OLD AND BUSTED: Delta seeks to secure ‘world’s most trusted airline’ slogan.

—The L.A. Times, June 22, 2014.

The New Hotness? Delta says pilot accused of threatening to shoot the captain no longer works for the airline.

Jonathan J. Dunn was indicted Oct. 18 and charged with interfering with a flight crew over an incident that occurred during a flight in August 2022. The Transportation Department’s inspector general says Dunn, who was the first officer or co-pilot, threatened to shoot the captain after a disagreement over diverting the flight to take care of a passenger with a medical issue.

* * * * * * * *

The indictment was issued just a few days before an off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot riding in the cockpit jump seat tried to shut down the engines of a Horizon Air jet in midflight. Joseph David Emerson of Pleasant Hill, California, pleaded not guilty last week in Portland, Oregon, to charges of attempted murder and interference with a flight crew.”

—The Washington Times, yesterday.

ABOUT TIME: FAA wraps up safety review of SpaceX’s huge Starship rocket.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced today (Oct. 31) that it has wrapped up its Starship safety review, which assesses the risks that a launch might pose to public health and property.

However, there’s still another regulatory box to check before SpaceX can get a license for the next Starship liftoff.

“The FAA is continuing to work on the environmental review,” the agency wrote today in an emailed statement. “As part of its environmental review, the FAA is consulting with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) on an updated Biological Assessment under the Endangered Species Act. The FAA and the USFWS must complete this consultation before the environmental review portion of the license evaluation is completed.”
…
The ongoing review apparently centers on the potential impacts of a water deluge system, which SpaceX installed beneath Starbase’s orbital launch mount after the April test flight.

This sure looks like footdragging designed to hurt a free-speech-loving political rival — and the national interest in Starship be damned.

MAKE THE RUBBLE BOUNCE: Megyn Kelly: ‘We’re Witnessing the Collapse of Wokism.’

Institutions need to be afraid of even seeming woke in the future.

NEO: The bigger picture: the ascendance of the post-modern left and the glorification of the “oppressed.”

One of the tenets of leftism is the idea that the world divides neatly into oppressed and oppressor. You are one or the other, and there’s no escaping it. What’s more, the oppressed are defined as good no matter what their behavior; there are no objective standards for judging them except their defined status as oppressed. That is why we see it said that black people cannot be racists, even when they obviously are expressing hatred towards other races. That is why the George Floyd riots were perfectly okay and the J6 defendants were evil. That is why Nick Sandmann had a face so many wanted to punch, and his harassers were protected by the press and the left.

And of course that is why murderous savagery by Hamas is justified by virtue-signaling college students. Hamas is oppressed and Israelis are oppressors – or “colonialists” or “settlers” or whatever the term of art. That means Hamas can literally do no wrong.

Hamas leaders are well aware of this and exploit it.

Read the whole thing.

COLLUSION: Joel Kotkin: Moolah from Mullahs: Arab countries are bankrolling American colleges and universities.

For decades, China and Middle Eastern autocracies have been pouring billions of dollars into American and other foreign universities. Such funds support students from their countries but can also support academic programs that propagate these countries’ world views.

China’s so-called Confucius Institutes, for instance, which push the Chinese Communist Party’s agenda on college campuses and seek access to U.S. technological prowess, have garnered much international attention. Including these institutes and other efforts, China contributed $1.2 billion to American colleges between 2014 and 2020. It has spent roughly another $1 billion since 2020.

Middle Eastern countries’ donations draw much less attention. Between 2014 and 2020, Muslim-majority countries together donated $4.86 billion to American higher-educational institutions, representing 29 percent of all foreign donations.

Qatar and Saudi Arabia were responsible for much of this largesse. The two countries together invested $3.7 billion in American higher education and were cumulatively responsible for 2,303 grants, gifts, and contracts, of which 422 exceeded $1 million and 17 exceeded $50 million in value. Most of the largest gifts came from Qatar to Cornell and Carnegie Mellon.

Qatar’s role is particularly troubling, since the country is often an ally to both Iran and Hamas. The country also backs other terrorist groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, and is home to the most important Middle Eastern media outfit, Al Jazeera. Along with Saudi Arabia, Qatar is among the largest donors to Palestinian organizations and causes.

It’s too early to make direct connection between a school’s anti-Israel agitation and its donations from Middle Eastern countries, but the biggest recipients, such as Cornell, NYU, Georgetown, and Harvard tend to have large pro-Hamas elements.

Just a coincidence, I’m sure.

JUST ANOTHER DAY UNDER THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION: Wray Warns of Possible Attacks, While Mayorkas Harbors Hamas Sympathizer.

HAMAS NEEDS TO BE INTRODUCED TO ARTHUR HARRIS AND CURTIS LEMAY: Hamas Spox: We’ll Do 10/7 Time and Again Until Israel is Annihilated.

Also to simple arithmetic, since atrocities like that won’t “annihilate” a nation, but may lead the nation to annihilate you.

TEXAS RANGERS WIN WORLD SERIES FOR FIRST TIME IN FRANCHISE HISTORY.

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE! (CONT’D): 75-year-old teacher learns fate after facing 600 years in prison for student sex assault. “Anne Nelson-Koch was sentenced in prison on Friday afternoon in Monroe County after she was found guilty at trial on over a dozen counts, including sexual assault of child, child enticement-sexual contact and exposing genitals/pubic area/intimate parts to a child. . . . Nelson-Koch, a teacher at a private school in Tomah, is said to have assaulted the teenage boy in the basement of the school several times during the 2016-17 school year.”

She got off light, considering what a man would have gotten under similar circumstances.

THE USEFUL IDIOTS LADIES AUXILIARY WEIGHS IN: Over 140 Prominent Feminist Scholars Demand Ceasefire, End to Occupation in Gaza: The letter has been signed by prominent scholars like Angela Davis.

Angela Davis isn’t a prominent scholar, she’s a prominent commie. Then again, in this crowd . . . .

APRES INSTA OPEN THREAD AIN’T ELITIST APRES SKI: Turkey’s Erdogan Applauds Hamas’ Terror: Is Erdo’s ‘Middle Man’ Sham Kaput?

Extract:

March 2022 — Good Face: Erdo claims he’s the go-between for Ukraine and Russia. Oct. 19, 2023 — Bad Bad Face: Erdo ally and notorious antisemite Muhammed Ali Fatih Erbakan calls for the closure of NATO military bases in Turkey. Erbakan specifies the Incirlik Air Base and the Kurecik Radar facility. Reality Question: Is Iran paying Erbakan or is Russia?

Oct. 23 — Happy Face: Erdo sends Turkey’s parliament a bill approving Sweden’s NATO membership.

Oct. 25 — NATO Bad Face but for Islamists a Happy Face: Erdo tells his party faithful: “Hamas is not a terrorist organization, it is a liberation group, ‘mujahideen’ waging a battle to protect its lands and people.”

Oct. 26 Counter-Terror Honest Face: Turkish aircraft and drones on attack Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) positions in northern Iraq. Turkey and Erdo, for good reason, call the PKK terrorists. Turkey claims the strikes killed 10 PKK terrorists. Justification: the PKK’s suicide bomber October 1 attacks in Ankara.

Justified retaliation? Yes. Yet. Hamas propagandists and NATO knee-jerks condemned Israel for justified retaliation against Hamas’ Oct. 7 baby-beheading atrocities.

Check it out.

OPEN THREAD: Hump day.

DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR AMERICA: Biden is heckled by rabbi at Minneapolis fundraiser who demands ‘ceasefire now!’- then takes credit for tempering Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and calls for a ‘pause.’

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: FAA completes safety review for next Starship launch.

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: ‘We May Never Know Exactly What Hamas Wants’ Says Reporter In Front Of Hamas Holding ‘Exterminate Jews From Existence’ Banner.

LIKE CLOCKWORK: White House Ignores Threats to Jewish Americans, Vows to Fight ‘Scourge’ of Islamophobia Instead.

Flashback: “British Muslims Fear Repercussions Over Tomorrow’s Train Bombing.”

—Mark Steyn in 2006 quoting one of Tim Blair’s blog commenters in a post at Steyn Online.com headlined, “Tomorrow’s Civilizational Cringe Today.”

RIP: Legendary basketball coach Bob Knight dies at 83.

WELL, GOOD: Children with asthma not at higher risk of severe COVID, research suggests.

BECAUSE THEY’RE ALL BIDEN VOTERS: McEnany: Why Won’t the White House Call Anti-Semite Hamas Supporters ‘Extremists’?

HMM. THOSE HAVEN’T BEEN GREAT IN GENERAL. FDA weighs at-home use of a nasal spray flu vaccine.

JEFF JACOBY: Why they rip down the ‘Kidnapped from Israel’ fliers.

The posters were the brainchild of two Israeli artists, Nitzan Mintz and Dede Bandaid, who were visiting New York when Hamas carried out its bloodbath. Aching to help in some way, they drew on their art backgrounds to design the eye-catching fliers. Each is topped with the word “KIDNAPPED” in large white letters on an orange background; below that heading is the name, age, nationality, and photo of one of the hostages, who range in age from 3 months to 85 years.

The posters went viral overnight. Within days they were appearing everywhere, a powerful symbol of Israel’s anguish and of the desperate yearning for the captives’ safe return. Then came the backlash. “Within minutes or hours of going up,” reported the New York Jewish Week, “many of them had been partially ripped off the subway station’s walls, tears obscuring the victims’ faces or details about their lives, while others were defaced with marker or surrounded by messages such as “Free Palestine.” On a poster of two of the youngest hostages, 3-year-old twins Emma and Yuli Cunio, Hitler mustaches were drawn on the girls’ faces. On other posters, the words “Lies” or “Actors” were scrawled.

Those ripping down or damaging the signs are by no means abashed about doing so. Some have filmed themselves attacking the fliers and posted the video online. Others, when asked why they were trashing the pictures of civilian hostages, have yelled about “genocide,” declared their support for “Palestinian civilians,” claimed the fliers contained “inaccurate information,” or simply cursed out the person filming them.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is intensely controversial and generates great emotion on both sides. But these assaults on the “Kidnapped” posters have nothing to do with the merits of the dispute. The sole purpose of the fliers is to emphasize the humanity of the innocent hostages seized by Hamas (many of whom, as it happens, were peace activists deeply committed to Arab-Israeli coexistence). What drives the people ripping down the posters or adding Hitler mustaches to the pictures is a pathological need to deny the humanity of those kidnapped Jews.

A core principle of antisemites in all times and places is that Jews are not fully human and are never innocent. A thousand years ago, Jews were slaughtered by Crusaders for being satanic Christ-killers who consumed the blood of children; a century ago Hitler preached that they were subhumans who polluted the racial purity of Aryan Europe. Today the Jewish state is accused of committing the demonic crimes of genocide and apartheid. The poison never changes, only the vial it comes in.

The “Kidnapped” fliers are intolerable to the haters because they so urgently challenge the antisemitic paradigm. They make it vividly clear that in the war between barbarism and civilization, between oppressor and oppressed, it is Jews who are under attack. That infuriates those whose worldview revolves around the certainty that Israel and its supporters are the victimizers. The outpouring of sympathy for Jews kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists — and the moral force of that sympathy — is anathema to them.

In response, the left is blaming the posters for triggering anti-Semites. The Daily Dot asks: ‘Like a trap:’ Are posters of Israeli hostages drawing awareness or baiting pro-Palestinians into getting canceled when they tear them down?

The Gray Lady similarly explores:

Why would the posters do this? pic.twitter.com/ZVpocUPpYY

— Jon Gabriel (@exjon) November 1, 2023

EV NEWS: Tesla wins fatal Autopilot crash jury trial. “Tesla argued the crash, which resulted in the death of the driver Micah Lee, was the result of human error — the same stance it’s taken in other Autopilot lawsuits. [] Tesla has won other lawsuits, including a California jury trial earlier this year that determined the automaker’s Autopilot system was not to blame for a 2019 crash. In that case, the jury awarded no damages to Los Angeles resident Justine Hsu, who sued Tesla in 2020 alleging negligence, fraud and breach of contract. The Molander v. Tesla case that wrapped up Tuesday was the first jury trial involving a fatality.”

REPORT: Harvard Law editor who assaulted Jewish student said by Stanford to have ‘compassion and humility.’

Video circulated online Wednesday morning showing a group of pro-Hamas students at Harvard University entrapping a group of Jewish students and shouting “Shame” at them.

The Canary Mission, a nonprofit that investigates anti-Semitism, is now claiming a ringleader in the physical confrontation is Ibrahim Bharmal.

”Ibrahim Bharmal participated in physically and verbally assaulting an Israeli student during an anti-Israel “die-in” protest at Harvard University (Harvard) in October 2023,” the nonprofit states.

The organization also reports, “At the rally, the protesters surrounded an Israeli student, grabbing and shoving him to the ground while covering their faces with keffiyehs. Bharmal was one of the assailants identified [00:01:54] in the video of the incident, published by the Washington Free Beacon.”

More on Ibrahim Bharmal, EDITOR of the Harvard Law Review at @Harvard_Law & @Kennedy_School. See him physically and verbally assault an Israeli student during an anti-Israel protest on campus. Read his NEW Canary Mission Profile: https://t.co/FhgNNbpME6 pic.twitter.com/C49vYh2m9e

— Canary Mission (@canarymission) November 1, 2023

I’d like to think Professor Kingsfield would not be amused by the behavior of an editor of the Harvard Law Review, but perhaps he’d be uber-woke as well in 2023.

ACE ON THE DAILY DISNEY DISASTER: The Reason for the Long Delay of the Blade Movie…? Disney Wanted to Make It About Women and “Life Lessons.”

For this next story, a little backstory about Ike Perlmutter.

Perlmutter was, IIRC, a toy company magnate. His company was making Marvel action figures when Marvel went bankrupt, so he bough Marvel.

The left hates him because he’s a friend and supporter of Trump, and because he dared to offer his expert opinion, as a toy company/action figure magnate, that boys will not buy action figures of girls, so companies should make few girl action figures.

He’s absolutely 100% right about this, but the left insists on pretending the world is as it is not, so we now see toy aisles full of unbought girl action figures, rotting on the shelves forever.

He also said that he didn’t want to make Marvel movies about female heroes, because they wouldn’t make money. He was mostly right; see Black Widow and the upcoming The Marvels disaster for evidence.

Yes, a huge character like Wonder Woman can make some money, but that’s a rare bird. The Perlmutter Rule is 94% correct, which is pretty good for any rule.

Perlmutter retained a place on Disney’s board even after Disney bought Marvel. But Iger and Feige schemed to fire him, which they did last year.

Here’s the fun part: Perlmutter is also a close friend of Nelson Peltz, who lives down the street from him.

Peltz is now preparing the battlespace for a proxy war against Bob Iger.

And guess who just pledged all of his Disney shares to Peltz to help him depose Iger from power?

Pass the popcorn. Exit quote: “As someone with a large economic interest in Disney’s success, I can no longer watch the business underachieve its great potential.”

MEGYN KELLY: ‘We’re Witnessing the Collapse of Wokism.’

“We have to be upset because the lunatics get triggered by what Hamas did, they don’t like evidence of it on the wall?” Kelly said.

Kelly shared a rare silver lining from the ongoing Middle East conflict, one that could have cultural ramifications.

“The only good news to come out of this mess in the Middle East is that domestically, we’re witnessing the collapse of wokism,” Kelly said. “It’s happening, in real time, all around us.”

Kelly uncorked a long, impassioned rant that will leave a mark on anyone who previously gave the woke movement some credit.

“The woke Left has been exposed in spectacular fashion as a complete and total fraud. The very people who harassed us for years about our speech by demanding jobs be taken, SAT scores be thrown out, businesses be shut down for virtually any imagined offense that allegedly dehumanized a minority, have all gone silent on the open threats and attacks on Jews.

Don’t get too cocky — I can remember when 9/11 was supposed to be the end of leftist thinking — there was a “rally ’round the flag” effect for perhaps six months, but by 2004, the left back to being as crazy as ever, if not more so. In 2004, the late Charles Krauthammer coined “the Pressure Cooker Theory of Hydraulic Release” to explain why the left exploded after maintaining a veneer of civility in the immediate aftermath of 9/11:

The hostility, resentment, envy and disdain, all superheated in Florida, were not permitted their natural discharge. Came Sept. 11 and a lid was forced down. How can you seek revenge for a stolen election by a nitwit usurper when all of a sudden we are at war and the people, bless them, are rallying around the flag and hailing the commander in chief? With Bush riding high in the polls, with flags flying from pickup trucks (many of the flags, according to Howard Dean, Confederate), the president was untouchable.

The Democrats fell unnaturally silent. For two long, agonizing years, they had to stifle and suppress. It was the most serious case of repression since Freud’s Anna O. went limp. The forced deference nearly killed them. And then, providentially, they were saved. The clouds parted and bad news rained down like manna: WMDs, Abu Ghraib, Richard Clarke, Paul O’Neill, Joe Wilson and, most important, continued fighting in Iraq.

With the president stripped of his halo, his ratings went down. The spell was broken. He was finally, once again, human and vulnerable. With immense relief, the critics let loose.

The result has been volcanic. The subject of one prominent new novel is whether George W. Bush should be assassinated. This is all quite unhinged. Good God. What if Bush is reelected? If they lose to him again, Democrats will need more than just consolation. They’ll need therapy.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.