The real danger in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent run

The real danger in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent run

Jesse Wegman writes: Most of the concern over the independent presidential campaigns of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West and the No Labels party has focused on the risk that they could draw votes away from President Biden and throw the 2024 election to Donald Trump. That’s understandable, given what happened in 2000 and 2016. But there is another reason to fear these candidacies, and it’s right there in the Constitution: a contingent election decided by the House of Representatives,…

Read More Read More

Leonard Leo, the man behind the Right’s Supreme Court supermajority

Leonard Leo, the man behind the Right’s Supreme Court supermajority

ProPublica reports: The party guests who arrived on the evening of June 23, 2022, at the Tudor-style mansion on the coast of Maine were a special group in a special place enjoying a special time. The attendees included some two dozen federal and state judges — a gathering that required U.S. marshals with earpieces to stand watch while a Coast Guard boat idled in a nearby cove. Caterers served guests Pol Roger reserve, Winston Churchill’s favorite Champagne, a fitting choice…

Read More Read More

Judge punishes Rudy Giuliani for ‘continued and flagrant disregard’ of court orders

Judge punishes Rudy Giuliani for ‘continued and flagrant disregard’ of court orders

NBC News reports: The judge presiding over the upcoming damages trial against Rudy Giuliani said Friday she will tell jurors that the former Trump lawyer intentionally hid financial documents and other records in defiance of court orders. In a five-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said the move was necessary given “Giuliani’s continued and flagrant disregard of this Court’s August 30 Order that he produce financial-related documents concerning his personal and his businesses’ past and present assets” and other…

Read More Read More

Israel has dropped a staggering 6,000 bombs on Gaza in less than a week

Israel has dropped a staggering 6,000 bombs on Gaza in less than a week

Dozens of fighter jets and helicopters attacked a series of terrorist targets of the Hamas terrorist organization throughout the Gaza Strip. So far, the IAF has dropped about 6,000 bombs against Hamas targets. pic.twitter.com/3Xm1vxvq7D — Israeli Air Force (@IAFsite) October 12, 2023 The Washington Post reports: The Israeli air force on Thursday said it had dropped 6,000 bombs against Hamas targets so far — a staggering number over the course of six days, according to warfare experts. “Israel is dropping…

Read More Read More

Hamas’ gift to Vladimir Putin

Hamas’ gift to Vladimir Putin

Jamie Dettmer and Christian Oliver write: Hamas’ brutal assault against Israel came on Vladimir Putin’s birthday. Such a catastrophic security shock in the Middle East was probably a welcome surprise for a Russian president whose strategic priority is to divert Western support and attention away from Ukraine. A massive conflagration in Israel risks doing exactly that. The big question is how much credit to give the Kremlin for the perfect storm of mounting crises — in Israel, Kosovo, the Caucasus…

Read More Read More

Stunning State Department memo warns diplomats: No Gaza ‘de-escalation’ talk

Stunning State Department memo warns diplomats: No Gaza ‘de-escalation’ talk

HuffPost reports: As Israel escalates its attacks on Gaza, the State Department is discouraging diplomats working on Middle East issues from making public statements suggesting the U.S. wants to see less violence, according to internal emails viewed by HuffPost. In messages circulated on Friday, State Department staff wrote that high-level officials do not want press materials to include three specific phrases: “de-escalation/ceasefire,” “end to violence/bloodshed” and “restoring calm.” The revelation provides a stunning signal about the Biden administration’s reluctance to…

Read More Read More

Israeli president says there are no innocent civilians in Gaza

Israeli president says there are no innocent civilians in Gaza

HuffPost reports: As Israel engages in a massive air campaign ahead of an anticipated full-scale ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Friday that all citizens of Gaza are responsible for the attack Hamas perpetrated in Israel last weekend that left over 1,200 people dead. “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible,” Herzog said at a press conference on Friday. “It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not being aware, not…

Read More Read More

Trump tells allies he wants Netanyahu ‘impeached’

Trump tells allies he wants Netanyahu ‘impeached’

Rolling Stone reports: Donald Trump has been absolutely furious with Benjamin Netanyahu since the Israeli prime minister declined to publicly back his conspiracy-fueled effort to overturn the 2020 election. The Israel-Hamas war that erupted over the weekend has only stoked the former president’s animus toward Netanyahu, and he’s now trying to use the unfolding horror to get even. In recent days, Trump has had phone calls with various pro-Israel GOP allies and donors who want to know how Trump would…

Read More Read More

Trump’s longtime CFO lied, under oath, about Trump Tower penthouse

Trump’s longtime CFO lied, under oath, about Trump Tower penthouse

Forbes reports: Allen Weisselberg, the longtime chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, lied in sworn testimony on Tuesday when questioned about Donald Trump’s penthouse atop Trump Tower. Weisselberg was on the stand as part of a $250 million lawsuit that the New York attorney general is waging against Trump and his associates, including Weisselberg, accusing them of lying about Trump’s net worth to financial institutions. To arrive at inflated figures, the Trump Organization used demonstrably incorrect facts, such as…

Read More Read More

Lloyd’s of London warns extreme weather could incur $5tr of economic losses over five years

Lloyd’s of London warns extreme weather could incur $5tr of economic losses over five years

BusinessGreen reports: Extreme weather events could result in around $5tr of economic losses over five years as crops fail and water and food shortages escalate, insurer Lloyd’s of London has warned. A new data tool released by the insurance giant this week models the global economic impact of a “hypothetical but plausible increase” in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, leading to a series of food and water shocks over a five year period. The analysis predicts that…

Read More Read More

Humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens as Israel prepares a possible invasion

Humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens as Israel prepares a possible invasion

The New York Times reports: Six days of Israeli airstrikes have left more than 300,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip homeless, with two million residents facing critical shortages of food, water and fuel, while Israeli troops prepared on Thursday for a possible ground invasion after Hamas’s deadly weekend assault. Retaliating for the bloodiest attack on Israel in 50 years, Israel is pummeling Gaza with a ferocity not seen in past conflicts and has cut off vital supplies to the coastal…

Read More Read More

Majority of Israelis blame government for Hamas massacre, say Netanyahu must resign

Majority of Israelis blame government for Hamas massacre, say Netanyahu must resign

The Jerusalem Post reports: Four out of five Jewish Israelis believe the government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are to blame for the mass infiltration of Hamas terrorists into Israel and the massacre that followed, a new Dialog Center poll released on Thursday found. An overwhelming majority – 86% of respondents, including 79% of coalition supporters, said the surprise attack from Gaza is a failure of the country’s leadership, while a staggering 92% said the war is causing anxiety. Furthermore,…

Read More Read More

After Hamas onslaught, Trump appears to mock Israel, calls Gallant a ‘jerk’

After Hamas onslaught, Trump appears to mock Israel, calls Gallant a ‘jerk’

The Times of Israel reports: Former US president Donald Trump on Wednesday appeared to mock Israel for failing to anticipate the weekend Hamas onslaught and for not going on the offensive against Hezbollah amid several deadly clashes along its northern border. He also launched personal attacks against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he accused of “letting him down,” and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, whom he called a “jerk.” His comments stood in sharp contrast to the full-throated support given to…

Read More Read More

How to think morally about the Israel-Hamas war

How to think morally about the Israel-Hamas war

Zack Beauchamp writes: In southern Israel, Hamas terrorists broke into a room where a family of five was hiding and slaughtered every one of them. In Gaza, a father wrapped in gauze held his child, butchered in an Israeli strike, for the last time. These scenes pose a very simple moral test: Do you believe that it is wrong for innocent people to suffer in this way? That mass death should be deplored, not defended, regardless of who its victims…

Read More Read More