GREAT MOMENTS IN MORAL NARCISSISM: Soccer star Megan Rapinoe says her injury in championship game proves there is no God.

As far as soccer star Megan Rapinoe is concerned, her Achilles injury in the final game of her storied career comes as evidence that there is no God.

Rapinoe, 38, was forced to leave the National Women’s Soccer League championship game Saturday after injuring her right leg, saying afterward she was “pretty sure” that she tore her Achilles tendon. Her team, the Seattle-based OL Reign, lost 2-1 to the NY/NJ Gotham.

“I thought about it a little bit. I mean, I’m not a religious person or anything, and if there was a God, like, this is proof that there isn’t,” she said at the press conference following the game. “This is f—-ed up.”

The non-contact injury came about three minutes into what was billed as the last game of her illustrious athletic career, which may explain the gallows humor.

Whatever her thoughts on religion or the lack thereof, Rapinoe does have some thoughts on religious choices: Megan Rapinoe, Whose Fiancée Is Israeli, Raises Money For Gaza After Hamas Terrorist Attack.

Why is she helping to raise money for Gaza while saying nothing in support of Israel, which is the country her Jewish fiancée holds citizenship in?

It also can’t be ignored that BLM, which Rapinoe loves, has a history of very anti-Semitic messages. It endorsed BDS and called Israel an apartheid state, the co-founder called for the end of Israel and the organization has stood with Palestinians AFTER Hamas, which enjoys support in Gaza, murdered innocent civilians.

There’s no way around it. She’s silent on the horrors in Israel while supporting Gaza and BLM all while married to an Israeli citizen with Jewish heritage. Make that make sense.

As Mark Steyn has written, “our tolerance of our own tolerance is making us intolerant of other people’s intolerance, which is intolerable. And, unlikely as it sounds, this has now become the highest, most rarefied form of multiculturalism. So you’re nice to gays and the Inuit? Big deal. Anyone can be tolerant of fellows like that, but tolerance of intolerance gives an even more intense frisson of pleasure to the multiculti masochists.”

DISPATCHES FROM WEIMAR AMERICA: How Is THIS for irony? ‘Planned Parenthood Won’t Say Gay.’

Planned Parenthood won't say gay. pic.twitter.com/dGTr0X6OwA

— Sidewalk Steve (@Sidewalk_Steve) November 12, 2023

“Last we checked, a person with a penis is a biological man. So if two biological men are engaged in a sexual relationship with one another, that would accurately be described as a homosexual relationship. In other words, it’s just two average gay men. So why won’t Planned Parenthood just say it? It’s not like being gay is a shameful thing these days…They don’t dare offend the Transgender Mafia. Gotta tread very carefully with those folks.”

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:

Shot:

Chaser: Dem-run San Francisco erects WALLS for security during Xi visit.

—The Midwesterner, today.

Mickey Kaus has a modest proposal to make the walls permanent:

Invite Xi to stay year-round. https://t.co/ZBxbc48rXN

— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey) November 12, 2023

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: 80 Years After Hitler Failed, Nazis Finally Seize London.

ANSWER: THEY KNEW. Media in Panic Mode Over Questions About Whether They Knew in Advance About Hamas Attack on Israel.

On October 7, four photojournalists who provide reporting and photos for the likes of the Associated Press (AP), CNN, the New York Times, Reuters, and other outlets were allegedly at the Israeli border with Hamas terrorists who committed acts of atrocities against innocent Israeli civilians that shocked the world. Since an Israel-supporting news watchdog website reported the claim, everyone wants to know if these Gaza-based reporters knew in advance about the attack and, more importantly, if they could have saved lives by alerting the world about it. The question arises: Did the AP, CNN, the New York Times, and Reuters know about the Hamas terror attack in advance?

The allegations have sent major media into panic mode and generated even more mistrust in the corporate press.

The website HonestReporting, which chronicles coverage of Israel by an increasingly one-sided press to contrast the “Pallywood” and crisis actor coverage by Hamas and its agents, asks: “Is it conceivable to assume that ‘journalists’ just happened to appear early in the morning at the border without prior coordination with the terrorists? Or were they part of the plan?” 

Peter Jennings and Mike Wallace smile:

HOW IT STARTED: Mobs of “teens” Loot a Washington, Dc Cvs, Literally Picking Its Shelves Clean:

“Youngsters.” Whatever euphemisms we can think of to make hardened thieves appear to be innocent scamps.

“When you walk into this CVS, you’d think the store is closing because there’s barely anything on the shelves,” WTTG reporter Sierra Fox said.

Spoiler:is closing. CVS will close 900 locations by the end of 2024.

What are the odds that the Columbia Heights, DC store will remain open?

Or that any stores in DC will remain open?

How long do these idiots think that people are going to continue spending good money so that human-shaped locusts can steal them blind?

There will be no shops left in Washington DC, and then they’ll start whining about “food deserts” and “CVS deserts.”

How it’s going: CVS in Washington DC replaces stock with PHOTOGRAPHS of items as it battles with out-of-control crime and moves to shut 900 stores.

Due to the out of control crime, CVS in DC now doesn’t even keep merchandise on the shelves. Instead they just put photos of the items they have in stock. Dystopian pic.twitter.com/ppdanxhbr1

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) November 12, 2023

Last year, Virginia Postrel explored “What Shopping Did for American Equality:”

Since the mid-19th century, modern retailing has tested the practical meaning of equality and freedom.

When A.T. Stewart opened his multistory dry goods store in 1846, the Manhattan merchant introduced two revolutionary practices that we now take for granted. He let anyone come and browse freely, whether or not intending to buy, and he charged every customer the same price. Both policies changed the everyday meaning of social equality.

At Stewart’s, wrote a journalist in 1871, “you may gaze upon a million dollars’ worth of goods, and no man will interrupt either your meditation or your admiration.” The store and its many emulators established a new social norm. Any well-behaved patron, regardless of class or ethnicity, could freely examine the merchandise without being pestered or pressured to leave.

In many American cities, that era is rapidly coming to a close. To absolutely butcher Edward Grey regarding WWI, the lights are going out in many retail stores across America. Will we see them relit in our lifetime?

FIVE US SERVICE MEMBERS DEAD AFTER MILITARY AIRCRAFT CRASH OVER MEDITERRANEAN SEA (Updated).

TOO SOON TO SAY ‘WE TOLD YOU SO?’ “And now we take you on location, to the CBC’s highly anticipated launch of #IslamophobiaAwarenessMonth.”

THIS IS NOT YOUR GRANDFATHER’S ANTI-SEMITISM:

One way to begin to understand this more clearly is to think about the popular meme that shows a glowering Trump (my favor[ite] kind of Trump) with the legend, “It’s not me they’re after—it’s you. I’m just in the way.” We can paraphrase this by saying, “It’s not Israel we’re after—it’s the entire project of Western civilization. Israel is just in the way.” It is not for nothing that Iran, for example, has been calling the United States “the great Satan” for 40 years now. If they were to succeed in destroying Israel, we know who would be the next primary target.

John has already posted the video I include again at the end here because I want to add the question: If Israel/Gaza is the issue, then why are these protestors going to such trouble to take down the American flag?  (On Veteran’s Day, no less.) I think we all know why perfectly well.

Here’s more photo evidence, from a London protest:

Exit quote: “Just more reminders that the issue is not the issue.”

QUESTION ASKED: Did Zelensky lie all this while? New report claims Ukrainian military officer coordinated Nord Stream sabotage.

FRAN LEBOWITZ: Pretend It’s a Museum (Video).

The woman from the Met who restored Rembrandt’s 1653 painting “Aristotle with a Bust of Homer” says it will not be displayed behind glass, which seems like a huge potential error given the Extinction Rebellion radicals who want to ban petroleum by using petroleum-based adhesives to glue themselves to valuable art and film themselves on an iPhone that’s been manufactured using petroleum. Her restoration skills may be called into play much sooner rather than later, if they do.

Related: Pretend It’s a City, Martin Scorsese’s new documentary series about Lebowitz, reveals her delightfully reactionary character.

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: Bill Maher Calls Out ‘Pro-Hamas’ Media.

DARK MONEY PASS-THOUGH ARABELLA ADVISORS TIED TO GROUP ORGANIZING ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTS.

DISPATCHES FROM THE HAMAS WING OF THE ‘CLIMATE’ CULT. On Wednesday at the Pipeline, Steve Hayward wrote:

Right now the something else is the cause of Hamas, which is proving more able than Extinction Rebellion at getting large mobs into the streets. This was made evident when the Joan of Arc of the climate cult, Greta Thunberg, posted on social media a photo of herself declaring “Stand with Gaza,” alongside another activist with a “Climate justice now!” banner. It turns out that Thunberg is just as ignorant about the Middle East as she is about climate change: the photo included in the background a toy octopus—an old Nazi-era symbol of supposed global Jewish conspiracy.

With the joining of climate action and Hamas, we can think of Thunberg and her acolytes as the Hamas wing of the “climate change” cult. And instead of calling out the radicalism of Thunberg and her enabling elders like Klein, Oreskes,  Gore, etc., the useful idiots of the media celebrate Thunberg. Time magazine named her “Person of the Year” in 2019—the youngest in the magazine’s history.

Which brings us to today’s report from AP: Greta Thunberg brushes off interruption at massive Dutch climate march days before election.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg was briefly interrupted Sunday by a man who approached her on stage after she invited a Palestinian and an Afghan woman to speak at a climate protest in the Dutch capital.

Thunberg was speaking to a crowd of tens of thousands when she invited the women onto the stage.

“As a climate justice movement, we have to listen to the voices of those who are being oppressed and those who are fighting for freedom and for justice. Otherwise, there can be no climate justice without international solidarity,” Thunberg said.

After the Palestinian and Afghan women spoke and Thunberg resumed her speech, a man came onto the stage and told her: “I have come here for a climate demonstration, not a political view,” before he was ushered off the stage.

The man’s identity was not immediately clear. He was wearing a jacket with the name of a group called Water Natuurlijk that has elected members in Dutch water boards.

The Afghan woman, Sahar Shirzad, told The Associated Press that Thunberg allowed them to take the stage with her.

“Basically, she gave her time to us,” she said.

You can see video of Thunberg’s heckler here: Dutch Climate Protester Takes Mic from Greta Thunberg for Turning Climate Rally Into a Political Rally for Hamas.

UNKNOWN PERSON: “I came here for a climate demonstration not a political view.”

As with much of Thunberg’s rambling, that’s a non-sequitur. When your ideology requires you to believe that “the personal is political,” everything is political – even the politics you don’t like. But they do tie-in: “The issue is not the issue—the issue is revolution! (And a key corollary is: the more violent, the better. Hence the approval and celebration of Hamas on October 7.)”

DOUGLAS MURRAY LEAVES PIERS MORGAN SPEECHLESS, DELIVERS A CHILLING WARNING TO THE WEST:

MORGAN: Well, there is, but I don’t think that all of these protesters are pro-Hamas. I think you’re making…

MURRAY: Right, and the difference is whether you have a large artillery behind you.

MORGAN: You don’t honestly think they’re all pro-Hamas, these people.

MURRAY: Well, well, I think that anyone who for instance chants things like ‘From the River to the Sea’ is, in fact, what I described and is criminally ignorant. Oh, well they are, there were masses of idiots marching past Westminster Abbey last week saying exactly that.

MORGAN: Yeah, but they’re not all doing it (crosstalk) I’ve watched the videos. There are some who are chanting and some who aren’t.

MURRAY: Okay, well here’s a challenge, Piers. If you decided to go on some kind of march and in week one you discovered that you had the BMP calling, for instance, for the murder of all black people, would you not wonder whether or not you should go on week two? Would you not drop out by week three? I would have thought so, I would.

MORGAN: That’s a good question…yes, I would.

* * * * * * * *

There’s a lot said in the exchange, but Murray’s primary push was to point out that Hamas and its supporters are not just oppressed individuals who can be reasoned with. They aren’t a population you can import and assimilate with the hope that they’ll respect and become a viable part of Western civilization. Hamas and those chanting “from the river to the sea” are sustained by death and destruction. It is their very identity, and we are seeing that play out in Western cities across the globe.

As Murray explains, even the Nazis attempted to hide their atrocities. Hamas sympathizers are proud of theirs and proclaim them publicly. Because of that, they should be seen as at least as barbaric as Hitler’s movement was. In fact, it’s reasonable to say that Hamas is simply a modern extension of Nazism. Instead of reacting accordingly, police forces from London to New York City are standing idly by as the violence escalates. Why? Because those perpetrating it are intersectional and thus untouchable.

Hamas has far more apologists on western college campuses on the street than ISIS did back in their heyday, but in terms of the two being thrilled to use images of the atrocities they’ve committed as recruiting tools for the cause, the two terrorist organizations have much in common.

THE HOLLOW MEN:

Someone at X said that the Cornell student arrested for making threats against Jewish students was probably just trying too hard to fit in and win approval of his peers and took it a step too far.  My view is that there’s no just about it…the desire to fit in and win approval is very often the reason why people commit evil acts.  I’m reminded of something CS Lewis said: “Of all the passions, the passion for the Inner Ring is most skillful in making a man who is not yet a very bad man do very bad things.”

The above sentence is from a talk that Lewis gave at King’s College in 1944.  Also from that address:

And the prophecy I make is this. To nine out of ten of you the choice which could lead to scoundrelism will come, when it does come, in no very dramatic colours. Obviously bad men, obviously threatening or bribing, will almost certainly not appear. Over a drink, or a cup of coffee, disguised as triviality and sandwiched between two jokes, from the lips of a man, or woman, whom you have recently been getting to know rather better and whom you hope to know better still—just at the moment when you are most anxious not to appear crude, or naïf or a prig—the hint will come. It will be the hint of something which the public, the ignorant, romantic public, would never understand: something which even the outsiders in your own profession are apt to make a fuss about: but something, says your new friend, which “we”—and at the word “we” you try not to blush for mere pleasure—something “we always do.”

And you will be drawn in, if you are drawn in, not by desire for gain or ease, but simply because at that moment, when the cup was so near your lips, you cannot bear to be thrust back again into the cold outer world. It would be so terrible to see the other man’s face—that genial, confidential, delightfully sophisticated face—turn suddenly cold and contemptuous, to know that you had been tried for the Inner Ring and rejected. And then, if you are drawn in, next week it will be something a little further from the rules, and next year something further still, but all in the jolliest, friendliest spirit. It may end in a crash, a scandal, and penal servitude; it may end in millions, a peerage and giving the prizes at your old school. But you will be a scoundrel.

So yes, the passion for approval has always existed. But I feel sure it is much stronger, or at least has fewer countervailing forces, among people who experience today’s college admissions race and its eventual fulfillment.

Bari Weiss has a good first step to reform academia: End DEI. It’s not about diversity, equity, or inclusion. It is about arrogating power to a movement that threatens not just Jews—but America itself.

This would also help: Congress is planning to turn up the heat on major universities about their funding.

AYAAN HIRSI ALI: Why I am now a Christian.

In 2002, I discovered a 1927 lecture by Bertrand Russell entitled “Why I am Not a Christian”. It did not cross my mind, as I read it, that one day, nearly a century after he delivered it to the South London branch of the National Secular Society, I would be compelled to write an essay with precisely the opposite title.

The year before, I had publicly condemned the terrorist attacks of the 19 men who had hijacked passenger jets and crashed them into the twin towers in New York. They had done it in the name of my religion, Islam. I was a Muslim then, although not a practising one. If I truly condemned their actions, then where did that leave me? The underlying principle that justified the attacks was religious, after all: the idea of Jihad or Holy War against the infidels. Was it possible for me, as for many members of the Muslim community, simply to distance myself from the action and its horrific results?

At the time, there were many eminent leaders in the West — politicians, scholars, journalists, and other experts — who insisted that the terrorists were motivated by reasons other than the ones they and their leader Osama Bin Laden had articulated so clearly. So Islam had an alibi.

This excuse-making was not only condescending towards Muslims. It also gave many Westerners a chance to retreat into denial. Blaming the errors of US foreign policy was easier than contemplating the possibility that we were confronted with a religious war. We have seen a similar tendency in the past five weeks, as millions of people sympathetic to the plight of Gazans seek to rationalise the October 7 terrorist attacks as a justified response to the policies of the Israeli government.

* * * * * * * *

To understand why I became an atheist 20 years ago, you first need to understand the kind of Muslim I had been. I was a teenager when the Muslim Brotherhood penetrated my community in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1985. I don’t think I had even understood religious practice before the coming of the Brotherhood. I had endured the rituals of ablutions, prayers and fasting as tedious and pointless.

The preachers of the Muslim Brotherhood changed this. They articulated a direction: the straight path. A purpose: to work towards admission into Allah’s paradise after death. A method: the Prophet’s instruction manual of do’s and don’ts — the halal and the haram. As a detailed supplement to the Qur’an, the hadeeth spelled out how to put into practice the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, God and the devil.

Read the whole thing.

TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE! Biden suffers ANOTHER embarrassing gaffe as he stumbles through Veterans Day service and appears to get lost while laying a wreath.

QUESTION ASKED: Is California the new China?

The fifty-six-year-old [Gavin Newsom] recently announced the creation of California’s new “Cradle-to-Career” (C2C) system. According to this official statement, the system will integrate “over 1 billion data points — providing unprecedented insight and transparency,” ostensibly “to improve career outcomes for millions of Californians.” C2C’s integration of data, notes the statement, “will provide the public, researchers and lawmakers unprecedented insight that could improve education and quality of life for millions of Californians.”

But it could also make citizens’ lives many times worse. After all, these data points, like oil from the ground, must be extracted.

Which brings us back to China’s “social credit system.” By integrating a multitude of data points, the CCP monitors, manipulates and modifies the behaviors of its 1.4 billion citizens. As someone who previously lived and worked in China, I am intimately familiar with its credit system. In short: individuals and businesses are all given a score. If they fall below this arbitrary number, all sorts of bad things occur. For example, a person with a poor credit score may find himself unable to enter certain venues, purchase airline tickets or enroll his children in specific schools. The system provides a unified record of all citizens and businesses; it can be monitored and updated in real-time. In other words, you could have a healthy credit score in the morning and find yourself unable to apply for a loan in the afternoon.

According to the aforementioned C2C statement, by “leveraging billions of data points, California’s Cradle-to-Career data system will be a game-changer for improving the quality of life for millions of Californians and highlighting ways to improve opportunity in the classroom and access to the workforce.”

The Golden State, we’re assured, “is leading the nation in equitably connecting our education system to the workforce to ensure every Californian has the freedom to succeed.”

On closer inspection, however, the system will give lawmakers access to intimate information broken down by race, geography and, of course, gender, to, as the statement suggests (or warns) “illuminate and address areas of strength and needed growth and any inequities.” C2C’s partners include the California Department of Education, the Department of Health Care Services, the Department of Social Services and University of California’s Office of the President.

And speaking of California and China, San Francisco is about temporarily become a Potemkin City to better please Xi Jinping:

They cleaned up the streets of San Francisco for China’s dictator. They can fix the crisis plaguing our cities. They just don’t want to because they hate you. pic.twitter.com/4SS4d2FJGU

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) November 12, 2023

HMMM: Hit the Brakes: Virginia Republicans Might Have a Chance to Retake the State Senate Now.

We have reports that some funny business with a Virginia Democratic state senator might give control of the upper chamber to the Republicans. The Daily Wire’s Luke Rosiak wrote that there might be serious questions regarding the validity of Sen. Ghazala Hashmi’s residency. You must live in the district you’re representing, and multiple sources say Hashmi’s paperwork is inaccurate. Hashmi represented Senate District 10 but opted to run for the 15^th district this cycle post-redistricting. The reason is apparent: this is a slam-dunk blue district encompassing parts of Richmond and Chesterfield County (via Daily Wire):

* * * * * * * *

There could be a special election, though Republican candidate Hayden Fisher, an attorney, told Daily Wire that it would waste taxpayers’ money due to the early voting law, leaving the 15^th district with no representation for months. He hopes Hashmi’s votes will be declared null and void, leaving him to be certified the winner by default.

So, maybe there might be some good election news in the Old Dominion. We shall see.

Stay tuned.

IT’S TIME TO PLAY MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, ISRAEL EDITION! (Video.)

Difficulty Level: Israel pic.twitter.com/v9MOJOyKQx

— Dani Buller (@askdani__real) November 9, 2023

RUN ALL THE CANDIDATES! Spoiler alert: Jill Stein becomes latest to join cast of characters who could cause chaos in 2024.

Former 2016 Green Party candidate Jill Stein is the latest political figure to enter the 2024 election, adding to what is already shaping up to be a chaotic presidential field that could bring problems for President Joe Biden.

Stein, who many blame for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s loss in 2016, is now setting herself up to be a similar thorn in Biden’s side, particularly as the president is already facing tough reelection odds.

Since the 2024 election season began, Democrats have fretted over the entry of long-shot candidates like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Green Party-turned-independent challenger Cornel West, and Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN). The latter’s presidential bid has drawn heavy criticism from national Democrats, particularly lawmakers who are unsure whether Phillips’s campaign will help or hurt Biden.

Biden may also see a bipartisan challenge coming his way. The wave of retirements from the Senate has sparked speculation as to what Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Mitt Romney (R-UT) will do next. The Draft Romney Manchin Committee filed with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday and plans to make an announcement as soon as next week, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

As Glenn noted in July, “incumbents who face a serious primary challenge generally lose. RFK Jr. is polling around 20%. Compare to Eugene McCarthy in 1968.” And Ronald Reagan versus Jerry Ford in 1976, Teddy Kennedy versus Jimmy Carter in 1980, and Pat Buchanan versus George H.W. Bush in 1992.

THE NEWLY REPUBLICAN MAYOR OF DALLAS HAS HIS WORK CUT OUT FOR HIM: Shoplifting up 73% in Dallas as retailers rush to put merchandise out of reach.

Over to you, Mayor Eric Johnson.

JIM TREACHER’S WEEK SAUCE:

Scientists say they may know what causes déjà vu.
In other news, millions of Americans are enjoying new music from the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

A cop in Australia has been convicted of pulling his gun on a fellow officer who threatened to spoil Top Gun: Maverick.
He was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and 200 hours of Scientology deprogramming.

Democrat Susannah Gibson narrowly lost her election in Virginia, months after she was discovered doing online sex shows for paying customers.
It was really tight. And so was the race.

Ouch. Read the whole thing.

BOX OFFICE BOMB: The Marvels Opening to $47M-$52M in New Low for Marvel Studios.

The Marvels is anything but marvelous so far at the box office.

Based on Friday earnings of $21.5 million, the Marvel Studios and Disney superhero tentpole is headed for a domestic opening of $47 million to $52 million to rank as the worst start in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The Marvels marks a new low for Kevin Feige‘s Marvel Studios, which for years was unrivaled in its success, and bolsters the theory that superhero fatigue is a real thing as fanboys grow weary of a glut of titles and are far less forgiving.

Until now, rival DC was the superhero studio that endured the biggest ups and downs, with a good number of its films opening to $50 million or less (in comparison, many MCU releases started with $100 million or more domestically). This summer, DC’s The Flash debuted to a dismal $55 million domestically on its way to topping out at a paltry $270.6 million globally.

Word of mouth is already hurting The Marvels, which is only the third MCU title to receive a B CinemaScore from audiences after Eternals and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantamania. The vast majority of MCU releases have earned some variation of an A. Its Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score of 62 percent is likewise on the lower end.

Speaking of word of mouth, the Critical Drinker has some thoughts on why The Marvels is bombing in his latest video: