GETTING TOUGH: States Warn AP About Helping Hamas.

WQCS-FM, an NPR affiliate, reported, “Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and a coalition of attorneys general have issued issued a warning to media companies with possible ties to foreign terrorist organizations.

“Attorney General Moody and the coalition sent a letter reminding the publisher of the New York Times, the CEO of the Associated Press, the CEO and editor-in-chief of CNN and the president of Reuters that providing material support to terrorists and terror organizations is a crime. This follows reports that individuals hired by these outlets have troubling ties to Hamas.”

Attorneys general in 14 states put the press on notice: Quit hiring terrorists as photo journalists because it is against the law.

Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird of Iowa wrote the letter, which was signed by attorneys general in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.

Honest Reporting reported a month ago, “On October 7, Hamas terrorists were not the only ones who documented the war crimes they had committed during their deadly rampage across southern Israel. Some of their atrocities were captured by Gaza-based photojournalists working for the Associated Press and Reuters news agencies whose early morning presence at the breached border area raises serious ethical questions.

“What were they doing there so early on what would ordinarily have been a quiet Saturday morning? Was it coordinated with Hamas? Did the respectable wire services, which published their photos, approve of their presence inside enemy territory, together with the terrorist infiltrators? Did the photojournalists who freelance for other media, like CNN and the New York Times, notify these outlets? Judging from the pictures of lynching, kidnapping and storming of an Israeli kibbutz, it seems like the border has been breached not only physically, but also journalistically.

“Four names appear on AP’s photo credits from the Israel-Gaza border area on October 7: Hassan Eslaiah, Yousef Masoud, Ali Mahmud, and Hatem Ali.

“Eslaiah, a freelancer who also works for CNN, crossed into Israel, took photos of a burning Israeli tank, and then captured infiltrators entering Kibbutz Kfar Azza.”

Those were not news photos. Those were souvenirs. The terrorists documented their war crimes and AP and the rest paid for a few of them.

Read the whole thing.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: India now credibly has the third most advanced deep-space program in the world.

A little more than three months ago the Indian space agency, ISRO, achieved a major success by putting its Vikram lander safely down on the surface of the Moon. In doing so India became the fourth country to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, and this further ignited the country’s interest in space exploration.

But it turns out that is not the end of the story for the Chandrayaan 3 mission. In a surprise announcement made Monday, ISRO announced that it has successfully returned the propulsion module used by the spacecraft into a high orbit around Earth. This experimental phase of the mission, the agency said in a statement, tested key capabilities needed for future lunar missions, including the potential for returning lunar rocks to Earth.

Impressive.

But India is really in fourth place if you count SpaceX as its own space program apart from NASA’s — which in many ways it is.

DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR AMERICA: Girl on Cross-Country Field Trip Assigned to Sleep With Biological Male.

MICHAEL WALSH: ‘Emergency! Everybody to Get from Planet.’

WOW, THAT WAS FAST!

Shot: In Germany, global warming is changing more than just the climate. It’s changing politics, too.

—NBC News, October 24^th, 2021.

Chaser: Munich Paralyzed As Heavy Snow Buries Germany, Central Europe.

—The Weather Channel, Saturday.

Greta can now declare “mission accomplished” in Germany, and get back to being remarkably old school with her politics: Greta Thunberg accuses Israel of ‘war crimes’ and ‘genocide.’

How is her toy octopus doing?

THE FIRST STEP IS ADMITTING YOU HAVE A PROBLEM, AND THEY AREN’T THERE YET: Maybe This Idiocy Will Finally Break Trump Derangement Syndrome Fever Forever.

READER FAVORITE: KitchenAid KSMMGA Metal Food Grinder Attachment. #CommissionEarned

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Health offices warn of shortage of syphilis drug as cases rise.

TEXAS: Cruz Campaigning Against Phelan Stooges. “Ted Cruz has announced he will campaign for the primary opponents of anyone running against the Republican state house incumbent who voted to kill school choice.”

WARD CLARK: Colorado Eyes Reintroduction of Wolverines.

Here’s a question for the governor: Why? What will Colorado gain that will make this expenditure worthwhile? Even assuming a successful reintroduction, which is far from certain, the wolverine is not only a wilderness animal but a very secretive one. Even here in Alaska, where we almost certainly have more wolverines than the contiguous 48 combined, as the 48 have somewhere between 25 to 300 wolverines in total, hard numbers on an elusive animal like this are near-impossible to obtain. But Alaska and Canada have wolverine populations estimated in the thousands, and Canada has plenty of wolverine habitat, as does Alaska.
…
That brings up a somewhat obvious question: Why, then, spend taxpayer dollars to bring wolverines into a Southwestern state where the habitat is marginal when there are healthy populations farther north?

So city folk can lord it over the rubes in the sticks.

20 MINUTES INTO THE FUTURE? “Diversity plane crashes are coming.”

NYT publishes a new article about how a shortage of air traffic controllers is leading to dangerous mistakes. Meanwhile, some in the Federal Aviation Administration are pushing to lower standards for new controllers, like decreasing the importance of the AT-SAT standardized test and hiring more people with disabilities.

Don’t get me wrong here. People with audiovisual and cognitive impairments should have opportunities to live good lives and work fulfilling jobs. However, air traffic control is a profession that needs people that can stay mentally stable and able to see and hear things as clearly as possible. The FAA’s push for equity may have deadly consequences in the future.

What could possibly go wrong?

UNEXPECTEDLY: Kiss Announces ‘New Era’ as Virtual Band.

Kiss made a stunning revelation at the close of their final concert: The human version of the band is done, but a virtual Kiss will continue on.

The face-painted legends – made up of Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer – gave a rousing performance at Madison Square Garden to close their End of the Road tour. “This is the end of the road,” Stanley declared early in the set. “It seems sad, but tonight’s a night for joy. Tonight’s a night to celebrate what we did together.”

Over two hours, Kiss did just that, delivering hits from throughout their incredible career. Still, it’s the way things ended that will have fans talking.

After Kiss played “Rock and Roll All Nite,” their final (human) song of night, Stanley told the crowd, “The end of this road is the beginning of another road.” Moments later, the group exited that stage amid a flurry of fire. Then, as their tune “God Gave Rock n’ Roll to You” began to play, avatars of the Demon, Starchild, Catman and Spaceman characters appeared. Fast Company notes that the effects were created using “a combination of LED screen projection, lasers, and heavy metal smoke and pyrotechnics” helping the images appear “three dimensional and much larger than life.” Meanwhile, video screens displayed the message: “A new era begins.”

George Lucas’ visual-effects company Industrial Light & Magic was tasked with creating the new virtual Kiss. Swedish company Pophouse Entertainment, which was behind the popular ABBA Voyage hologram show, will handle how, where and when the avatar version of Kiss will roll out.

“Is it a Kiss concert in the future? Is it a rock opera? Is it a musical? A story, an adventure?” Pophouse executive Per Sundin pondered. “These four individuals already have superpowers. We want to be as open as possible.”

Well, two of the guys have the superpower of keeping the brand name going long — very long — after the band’s freshness date had expired. The other two were left wondering who was dressing up as them under the costumes and makeup: Gene Simmons Says Both Ace Frehley and Peter Criss Turned Down Invitations To Perform At Kiss’s Final Concerts.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Now It’s Trump’s SCOTUS Judges Who Will Destroy Muh Democracy™. “The new narrative’s target: Three of the few serious people in Washington dedicated to doing a serious job. They aren’t evil or dangerous or anything like that — they just have the misfortune to be associated with two things the Left can’t stand: Donald Trump and the Constitution.”

HEH:

If you insist…https://t.co/ki9KL7eG6q https://t.co/gZDDfriZF9

— The Boring Company (@boringcompany) December 5, 2023

HOLIDAY DEAL: Bose SoundLink Flex Bluetooth Speaker. #CommissionEarned

DAVID HARSANYI: Hubris, Not Conspiracy, Kept Israel From Anticipating Hamas Terrorist Attack.

Israelis can be arrogant and dismissive about their enemies. It leads to disasters. In this case, it’s clear Israel overestimated the effectiveness of its security services and its border and underestimated Hamas. Their enemies might be terrorists, but they aren’t stupid.

There probably isn’t another nation that has such a pronounced economic, moral, and lifestyle disparity with its neighbors. Perhaps South Korea? Israel’s per capita GDP is on par with most Western European nations at $54,660, while in Palestinian territories the per capita GDP is $3,789 — which, despite claims of Gaza being an “open-air prison” etc., is on par with Egyptians ($4,295), Jordanians ($4,205) and Lebanese ($4,136).

This unpleasant reality is often forgotten by Israelis, who live in a technologically and morally advanced first-world democracy. The Iron Dome. The top-tier conventional military. The prosperous Western lifestyles. Its innovative science and tech sectors. All of it can lull a country into a false sense of security.

Just as it did in 1973, when the disparities between Israel and her Arab neighbors were much less pronounced than they are today.

KRUISER: The ‘Trump Will Be an Authoritarian Destroyer of Democracy’ Narrative Is Patently Absurd. “In recent days, ‘authoritarian’ has been popping up more and more in scary stories about Trump. By Monday morning, it was easy to spot in three of the first four MSM items I merely glanced at. It was heavily implied in the fourth one, by the way.”

BREAKING: We’re Learning More About the Owner of the House That Exploded Near D.C.—and It’s Disturbing.

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD:

Bill Cosby Joins Hamas So Feminists Will Stop Condemning Him For Rape https://t.co/Xllnzhxesp pic.twitter.com/YuutvWpkP4

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) December 4, 2023

WHAT, NOT A WHITE GUY IN A MAGA HAT? ‘Middle-aged Black male’ vandalized FSU Black Student Union house: report.

DEPEND UPON IT, SIR; WHEN A RESTAURANT OWNER KNOWS A TERRIBLE RECESSION IS RAPIDLY APPROACHING, IT CONCENTRATES HIS MIND WONDERFULLY: Vegan no more: Why some Calif. restaurants are putting meat back on the menu.

NOT BY ANY OF THE ESTABLISHMENT FACT-CHECKERS, OF COURSE: Biden Campaign Gets Fact-Checked for Fake Trump Quote.

THE ENEMY WITHIN: Columbia University Students Announce Event Celebrating Hamas’s Oct. 7 Attack.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Forget Hamas, the Feds Still Think We’re the Bad Guys. “In a time when our southern border is being besieged by various and sundry criminals and college campuses are overrun by protesters who support the most heinous terrorists in the world, it would be nice to think that the formerly trustworthy people at the Federal Bureau of Investigation were focused on some of them. Alas, this is the Biden FBI, and it is singularly focused on any threats to Democratic election victories.”

COLLUSION: A Star Misinformation Scholar Says Harvard Pushed Her Out for Criticizing Meta. “Joan Donovan, a leading scholar of online-disinformation campaigns, is going public about why she believes she was recently forced out of Harvard University’s Kennedy School: because her research threatened the school’s financial ties to the social-media behemoth Meta.”