Pro-Hamas Protests in New York City on Second Anniversary of October 7

After what we’ve seen these past two years, perhaps it’s not a huge surprise. But decent Americans ought to be disturbed … and concerned. New York Post: Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters converged in Manhattan Tuesday, screaming the antisemitic slogan “From the river to the sea” and wielding vile signs on the second anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack. The keffiyeh-wearing demonstrators waved Palestinian flags and also bellowed chants of “It is right to resist, Israel does not exist” in protest of the Jewish state on Tuesday. Many carried signs that read “Long Live the Intifada,” “As the UN is meeting, Gaza is bleeding” and “From New York to Palestine, Starving People is a Crime.” Others banged protest drums and called for the Intifada while holding a massive banner that read “Glory to our Martyrs.” A man carried a banner that appeared to have a jihadist flag adorned with a machine gun (New York Post).

Mandani Statement on October 7 Atrocities Fuels Anger

The Democrats mayoral nominee for New York city issued a statement on the second anniversary of the Hamas invasion. It was dominated by criticism of Israel. New York Sun: “In the aftermath of that day, Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli government launched a genocidal war: a death toll that now far exceeds 67,000; with the Israeli military bombing homes, hospitals, and schools into rubble,” Mr. Mamdani wrote, citing casualty figures from the Hamas-run health ministry that are unverified and make no distinction between civilians and combatants (New York Sun). Robert Spencer for PJ Media: Mamdani also repeated the standard leftist line on Israel, calling upon it to end “the occupation and apartheid.” In reality, there is neither any occupation nor apartheid in Israel, but like a good Marxist, the man follows the party line. Matthew Schweber, a member of Columbia University’s Jewish Alumni Association, drew out the significance of Mamdani’s statement: “There is no moral equivalence between Hamas and Israel. That statement shows he’s unfit to mayor of New York City. It resorts to classic blood libel by describing Israel as an apartheid state. It’s reminiscent of the blood libel against the Jewish people for centuries that incites violent pogroms.” Yes. Yet the fact that Mamdani didn’t hesitate to put it out demonstrates that he didn’t think there would be any political cost to doing so. He appears to have the mayor’s race in the bag, and he is acting as if he does. Buckle up, New Yorkers (PJ Media).

Shortage of Air Traffic Controller Impacts Growing Number of Airports Nationwide

Fruits of the Schumer Shutdown. What’s happening: Air traffic controllers are considered essential employees. They are obligated to continue working during a shutdown. Conveniently, a growing number of them are calling in sick. ABC News: A week into the government shutdown, flight delays and cancellations are starting to climb as sick calls involving air traffic controllers leave a number of airport towers and control facilities without enough staff to properly handle all flights. The air traffic control tower overseeing airspace over Nashville International Airport was operating at an extremely limited amount of staffing on Tuesday, forcing some approach traffic to be handled by the air traffic control center in Memphis, Tennessee (ABC News). Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy: Our dedicated air traffic controllers shouldn’t be worrying about their next paycheck and travelers across this country shouldn’t have to worry about delays and cancellations because of the SCHUMER-JEFFRIES Shutdown (Duffy).

Senate Confirms Over 100 Trump Nominees

Progress—even amidst a shutdown—with no help from Democrats. Fox News: Senate Republicans confirmed a staggering tranche of President Donald Trump’s nominees on Tuesday as the government shutdown continues. Lawmakers voted along party lines to confirm the batch of 107 of Trump’s nominees, a move that whittled down the remaining pending nominees on the Senate’s calendar to double digits…. The slate of confirmed nominees included many of Trump’s top allies and former candidates that he hand-picked to run in previous elections. Some of the most recognizable on the list were former Republican Senate candidate and ex-NFL star Herschel Walker, who was tapped as the U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas, and Sergio Gor, a top advisor to Trump who he picked to be his U.S. Ambassador to India…. The vote also marked the second time that Senate Republicans have deployed the new rule change surrounding confirmations since going “nuclear” on Senate rules last month (Fox News). Susie Moore of RedState: I guess the worm has turned. Either way, credit where it’s due: Good on the Senate GOP for following through on the nominee front (RedState).

Sen. Schmitt on Operation Arctic Frost: “Watergate is 1/1000th of this scandal”

We are just seeing the beginnings of the inquiry into the Biden administration’s pursuit of phone records of U.S. Senators. The Missouri Senator was on with Hugh Hewitt: Watergate’s 1/1000^th of this scandal. And if you had an honest legacy media, they would cover this. I mean Watergate took down a president and here you had, and what I tried to do in the hearing today with Pam Bondi is this stuff’s been uncovered. So yes, Jack Smith subpoenaed the phone records, tap the phones of eight US Senators. By the way, also did that with the Republican Attorneys General Association. I was the chairman at the time. Ashley Moody was on the executive board. So pull in two more U.S. senators that were involved in this effort. It really was this, it began with Russiagate that was a hoax. They tried to sideline the presidency…. And then once Biden comes in, three days later, they start this censorship regime and they start spying on US senators and they start subpoenaing the records of organizations like Turning Point with Charlie Kirk. We’ve never seen anything like this whole thing. This is like Soviet style justice in the United States of America (Hewitt). Senator Tuberville: I expected that countries like China and North Korea would go after me when I got to the Senate. But I never expected it would be my own country under Joe Biden tapping my phone (Tuberville).

Supreme Court Appears Skeptical of “Conversion Therapy” Ban

The case—that we foreshadowed yesterday in Daybreak—is Chiles v. Salazar. Strieff, reporting for Red State: A clear majority of the U.S. Supreme Court seemed inclined to overturn a Colorado law that prevents doctors or other health care professionals from practicing conversion therapy. At stake is not only Colorado’s Minor Conversion Therapy Law, but also the left’s shibboleth that sexual deviancy is an immutable characteristic…. Thirty other states have laws similar to Colorado’s, so a win here is going to have a major downstream effect on the ability of the left, via their capture of professional organizations, to control the discussion on the grooming of children into homosexuality or transgenderism…. They thought they were winning…. But they see victory slipping away (Red State). Worth emphasizing is the fact that the medical practices they want to prohibit are simply speech: Principal Deputy Solicitor General Hashim Mooppan, representing the Trump administration, also argued that the court should strike down the law. There is no long tradition of state regulation of medical treatment that – like Chiles’ talk therapy – is based solely in speech, he emphasized (SCOTUSblog).

Attorney General Bondi Strong Through Combative Senate Hearing

Matt Margolis of PJ Media: Attorney General Pam Bondi was on Capitol Hill Tuesday, fending off Senate Democrats and their absurd questions and insinuations. During her appearance, she was a true force of nature. Questions meant to unsettle her became weapons she wielded against her interrogators, leaving Democratic senators scrambling to find solid ground. In that chamber, Bondi didn’t merely defend herself; she reshaped the narrative, turned scrutiny into spectacle, and turned every attack back onto those who dared take aim at her (PJ Media, including some of the key exchanges). NPR: “I took office with two main goals: to end the weaponization of justice and return the department to its core mission of fighting violent crime,” Bondi told lawmakers. “While there is more work to do, I believe in eight short months we have made tremendous progress towards those ends” (NPR).

Macron Pushing French Fifth Republic to Breaking Point

Macron’s inability to hold a government together has been caused in large pary by France’s desperate financial woes. Wall Street Journal Reports: French democracy wasn’t built for the crisis that’s enveloping the presidency of Emmanuel Macron. In an effort to pull France out of its fiscal spiral, Macron is exhausting a battery of tools available to him under the constitution as guarantor of France’s modern Fifth Republic. He dissolved a rowdy National Assembly last year only to see voters elect an even more divided lower house of parliament. Since then, he has appointed one prime minister after another, only to see them felled in confidence votes or resign. As Macron runs out of options, the president is becoming increasingly isolated. His own allies have begun to question whether he is pushing the architecture of French democracy to a breaking point. “This crisis is the collapse of the state. That’s what I believe,” said Édouard Philippe, a center-right politician who served as Macron’s first prime minister (Wall Street Journal). Financial Times: Macron has become increasingly isolated since his shock decision to dissolve parliament last year to try to stem the rise of Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National party. But his gambit backfired, resulting in a hung parliament, an emboldened opposition and several prime ministers who could not survive longer than a few months (Financial Times).

Man Arrested in DC Outside Cathedral Service Marking Beginning of Supreme Court Term

The service is commonly attended by Supreme Court justices. Last year, three members of the nation’s highest court attended. The man had multiple explosives and a leftist manifesto. Daily Wire: Louis Geri, a 41-year-old from Arizona and New Jersey, was apprehended outside the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle on October 5, the same day the church held its annual “Red Mass” in which a cardinal prays for the high court as it embarks on a new term, and which is historically attended by justices. Geri was occupying a green tent on the steps of the church when police attempted to clear the area in preparation for the Supreme Court event. He told police, “You might want to stay back and call the federales, I have explosives,” according to an affidavit. A member of the Metropolitan Police Department’s Bomb Squad then told him he needed to move because of a special event. He replied, “I’m aware of that (referring to the Red Mass),” police wrote, and threatened to throw a bomb into the street as a demonstration, adding, “I have a hundred plus of them.” The manifesto “revealed his significant animosity towards the Catholic church, members of the Jewish faith, members of SCOTUS and ICE/ ICE facilities,” police wrote, indicating that the incident may be the latest in a string of left-wing domestic terrorism… (Daily Wire).

10. Netanyahu Sets Record Straight: Who’s the Colonial Power?

The argument against the Jewish state is that they—the Jews—somehow don’t have authentic ties to the land, that they are colonizers. But if any people has historic ties to any given homeland, the Jews have ties to the land in Israel. The Israeli Prime Minster sat down with Dinesh D’Souza: Well, there’s such an ahistoricism in the present days that you’re lucky if people’s memory goes back to breakfast. But I think if you want to go beyond breakfast, go back in time. This has been our land for 3,500 years since Abraham came here, and it was populated by the Jewish people for close to 2000 years by the people of the Bible. That’s when the Bible was written. It wasn’t written in Tibet, it wasn’t written in, I don’t know, in Argentina. It was written here by people that lived here. Our identity was forged here, our faith and our very being. And here we also wrote this book of books that changed history and the perception gave values to not only to the Jewish people, but to all of humanity. So, the Jewish people lived here for thousands of years. We were often conquered by the Babylonians, then by the Seleucid, and then by the Romans, and then by the Byzantines, and finally by the Arabs (Salem Podcast Network). He goes on to tell the story of the rebirth of Zionism in the 18^th, 19^th and 20^th centuries.