NEW CIVILITY WATCH: LeVar Burton Threatened ‘Physical Violence’ Against Moms for Liberty at Book Ceremony.

In other recent news of former Star Trek: Next Generation cast members who have lost the plot: Actor Wil Wheaton Explains Why He Still Wears A Mask In Public: ‘Covid Is Very Much Still A Thing.’

He continued, “It’s such a tiny, simple, thing and it makes a huge difference for me. It’s too bad that so many people have decided to make another personal health choice that is none of their business, that doesn’t affect them at all, just another part of their culture war. And it tells you everything you need to know about a person when they are a d*ck about it.”

To be fair, over the years, Wheaton has proven to be an expert in the latter department.

AYN RAND DIDN’T WRITE THE RETURN OF THE PRIMITIVE AS A HOW-TO GUIDE: White House Denounces ‘Repugnant’ Osama bin Laden TikTok Trend.

The trend, which emerged on the Chinese short-form video app TikTok in recent days, is driven largely by anti-Israel users who have praised bin Laden’s letter for the accuracy of its antisemitic diagnosis of America’s problems.

“There is never a justification for spreading the repugnant, evil, and antisemitic lies that the leader of al Qaeda issued just after committing the worst terrorist attack in American history – highlighting them as his direct motivation for murdering 2,977 innocent Americans,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a Thursday statement. “And no one should ever insult the 2,977 American families still mourning loved ones by associating themselves with vile words of Osama bin Laden.”

“Particularly now, at a time of rising antisemitic violence in the world, and just after Hamas terrorists carried out the worst slaughter of the Jewish people since the Holocaust in the name of the same conspiracy theories,” Bates continued. “Like President Biden said this year in remembrance of the Americans who lost their lives because of Osama bin Laden, ‘it’s more important now than ever that we come together’ against a rising tide of hatred and extremism.”

Why on earth are young impressionable leftists discovering Osama bin Laden on TikTok? They should be supporting the mullahs of Iran and Hamas like normal college-educated Democrats!

Or perhaps the Unabomber. As this 2021 article notes, TikTok users discovering murderous primitives for the first time isn’t all that new a development: Influencer Society and Its Future. Swallow the Ted pill on Unabomber stan TikTok.

(I’d mention, “Wait until the TikTokers start thinking how totally cool and dreamy Charles Manson was,” but according to his biographer, Jann Wenner was already there for a time in 1970, as were the Weather Underground.)

In any case, there’s no excuse left for anyone to say, “I don’t know how millions supported the Nazis before and during WWII,” when we can see in real-time today, how millions began praising Hamas, OBL, and other murderous ideologies.

Related: The husk that is Wired magazine in 2023 declares: The Bin Laden Letter Is Being Weaponized by the Far-Right.

I’m not sure if “weaponized” is the right term to describe punching back against the ideas of a man whose sycophants blew up a US Navy destroyer and crashed three airliners into buildings on 9/11. But in any case, I’m so old, I can remember when Wired was a fairly sensible, libertarian-themed techno-publication, and was as far from being pro-Luddite (and pro-terrorist) as imaginable.

Finally, this is satire — for now:

IT’S COME TO THIS: Osama bin Laden’s infamous ‘Letter to America’ after 9/11 promoted by TikTok influencers, goes viral.

A TikTok influencer went viral this week for promoting Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to America.”

Online personality and pro-Palestinian activist Lynette Adkins urged her over 175,000 TikTok followers on Tuesday to read the words of the terrorist mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks.

“I need everyone to stop what they’re doing right now and go read- It’s literally two pages. Go read ‘A Letter to America,” Adkins said the video. “And please come back here and just let me know what you think because I feel like I’m going through, like, an existential crisis right now and a lot of people are, so I just need someone else to be feeling this.”

Her video received roughly 800,000 views and over 80,000 likes on TikTok.

* * * * * * * *

Another TikTok user raeyreads posted the entire letter on her page which received over 640,000 views despite having only 1,300 followers.

“We’ve been lied to our entire lives,” raeyreads wrote Monday. “I remember watching people cheer when Osama was found and killed. I was a child, and it confused me. It still confuses me today. The world deserves better than what this country has done to them. Change must be made.”

The Guardian, which had bin Laden’s “Letter to America” published on its website since 2002 and was the first Google search result when searching for the document, quickly removed the letter amid the sudden traffic on social media.

A spokesperson for The Guardian told Fox News Digital, “The transcript published on our website 20 years ago has been widely shared on social media without the full context. Therefore we have decided to take it down and direct readers to the news article that originally contextualized it instead.”

Exit quote:

If you kids think Bin Laden made some good points, wait'll I tell you about a vegetarian former art student with an ironic mustache whose impassioned manifesto about the Zionist oppression of his people sparked a worldwide movement

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) November 16, 2023

UPDATE:

"whoa whoa the Bin Laden praise is just a bit too much for us" – Communist Chinese government run psyop entertainment app https://t.co/7oPYvo9aIy

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) November 16, 2023

More: Man Who Killed Bin Laden Responds To Viral TikTok Trend Praising The Terrorist’s ‘Letter To America.’ And:

Journalist Megyn Kelly zoned in on the parents of some of the younger people participating in the trend. “To the parents of all of these losers suddenly persuaded by the deranged musings of the man who murdered 3k American innocents: you failed,” she wrote. “You were likely boozing, marching for some L-wing cause and/or simply ignoring your kids. You failed to teach wrong from right, a proper moral code, a love of country and perspective on America’s role in the world. [Because] you failed, my kids and others are going to have to grow up battling these a**holes for the future of the United States. I have every confidence they can do it, but I resent and judge you for making it necessary as opposed to fostering a life in which they can focus solely on growth, joy, love, family, hard work and creation.”

“No point getting bogged down in it however, trust me when I tell you that the majority of Americans – this generation and the next – will fight to defeat the pernicious lunacy you’ve unleashed,” Kelly added. “And we will win.”

Well, let’s hope so. The news cycle since October 7th doesn’t instill me with confidence that she’s correct, though.

(Updated and bumped.)

HEH: Congressman Thanks Capitol Police for Keeping Lefty Dems Safe From Their Own Supporters.

Thank you @CapitolPolice for keeping Democrats safe from their own terrorist loving supporters. Stay safe out there. https://t.co/Ds2YnTQNFF

— Rep. Mike Collins (@RepMikeCollins) November 16, 2023

To be fair, as with the bonkers protesters during the Kavanaugh hearings, that’s very much their job.

UPDATE: A job that clearly has limits, of course:

It is amazing how the DC police will protect the DNC HQ office building but not the homes of GOP appointed Supreme Court Justices from protestors.🙄

I bet the SCOTUS & GOP controlled House noticed this too. https://t.co/RGHW7O7VBW

— Trent Telenko (@TrentTelenko) November 16, 2023

“I bet the SCOTUS & GOP controlled House noticed this too.” Yes, but will they do anything about it, beyond yet more failure theater?

(Updated and bumped.)

THE CRITICAL DRINKER: The Marvels Was Doomed From The Start (Video.)

SO ENDETH THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND: Rep. George Santos says he won’t seek reelection.

DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR AMERICA: Paul Pelosi attack suspect David DePape found guilty in federal trial.

MATT MARGOLIS: Nikki Haley Destroyed Her Campaign With Just a Few Words.

Oh, how painful this was.

Nikki Haley wasn’t exactly my first choice in the 2024 Republican primary, but her debate performances and her general election match-up polling made me think she was solid vice presidential material.

And then she ruined it.

During an interview on Fox News, Haley essentially came out against free speech on the internet.

While discussing internet speech, Haley argued that “every person on social media should be verified by their name.”

“When you do that, all of a sudden people have to stand by what they say. And it gets rid of the Russian bots, the Iranian bots, and the Chinese bots. And then you’re going to get some civility when people know their name is next to what they say, and they know their pastor and their family members are going to see it.”

Neo, Ace of Spades, and Comfortably Smug could not be reached for comment.

AND YET, THEY NEVER LEAVE: Barbra Streisand says if Trump becomes president, she ‘can’t live in this country.’

—The Washington Examiner, yesterday.

Flashback:

A vocal democrat, Barbara Streisand voiced her fear for the political future after George W. Bush was elected. “I don’t think you’ll see me around here for at least four years,” Babs told People as President Bill Clinton was leaving office.

Current Status: The famed singer stayed in the U.S. and campaigned for democrats in the 2014 midterm elections.

— 15 Stars Who Threatened to Leave the Country Over Politics, Entertainment Weekly, March 7^th, 2016.

THIS IS CNN: Arrest made in death of Jewish protester who fell and hit his head.

A 50-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the death of a Jewish protester who fell and hit his head during Israel-Hamas protests in Southern California earlier this month, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Thursday.

Loay Alnaji was arrested Thursday on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter and his bail will be set at $1 million, the news release said.

Alnaji was arrested within the hour and does not yet appear in the Ventura County inmate roster. CNN is trying to determine if he has legal representation.

Paul Kessler, 69, died after suffering a head injury following an interaction with a pro-Palestine protestor during dueling rallies on November 5.

Witnesses said Kessler was “involved in a physical altercation” with at least one counter protester while pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian rallies were being held in Thousand Oaks, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said in an earlier news release.

It is unclear what interaction Kessler and Alnaji had before the incident.

Really? The London Daily Mail reported last Wednesday that “Loay Alnaji, who teaches computer science at Ventura Community College in California, allegedly hit Paul Kessler with a megaphone knocking him to the ground.”

Alnaji’s profession in academia is also “unexpectedly” absent from CNN’s article:

UPDATE: How dare those crazed bloodthirsty Neocons at NRO commit actual journalism and write a headline that actually tells the story! California Professor Arrested on Manslaughter Charges in Pro-Israel Demonstrator’s Death.

GREAT MOMENTS IN MORAL EQUIVALENCE: CBS’s Gayle King to Father of Israeli Hostage: ‘Innocent…Palestinians…Are Dying’ Too!

WHY ARE DEMOCRAT MONOPOLY COLLEGE CAMPUSES SUCH CESSPITS OF ANTISEMITISM? Sammy Tweedy, son of Wilco frontman, became a ‘pariah’ on his college campus after speaking up for Israel.

Some young adults who say they were handed a one-sided perspective on Israel have gotten involved in criticizing the country from a Jewish point of view. IfNotNow, for example, was founded in 2014 by graduates of Jewish day schools and summer camps to oppose Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and its war on Gaza at the time.

Tweedy went a different direction. After his Birthright trip, he enrolled in history classes about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and found himself defending Israel. When students in class argued that “the Jewish connection to the land of Israel is completely fabricated,” he would speak up, offering historical perspective about the Jewish history in the region that dates back to biblical times. He says he was soon labeled a “racist” around campus.

“I was like, ‘What did I say that was racist? Why are they saying that?’ It’s because ‘you said Jewish people are indigenous to Israel.’ And I was like, that’s not f—ing racist. That doesn’t mean that Palestinians shouldn’t be able to live in that land or call it Palestine or whatever,” he said.

Tweedy also felt dismayed when the school’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter endorsed “armed struggle” against Israel and honored Khaire Alkam — who shot and killed seven Israelis at a synagogue — on a “wall of martyrs” in a campus building shortly after the attack this past January.

As word got around about his views, Tweedy was hit with a wave of social media messages from fellow students calling him out. Since Hamas’ attacks on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza, the barrage increased. One post shared with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency read “the blood of gaza is on your hands.” In another, a student admitted to harassing him. He sometimes joined in arguments, as shown in messages he shared with JTA.

He filed a bias incident report to administrators on Nov. 11, after he saw the campus SJP charter say in an online post that U.S. media is “controlled by Zionists.” He said the school determined that the use of the word “Zionist” made the post acceptable.

A Sarah Lawrence spokesperson told JTA that the school does not share information on students with the media.

But Tweedy is far from the first Jewish Sarah Lawrence student to complain about the school’s handling of reported antisemitic incidents. On Oct. 31, Hillels of Westchester — representing chapters at Sarah Lawrence and a handful of other nearby schools — sent a letter to Sarah Lawrence President Cristle Collins Judd alleging that since at least 2014, Jewish students have been “harassed, intimidated, bullied, and ‘canceled’ for simply expressing themselves as Jews, or discussing or identifying with Israel.”

Flashback: Shocked by the Jew-Hate on College Campuses? I Wasn’t.

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: ‘F**k you, bitch:’ Anti-Israel protests erupts into violence outside the DNC Headquarters in DC – sparking police to make dozens of arrests as activists try to storm the building.

UPDATE: Question asked:

If I’m to understand this correctly….in Washington DC, you are allowed to burn down historical churches and tear down statues….but the DNC headquarters is off limits? https://t.co/TGJXGl9Fg3

— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) November 16, 2023

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: After Five Minutes With Biden, Xi Gives Order To Invade Taiwan.

Meanwhile, back in whatever “reality” passes for day to day life in San Francisco, the (likely) overdubbed music adds to the Nuremberg Rally feel to the concentration camp-supporting Xi’s visit:

Dang, San Francisco is looking more China than China 🤣 🤣 🇨🇳 pic.twitter.com/66gd66YymL

— Jenny, Girl from 4th 🌍, 鄰白廢物 🧠 🪱 (@JennyChachan) November 15, 2023

DON’T MESS WITH TEXAS: Texas House Votes to Allow Police to Arrest Illegal Border Crossers.

THE ART OF THE TEARDOWN:

[Israeli street artists Nitzan Mintz and Dede Bandaid who created the posters] are hurt by the blood-curdling reactions, but they remain undeterred. “You know, we are only going to put the posters up again, and all the thousands of people who are with us, they just print more and put them back up,” says Bandaid. “We put innocent civilians on these posters because we know they can’t speak for themselves right now. We have to keep their names up there and keep spreading awareness until they gain their freedom.”

Bandaid and Nitzan’s posters continue to be downloaded. (There are fewer reported teardowns in the Far East.) Posters have been displayed on 240 chairs surrounding an empty Shabbat table that has been constructed and displayed around the world: in New York, Geneva, Boston, Berlin, Rome, Frankfurt, Washington, D.C., Johannesburg, London, Copenhagen, Tel Aviv, Melbourne, Tbilisi, Chicago, Vienna, LA, and Lisbon, to name a few.

In the fourth week of the war, analytics show that kidnappedfromIsrael.com has been visited an average of 30,000 times per day.

BUT HER PRONOUNS WERE PERFECT:

Biden judicial nominee Sara Hill “made history” by being the first Native American woman nominated to serve as a federal judge in Oklahoma

Today, she was unable to explain the difference between a stay order and an injunction when asked by Sen. Kennedy. pic.twitter.com/i6VsjXjvhk

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) November 15, 2023

BIG BUSINESS LEARNS THE HARD WAY WHY YOU DON’T SELL OUT TO WOKE DEMOCRATS:

While the George Floyd riots of 2020 pushed many corporations to deeply invest in woke ideology, the trend of big business pushing far-left ideology goes back much further. One company that proudly placed itself on the cutting edge of the modern social justice movement was Pepsi.

The perennially second-place beverage company jumped on the bandwagon with a now-infamous advertisement involving social justice protests and Kendall Jenner. Within a week, the move had created such a backlash from the left wing it was trying to court that the ad was pulled down. Naturally, no lessons were learned, though. Instead, Pepsi doubled down again and again, desperately seeking Democratic Party approval like a sad stalker peering into their obsession’s window.

Still, one might have argued that it was a calculated move, meant to provide protection from an ever-growing, aggressive group of partisans. Of course, such an argument would be predicated on said protection actually being provided. 

On that note, Pepsi is learning the hard way why selling out to woke Democrats is a bad idea. New York AG Letitia James is suing the company for billions of dollars, claiming that its use of plastics harms the environment.

* * * * * * * *

Did they really think those who called them evil profiteers for decades were suddenly going to be on their side? The amount of naivete one has to possess to believe that is astonishing. Yet, here we are, with major corporations continuing to self-immolate in pursuit of a demographic that hates them.

Meanwhile, as a Republican, I’m content to sit back, drink a glass of water, and laugh at their misfortune. We warned you, and you didn’t listen. There’s no going back either. We aren’t taking apologies, not that one would be offered anyway.

As Tom Cotton said a year ago, after Kroger discriminated against religious conservatives, by forcing them to wear gay-pride themed clothing, “‘I’ve cautioned them for years that if they silence conservatives and center-right voters … if they discriminate against them in their company, they probably shouldn’t come and ask Republican senators to carry the water for them whenever our Democratic friends want to regulate them or block their mergers,’ he said… To [Kroger Chair and CEO Rodney McMullen] and other CEOs seeking GOP support against regulation, Cotton said, ‘I’ll say this: ‘I’m sorry that’s happening to you. Best of luck.’”

OLD AND BUSTED: Snakes on a Plane.

The New Hotness? Horses on a plane! Plane forced to return to JFK Airport after horse on board gets loose.

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: In prank, Harvard called by mother of enrolling Hamas terrorist.

A video of a prank call to the Harvard University admissions office, made by an Israeli comedian who pretends to be the mother of a Hamas terrorist, racked up millions of views on various platforms within 24 hours of its publication on Monday.

The illustrated clip produced by Racheli Rottner was the latest Israeli dig at American universities, which have come under fire for tolerating activities from students seen as downplaying the October 7 terror onslaught, supporting Hamas and targeting Jewish students on campus.

The call, which Rottner says is authentic, features a mother named Jaama whose son Hamid is angling to attend Harvard.

Jaama explains that Hamid participated in the October 7 killings and asks the admissions officer whether her son can receive a “political activism scholarship” for his efforts.

The man on the phone, who shows little sign he recognizes what the pranker is referring to, responds blandly that Harvard only offers need-based scholarships.

In accordance with the prophecy: Hamas Leader Appointed Senior Fellow At Harvard University.

JAMES LILEKS’ WEDNESDAY REVIEW OF MODERN THOUGHT:

The best way to ensure security for Jews is to dissolve the country where they can define themselves and defend themselves, and disperse them among other populations in other countries where they have no history.

Relocating Palestinians to Jordan, of course, is off the table.

Okay, file that one away. Next:

The United States, we can infer, does not have a right to exist.

So the Jews should be moved to the United States, but don’t unpack, because we’re moving everyone in United States out of United States. The good news is it will be okay to be a colonizer for a week or two until we sort out the paperwork and figure where you’re going.

It’s not just the wisdom of these bright lights that inspires, it’s the way it’s matched with such can-do practicality.

Exit quote: “As their new hero once said: Segregation now! Segregation forever!”

To be fair, that’s been the prevalent viewpoint on “Progressive” colleges for at least the past two decades, despite Michael Graham writing Redneck Nation as a warning, not a how-to guide for postmodern campus lifestyles.

JIM TREACHER: Props to Fetterman for Standing with Israel. The worst person you know just made a great point:

If I’m gonna criticize a politician when he’s wrong, it would be rank partisanship not to praise him when he’s right. And on the subject of Israel, John Fetterman is 100% right.

At a time when many Dems are parroting Hamas propaganda — including the NYT and WaPo — Fetterman is standing by Israel. He understands that the only genocide in that country was the one committed on October 7.

Last week he drove pro-Hamas protesters even crazier by waving an Israeli flag:

And anybody walking by his Senate office knows where he stands:

And at the entirely peaceful March for Israel rally in DC yesterday, Fetterman literally wrapped himself in the Israeli flag:

This the only right and moral stance, with the added benefit of making his fellow progressives furious. Gotta give him props for that.

How many Dems are kicking themselves today for putting themselves on the line to lie for this guy? LOL!

Exit quote: “There will be another reason to bash him tomorrow. But today, I salute him. Good work, Senator Fetterman. #StandWithIsrael”

DULLES BUS DRIVERS REPORTEDLY OUT PARTYING LIKE IT’S 1939: Hundreds of Pro-Israel Demonstrators Left Stranded on Tarmac after Bus Drivers Coordinate ‘Antisemitic’ Strike.

Hundreds of Jewish Americans, on their way to Tuesday’s March for Israel at the National Mall in D.C., were left stranded on the tarmac of a local airport after their bus drivers coordinated a “mass sick out” day to prevent the travelers from attending the rally.

Around 300 of the 900 passengers flown in by the Jewish Federation of Detroit were left on tarmac of Dulles International Airport for nearly eleven hours, causing them to miss the entire March for Israel event before being sent back home. When several buses failed to appear upon their 10:30 a.m. landing, many travelers had no way to leave the tarmac.

David Kurzmann, the senior director of community affairs at the Jewish Federation of Detroit, had “learned from the bus company that this was caused by a deliberate and malicious walk-off of drivers.”

According to Kurzmann, the bus company told the federation that a “significant number” of drivers called out sick when they learned they would be taking hundreds of Jewish Americans to the pro-Israel rally. The federation has not named the bus company, and has refused to do so.

Jonathan Kaufman had flown in from Detroit eager to attend the rally — he was one of the hundreds left stranded.

Developing, as Matt Drudge used to say. Including whether or not there will be mass layoffs as a result of the apparently coordinated effort to strand the protestors:

Every single one these drivers should be fired, today, and never allowed to work at the airport again. @Dulles_Airport

Deadline Detroit | Bus Drivers Refuse to Transport Hundreds of Metro Detroiters to Pro-Israel Rally in D.C. https://t.co/HyflHTi2xY

— Pradheep J. Shanker, M.D. (@neoavatara) November 14, 2023

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Hamas Says All The AK-47s Found In Gaza Hospital Were Strictly For Medicinal Use.

THE BASEMENT TAPES, PART DEUX: As Ace of Spades writes, “Politico’s Jonathan Martin previews the next year: Biden is not able to campaign or govern as a normal healthy man would, and the press is going to have to help him disguised that fact.”

For Biden to win reelection… he must make changes. I spoke with dozens of Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans about what the president can do on personnel, presentation and strategy to improve his prospects. Their suggestions (pleadings?) are below.

The level of despair was striking. Since beginning this column a year ago, I’ve written repeatedly about the chasm between what Democrats say in private versus public about Biden. Yet perhaps not since Trump’s 2016 election have the party’s leaders and lawmakers been so alarmed.

What’s notable is both the uniformity of these anxieties — there’s no faction in denial — and how they mirror the discontent of the broader public.

Far from being merely the stuff of “Beltway chatter,” as Biden’s aides dismiss any criticism, there’s no divergence between Democratic elites and the electorate. That’s because the main causes for concern are clear as day: Biden’s age and the cost of living.

…

For Biden to use fundraisers, as he did Thursday, to deny his difficulties and complain about press coverage may be therapeutic, but it doesn’t make him any likelier to defeat Trump once more.

2024 will be an extraordinary election, and it demands extraordinary measures.

That’s in part for reasons Biden refuses to accept: his capacity to do the job. The oldest president in history when he first took the oath, Biden will not be able to govern and campaign in the manner of previous incumbents. He simply does not have the capacity to do it, and his staff doesn’t trust him to even try, as they make clear by blocking him from the press. Biden’s bid will give new meaning to a Rose Garden campaign, and it requires accommodation to that unavoidable fact of life.

The DNC-MSM were happy to run interference for a basement-bound Biden in 2020. Why would anybody be surprised that they’re up for doing it again?