.

I had no trouble in the Whole-Body Scanner in Dallas last week, but my carry-on bag failed the TSA inspection.

A beefy young female agent hoisted my bag and carted it to the end of the checkpoint area. She was the final participant in the gauntlet of village idiocy that I had to pass before reaching my plane. She summoned me to explain its contents and my depravity. “Is there anything sharp in this bag?”

“No,” I replied. Geez, how much did TSA pay for x-ray gizmos that were more obtuse than a presidential speechwriter?

She unzipped my bag and began pawing through it. In lieu of a machete, she found a small half-full jar of peanut butter.

“You can’t take liquids on a flight,” she announced solemnly.

“It’s peanut butter. It’s not liquid.”

“It’s liquid and it’s prohibited,” was her decree. Did TSA covertly classify peanut butter as a bioweapon, or what?

“Ya, whatever,” I said as I abandoned the jar to federal custody.

Chatting with another jaded traveler as I put my boots back after clearing the checkpoint, he asked if I was upset about losing my peanut butter.

I smiled: “I’ll settle accounts with TSA later.”

Joe Rogan forced The Rock to backpedal on his claim that he has ‘friends who support Biden.’

After Rogan made the point that political discourse has become extremely polarized, The Rock chimed in:

“I have friends who support Trump. I have friends who support Biden,” to which Rogan jumped in and asked “Do you really have friends who support Biden?”

“No, no, no, no, no… Thank you. That’s a good check because that’s important. This is important context. They support the Democratic Party.”

NEW: The Rock backtracks after saying he has friends who support President Joe Biden.

Rock: “I have friends who support Trump. I have friends who support Biden.”

Rogan: “Do you really have friends who support Biden?”

Rock: “No, no, no, no, no… Thank you. That’s a good check… pic.twitter.com/IGUDmx8Hfp

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 15, 2023

The Rock also took heat for not knowing what the Cybertruck is.

According to a recent poll from ABC News/Ipsos, just 23% of Americans think the country is headed in the right direction under President Biden. Republicans, as expected, were overwhelmingly negative – with 95% saying things are headed in the wrong direction, followed by 76% of independents and 54% of Democrats.

And following a recent NY Times-Siena College survey which showed Donald Trump smoking Biden in five out of six key swing states, the Washington Post penned a worried screed suggesting that Democrats need another candidate next year. 

It would seem Democrats are leaving plenty of potential voters on the table — and possibly victory — with Biden. And some are spotlighting this as a reason to nominate someone else.

Former Barack Obama strategist David Axelrod floated that possibility, and Bill Kristol explicitly endorsed it while citing the “generic” ballot. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), who has launched a primary bid against Biden, also cited that finding, saying, “I could offer no statement more powerful than the one made by suffering Americans in today’s NY Times poll.” -WaPo

All the way back in April, nearly 2/3 of Democrats said in a Rasmussen poll that they want to see challengers run against Biden in 2024.

Biden 2024? 62% of Democrats Want Challengers

Majority of Democrats support RFK, Jr. Presidential Campaign https://t.co/Q9zkNAjLY7 pic.twitter.com/JIuyXnDqei

— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) April 12, 2023

Via The Cradle,

The second-in-command of the Lebanese resistance says Israel would have ‘collapsed within days’ of 7 October were it not for the support of the US…

In an extensive interview with Spanish daily El Mundo, the Deputy Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, said that attacking US positions in West Asia is “essential” to stop the mass murder of Palestinians in Gaza due to the unfettered support given by Washington to Tel Aviv.

“It is the [western] axis that supports the occupation, legitimizes the murder of children and women, the destruction of hospitals, and grants immunity to Israel to continue its massacres. The US is supporting these massacres, and that is why attacking the US is essential to stop the aggression against Gaza,” Qassem said in the interview published on 14 November.

“US military intervention is part of the violent Israeli reaction and serves to protect this monstrosity,” the Hezbollah deputy chief stressed.

US bases in Iraq and Syria have come under daily bombardment since 17 October by local resistance factions, prompting the Pentagon to deploy nearly a dozen warships, thousands of troops, and heavy weapons to the region.

The Hezbollah official also stressed that Israel “still stands [today] because of the support of the US.”

“You heard Nasrallah say in 2006 that Israel was more fragile than a spider’s web. Israel is weak. Their society is not motivated to defend their country. This is what happened on [7 October]. The amount of time it took for politicians and the army to react was unreal. If Israel still stands, it is because of the support of the United States. Otherwise, it would have collapsed within a few days. Israel is under intensive care by the west and we do not know how much longer it will last.”

When asked about the fighting between Hezbollah and the Israeli army at the Lebanese border – which has been ongoing since 8 October – Qassem said Hezbollah has a plan to “force Israel to restrain itself.”

Nonetheless, he added that any decision “will be made on the battlefield,” as the possibility of the fighting spreading beyond the Lebanese border region depends on “the evolution of the Gaza war and on Israel’s (hypothetical) decision to start a broader war.”

“If they attack us, we will have to defend ourselves, and we will use all of our power,” he told El Mundo.

When pressed on whether the “broader war” would be precipitated by a defeat of the resistance in Gaza, Qassem told the interviewer: “We will decide when the time comes. Now is not the time to talk about red lines.”

The Hezbollah leader also illustrated that the main difference between the Lebanese resistance and the Israeli army goes far beyond each other’s arsenal, saying: “A confrontation cannot be measured only in terms of military capacity. The motivation and desire of the resistance to defend its people and land exerts great influence. We do not take into account the balance of power. We only seek to ensure that the enemy does not achieve its objectives; that is the real victory.”

Qassem added that Hezbollah today is “in a much better position” than in 2006 when Israel was handed a humbling defeat at the hands of the resistance. “We don’t need weapons. Our warehouses are full. In fact, we need more warehouses,” he stressed.

“If Israel uses nuclear weapons, it will kill the Israelis before it kills us. This is a very small territory. In any case, we are not afraid of nuclear weapons. [The statements by the member of the Israeli cabinet] are an example of their arrogance. The west should tell us what it thinks about an Israeli minister suggesting the use of nuclear weapons.”

“If Israel decides to extend the aggression [against Lebanon], it will be digging its own grave and giving us a good opportunity to eliminate it once and for all,” Qassem asserted.

He also took aim at the posture taken by western media outlets, saying they act “as if Israel has a right to [the occupied territories] and is the victim.”

“The reality is that Palestinians are the occupied ones, and Israel is the occupier. We have to confront the problem of the occupation and not that of resistance to the occupation. For Hezbollah, Israel has no right to exist, and Palestinians are the real owners of that land. But it is up to the Palestinians, including Palestinian Jews, to decide their future. Those who have come from all over the world have no right to steal that land.”