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Just in time for the Al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s (HTS) lightning conquest of Syria, a western PR campaign was launched to rebrand the terror group’s leader, Abu Mohammad al-Julani.

The BBC assured their readers that Julani, now commonly referred to as Ahmed al-Sharaa – which is his real name – had “reinvented himself,” while the Telegraph insisted that the former deputy to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is now “diversity friendly.”

On December 6, just days before entering the capital Damascus, Julani sat down with CNN journalist Jomana Karadsheh for an exclusive interview to explain his past.

Read it.

He hadn’t done that yet?

Read it.

NBC’s Meet the Depressed pulled off an interesting feat today, wrapping a justification of the murder of the CEO of United HealthCare into an attempted cleanup of the previous justification that ran on NBC air time.

Watch as host Kristen Welker sets Senator Bernie Sanders up for a double “but”.

The Foundry.

Even before we knew the targeted killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson by Luigi Mangione was politically motivated, many leftists were justifying, celebrating, and rationalizing the shooting. There’s a real debate going on in some quarters of the progressive Left over whether slaying CEOs is a bad thing. And it’s unsurprising.

Of course, if any MAGA professors or journalists were online publicly defending the killing of perceived political enemies, there would be thousands of wringing hands lamenting the menacing rhetoric of conservatism. And rightly so.

But the unhinged demonization of the health care insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and Big Oil are now the norm. A generation of college students has been indoctrinated into believing the profit motive is killing people when the opposite is true.

Alarming Mutation in H5N1 Virus Raises Pandemic Red Flags (SciTechDaily)

Bird flu is a real pandemic threat. Are we prepared for the worst? (The Guardian)

‘America’s handling of the bird flu crisis is putting, and will continue to put, the entire world at risk’ (Le Monde) Those wascally Amewicans!

Mega-Farms Are Driving the Threat of Bird Flu (WIRED)

ABC agrees to give $15 million to Donald Trump’s presidential library to settle defamation lawsuit (Associated Press)

ABC News settles defamation suit with Trump for $15 million (CNN)

George Stephanopoulos and ABC apologize to Trump, are forced to pay $15 million to settle defamation suit (Fox News)

ABC Faces Anger After $15M Trump Settlement: ‘Democracy Dies’ (Newsweek)

Chris Rock stuns SNL audience with brutal Bill Clinton dig as he savages anti-Trump liberals (The Guardian)

New Mexico Governor Refuses National Guard Deployment for Mass Deportations (Billal Rahman/Newsweek)

D.C. restaurant server fired after comments about refusing service to some Trump officials (Fox News)

Politico’s Biggest Trump Hater Warns Against Kash Patel FBI Appointment

Ex-CNN Host Don Lemon Uncorks TikTok Tantrum Over Trump as TIME ‘Person of the Year’

Universities warn international students to return before Trump inauguration (Axios)

‘Trump has been explicit about revenge’: Asif Kapadia on his new film about the threat to democracy (Carole Cadwalladr/The Guardian)

Big donors secure big roles in the incoming Trump administration (CNN)  As always happened with Democrats.

Trump’s CDC pick wouldn’t let go of false theory vaccines cause autism (Washington Post)

McConnell has the chutzpah to complain about Trump’s ‘America First’ (Jennifer Rubin/Washington Post)  Jennifer Rubin loses her shit.

His Family Voted to Support Trump’s Deportation Plan. That Includes Him. (New York Times)

Trump and His Picks Threaten More Lawsuits Over Critical Coverage (David Enrich/New York Times)

Read it.

It was 25 years ago this week (December 14, 1999) that conservative powerhouse William F. Buckley recorded the final episode of his award-winning talk show, Firing Line. That occasion, as with other important milestones in Buckley’s long and influential career, brought to the surface the liberal media establishment’s hostility toward the retiring host as well as their disdain for the broader conservative movement he helped launch.

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We’re at the point where I may have to get one.

Read it.

BioWare, developer of the wildly popular Mass Effect and Dragon Age video game series, is at the center of a new battle.

Following the failed launch of two costly triple-A titles, the studio was banking on a win. Its latest offering is the fourth title in the Dragon Age series; the last was released 10 years ago.

Initial reactions to trailers for Dragon Age: The Veilguard were decidedly negative. Longtime fans of the series criticized the softer, stylized art of the new game, comparing it to a Disney-Pixar movie.

But after BioWare invited a group of streamers and critics to a private, hands-on demo of the game, hope was rekindled. Those who had experienced Veilguard firsthand were generally positive, and encouraged fans of the series to wait for the full release.

Days before its release, clips of Veilguard were leaked, revealing that the game was rife with transgender ideology and messaging based on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

One scene showed a character doing pushups as penance for forgetting to use “they/them” pronouns, and then lecturing about how a simple apology was not enough for the crime of “misgendering.”

Another scene, in a high fantasy setting with dragons and elves, showed a character revealing to her parents that she identified as nonbinary.

The game’s character customization system does not allow for the creation of curvy female characters but it does allow players to add mastectomy scars.

Read it.

What do cryogenics, butterfat tests, and genetic data have in common? They’re some of the reasons behind the world’s most productive dairy cows. Here’s how it all started.

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When the dust of history settles, some episodes are destined for the “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up” department. Case in point: Climate Defiance, a climate activism group, recently made headlines by “shutting down” the Department of Energy. Or so they claimed. In reality, they staged a protest blocking the entrance to an unused parking garage, which is as effective as barricading a revolving door with a sticky note. Their social media triumphalism was rich: “Revolution in the air!” they proclaimed, while senior DOE officials apparently remained blissfully unaware of this Earth-shaking inconvenience.

New York Times.

People came by the thousands the day after the rebels arrived in Damascus, racing down the once desolate stretch of road, up a jagged footpath cut into the limestone hillside and through the towering metal gates of Syria’s most notorious prison. They flooded the halls lined with cells, searching for loved ones who had disappeared into the black hole of torture prisons under Bashar al-Assad’s government.

Some tore through the offices of the prison, Sednaya, looking for maps of the building and prisoner logs. One woman shoved a photograph of her missing son toward others walking by, hoping someone had found him. “Do you recognize him?” she pleaded. “Please, please, did you see him?”

In the entrance hall of one section, dozens of men with sledgehammers and pickaxes tore up the floors, convinced there were secret cells with more prisoners deep underground. Crowds swelled around them as people clambered to see what they found, pausing only when Israeli airstrikes landed close enough to shake the prison’s walls.

Trump Team Weighing Options For Preemptive Airstrikes On Iran’s Nuclear Program

Experts predict mass deportation would damage US economy (Patrick Terpstra/Scripps News)  Experts!

Mitch McConnell Decries ‘Dangerous’ Push Against Polio Vaccine After RFK Jr. Report (Igor Bobic/HuffPost)

Trump calls for mystery drones to be shot down (Juliann Ventura/The Hill)

The Biden administration is trying to thwart Trump on its way out

Trump wants to turn the clock on daylight saving time (Jill Colvin/Associated Press)

McConnell Defends Polio Vaccine, an Apparent Warning to Kennedy (Sheryl Gay Stolberg/New York Times)

The Memo: Trump revels as establishment figures pay homage at home and abroad (Niall Stanage/The Hill)

Polio survivor Mitch McConnell criticizes efforts to undermine vaccine (Maegan Vazquez/Washington Post)

PBS Re-Uses Radical ‘Expert’ to Rip Hegseth Cross Tattoo, Compare Him to Mass Shooters

In Display of Fealty, Tech Industry Curries Favor With Trump (New York Times)

Trump’s Transition Business Largely Happens After Night Falls (Michael D. Shear/New York Times)

CNN’s Jake Tapper Reheats Leftist Hot Take on Trump as Vicious ‘Jurassic Park’ Velociraptor

Trump nominates conservative culture warrior to lead DOJ civil rights (NBC News)

PBS Mourns Wray ‘Allowed’ Trump ‘To Shatter Yet Another Norm’

LA Times billionaire owner killed op-ed that was critical of Trump’s cabinet picks, report says (Justin Baragona/The Independent)

The Trump Show Is Returning. Will It Be Triumph, Tragedy or Farce? (James Poniewozik/New York Times)

Inside Democrats’ emerging Trump inauguration boycott (Axios)  Good riddance.

Trump brings political drama to Army-Navy game sidelines (Michael Dorgan/Fox News)

How GOP Senators Are Secretly Getting Ready to Surrender to Trump (Greg Sargent/New Republic)

Ruhle Tries To Tie Celebrating CEO’s Murder To Taking Daniel Penny To Army-Navy Game

Trump’s plan to end birthright citizenship could be decided by the Supreme Court (Politico)  Of course it will. Everything is decided by the Supreme Court these days.

Sigh… Gen Z Interns Are Still Tweeting About Project 2025 From Biden’s X Account

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uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it… whose fault is it? The cats or the uncovered meat?” According to him, an unveiled woman is like “uncovered meat”, and deserves whatever might happen to her.

In the following video, a group of “Italian” culture-enrichers attempts to explain the uncovered meat principle to a young woman who catches their collective eye.

Read it.

Scientists have uncovered the first direct evidence that ancient Americans relied primarily on mammoth and other large animals for food. Their research sheds new light on both the rapid expansion of humans throughout the Americas and the extinction of large ice age mammals.

The study, featured on the Dec. 4 cover of the journal Science Advances, used stable isotope analysis to model the diet of the mother of an infant discovered at a 13,000-year-old Clovis burial site in Montana. Before this study, prehistoric diet was inferred by analyzing secondary evidence, such as stone tools or the preserved remains of prey animals.

The findings support the hypothesis that Clovis people specialized in hunting large animals rather than primarily foraging for smaller animals and plants.

The Times (UK).

Three might be a crowd but four appears to be the magic number when it comes to conversation. And, according to an academic who has spent decades studying how we socialise, William Shakespeare instinctively understood that.

Professor Robin Dunbar, an anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist at the University of Oxford, is known for “Dunbar’s number”, which alludes to his theory that most of us are able to sustain about 150 social connections.

But his research has also explored how people act in smaller groups. At Cheltenham Science Festival he explained that when it comes to having an enjoyable chat, the upper limit is a gang of four. When social groups have five or more members, the chances of them laughing together plummets.

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The U.S.-Mexico border has long been a hotspot for crime and illicit activity. Certain gangs come and go on the border. All gang-affiliated detentions are recorded on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s website, which we used to bring you a list of the gangs that are increasingly becoming a problem at the U.S. Border.

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Disgraced Luzerne County Pennsylvania Judge – Democrat Michael Conahan was convicted of wrongfully sentencing juveniles to prison in exchange for 2.1 million dollars in kickbacks from for-profit detention centers. More than 2500 kids were imprisoned. One committed suicide. In 2011 he was sentenced to 17 1/2 years in prison. It should have been life, IMO. But his sentence was just commuted by Biden.

UPDATE: Fury Erupts As Biden Commutes Sentence Of Infamous ‘Kids-For-Cash’ Judge

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New York’s population could decline by more than 2 million people over the next 25 years as fewer people are born in the state and more people move out, according to a new report.

The study by Cornell University’s Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy’s Program on Applied Demographics projects that New York faces a significant population decline due to low fertility rates and aging that has not been offset by new arrivals.

“The projections confirm what we have been seeing for some time, which is that if the demographic trends in the state do not change, its population will continue to decline,” Jan Vink, lead analyst for the study, said in a statement. “Conservative estimates suggest a population decrease of 1 million by 2050, but we think an even greater decline is more likely.”

Time to leave.

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In the wake of the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, many on the political left have demonstrated a level of moral degeneracy that is, paradoxically, both shocking and entirely unsurprising.

The celebration of the murder, of its perpetrator, and of the violent populist spirit that animated him has been both off-putting and edifying. They have exposed certain influential figures among the American media and political elites as incorrigibly depraved. More to the point, they have exposed these same figures as monstrously ignorant, not just about the moral necessities of a functional society but also about the fundamentals of governance and finance.

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Government excels at NOT getting things done. But politicians promise more things anyway.

Kamala Harris declared that our government would “build thousands of miles of fiber-optic cable!” This “broadband connectivity agenda” was supported by “every House Republican on Energy and Commerce,” write Republican representatives.

Three years later, not a single person has been connected.

Read it.

Millions of Americans dutifully fill their recycling bins each week, motivated by the knowledge that they’re doing something good for the environment. But the sad fact is that much of what is tossed in the recycling bin is eventually heaped into landfills.

John Stossel brought attention to the issue in a video segment shared on X Thursday morning, to which Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk replied, “Recycling is pointless.”

While this bombshell might be jarring – especially if you’re someone who dutifully cleans their recyclables before caringly placing them in bins – Thomas Kinnaman, an environmental economist from Bucknell University, says it’s actually not as bad as you think.

If it were up to me, all of it would be thrown in the trash, and my recycling bins would be empty. But my wife was Raised To Recycle, so that’s not an option.

Read it.

Bashar al-Assad’s regime is the latest casualty of Iran’s war on Israel. After keeping his hold on Syria through 13 years of civil war, Assad fled to Russia last weekend just before a new rebel offensive took Damascus. More than two decades of dictatorship ended in less than two weeks of fighting.

As Assad and his family packed their bags, foreign ministers from Turkey, Iran, and Russia met to discuss Syria’s future. The Iranians and Russians got a big helping of Turkish delight to go with their humble pie. Turkey has emerged as one of the big winners of the faltering American-led order, and others will use Ankara’s secret recipe in the future.

Turkey doesn’t belong in NATO. It doesn’t border the North Atlantic, and the Soviet Union is long gone.

s

Read it.

A new study calculates that exposure to car exhaust from leaded gas during childhood altered the balance of mental health in the U.S. population, making generations of Americans more depressed, anxious inattentive or hyperactive. The research estimates that 151 million cases of psychiatric disorder over the past 75 years have resulted from American children’s exposure to lead.

…

“This is the exact approach we have taken in the past to estimate lead’s harms for population cognitive ability and IQ,” McFarland said, noting that the research team previously identified that lead stole 824 million IQ points from the U.S. population over the past century.

Well, that explains Democrats.

Read it.

Different researchers have different definitions as to what classifies as a species. It is undisputed that H. sapiens and Neanderthals originate from the same parental species, however studies into Neanderthal genetics and evolution have reignited the debate over whether they should be classed as separate from H. sapiens or rather a subspecies (H. sapiens neanderthalensis).

Just in case you were wondering. I know I was.

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Nor ever has been. (Who didn’t know that? How is this news?)

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Next they’ll be suing cutlery companies for “knife violence’.

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A 20-year-old woman has filed suit against California hospitals and doctors, saying they rushed to conclude she suffered from gender dysphoria and then “fast-tracked [her] onto the conveyor belt of irreversibly damaging” medical interventions that included puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and a double-mastectomy at age 14.

According to the complaint filed in Los Angeles, Kaya Clementine Breen says she was sexually abused as a young child and that, around age 11 or 12, “began struggling with the thought of developing into a woman and began to believe that life would be easier if she were a boy.” When she shared those feelings with a school counselor, the counselor told Breen that she must be transgender, and then called her parents to push the same assumption as a fact.

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The New York Times added menstrual products to its Manhattan office’s men’s bathrooms over the summer, according to internal communications obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The paper’s decision was announced by the vice president for global real estate and facilities, Victor Liu, in a company-wide Slack message. From July 26 to July 29, Liu said, the company would begin “adding menstrual products and sanitary baskets” to the office’s men’s restrooms “to support transgender and non-binary colleagues.” The company also announced that it was “removing gendered imagery and adding language that colleagues are welcome to use the restroom in which they feel most comfortable.”

The move highlights the growing cultural and political rift between legacy media companies and the general public. Polls show that Americans generally support policies that require individuals who identify as transgender to use bathrooms that match their biological sex. President-elect Donald Trump hammered the transgender issue in his successful campaign last fall, which surveys show was one of his most impactful talking points.

The Times declined to comment.

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Lawmakers in Michigan—one of the most fiercely contested battleground states in the 2024 presidential election—will consider an amendment to the state Constitution to ensure that only citizens vote.

Michigan state Rep. Bryan Posthumus, the No. 2 Republican in the House as floor leader, says that next month he will propose a constitutional amendment requiring prospective voters to produce proof of U.S. citizenship during voter registration and a government-issued photo ID when casting a ballot.

Current Michigan law allows either an ID or a signed affidavit.

Posthumus’ proposal is in response to a Chinese national who cast a ballot this year in Ann Arbor, Michigan, during early voting.

Although the Chinese national reported himself, local officials said the vote was still counted because there is nothing to be done after a ballot goes through a tabulator. He was charged with illegally voting and perjury for falsely stating in an affidavit that he was a U.S. citizen when registering to vote.

“They can no longer say this is a right-wing conspiracy theory. A foreign national voted in Michigan,” Posthumus told The Daily Signal. “The reason we know he voted is because he stood up and told on himself. Now that people know it can be done, what’s to stop others from trying to illegally vote again?”

The Michigan proposal also comes after eight other states enacted laws or approved constitutional amendments on the November ballot to ensure that only U.S. citizens can vote.

Read it.

Three new species of superconductivity were spotted this year, illustrating the myriad ways electrons can join together to form a frictionless quantum soup.

Posts Falsely Question Citizenship of Trump’s Children Under His Birthright Plan.

The Cracks Are Already Starting to Show (Politico)

Newsom said he’s going to ‘Trump-proof’ California. What does that mean? (SFGate)

Newsom lines up resistance to Trump’s second term (The Hill)

Daily Shows Mocks Hegseth’s Pledge Not To Drink, GOP For Believing Him

Drones, Dogs, Drug Labs: Canada’s Plan to Avoid Trump’s Tariffs Takes Shape (New York Times)

Republicans Would Not Be That Bothered if Trump Goes After Political Enemies (Victoria Prodeline/Monmouth University …)  Considering that Democrats do it as a matter of course. Sauce for the goose….

‘It’ll Be Brutal’: Inside Trump’s Planned War on Leakers and the Press (Rolling Stone)

Jan. 6 committee chair says he’d accept preemptive pardon if Biden offers (Sarah Fortinsky/The Hill)

Rep. Raskin: Dems in ‘Fight of Our Lives’ Post Trump Victory

Christopher Wray Is Preparing to Sabotage Trump and Patel (Matt Margolis/PJ Media)

EXCLUSIVE: Biden Races To Sell Off Border Wall Parts Before Trump Takes Office (James Lalino/The Daily Wire)

The FBI’s Turning Point (Sarah Longwell/The Bulwark)

SEC charges Cantor Fitzgerald, led by Trump’s Commerce pick, with breaking securities laws (Christina Wilkie/CNBC)

‘Now she’s the world’s problem’: Some Arizona Republicans relieved Lake is heading to Washington (Megan Messerly/Politico)

PBS Warns of Rising Misogyny After Trump Win Based on 24-Hour Leftist Study

Should the Trump Administration Do to the Democrats What They Did to Him?

Trump allies pressure GOP senators to back Cabinet picks – or else (Liz Goodwin/Washington Post)

Trump to discuss ending childhood vaccination programs with RFK Jr. (Reuters)

Hegseth does a 180 on women and gays in combat (Politico)

Trump’s Tax Cuts May Fail to Drive Much, If Any, Economic Boost (Enda Curran/Bloomberg)

Dr. Mehmet Oz had up to $33 million in companies doing business with agency he’d run (Erin Mansfield/USA Today)  Jeez, you’d think he was a Democrat.

Trump’s Border Czar Is a Terrible Person (Bill Lueders/The Bulwark)

Meyers Wonders How Voters Could Chose Trump Amid His Wall Street Trip

Biden Admin Scrambling To Auction Off Border-Wall Sections Before Trump Takes Office

America voted for a dumpster fire – Democrats just need to let it burn itself out (Chris Truax/The Hill)

Trump Is About to Betray His Rural Supporters (Ronald Brownstein/The Atlantic)

The Conspiracy World Is Pushing Paranoia About a Post-Inauguration “Plandemic” (Anna Merlan/Mother Jones)

NYC Mayor Eric Adams Stuns Lefty Reporters By Going Full MAGA  Well, he was once a Republican.

‘Everyone’s demoralized.’ Trump’s climate threats rattle world’s biggest science meeting (Politico)

Networks Go All Out to Paint Trump as Admitting He Can’t Improve Economy

Survey: Most voters disapprove of RFK Jr.’s nomination after learning his views (Nathaniel Weixel/The Hill)  Or, rather, the Narrative Media’s distortions of his views.

Read it.

Amy Wax, the tenured law professor who was disciplined by the University of Pennsylvania for making controversial remarks about race and gender, told Penn on Thursday that she will sue the university for race discrimination if it does not drop the sanctions against her, according to a letter from Wax’s lawyers obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. It’s the latest salvo in a nearly three-year-long battle between Wax and the Ivy League school, which announced in September that it was suspending her at half-pay for one year.

Penn has until December 19 to “conclusively disavow” those penalties. “Should you fail to do so,” the letter states, “Professor Wax will file suit against the University.”

Because Penn promises its professors academic freedom, the letter argues that the school breached its contract with Wax by punishing her for protected speech. It notes that Penn took no action against professors who spewed anti-Semitic bile after the October 7 attacks. And it uses Penn’s double standard to make a creative legal argument: By punishing speech that offended racial minorities—but not speech that offended Jews—the university engaged in unlawful race discrimination when it singled Wax out for punishment, the letter says.

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A former judge who sent juveniles to prison in the “Kids for Cash” kickback scandal. A former city official in Illinois who orchestrated the largest municipal embezzlement in state history. A journalist who manufactured a fentanyl-like drug dubbed “the most potent” in the United States.

Those are just a few of the nearly 1,500 federal convicts whom President Joe Biden granted clemency on Thursday in what the White House touted as “the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history.”

The White House framed the move as part of Biden’s “record of criminal justice reform to help reunite families, strengthen communities, and reintegrate individuals back into society,” touting clemency awarded to a “decorated military veteran” who helps fellow church members, and a nurse who “spearheaded vaccination efforts.” Biden has faced intense pressure to issue mass clemencies after pardoning his son, Hunter—who faced sentencing for felony gun charges and tax evasion—of any federal crime he may have committed in more than a decade.

A Washington Free Beacon review of those who received clemency shows that many of the recipients were serving sentences for serious crimes

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The Equal Rights Amendment is dead. Not, as Miracle Max put it in “The Princess Bride,” “mostly dead,” but “all dead.” ERA advocates, however, just won’t let it rest in peace.

Forty-six Senate Democrats have written President Joe Biden, asking that he help perpetuate the ERA myth even as he leaves office, requesting that he “direct the archivist of the United States to certify and publish the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) as the 28th Amendment …” It won’t work.

Read it.

Of course she lied. We all know that she lied.

ZMan’s weekly podcast. Highly recommended.

One of the interesting things about what is happening in Syria is that it is not just the fall of the government but a collapse of Syrian society. When Assad fled, everyone in his government went into hiding. The people running various parts of the system abandoned their posts, leaving no government at all. The money is worthless, so the economy has ceased to function.

Then you have the gangs of lunatics running around, supported by your tax dollars, making sure nothing is working. Now we are getting word that remnants of the military are forming up into war bands. Soon the various ethnic and religious groups will do the same and the result will be a war zone where lightly armed war bands fight with one another for control of increasingly worthless land.

In other words, Syria collapsed and went from a poorly functioning country to something like a fallen Bronze Age society. This is not just the fall of a government but the collapse of everything, which is not something we often see. The last example is Libya, which was not much a society before we killed Gaddafi. The most recent example is the collapse of the Soviet Union three decades ago.

That is the show this week. Societal collapse is a rare thing, but Syria is a good reminder that it can still happen. The conditions are pretty similar in all the big examples of collapse. Of course, once you start thinking about those conditions, the West begins to look a bit fragile. Syria is also a reminder that collapse always catches people by surprise, even those causing it.

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The Department of Justice quietly weighed in on litigation pending before the Supreme Court this week, siding with liberal cities and states that are seeking to force the nation’s largest oil companies to pay billions of dollars in damages for global warming.

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar filed briefs this week in two related cases: one brought by Honolulu officials in 2020 and another filed by Alabama and 18 other GOP-led states that are asking the court to block litigation against oil companies in California, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Rhode Island.

In the Honolulu case, the solicitor general urged the Supreme Court to reject the fossil fuel defendants’ request for the court to “review and clarify” whether state law is able to impose the costs of global climate change “on a subset of the world’s energy producers.” And in the Alabama case, Prelogar wrote that the Supreme Court should allow Democratic states to pursue their individual lawsuits against the various companies.

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A federal magistrate judge moved to release a Chinese national accused of taking covert drone shots of a military base in central California on cashless bail. That same judge once held former Trump administration education secretary Betsy DeVos in contempt of court, fined her $100,000, and threatened to send her to jail.

Sallie Kim, a former Stanford administrator, issued the ruling on Tuesday, court filings show. She determined that Chinese national Yinpiao Zhou should walk free on his own personal recognizance as federal prosecutors pursue charges against him for flying a hacked drone over Vandenberg Space Force Base. Federal agents arrested Zhou as he attempted to board a China-bound flight in San Francisco.

The decision appears to have raised eyebrows at the Department of Justice, which is appealing Kim’s order.

“Mr. Zhou made his initial appearance yesterday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco,” a department spokesman told the Washington Free Beacon in a statement provided late Wednesday. “United States Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim ordered him released on personal recognizance. Our office is appealing that ruling. Zhou remains in federal custody.”

The court declined to comment.

Read it.

Only rich people will be able to eat out in L.A. And Democrats are good with that.

Rolling Stone, a Voice of the Crust.

Democrats, in the minority, always act as if they were in the majority, issuing demands.

Democrats invariably demand that their opponents not do what Democrats habitually do.

CNN, a Voice of the Crust.

And if you believe that one, they’ll tell you another one.

UPDATE: DOJ IG reveals 26 FBI informants were present on Jan. 6 (Fox News)

New York Magazine, a Voice of the Crust.

Note the proglodyte toolbox: (1) Conflate two things at a high-level of abstraction (‘vigilante-worship”) that, when examined, aren’t even close to being the same; (2) accuse those who don’t accept this equivalence of ‘double-standards’ or ‘hypocrisy’; (3) use this verbal smash-and-grab as a stick to beat the Heretics and Sinners. Rinse, repeat.

Fortune, a Voice of the Crust.

In the early 19404s, having so much of the U.S. population in military service caused a severe labor shortage, and in order to entice the remaining eligible population to join the workforce, employers began hiking wages. Fearing a wave of inflation as a result of the hiring push, President Franklin Roosevelt created the Office of Esconomic Stabilization and authorized wage controls through the Stabilization Act of 1942. The move forced employers to instead use increased health insurance benefits as an incentive. To accommodate the growing number of Americans receiving health care through employee-provided insurance, Congress passed the Hill-Burton Act in 1946 to build and expand U.S. hospitals.

So, as is traditional, the problem was caused by the government meddling in the economy. And it still continues to do so — one of the big problems with ‘Obamacare’ is the government mandating coverage that they think everybody ought to have, like abortion and contraceptive coverage for nuns, rather than letting people do what suits them best. The ‘problem’ is not employer-sponsored insurance; the problem is government meddling.

The Guardian, a Voice of the Crust.

Experts warn that mirror bacteria, constructed from mirror images of molecules found in nature, could put humans, animals and plants at risk of lethal infections.

What ‘scientists’? What ‘experts’? Nobody ever says, specifically, so that we might judge their expertise and evaluate whether they are or are not credible.

World-leading scientists have called for a halt on research to create “mirror life” microbes amid concerns that the synthetic organisms would present an “unprecedented risk” to life on Earth.

The international group of Nobel laureates and other experts warn that mirror bacteria, constructed from mirror images of molecules found in nature, could become established in the environment and slip past the immune defences of natural organisms, putting humans, animals and plants at risk of lethal infections.

Although a viable mirror microbe would probably take at least a decade to build, a new risk assessment raised such serious concerns about the organisms that the 38-strong group urged scientists to stop work towards the goal and asked funders to make clear they will no longer support the research.

Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect.

Chicken Little, call your office.

UPDATE The Wailing Scientists of Washington: Fear-Mongering in Lab Coats

Trump’s Birthright-Citizenship Threat Shows His True Target (New York Magazine)

Trump vows to end birthright citizenship and pardon US Capitol rioters (BBC)

This is why Donald Trump just doubled down on mass deportation of millions of immigrants (L.A. Times)

The Republicans’ plan to redefine US citizenship is Authoritarianism 101 (The Hill)

Trump-hatred, fear, and cutoff

Trump’s Cabinet Picks Show That the G.O.P. Is Hollowed Out, Too (Jamelle Bouie/New York Times)

CNN Warns Wray’s Resignation Signals ‘Real Politicization Of The FBI’

Republican lawmakers invite a Jan. 6 felon to Trump’s inauguration (Kyle Cheney/Politico)

Trump says he supports DREAMers. His past actions say differently. (Li Zhou/Vox)

Cash-Strapped California Considers $15 Million Plan To Fight Trump Deportations

White House warns Trump of consequences of undoing key parts of Biden’s legacy (Sahil Kapur/NBC News)

Manchin and Sinema Screw Biden Yet Again, Give Trump Control of Labor Board (Miles Klee/Rolling Stone)

Colleges Warn International Students to Return Ahead of Trump Term (Sharon Otterman/New York Times)

Chris Wray folds like cheap suit. Don’t be Chris Wray. (Noah Berlatsky/Public Notice)

‘Broad New Precedent’: Biden Issuing Preemptive Pardons to Trump Opponents Would Be Big Expansion of Power

Power, Intimidation and the Resurrection of Trump’s Support for Hegseth (New York Times)

Far-Right Militias Seek Role in Trump Deportation Plan (Alan Feuer/New York Times) To the Narrative Media, there is no right but the far-right.

‘USA’ Chants Roar As Trump Rings NYSE Bell After Being Named TIME ‘Person Of The Year’  Not all derangements are negative.

No Winners Seen in Trump’s ‘Hugely Destructive’ Energy Tariffs (Bloomberg)  Although most of them are.

Pete Hegseth, Trump’s Defense pick, says allowing gay troops to serve openly reflects a Marxist agenda (CNN)

Meyers Proves He Doesn’t Know How Tax Cuts Work As He Claims ‘Trump Lied’

Yes, It Was a Landslide … Having lost the election, demoralized Democrats now argue their defeat wasn’t a landslide. (J.T. Young/American Greatness)

Trump’s Kari Lake ‘pick’ sparks fears at Voice of America (Brian Stelter/CNN)  More accurately, the Voice of Anti-America.

Trump Says His 1st Acts Will Include Deportations and Jan. 6 Pardons (Michael D. Shear/New York Times)

Fact-Checking What Donald Trump Said in His 2024 Person of the Year Interview With TIME (Time)

Trump’s conspiracy cabinet is about to take over the deep state (Avery Lotz/Axios)

“That’s Journalism”: ProPublica Pats Itself On Back After Hegseth Hitpiece Humiliation

Trump Is Starting to Walk Back His Vow to Bring Down Grocery Prices (Ryan Bort/Rolling Stone)

Chris Wray’s Pre-Surrender (William Kristol/The Bulwark)

Google Quietly Thwarting Trump Nominees with Leftist Results for Fourth Straight Week

FBI missed ‘basic step’ when gathering intel in the lead-up to Jan. 6, DOJ watchdog finds (Ryan J. Reilly/NBC News)

Trump’s Middle East Adviser Pick Is a Small-Time Truck Salesman (New York Times)