Schumer Taking the Heat Over ‘Schumer Shutdown’

It was altogether predictable, but it is still notable—and could cost him his role as minority leader. Hugh Hewitt: The biggest loser after the people actually hurt or at least inconvenienced by this stunt? The Democratic “leader” in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, by far. Schumer’s strategy from the start was to head off a primary challenge in 2028 from Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). New York holds its Democratic presidential primary on February 1, 2028, so I assume the Senate primary will be that day as well. Someone schooled in New York election law will have to weigh in on whether AOC can run in both, but if she does, Schumer loses the Senate nomination if we go by early polling…. Schumer put everyone through this because he thought it might help his chances of spending another six years in elected office, something he has been doing since 1975. You read that right. Schumer has been on the taxpayer’s payroll for almost 51 years already. He’s already got three more guaranteed, but wants another six for a total of at least 60! AOC is a threat to Schumer, and he’s acting irrationally as a result. He hurt his own chances with this circus act that entertained no one. He will pay the price in 2028, if not earlier. How many Senate Democrats already realize they need a new “leader” for the cycle ahead? (Fox News). Ed Morrissey looks at Schumer’s notable achievement: The least popular Democrat Senate leader ever (Hot Air).

Turning Point Event in Berkley Disrupted by Violent Thugs

It shouldn’t take such extraordinary courage for young people just to attend a conservative event. New York Sun: The final stop of a Turning Point USA national tour at UC Berkeley ended in violence Monday evening as hundreds of protesters clashed with the police officers leading to numerous confrontations and arrests. The event, featuring comedian Rob Schneider and author Frank Turek, took place two months to the day after TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated at an event at Utah Valley University. A total of five individuals were arrested at Berkeley after altercations with police and other protesters, and another four were arrested on campus earlier in the day on charges of felony vandalism for attempting to hang an anti-Turning Point art installation, according to The Daily Californian. Following violent scuffles before the event’s start, multiple arrests were made. In one instance, a fight between a protester and a TPUSA supporter resulted in the supporter sustaining visible injuries to the face. “When President Trump talks about the people who are poisoning the blood of our country and the people of vermin, these are the people he’s talking about,” College Republicans of America’s president, Martin Bertao, said to the newspaper (New York Sun).

DOJ Launches Investigation Into Berkeley After Violence at TPUSA Event

Harmeet Dhillon of the Department of Justice: Our office previously opened investigations of the University of California System for potential violation of Title VI and Title VII based on other events. We will determine whether the event of November 10 should also be included in those investigations. We are also determining whether recent event provide a basis for additional investigation of violation of federal rights, including, without limitation, violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution….. The Civil Rights Division appreciates your prompt attention to this matter…. (Dhillon).

Trump’s Legal Threat to the BBC Has Left Them Reeling

Brendan O’Neill captures it well: If you come for Donald J. Trump, you better not miss. That’s a lesson the BBC just learned the hard way. The Beeb went after Trump, slurring him with vicious lies. It used its flagship current-affairs show to defame him as a fascistic monster who stirred up violence at the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. And the result of these outrageous libels has been not the fall of Trump, but the fall of the BBC. The Beeb thought it could drag down the leader of the free world — but ended up dragging its own reputation into the gutter, burying itself in its own Trump-phobic BS. It is hands-down the worst crisis Britain’s publicly funded broadcaster has ever faced…. The seriousness of this cannot be overstated. The BBC doctored the footage. It twisted the truth to serve ideological ends. These were Pravda levels of manipulation. The BBC’s London headquarters honors George Orwell with a statue outside the building (New York Post).

Michigan Senate Candidate Can’t Give a Straight Answer to: ‘Does Israel Have a Right to Exist?’

It’s a distressing trend developing—strengthened and empowered, no doubt, by Mamdani’s win in New York. Jewish Insider: Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed sidestepped a question about Israel’s right to exist during an interview with the anti-Israel media outlet Zeteo last week. Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan asked El-Sayed how he would respond if and when he faces questions on the campaign trail about whether he supports Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. El-Sayed initially responded by calling the question hypocritical and again dodged when pressed. He said that most U.S. presidents have expressed support for a two-state solution, and “Israel exists. Palestine doesn’t. And so I always wonder why nobody asks me why Palestine doesn’t have a right to exist” (Jewish Insider). El-Sayed is also busy scrubbing his record of support for “defund the police.” CNN: Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive Democrat running for the US Senate in Michigan, has quietly erased thousands of old social media posts — including a dozen tweets that championed the “defund the police” movement, described police as “standing armies,” and urged cities to divert money from law enforcement to social services (CNN).

Mamdani’s Top Aide Was Architect of Plan to Overhaul NYPD

A different take on the “defund the police”—Elle Bisgaard-Church is proponent of replacing police officers with mental health professionals for certain emergencies. She’s a fellow socialist and member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Fox News: Zohran Mamdani’s latest hire to his incoming staff includes the mayor-elect’s long-time chief advisor, who has been dubbed the “chief architect” of Mamdani’s campaign proposal to have social workers respond to certain non-violent 911 calls in New York City. The heavily criticized proposal was drummed up by the Ivy League-educated, California-native Elle Bisgaard-Church, a relative political newcomer affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Bisgaard-Church was tapped by Mamdani Monday to once again be his chief adviser while running the helm at New York City’s City Hall after serving in the same post during his campaign and during his state assembly days (Fox News). Mark Levin: Here comes the lawlessness (Levin).

Trump to Push for Plan to Allow for Oil Drilling Off California Coast

California Governor Newsom is going to have smoke coming out his ears. Wall Street Journal: The Trump administration is poised to unveil a plan that would allow oil drilling off the California coast, according to people familiar with the matter, a move likely to further inflame the political feud between the president and the Democratic governor of the state, Gavin Newsom. The announcement, which could come later this week, is also expected to include a proposal for drilling around Alaska and the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, the people said. The push to expand oil production offshore, part of President Trump’s campaign pledge to “drill, baby, drill,” marks a reversal of a last-minute ban by the Biden administration on new offshore oil and gas drilling in certain federal waters in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans (Wall Street Journal).

Why Are So Many People Screaming?

Screaming into the void. Screaming as therapy. You might (rightly) think that these individuals are strange and are less than grounded in the world as it really is. But the New York Times is going deep on this trend. It’s worth noting that Jordan Kisner—the writer of the story—keeps a “screaming notebook.” That is not something that we’ve started doing. Kisner: It isn’t hard to imagine why people might be articulating wild fury. Horrors appear freshly every day: genocide, famine, war, political assassination, wildfire, children shot in classrooms, ancient “revenant” microbes in melting permafrost. Keeping up with the news — for those lucky enough to be experiencing some of these calamities as “news” — feels almost impossible on a neurological level. Each new ghastliness registers briefly before being, as Jia Tolentino has written in The New Yorker, “swiftly carried to the purgatorial cognitive landfill of things that have not been fully absorbed or processed or fought against but have been pressed into reality” (New York Times).

Has Biola Gone Wobbly?

Charlie Kirk was one of a number of voices to express concern—with a heart that the Southern California Christian college would clearly state or regain its foundational set of convictions. Megan Basham, referring to podcaster Krista Bontrager: Bontrager, a three-time Biola graduate, had additional concerns, including the implementation of diversity, equity, and inclusion departments, and lectures teaching critical race theory and black liberation theology, widely considered heretical for holding that the purpose of the Gospel is to free believers from social, political, and economic oppression in this life. Particularly illustrative is the response of Biola leaders to the Supreme Court case dealing with a Colorado law that clearly limited the First Amendment freedom of Christian counselors. More of Basham: It was hardly surprising then that numerous conservative and Christian groups, including the Ethics and Public Policy Center, the Religious Freedom Institute, the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors, the Institute for Faith and Family, and others, joined ADF in opposing Colorado’s ban. But Dr. Michele Willingham, head of Biola’s Rosemead Counseling Center, took a different view. She signed an amicus brief in favor of the law, arguing that because it prevents only licensed mental health providers from trying to help clients lessen or end unwanted LGBTQ attractions and behaviors, it is constitutional. It’s not clear, though, that Willingham would oppose any limits on so-called conversion therapy, given that she identifies herself as “LGBTQ Allied” on the website MentalHealth.com (Daily Wire).

Rod Dreher Has Taken a Close-Up Look at Young American Conservatives—and He’s Concerned: ‘The intra-conservative fight is here’

The author of “The Benedict Option” and “Live Not By Lies” has been spending most of his time in Europe in recent years. He returned for a dinner with old friends—including Vice President J.D. Vance. Dreher came away concerned: Anti-Semitism is spreading like a virus among religious conservatives of the Zoomer generation. They’re getting it through online influencers, but apparently their pastors and parents are either not fighting back, or have lost authority in the minds of these young people. This is irrational. For example, I heard from a number of Zoomercon Christians that Zoomer trad Catholics are making antisemitism part of their spirituality — this, despite the fact that the Catholic Church explicitly condemns it. The same phenomenon, I am hearing, exists among Zoomercon Orthodox and Protestants. Putting aside politics, this is total spiritual poison…. The intra-conservative fight is here, and we can’t avoid it. Nor should we, for the sake of party unity. In The House Of Government, Yuri Slezkine said that the willingness of parents to indulge their radical children played a significant role in the eventual triumph of Bolshevism (Dreher).