Trump Announces Blockade of Venezuela

And the designation of the Maduro regime as a foreign terrorist organization. From Trump on Tuesday evening: Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America. It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us. The illegitimate Maduro Regime is using Oil from these stolen Oil Fields to finance themselves, Drug Terrorism, Human Trafficking, Murder, and Kidnapping. For the theft of our Assets, and many other reasons, including Terrorism, Drug Smuggling, and Human Trafficking, the Venezuelan Regime has been designated a FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION. Therefore, today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela. The Illegal Aliens and Criminals that the Maduro Regime has sent into the United States during the weak and inept Biden Administration, are being returned to Venezuela at a rapid pace. America will not allow Criminals, Terrorists, or other Countries, to rob, threaten, or harm our Nation and, likewise, will not allow a Hostile Regime to take our Oil, Land, or any other Assets, all of which must be returned to the United States, IMMEDIATELY. Thank you for your attention to this matter! (Truth).

Did the Shooter at Brown University Yell ‘Allahu Akbar’ Before Opening Fire?

There are witnesses who claim he did. The police verified that he yelled something but won’t verify whether or not it was the Arabic call of “Allah is the greatest”: Fox News was the earliest to share quotes that students and other witnesses saying that the shooter yelled “Allahu Akbar” before opening fire in the building, though this has not been independently confirmed by The Center Square (Center Square). Matt Vespa of Townhall: There are too many witnesses saying the same thing, so next time this circus comes before the podium, they’d better have an answer…. Many questions remain, like how the shooter was able to enter the building. They don’t know. There were reports that the suspect might have targeted a class taught by a Jewish professor, who was not in attendance that evening. Her teaching assistant was overseeing the class. A person of interest was arrested and later released hours later. The gunman remains at large. No solid footage of the suspect exists thus far, despite being in an area with plenty of Ring cams (Townhall). The suspect is at large, the public remains at risk, the lack of candor as to what would speak clearly to motive exacerbates the risk.

Blunt Speak Sen. Tuberville: ‘Islamists aren't here to assimilate. They're here to conquer’

The Alabama Republican is more blunt than many who share his concern, but his provocation is forcing frankness in a conversation the nation needs to have. Robert Spencer of PJ Media and the founder of Jihad Watch: the nation is paying more attention to Islamic jihad in recent days than it has in quite some time, and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), for one, has had quite enough. Tuberville wrote Sunday: “Islam is not a religion. It’s a cult. Islamists aren’t here to assimilate. They’re here to conquer. Stop worrying about offending the pearl clutchers. We’ve got to SEND THEM HOME NOW or we’ll become the United Caliphate of America.” … Tuberville was wrong in saying that Islam is not a religion, as a religion doesn’t have to teach people to be good to bear the name; the basic definition is that a religion is a belief system that claims to help human beings encounter, in one way or another, the divine. Islam does claim to do that, and so it’s a religion…. Muslim leaders make political and supremacist statements and boast of their imminent conquest of the West on a regular basis. They didn’t get this idea from Tuberville, and it isn’t some irrational prejudice to take note of Islam’s supremacist imperative. The leftists who are outraged at Tuberville are deliberately ignoring the principal question: Is what he said about Islam’s will to conquer true? If so, what do they propose to do about it? It is also, however, a political system, and one that is authoritarian, supremacist, violent, and aggressive (PJ Media).

Bondi Beach Massacre: ‘a dagger thrust in the heart of Western civilization’

That’s from Albert Mohler. More: This was not just a targeted terrorist attack on Jewish Australians, though it surely was that. It was also a dagger thrust in the heart of Western civilization. Freedom of assembly means nothing if citizens are too afraid to assemble. The pattern is all too clear…. The first is the pattern of anti-Semitic violence. The second is the larger pattern of terror tied to immigration and Islam.… It is not racism to argue that any sane nation’s immigration policy is premised upon the newcomers’ commitment to join the national project, and not to subvert it…. Finally, we face the fact that the threat from Islam is real. The reality is that the vast majority of Muslims around the world, quite consistent with their own convictions, do not want to join the civilizational project of the West, including the national project of the United States. Just in case you wonder, they say this out loud (World).

Unemployment Up in Latest Job Report

The latest job report shows a modest uptick in unemployment—4.4 percent to 4.6 percent—and 64,000 jobs gained in November, a number lower than many where hoping for. Washington Times: The White House urged people to dig a little deeper into the report, because the unemployment rate factors in people who are eager to work. “People who weren’t looking for work under Biden’s administration are getting out there and looking for work in the Trump administration. That’s exactly what we want,” Vice President J.D. Vance said. The Labor Department did not release a complete monthly jobs report for October, citing the government shutdown that prevented it from collecting necessary data. However, preliminary data showed a net loss of 105,000 positions in October, driven by massive cuts in government employment as federal workers took delayed resignation deals. “That is, in many ways, the entire story,” Mr. Vance said. “We want to fire bureaucrats and hire these great Americans out here.” He said job growth is concentrated in the private sector among American-born workers (Washington Times).

The Big Loser in Today’s Job Market

The bigger loser over the past two decades-plus is the American male, particularly the white male. From DEI to #MeToo to post George Floyd groupthink, the loser in the career marketplace clear. Jacob Savage writes about a “lost generation”—what many have observed but few are willing to talk about. Picking up with his description of hiring at the parent company of the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union Tribune: “For a typical job we’d get a couple hundred applications, probably at least 80 from white guys,” the hiring editor recalled. “It was a given that we weren’t gonna hire the best person… It was jarring how we would talk about excluding white guys.” The pipeline hadn’t changed much—white men were still nearly half the applicants—but they were now filling closer to 10 percent of open positions. Suddenly, in Andrew’s newsroom, everything was driven by identity. There were endless diversity trainings, a racial “climate” assessment—at one point, reporters were told they had to catalog, in minute detail, the identity characteristics of all their sources…. Since 2020, only 7.7 percent of Los Angeles Times interns have been white men. Between 2018 and 2024, of the roughly 30 summer interns each year at The Washington Post, just two or three were white men (in 2025, coincident with certain political shifts, the Post’s intern class had seven white guys—numbers not seen since way back in 2014)…. “If you’re a white man, you gotta be the superstar,” Andrew told me. “You can’t help feeling like no matter how good you are, you were born in the wrong year” (Compact).

Losing Faith in the American Dream

The generational challenges faced by Gen Z are large and need to be faced squarely. Michael Brendan Dougherty says the “but your iPhone” argument won’t cut it: Unfortunately, these days, any material complaint made by people under 40 is met with a version of “But your iPhone” conservatism. Yes, some people on Twitter radically overestimate what people were able to afford on one income in the past. Or they don’t sufficiently appreciate the diversity of some goods on offer. But putting too much emphasis on technological and other advances is a way for successful Gen Xers and Boomers to deceive themselves about the conditions they’ve handed to Millennials and Gen Z…. American men are less fit, less likely to be married, less likely to have children, less likely to own a home, more likely to be addicted to a drug, and more likely to be mired in a medical disability than they were in the 1950s, the 1970s, or the 1990s. As for the larger and more luxurious homes, that’s true, but Americans are more than twice as likely to live alone in them in 2025 (28 percent of all households) than they were in 1991. The median first-time homebuyer in 1991 was 28 years old (the youngest Boomers were 27 then). The average first-time home buyer is now 40. In the 1980s and 1990s, those home prices were roughly three times the median income or slightly higher. Now they average five to six times the median income. People have lost faith in the American dream, not because of some cultural pathology, but because they correctly perceive that the chance of achieving it has declined, and the cost of achieving it, in years and dollars, has risen dramatically…. American society used to be defined by the vast majority of people doing better than their parents. Since that time, all the badges of middle-class life — marriage, children, a home of one’s own — have become harder to achieve. This decline is real and obvious, and unevenly distributed (National Review).

CCP Finds Jimmy Lai Guilty of ‘conspiracy to collude with foreign forces’

Jimmy Lai is—or was—the owner and publisher of Apple Daily, the pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong. Lai has already spent more than 1,800 days in solitary confinement. New York Times: Mr. Lai pleaded not guilty to two counts of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces,” an offense that can be punished by up to life in prison, and not guilty to a count of conspiracy to publish seditious material in Apple Daily, the now-shuttered Chinese-language newspaper he founded in 1995. On Monday, a court found him guilty on all three counts. The court has set four days aside for a hearing over his sentence starting Jan. 12 (New York Times). Natan Sharanky—the Soviet dissident who served 9 years in the gulag for “treason and espionage”: This regime, these dictators in China and Hong Kong, want you to suffer every day. And every day they want you to be tempted to ask for mercy, to give up, but I know that you will continue to be a proud, free person. And every day of your freedom—your inner freedom—will be another day of your victory. And I’m sure you feel it. These dictators think that you are facing a life sentence. In fact, they are the ones who will be living as slaves all their lives. One day, the people of Hong Kong, whom you love so much, will be free, and you will forever stay with them (Free Press).

Rubio Clears the Field for Vance in 2028

A significant and honorable move from our Secretary of State. New York Post: “If JD Vance runs for president, he’s going to be our nominee, and I’ll be one of the first people to support him,” Rubio told author Chris Whipple in an interview published Tuesday by Vanity Fair. Rubio, 54, and Vance, 41, are widely viewed as the top two potential contenders to succeed term-limited President Trump on the Republican side (New York Post). Ed Morrissey: If that is what Rubio said, and if he sticks to it – a big if – then that would be pretty much game, set, and match for the 2028 GOP primaries. One caveat applies to that, which is that the second Trump term would have to deliver on its agenda in a way that positions the GOP for overall success in 2028. Voters will need to desire continuity rather than change. Assuming that’s the case, then a Vance-Rubio alliance would not only clear the field, it would likely ed up being the ticket, with Republicans left holding the advantage of going on offense against Democrats while they fight amongst themselves for the nomination (Hot Air).

Michele Tafoya Entertains Senate Run

Michele Tafoya was a longtime NFL sideline reporter. In recent years, she’s been a podcaster with the Salem Podcast Network. She’s also a longtime Minnesotan, looking at the seat currently held by Democrat Tina Smith—who’s said she’ll not run again next year. Fox News: Former professional football sideline reporter turned political activist and commentator Michele Tafoya is expected to make a final decision early next year on whether she’ll launch a Republican run for the Senate in the 2026 race…. And Tafoya met last week with members of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, which has been recruiting her to launch a campaign, sources also confirmed…. Republicans are eyeing the seat, held by retiring Democratic Sen. Tina Smith, in next year’s midterm elections when the GOP hopes to not only defend but possibly expand their current 53-47 majority in the chamber (Fox News).