December 7, 2024

REPORT: Syrian rebels claim Assad regime has fallen after entering Damascus. 

Syrian rebels have declared victory over President Bashar al-Assad’s regime after fighters entered Damascus on Saturday night and the president reportedly fled the country.

Two army officials told Reuters that Assad boarded a plane and left to an unknown destination with rebels closing in on the capital.

Opposition fighters claimed to have liberated the prison of Sednaya, a large military jail on the outskirts of Damascus where the Syrian government detained thousands.

They reported no sign of Assad’s army.

Intense sounds of shooting were heard in the centre of the Damascus, residents reported.

The rebels said on Saturday night that they had gained full control over the key city of Homs after only a day of fighting, leaving Assad’s 24-year rule dangling by a thread.

AP adds: Syrian government appears to have fallen in stunning end to 50-year rule of Assad family.

The Syrian government appeared to have fallen early Sunday in a stunning end to the 50-year rule of the Assad family after a lightning rebel offensive.

The head of a Syrian opposition war monitor said President Bashar Assad had left the country for an undisclosed location, fleeing ahead of insurgents who said they had entered Damascus after a stunning advance across the country.

Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali said the government was ready to “extend its hand” to the opposition and hand over its functions to a transitional government.

“I am in my house and I have not left, and this is because of my belonging to this country,” Jalili said in a video statement. He said he would go to his office to continue work in the morning and called on Syrian citizens not to deface public property.

He did not address reports that Assad had left the country.

Rami Abdurrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told The Associated Press that Assad took a flight Sunday from Damascus.

State television in Iran, Assad’s main backer in the years of war in Syria, reported that Assad had left the capital. It cited Qatar’s Al Jazeera news network for the information and did not elaborate.

Anna Wintour could not be reached for comment:

 

 

Posted at 11:12 pm by Ed Driscoll

OPEN THREAD: It’s a glamour profession. A blogging obsession.

Posted at 9:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds

SPACE POLICY IN THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION:

The incoming Trump administration has offered few statements about its plans for NASA or Defense Department space programs in the two weeks since the election. That includes not announcing an official “agency review team” for NASA, the members of the transition team who come into the agency to learn about its activities and, in some cases, identify problems.

“The job of the teams coming in, first of all, is just to get a sense about where the agencies are,” said Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, who served on the NASA transition team for incoming president George W. Bush. “Part of what you’re trying to do is figure out what are going to be some of the immediate landmines that are going to come up in the first six months. Political people hate surprises.”

An example of that, he noted, was the discovery during the Bush transition that the space station program was $4.8 billion over budget. “So, at 11 o’clock at night, I go over to the OMB team and say, ‘Hi, I’m Scott. I’m from the NASA team. Got a spare $4.8 bil? We’re a little short,’” he recalled during a panel discussion Nov. 12 at the Beyond Earth Symposium in Washington.

A similar landmine may be persistent air leaks in a Russian module of the ISS. At a Nov. 13 meeting of the ISS Advisory Committee, Bob Cabana, the new chair of the committee, noted disagreements between Russian and American officials on the cause and severity of the leaks. “The Russians believe that continued operations are safe, but they can’t prove to our satisfaction that they are, and the U.S. believes that it’s not safe, but we can’t prove to the Russians’ satisfaction that that’s the case,” Cabana said.

“I certainly believe that NASA is paying a lot of attention to it,” Pace said of those air leaks, “but if I was an incoming transition person, I would want to do my own forensics on that and understand very deeply what was going on because nothing will ratchet to the top of a list faster than anything involving human spaceflight safety.”

Pace said he didn’t see a problem with Musk pursuing Starship launches to Mars. “If you want to put a couple Starships on the surface of Mars, I think that is eminently doable and would be inspiring and interesting,” he said. “I’m not so sure about putting people on those missions because I think a lot of other things would have to happen first.”

Some, though, are worried that this strategy might be done at the expense of the current Artemis lunar exploration campaign.

I’m not so much worried about that as hopeful. Artemis, as it stands now, is mostly a jobs program for contractors, with deadlines being pushed back approximately 12 months every year.

Posted at 9:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

THE EUROPEAN MIND CANNOT COMPREHEND THE NEXT FOUR YEARS:

It also can’t comprehend that it’s ripping off a 50-year-old National Lampoon cover and hoping no one will notice. Sad!

Or maybe it can’t comprehend that it’s ripping off a beloved 50 year old movie (language warning, needless to say):

Posted at 8:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

ALSO HEZBOLLAH. I’M HEARING THAT ISRAEL IS STRIKING HEZBOLLAH CONVOYS FLEEING TO LEBANON. Iran Bugging Out of Syria.

Posted at 7:54 pm by Glenn Reynolds

NOTE TO ALL THE JOURNALISTS WHO ARE CHEERING THE ASSASSINATION OF A HEALTHCARE CEO: Your industry is hated by millions and millions of people too. Just sayin’.

UPDATE:

Posted at 7:03 pm by Glenn Reynolds

OLD AND BUSTED: Why Oppenheimer Has Hotter Women Than Barbie.

We used to call them “cool chicks.” They were the girls who, when I was in college in the 1980s, were left-wing, wore their hair in an unorthodox or punk style, read books and didn’t take shit from anyone. They loved Sylvia Plath, Joan Didion and Anne Sexton, but could also talk to you about Henry Miller, Tom Wolfe and Naked Lunch. I still remember one, Tess. I fell for her when we met in a DC bar. A New Kids on the Block video popped up on the nearby video screen. “Twinkies,” Tess sneered, then smiled at me and lit a cigarette. She was self-confident. She wasn’t what Gen Z feminists are—hectoring, didactic, nasty.

The foremothers of the “cool chicks” of the 80s are probably the women depicted in the new film Oppenheimer. The main one that illuminated the screen for me is Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock, a communist who has an affair with Robert Oppenheimer in the 1930s. Whereas in Barbie the male characters are useless morons, Tatlock and Oppenheimer, the “father of the atomic bomb,” set off sparks through a exhilarating back-and-forth about books, art, and politics. When they first meet at a party filled with communists, she starts explaining the dogma of Marx. He retorts that it’s different when you read it in German. She marvels that his library has so many books that aren’t related to science or physics. One of them is the Bhagavad Gita—in Sanskrit. She plants herself on top of him, opens the book, and tells him to read a line: “I am become death, destroyer of worlds.” That leads to sex.

The New Hotness? Oppenheimer Star Emma Dumont Comes Out As ‘Trans Masculine Non-Binary.’

A Hollywood star with a supporting role in “Oppenheimer” has come out as “trans masculine non-binary,” according to reports.

Emma Dumont, 30, is best known for playing Robert Oppenheimer’s (Cillian Murphy) sister-in-law Jackie in the Oscar-winning film. The star also debuted “they/them” pronouns on Instagram and will use a new name, Nick, with friends and family. Dumont will continue using Emma professionally and on social media.

“They identify as a trans masculine non-binary person. Their work name is still going to be Emma Dumont, but they will go by Nick with friends and family,” a rep for the star told TMZ.

Per Healthline, the term transmasculine “is an umbrella term that refers to people who were assigned female at birth but identify with masculinity.”

The outlet noted that it may also be referred to as “transmasc.”

Dumont has not addressed the change beyond the rep’s statement and last posted on Instagram on December 3.

Social media was filled with negative reactions.

Including gay British actor James Dreyfus:

Posted at 5:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

MY OLD BENZ SUV HAD THESE AND THEY SUCKED, SO I DON’T BLAME HIM: Dump the Dubs? Why I Decided to Ditch 20-Inch Wheels. “The handsome 20-inch AMG wheels and low-profile tires that adorned my 2021 Mercedes-Benz E220d wagon are gone. In their place are Mercedes-Benz original equipment 18-inch wheels wrapped in comfy 45-series rubber. Time to hand in my car guy card? Not so fast. After four ruined tires and two cracked rims—$4,600 worth of damage in less than 10 months—it was time to dump the dubs.”

My story was nearly as bad. I had 6 flat tires in two years — one from a golf-ball-sized rock that was slightly sharp on one end — after not having a flat in decades, and I couldn’t get anything better. The tire-store guy told me that this was a common problem with the low-rolling-resistance eco tires that came with the vehicle, and that nothing else you could put on it would do much better. Now I have an SUV with big, honking all-terrain tires with heavy tread and everything is fine.

Posted at 5:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

NEXT SEASON OF CLARKSON’S FARM WRITING ITSELF: Calls to Boycott Dairy Products From Cows Given Anti-Methane Supplement Grow in UK.

Methane from livestock is part of the biogenic carbon cycle, a natural process that recycles carbon between the atmosphere, plants, and animals.

Plants absorb the life-essential gas carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, converting it into carbohydrates like cellulose.  Cattle and other ruminants consume these plants, digesting the cellulose through fermentation within their digestive tracts. Cattle burp methane (or release it as flatulence), releasing the carbon back into the atmosphere.

After about 12 years, this methane breaks down and converts back to CO2.  Plants then reabsorb this CO2, restarting the cycle.

This cycle has worked well for many millions of years. However, eco-activists have begun targeting dairy farms and cattle ranches by asserting that methane, like C02, is a dangerous greenhouse gas that causes climate catastrophes.

This has led to a number of companies developing new cattle feeds to reduce bovine emissions. One of them is Bovaer, which was developed by Elanco Animal Health. The feed ingredient powder claims to reduce methane emissions from dairy cattle by almost 30% and works by suppressing a cow’s ability to produce methane during digestion.

Now it is being reported that Arla Foods is facing calls for a boycott of its products in the United Kingdom, including fresh milk, after announcing a new project to trial this feed additive on its farms.

I missed the memo –when did Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez become the UK’s prime minister? Banning “farting cows and airplanes” was a signature item in her Green Nude Eel — but then, 2019 really was a simpler, more carefree time.

Posted at 4:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

‘THIS PICTURE SAYS IT ALL:’ There’s a Biden NOT in France As Trump Takes Over World Leader Role.

Exit question: “Paris falls to Hitler again?”

Heh. I don’t know which is more surprising: To see Jill Biden instead of Joe, or to see her standing alongside the man her husband repeatedly compared to Hitler. (Before smiling alongside him in the White House three weeks ago after the election was over.)

Posted at 2:45 pm by Ed Driscoll

GREAT MOMENTS IN RADICAL CHIC: The current top three stories at New York magazine are:

  1. The People Cheering the UnitedHealthcare CEO Shooting
  2. The UnitedHealthcare CEO Shooting Has Corporate America Panicking
  3. The UnitedHealthcare Shooting Was Inevitable

I’m so old, I can remember when New York magazine writers were exploring the dangers of radical chic leftist politics, not wallowing in it themselves.

Related: Taylor Lorenz Doubles Down on Wanting Healthcare CEOs Executed (Video).

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

MARK JUDGE: Conservatives Can Curate Art for Themselves.

Does Philip Kennicott know what year it is? The Washington Post arts critic just published an essay that seems to have arrived in a time portal from 1986.

“In Grim Times, Art Finds a Way” is a pious, flowery, and tiresome essay about how “the arts community” can respond to the darkness of the second Trump era. Yes, it’s tempting to roast the quivering imbecility of the piece, but besides its despondent tone the piece is striking for its anachronistic quality. Art, just like the media, is nowhere what it was several decades ago. Protest and political art are not just irrelevant, they’re scorned. These types of “art” are even, as is argued in the new issue of Harper’s magazine, bad for art itself.

* * * * * * * *

Why do I ask if Philip Kennicott knows what year it is? Because in leading the charge to inspire artists to annoy Trump, he recalls Andres Serrano. Yes, Mr. “Piss Christ” himself.

In 1987 the infamous “artist” Serrano submerged a crucifix into a jar of his own urine and photographed it. It was blasphemous, idiotic, and controversial at the time. It still is the first two. Serrano apparently is still around and Kennicott is ready for him: Serrano has “created an installation of Trump images, collectibles, artifacts, all manner of ‘Trumpiana’ in a New York project he called “The Game: All Things Trump.”

If they’re dusting off hoary old “Piss Christ” again and thinking it’s going to shock Trump or his supporters, it’s going to be a long four years for the left. Read the whole thing.

Posted at 2:14 pm by Ed Driscoll