Archive for 2025

THE ENEMY WITHIN: How China could use U.S. farmland to attack America. “The ability to own large tracts of land, especially close to sensitive U.S. military and government facilities, can pose an enormous problem given the nature of technology today, which is that hostile actor from all across the world can very easily exploit access to land, access to buildings and warehouses, access just to a shipping container or two and do enormous damage, either in intelligence terms or in military terms.”

THEY DESERVE EACH OTHER (AND SO DOES CALIFORNIA), BUT I DON’T KNOW WHAT AMERICA DID TO DESERVE THEM: The Kamala-Gavin rivalry builds to possible 2028 showdown.

Why it matters: Their public niceties toward each other cloud a longtime, behind-the-scenes tension that’s beginning to surface as both weigh runs for president.

Zoom in: Harris set off rare public sniping between the pair last month when she took a dig at Newsom in her new book “107 Days,” about her short run for president in 2024.

After then-President Biden dropped out of the race in July, Harris called Democratic lawmakers to ask for their endorsement.

She wrote in her book that when she reached Newsom, he said he was hiking and would call her back.

Newsom did post his endorsement online hours later, but Harris wrote that Newsom never called back.

Newsom recently said he privately asked Harris why she didn’t mention in her book that he had quickly endorsed her, and she responded: “On book tour. Get back to you later.”

Harris has been using her tour to argue that even with only a 107-day campaign, she got close to beating Donald Trump.

Newsom, meanwhile, told Stephen Colbert last month: “As the Democratic Party, we have a lot of work to do to make up for our failures in the past. We got crushed in this last election.”

Much more at the link, plus this: Kamala Harris’ flaws on full display during her tour de farce book tour.

The thing about being a monied Democrat coming up in California politics is that you’re left completely unprepared for actually having to compete for voters.

If you thought Harris was bad on the national stage — and she was — I get the feeling that Newsom is going to look like the Boy in Bubble spending his first day out in a Wuhan lab.

QUESTIONS ASKED: Can the Gaza peace plan hold and what’s next for the Middle East?

The ceasefire and the release of hostages and prisoners are pivotal steps in the first stage of an ambitious peace proposal Mr Trump put forward late last month.

The halt in fighting and the releases have been met with widespread relief on both sides.

But whether this becomes a permanent truce will depend on progress on the rest of the US president’s peace plan, which requires Israeli troops to withdraw, and for Gaza to become a “de-radicalised terror-free zone that does not pose a threat to its neighbours”.

Aid has already started flowing into the territory, which will be rebuilt and be governed by a temporary “technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee” supervised by an international committee. Hamas will not play a role.

Only the very earliest parts of this are already happening.

Ahead of the release of the hostages, Israeli troops have already withdrawn to an agreed line that has left them in control of 53 per cent of Gaza.

A multinational force of around 200 troops overseen by the US military will monitor the ceasefire, according to a senior US official. It is believed the force includes troops from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

Jim Geraghty dubs today, “The Greatest Day of Trump’s Second Term So Far,” but concludes, “Think Hamas is going to go gently into that good night? Heck, if Trump can make that happen, give him two Nobel Peace Prizes next year.”

BYRON YORK: Trump triumph is bad news for his adversaries.

If Alvin Bragg, the Democratic district attorney of Manhattan, had his way, Donald Trump would have spent Monday in a New York state correctional facility. Instead, Trump — President Donald Trump — spent the day in the Middle East, first in Israel and then in Egypt, presiding over the peace he negotiated to end the war in Gaza. To say Trump received a hero’s welcome in Jerusalem would be an understatement.

Trump’s successes make for bad days for his most zealous opponents. And Monday in the Middle East was one of Trump’s greatest successes, perhaps his greatest so far — and therefore one of the worst days ever for his adversaries.

The triumph in Israel made for a particularly bad day for some in the anti-Trump “Resistance.” How many of them have at some point in the recent past characterized Trump as Adolf Hitler? (The answer is a lot of them, some at the highest levels of establishment journalism.) And yet there was Trump, addressing the Knesset, standing by the Israeli flag, receiving ovation after ovation. Let’s just say it wasn’t a good time for the Trump-is-Hitler people.

Of course, the Resistance will figure out a way around the temporary roadblock of Trump’s current success.

That’s started even before the hostages were released:

KURT SCHLICHTER: The Well-Deserved, Utter Humiliation of Palestinian Terrorists and Their Friends.

As gruesome as the Hamas degenerates are, it wasn’t just Hamas. The Palestinians elected Hamas, and they still support Hamas. They got what they voted for.

But what they voted for is aesthetically displeasing, at least to some. Their supporters show photographs of the devastation inherent in urban combat, as if this is supposed to be an indictment of Israel. It’s not. If you start a war, you need to be prepared to lose it. The Palestinians should be especially prepared because they always lose. They’ve lost here, completely and decisively, and by agreeing to this peace deal, they’ve accepted total defeat. President Trump and the other participants in the deal must pretend it’s an agreement among equals, but we don’t. Hamas lost and grabbed this lifeline like the craven and cowardly losers they are.

Read the whole thing.

PRIORITIES: California Authorities Concerned They’re Not Confiscating Nearly Enough Guns. “It’s been about a decade since gun-violence restraining orders were enabled by California law, but their use is still middling in the state, according to data from the California Department of Justice. That has prompted some of the law’s architects and most prominent backers to make a renewed push to increase awareness both among the public and law enforcement.”

UNBELIEVABLE: Antony Blinken Gives Biden Credit for Gaza Deal, and It Gets Worse From There.

Comparing the terrible ceasefire Blinken and Biden brokered to this one is so disingenuous. That ceasefire was never viable because it left hostages in the hands of Hamas, and it provided no path to disarm and fully defeat the terrorist group, instead demanding Israel essentially surrender. It was the typical warmed-over slop we’ve come to expect from the Obama/Biden axis of foreign policy expertise.

At no point did the Biden administration apply any pressure on the Arab nations to turn against Hamas and end the war. More importantly, they never applied pressure on Iran, which was fueling the conflict in Gaza and propping up Hezbollah in the north as a threat. In short, the entire region was on fire, and it was handed over to Trump in far worse condition than Biden and company found it.

For Blinken to pretend the former administration laid the groundwork and showed the path forward is laughable. But he hadn’t reached peak shamelessness yet. That came later in his thread when he demanded the establishment of a Palestinian state.

To be fair, there’s plenty of blame to share on the left:

 

WE TRULY ARE: Trump’s Middle East Moment: The Hostages Are Free, and the World Is Watching. “So today we got to witness the release of 20 hostages, the suspension of a brutal urban warfare campaign, and one more perfectly placed swipe at the Biggest Bitterest Loser in Democrat history, Hillary Clinton.”

UPDATE (FROM GLENN):

Plus: The Peace Deal Proves That Netanyahu’s Critics Were Wrong: They kept insisting the prime minister was prolonging the war for political reasons. “Mr. Netanyahu has accepted a deal to end the war, and on the terms he always said he would: the release of all hostages and the dismantling of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities. The Trump deal promises this and, unlike previous proposals, leaves Israeli troops in a position to enforce it should the international stabilization force fail to do so. In that case, President Trump says that Israel will have his ‘full backing’ to act. Given his record, Israelis have reason to believe him. That wasn’t the case with President Biden.”

If Hamas breaks the peace deal, I expect Trump to endorse mass assassinations of Hamas leaders — and financial backers — as well as military action in Gaza that will make what came before look mild. It’s useful to send the message that you don’t break deals with us.

#JOURNALISM:

Related:

CHANGE? ‘The only solution’: Elon Musk backs call to deploy federal troops to San Francisco.

Elon Musk has backed Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff’s call for federal troops to be sent to San Francisco, a city that has become the latest flash point in President Donald Trump’s escalating campaign to deploy the National Guard to Democratic-led cities.

“It’s the only solution at this point,” Musk wrote Sunday on X. “Nothing else has or will work.”

Musk’s endorsement came in response to a post by T. Wolf, a recovery advocate and former homeless resident, who cited data showing more than 4,300 overdose deaths since 2020 and 90 kilograms of fentanyl seized by the San Francisco Police Department in the past year.

Wolf referenced a March 2025 survey by the conservative Voice of San Francisco, which found that 61% of voters support federal intervention to deport undocumented fentanyl dealers. When those who “somewhat agree” are included, the total rises to 83%.

It seems easier to maybe try electing a Republican (or two) for the first time since 1964, but this is San Francisco.

PAINFUL: Watch Spanberger’s Super-Cringeworthy Semi-Demi-Backpedal. “Spanberger never did answer the question, BTW. She’d rather talk about literally anything than sickos in the girls’ room, so I’m forced to assume their internal polls look like Hans Gruber taking a dive off 30th floor of the Nakatomi Plaza.”