THE HOME FRONT: Moscow Purges Security Officials And Takes Preventative Steps In North Caucasus.

Perhaps more notable is what appears to be a major purge of security officials in Dagestan itself and the beginning of major preventative measures among the youth in Russia to prevent any recurrence of such actions across Russia, particularly in the predominantly non-Russian regions. Neither of these actions may be enough to solve the problem, and both may provoke more unrest down the road (Dagpravda.ru, November 7; Rossiyskaya gazeta, November 8).

Moscow is clearly trying to present itself as being on the right side of condemning anti-Semitism. Russian officials have taken this opportunity to exploit these outbursts to tighten control over a long-restive region. In addition, these moves clearly reflect unease in the Kremlin. There is fear that the situation in the North Caucasus and other non-Russian regions is rapidly coming to a boil.

Being on “the right side” of antisemitism is great. Still, it might not be the surest way to restore order in a semiautonomous republic populated with people generally unfriendly to Israel and Jews.

COLLUSION: Nothing To See Here: Democrat Media Arm Scrambles As It Becomes Clear They Knew About Hamas Invasion Of Israel Before It Happened.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Maybe Joe Biden Forgot He’s American. “I’ve long maintained that Democrats begin to believe their own lies after they’ve told them often enough. They have been peddling the ‘conservative domestic terror threat’ garbage for so long that they’re not very bothered by real terrorists. They’re living in a dark, twisted, land of make-believe.”

WELL, THEY’RE THE LEFT, SO:

Despite being embarrassingly wrong, the Israeli left points the way way forward.https://t.co/tyNdFgYSKf

— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) November 14, 2023

I HOPE IT BRINGS THE PARTY DOWN: Joel Kotkin: Could the war in Gaza sink Joe Biden? Democrats are tearing themselves apart over the Israel-Hamas conflict.

THE STORY WAS FALSE BUT IT ACCOMPLISHED ITS PURPOSE: How George Floyd Actually Died.

DON’T RENEW IT: A Powerful Tool US Spies Misused to Stalk Women Faces Its Potential Demise.

The federal law authorizing a vast amount of the United States government’s foreign intelligence collection is set to expire in two months, a deadline that threatens to mothball a notoriously extensive surveillance program currently eavesdropping on the phone calls, text messages, and emails of no fewer than a quarter million people overseas.

The US National Security Agency (NSA) relies heavily on the program, known as Section 702, to compel the cooperation of communications giants that oversee huge swaths of the internet’s traffic. The total number of communications intercepted under the 702 program each year, while likely beyond tally, ostensibly reaches into the high hundreds of millions, according to scraps of reportage declassified by the intelligence community over the past decade, and the secret surveillance court whose macroscopic oversight—even when brought to full bear against the program—scarcely takes issue with any quotidian abuses of its power.

As of now, members of Congress have introduced exactly zero bills to prevent 702 from sunsetting on January 1, 2024, even though many—perhaps a majority—view this intelligence “crown jewel” as fundamental to the national defense, a flawed but fixable law.

Mass surveillance is a great way to build dossiers on ordinary Americans but generally a lousy way to catch terrorists who — as we saw in Gaza last month — are smart enough to avoid it.

THEY BUY GROCERIES TOO: Democrats worry Biden has a ‘huge problem’ losing black voters heading into 2024.

DON SURBER: October 7 revealed the new Nazis.

STANDING UP AGAINST BIGOTRY AND DISCRIMINATION: Equal Protection Project Files Brief Opposing Black-Women-Only Grant Program in “Fearless Fund” Appeal.

SALENA ZITO: Democrats’ Big Bucks County School Board Sweep Should Unnerve Republicans Everywhere.

Democrats swept the minor off-year elections in Knoxville, and seemed to have a LOT of money. The local GOP, as usual, was pretty much hapless.

DAN MARKEL UPDATE: FBI Arrests Donna Adelson At Miami Airport, One Week After Her Son Charlie’s Conviction In Dan Markel’s Murder.

She was reportedly buying a one-way ticket to Vietnam.

ILYA SHAPIRO: Bari Weiss’s Speech for the Ages. “I’ve been involved with the Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy Studies since I started law school back in the fall of 2000. I’ve been attending its national lawyers conventions since 2004, meaning I’ve now been to 20 of them. Never have I seen anything like what happened Friday night at the Barbara K. Olson Memorial Lecture.”

CHANGE: ‘I’ve Been a Left-Winger All My Life. Now I Realize How Naïve I Was.’

THE ENEMY WITHIN: These Mosques Pray for the Annihilation of Jews. They Also Receive Money From the Biden Administration.

DEAL OF THE DAY: 10,000mAh Portable Wireless Charger with USB C Input. #CommissionEarned

LOL: Pundits: “Ignorance” Makes Americans Give “Wrong” Answers To Economic Confidence Poll. “The Guardian editorial Krugman linked to explains: Americans continue to believe the economy sucks, even though they’ve been told over and over it doesn’t! Why won’t they listen?”

I noticed the other day that Heinz Ketchup was $7.99 a bottle, which I found kind of striking. Related: Memorial Day staples rocked by inflation, ketchup up 27.9%.

DON’T BE FOOLED BY ‘FAITHFUL AMERICA:’ It’s a George Soros-funded Far-Left wolf in sheeps clothing, presenting itself as representative of conservative American evangelicals and Catholics.

In fact, according Hayden Ludwig, director of Research for Restoration of America, writing in The Federalist: “Faithful America was spawned in 2004 as a project of the Citizen Engagement Lab (CEL), which specializes in incubating new lobbying groups with funding from the Ford Foundation and Warren Buffett’s pro-abortion foundation. We’ve traced five- and six-figure grants to Faithful America from Soros’ Open Society Foundations and the Arcus Foundation, a transgender mega-donor.”

And guess who Faithful America is now targeting – Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.), who has made no bones about his evangelical Christian faith being the center and source of his very populist conservative perspective.

WITH HAMAS, THE HOSTAGES AND EXPLOSIVES ARE ALWAYS IN THE FIRST PLACE YOU LOOK: IDF reveals Hamas hostage, explosives center under Rantisi Hospital.

A video showed the basement of the hospital which showed a location disconnected from the rest of the hospital where the significant terror explosives and armaments were kept.

Hagari showed a motorcycle with a bullet hole inside it and items connected to one of the hostages in the vicinity of the motorcycle.

One of the chairs showed ropes and other items indicating that a hostage had been held there.

A baby bottle and other baby materials were found which the IDF said were connected to a hostage baby.

There were also improvised toilets, which Hagari said was infrastructure to hold hostages.

A list on a board marked the days since October 7, possibly indicating when the terrorists left, likely with hostages.

There’s really no such thing as a hospital where Hamas is in charge. There are places where medical care is provided but their most important function is providing human shields and opportunities for propaganda.

CHANGE: Professor Aaron Nielson Is The New Texas Solicitor General. “Mr. Nielson is a Professor of Law at Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School, specializing in administrative law, civil procedure, antitrust, and the federal courts. One of the nation’s foremost experts on the Administrative Procedure Act, he recently served as Chair of the Administration and Management Committee of the Administrative Conference of the United States. He also recently served on the Council of the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice and currently co-chairs its antitrust committee. Professor Nielson is a visiting fellow at the Antonin Scalia Law School’s C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State. He is taking a one-year leave of absence from Brigham Young University to serve as Solicitor General. In 2020, Mr. Nielson was appointed by the U.S. Supreme Court to brief and argue Collins v. Yellen, a separation-of-powers case about the Federal Housing Finance Agency. He also regularly represents clients in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. His publications have appeared in many of the nation’s top journals, including the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Duke Law Journal, and University of Chicago Law Review.”

Josh Blackman is happy.

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE! (CONT’D): Pennsylvania middle school counselor allegedly used field trip to start sexually grooming student. “Kelly Ann Schutte, 35, is facing felony and misdemeanor charges, including three counts of having intercourse or sexual contact with a student at school, one count of corruption of minors and three counts of indecent assault of a person under 16 years old, according to Montgomery County records. . . . Schutte allegedly began having inappropriate contact with the student in her own home, officials said. Schutte’s alleged sexual misconduct with the student began during a class field trip in the fall of 2022. Afterward, she would frequently call the victim to her office during school hours, FOX 29 reported.”

KEVIN DOWNEY JR: Guess What White People Are Being Blamed for Now?

TIP OF THE FAKEBERG: Six Federal Cases of Self-Represented Litigants Citing Fake Cases in Briefs, Likely Because They Used AI Programs.

CHANGE: Greek owner to sell all container ships, spend $3B on LNG tankers.

This makes me suspect that “Net Zero” and “100% Renewables” are now just dead buzzwords.

Related item here. “They are ponying up the cash, and not just the extra required to make the day’s cut – they’re buying a license to jump the line entirely.”

OPEN THREAD: Have fun, kids.