Algernon Moncrieff
Algernon Moncrieff's JournalNYT: Trump Leads in 5 Critical States as Voters Blast Biden, Times/Siena Poll Finds
The results show Mr. Biden losing to Mr. Trump, his likeliest Republican rival, by margins of three to 10 percentage points among registered voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania. Mr. Biden is ahead only in Wisconsin, by two percentage points, the poll found.
Link
Harvard student groups doxed after signing letter blaming Israel for Hamas attack
Source: USA TODAY
A truck drove around Harvard University's campus on Wednesday displaying the names and faces of several students allegedly affiliated with student-groups that co-signed a letter blaming Israel for Hamas' attack.
The stunt claimed by the conservative media group Accuracy in Media comes after several CEOs have called on Harvard to release the names of students affiliated with groups tied to the controversial letter that solely blamed Israel for the attack.
The billboard called the students “antisemites.”
In a message on X, Hedge fund CEO Bill Ackman called for students to be named so he and other companies don't hire them.
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/10/12/harvard-doxxing-truck-accuracy-in-media/71151814007/
1) What Hamas did can't be justified in any context, IMO.
2) That said, the founding fathers set up our nation to ensure free political speech and a free press. What's been lost in America is the spirit of "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." We need to find that again.
3) Hopefully Ackman never wrote or said a word he might regret, because I'm sure some enterprising student will find those quotes and drag them out.
What we know about Israeli hostages taken by Hamas
Source: BBC News
A "significant number" of Israeli civilians and soldiers are being held hostage by Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military says.
Some are alive and some are presumed dead, military spokesman Lt Col Jonathan Conricus said.
Children, women, the elderly and the disabled were among those taken, he said.
"These are numbers that were up until now unimaginable," he said. "This will shape the future of this war."
Hamas says the number of Israelis captured was "several times greater" than dozens and they had been taken to locations throughout the Gaza Strip.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67044255
Kosovo mourns a slain police officer, some Serb gunmen remain at large after a siege at a monastery
Source: ABC News
PRISTINA, Kosovo -- Kosovo on Monday observed a day of mourning for the Kosovar Albanian police officer killed by Serb gunmen in the north of the country in one of the worst confrontations since it declared independence from Serbia in 2008.
About 30 masked men in combat uniforms opened fire on a police patrol near the village of Banjska in the early hours of Sunday morning, killing one officer and injuring another. They then fled to a nearby Serbian Orthodox monastery, breaking down the gates with an armored personnel carrier before barricading themselves in with priests and visiting pilgrims.
The stand-off ended when most of the assailants escaped on foot under cover of darkness on Sunday evening. Three of the gunmen were shot and killed by police.
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Flags were at half-staff on all public buildings in the capital Pristina Monday to mourn the slain officer, Afrim Bunjaku. In northern Kosovo, where most of the ethnic Serb minority lives in four municipalities around Mitrovica, police searched for the gunmen who had escaped.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/kosovo-mourns-slain-police-officer-serb-gunmen-remain-103457286
Keep your eye on Serbia/Kosovo/Albania. Putin sees Serbia as an ally and Russia generally benefits from trouble in this part of the world.
WAPO: Anxiety ripples through the Democratic Party over Biden
LinkSuch “Washington whispers” have become far too common among “bed-wetting” Democrats, said Jim Messina, who ran Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign and recently put together a 24-slide deck aiming to calm the jitters, which he sent to prominent Democratic officeholders.
“I’m not saying that this is going to be easy and he’s fine,” Messina said in an interview. “Look, America is split right down the middle. Both parties are going to get 46 percent, and we’re fighting over the rest.”
But he said Biden is in a much stronger position than Trump and encouraged Democrats to stop their public and private agonizing. He said one senator texted him immediately after receiving his presentation, which included details on Biden’s string of early endorsements by key groups, the impact of cooling inflation and the popularity of many of the president’s achievements.
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Other polls are also flashing warning signs for Democrats. A CNN/SSRS survey found that Biden’s approval rating was mired at 39 percent, with nearly three-quarters of respondents saying they were concerned about his age. The poll also found that most Democrats want the party to nominate a different presidential candidate.
Question for older DUers - what was December 7 1966 like?
Thinking of 9-11 22 years later, I started wondering about a comparable event. I know most baby boomers/ greatest gen/ and silent gen that I know compared 9-11 to the day JFK was assinated, but in terms of loss of life and the consequent war, my thought was that the bombing of Pearl Harbor was a more apt comparison.
My question: was there a big deal made about the 25th anniversary of Pearl Harbor? Obviously there was no social media, but did TV and radio do "where were you...?" stories, and were the colors half-masted throughout the US?
A New Jersey restaurant is refusing service to children 10 and under
Nettie's House of Spaghetti in Tinton Falls, NJ has made the following statement via social media:
We know that this is going to make some of you very upset, especially those of you with very well-behaved kids, but we believe this is the right decision for our business moving forward.
Thank you for understanding ?️
Question: Assuming they are licensed to operate as a restaurant open to the public (as opposed to a private club) would this discriminatory based on being an arbitrary refusal of service?
Tanks for Ukraine: Germany to send Leopard 2s and allow others to export - reports
Source: BBC News
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has decided to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, and allow other countries to do the same, reports in Germany say.
Leopard 2s are made in Germany and Berlin needs to approve their export.
Germany has been hesitant to send its own - or allow other nations to send theirs - over concerns it could escalate the conflict with Russia.
Now, after international pressure, Mr Scholz has decided to send at least 14 Leopard 2s, German outlets say.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64391272?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA
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CNN: The House has a speaker. Here's what comes next
The House has a speaker. Here’s what comes nextWith subpoena power and control over powerful committees, the House GOP plans to make investigations into the Biden administration a top priority. Among its targets are:
Hunter Biden. GOP Rep. James Comer, who is in line to chair the House Oversight Committee, said that “in the 118th Congress, this committee will evaluate the status of Joe Biden’s relationship with his family’s foreign partners and whether he is a President who is compromised or swayed by foreign dollars and influence.”
The heart of Comer’s investigation will be digging into more than 100 suspicious activity reports that Republicans claim banks have filed related to the president’s son Hunter Biden’s financial activities. Comer has said, “We would love to talk to people in the Biden family, specifically Hunter and Joe Biden.”
The White House said the investigations are politically motivated and a waste of time. Such reports are not conclusive and do not necessarily indicate wrongdoing.
The Department of Justice and FBI. GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, who is widely expected to chair the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland in November requesting a slew of documents on everything from the Justice Department’s alleged “targeting” of Project Veritas to the FBI search for classified documents at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
The southern border. After winning the majority, Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas telling him and other department officials to be prepared to testify.
The Afghanistan withdrawal. Biden’s decision to remove US troops from Afghanistan in 2021 led to a frantic attempt by many Afghans to flee the county, with devastating scenes of people clinging to the wings of planes as they tried to escape before the Taliban government officially assumed power. Republicans have signaled that they are eyeing potential probes into the events.
Covid-19 origins. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the top Republican on the Energy and Commerce panel, has said that “how the pandemic started, that’s probably the most important public health question that needs to be answered.” Two studies released last year both concluded that a seafood market in Wuhan, China, was most likely the epicenter for the virus.
Hunter Biden will be the new Benghazi or Whitewater. I suspect they will try to say that President Biden was derelict in his duty with respect to the Afghan withdrawal and try to instigate impeachment hearings that will go pretty much nowhere. Covid-19 origins will be to say that China, not Russia, is our real enemy and that we should get with the program, stop sending money to Ukraine, and make every American sit through Shen-Yun.
