WHAT’S THE NEW YORK TIMES’ PROBLEM WITH JEWS? Did you hear about the violent night-time riot against Jewish residents in a Brooklyn neighborhood earlier this week? Not if you depend upon The New York Times for your news. It happened but the editors of the NYT simply ignored the latest eruption of anti-semitic extremism of pro-Hamas/pro-Palestinian radicals.

Richard Pollock explains in his latest Substack column why it should come as no surprise that a calculated mob attack one of America’s neighborhoods with a high concentration of Orthodox Jews was ignored by the NYT. After all, the NYT had some major problems with the Holocaust.

ANOTHER WIN FOR TRANSPARENCY IN GOVERNMENT: My goodness, the great news just keeps coming on the transparency and accountability front. Check out the latest Citizen Auditor product from OpenTheBooks in my latest PJ Media column.

AN AUDI FOX, A SKIPPING TIMING BELT AND THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE: So it’s 1975 and the wife and I are sailing East on I-20, having just departed family in Tyler, Texas, and heading to the nation’s capitol. We’re driving a brand new brown/creme colored 1976 Audi Fox, first new car I’d ever bought.

Loved that little Audi because it had a great power-to-weight ratio, a fine-handling suspension set up, and a comfortable, intuitive interior design. It also had an inline-four cylinder engine with an overhead camshaft attached to a timing belt that suddenly decided to slip ever so slightly. Our journey was delayed until the necessary repair was made. I learned a great deal more about such things years later when I started racing a Formula Ford in the SCCA!

Why am I sharing this memory with you? Because it’s a great illustration of “Irreducible Complexity,” which just happens to be the point of biochemist Michael Behe’s Secrets of the Cell, Part 2, on HillFaith. Therein you will find the connection suggested in this post’s heading above. I don’t know if Behe ever owned an Audi Fox.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Thanks to Occasional Reader for pointing out my reversible mis-type, i.e. Irreversible-which-should-be-Irreducible Complexity. A diplomat OR isn’t but he was right-on on the mistake.

SELL YOUR TESLA NOW! As soon as I heard Sheryl Crow was dumping her Tesla to protest Elon Musk, I knew the rapier wits at Issues & Insights would have something devastatingly entertaining to say about such nonsense. Sure enough, here it is.

TIME FOR ‘SPENDING DECISION TREE TRANSPARENCY:’ The first great landmark in proving transparency is Big Government’s worst enemy was the Freedom of Information Act. (FOIA) in 1966. The second was the Federal Financial Accountability and Transparency Act (FFATA) of 2006.

The third should be, according to my latest PJ Media column, creation by Congress and President Donald Trump of web site that enables any citizen with access to the Internet to use the Spending Decision Tree Transparency (SDTT) system that makes public the names, titles and actions of every decision-maker in a series of decisions that results in federal tax dollars being spent.

Yes, it would require a great deal of creative thinking and insight into how government spending decisions are made. But I recall too well not that long ago when the “experts” said there was no way to put all federal spending on the Internet. They were wrong and today we have USASpending.gov, as mandated by FFATA. Why not Spending Decision Tree Transparency.gov?

HAS TRUMP EXHAUSTED THE LEFT? Reaction wasn’t as expected to news late last week that Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought’s delegating to his top politically appointed deputies budget allocation authority. That’s a big deal if you understand the crucial role OMB plays in developing and administering the federal budget before and after Congress completes its work.

Folks on the Left traditionally have far better understood the crucial importance of their control of the federal bureaucracy, and thus reacted vastly more quickly and decisively to what they perceive as any attack on its power or perogatives.

But then came Donald Trump II armed to the teeth with eight years worth of hard lessons learned about the Left and its bureaucracy. His first three weeks have seen an unexpected assault on multiple fronts on every major aspect of the federal Leviathan, including the bureaucracy.

Yes, the federal worker unions and their litigious Left-wing non-profit allies predictably headed to federal court in waves in the first two weeks, cheered on by the Mainstream Media. But then comes week three, Vought makes his move, and it’s all but crickets.

To be sure, Monday was a federal holiday and the courts were closed, so maybe there will be a new wave tomorrow. But check out my report today in The Epoch Times for more on the muted reaction to a key prong of the Trump campaign to reform the federal government and its workforce.

HALF OF ALL PALESTINIANS ARE EX-PATS: There are actually an estimated six million Palestinians who do NOT live in Gaza or the West Bank, but when was the last time you read or heard that fact mentioned in the Mainstream Media. Richard Pollock, in his latest Substack column, further notes that there are two million Palestinians living in Israel.

“Having established themselves for half a century or more in their adopted homes, few consider going back to the West Bank or Gaza. So living outside of the Gaza Strip isn’t unthinkable. In fact, it has been thinkable for quite some time,” Pollock points out.

“And there is another special kind of Palestinian expat that has been a well-kept secret. This group consists of fabulously wealthy Palestinians who are derisively called by the Palestinian man-on-the-street as the ‘exiled bourgeoise of Palestine,’” he adds.

In other words, don’t believe the claim the Palestinians can only live in Gaza and the West Bank. So why do the people pushing that claim do so? Could it be they have a stake through Non-Government Organizations (NGO) in the funding that would flow to re-settling the two million displaced by the conflict incited by the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre of more than 1,000 innocent Israelis.

MEET THE EMPEROR PENGUIN: Why anybody or any creature would be found in the Antarctic region of the Earth is beyond me, but there are some rather amazing animals there. Regardless of your views on evolution, ID, etc., check out this John 10:10 video on HillFaith detailing the remarkable ways the largest of the multiple Penguin types keeps warm. We do live in a wondrous world, regardless how you think it came to be.

A VISIONARY THOUGHT EXPERIMENT: Don’t yet know the identity behind EKO on Substack, but today’s “Golden Age: The American Renaissance” is a deeply thought provoking look at what Trump’s continuous references to Canada as the 51st state may well signify about this country’s future.

A HILLFAITH SATURDAY TWO-FER: First Two-Fer is a look at a burgeoning effort in some corners of evangelical Christianity known as the “Deconstruction Movement.” Typically, some high profile evangelical figure announces that, having “deconstructed” some aspect of their understanding of Christianity, they are no longer Christians.

There is then a flurry of admiring media coverage, the figure gets a few profitable engagements in supportive secular settings, and then we all go on living our lives. It remains to be seen how enduring this phenomenon proves to be.

In the meantime, thoughtful Christians, of whom there are many here among the legions of intelligent Instapunditeers, should find the latest “What Would You Say?” 5:33 video produced by the Colson Center on HillFaith to be quite helpful.

Saturday Two-Fer Number Two: Can one five-letter acronym really explain how the universe came to be? Not in every infinitely fascinating detail, of course not. But Dr. Frank Turek of crossexamined.org shows SURGE goes a long way in answering deep questions in this delightful two-minute graphic video on HillFaith.

REAGAN’S ‘TERRIBLE SWIFT SWORD’ ASSESSES TRUMP: Donald Devine was Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) under President Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1985. Trust me, and I worked for him for nearly three years, he earned that moniker.

Today in National Review, Devine provides a finely detailed, historically informed and politically wise evaluation of Trump’s first three weeks, which he describes as “the most well prepared and best performing presidential transition in history. It had the earliest and largest number of cabinet nominees and staff, the most thoughtful and earliest announced executive orders and agency guidance, and a president ready to lead.”

As an example of Devine putting Trump’s federal workforce reforms in historical perspective, consider his assessment of the controversial “Schedule F” proposal:

“There has been much confusion about Trump’s first term Schedule F requirements, now labeled ‘policy career’ managers. These are mid-level careerists who have a major influence on agency policy. President Joe Biden had eliminated Schedule F by portraying it in the media as overruling the merit system.

“In fact, there is no general merit exam, and there has not been one since my day. All Schedule F did, and policy career does now, is restore Carter’s special responsibilities and oversight for mid-level career managers, which had been repealed after union pressure post-Reagan in the 1990s.”

Much more here that puts Trump’s early moves in much-needed context.

HOW TO STOP THE DEMS’ TRO ASSAULT: Rod Martin has a few ideas about how to stop the growing wave of liberal judges granting Temporary Restraining Orders (TRO) sought by Democrats and their allies to stop Trump from doing what he was elected to do.

SMART MOVE: Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought is doing something today that will draw anguished cries of protests from all the usual suspects. Vought is giving his top political deputies delegated authority to make spending allocation decisions.

Why will that send them all around the bend, again? Because OMB is part of the Executive Office of the President and is the central office for managing the day-to-day operations of all federal departments and agencies. It also prepares the President’s budget and has authority to cancel programs that conflict with the Chief Executive’s policy agenda.

Here’s the thing: The deputies to whom Vought is delegating authority are political appointees. Check out my exclusive story this morning at the Epoch Times to understand further why this is a big deal sign the Trump administration is doing what no previous Republican administration has successfully attempted.

I’VE GOT MORE THAN YOU’LL EVER WANT TO KNOW: About federal civil service retirement programs in this exclusive on the details other media won’t or can’t report about Trump’s buyout offer wrapped up at 75,000 takers.

10 BILLS IN CONGRESS TO MAKE TRUMP REFORMS PERMANENT: Bet you didn’t know there are already 10 legislative proposals in Congress that if approved and signed into law would institutionalize the most important Trump Executive Orders for posterity. Ben Johnson of The Washington Stand knows.

MY FIRST SUBSTACK COLUMN IS UP: Okay, my friends, I’m taking the plunge into the world of Substack authorship with an initial column entitled “An Astonished ‘Reagan Revolution’ Veteran Assesses the Trump Revolution.” Enjoy! And, as I know you will, tell me what you really think about it.

UPDATE: Not sure what the problem is. I clicked publish before, just did it again for those who say Substack not taking you to the column. FIXED, I THINK.

‘DURING GOOD BEHAVIOR:’ That phrase may not instantly come to mind when federal court rulings are the topic of discussion, but in another must-read analysis, the mysterious “EKO” points out that issuing rulings that protect corruption in government just might not constitute “good behavior.” And Congress has on occasion impeached corrupt federal judges.

HOUSE HAS DOGE HEARING BUT IGS NOWHERE IN SIGHT: House Subcommittee of Delivering Government Efficiency (DOGE – see what they did there?) convened its first-ever hearing on the Trump DOGE blitzkreig against waste and fraud. Special emphasis was placed by Republicans on the $200+ billion lost annually to improper payments, which is a huge part of the overall waste, fraud and abuse problem.

But what is quite possibly the biggest chunk of opportunity for making huge and permanent progress in cleaning up the national disaster that is the federal bureaucracy. What might that be?

The nearly 14,000 cost-cutting and efficiency open recommendations by Inspectors-General (IG) and 300 similar Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommendations being ignored by departments and agencies. As I report in The Epoch Times, nary a word was said by GOPers or Democrats. What’s up with that?

IS ELON’S NON DE PLUME “EKO?” Read this latest installment of deeply revealing pieces on DOGE and you may well know the answer.

HOUSE PANEL GOING DOGE ON IMPROPER PAYMENTS: Rep. Marjorie Greene (R-Ga.) leads a House subcommittee hearing tomorrow morning — assuming D.C. doesn’t shut down completely due to several expected inches of overnight snow — to focus on the hundreds of billions of dollars in improper payments issued annually by federal bureaucrats.

As I report in The Epoch Times this afternoon, the most basic challenge facing Congress and the Trump administration is quite possibly the difficulty of establishing with reasonable certainty the actual total amount of improper payments and if agencies actually abide by new laws, presidential executive orders, OMB regulations or anything else designed to stop them and prevent their recurrence.

SAY WHAT??? If you hail from below the Mason-Dixon, you likely know that phrase is a tipoff that something somebody said doesn’t add up. It was also my response when first I heard of a survey that found 65 percent of Trump voters support tax dollars for PBS. Here’s my Epoch Times report on it.

THERE’S $10 MILLION FOR ANYBODY WHO CAN DUPLICATE ABIOGENESIS: That’s the process way back in the very beginning when life emerged from non-life. If abiogenesis actually occurred — non-life producing life — then there is no need of a  life-giver extrinsic to the process.

To win the cash, which was first offered in 2019, all you have to do is create “a purely chemical process that will generate, transmit and receive a simple code without any information snuck in from an intelligent designer,” according to Daniel Witt, quoted on HillFaith.

Just in case you are guessing the judges of the “Artificial Intelligence + Origin of Life” prize could be a couple of Bible Thumpers who never set foot in a scientific lab,  they are George Church, a geneticist, molecular engineer, and chemist, and Professor at Harvard and MIT. The second judge is Denis Noble, one of the top 100 scientists in the UK and the first person to build a computer model of an organ. The heart. Using punch cards.

DOES THIS GUARANTEE TRUMP TAX CUTS EXTENSION? The Winston Group conducted a recent focus group and survey and among much else in the way of incisive and important insights was this, as related by Newt Gingrich, courtesy of Rod Martin:

“In a direct choice, government spending was overwhelmingly seen as a bigger problem (76 percent) than not enough revenue coming in from taxes (16 percent). This is the case across party (Republicans: 89-7; Independents 77-15; Democrats 63-27).”

There are no guarantees in politics, of course, but when three-quarters of the public says keeping tax cuts in place compared to 16 percent who want higher levies, odds are it ought to happen without much drama.

WHY THE WORST IS YET TO COME FOR THE LEFT: The underlying Trump strategy and the initial feints, counter-actions and deep penetrations of the first two weeks are becoming much clearer now. Check out my latest PJMedia column to see how it happened.

HOW TRUMP OUT-SMARTED THE DEEP STATE BUREAUCRATS: There are no sources for this otherwise inspiring report on EKO. I can’t vouch for it’s accuracy, but, if it is true, then the Left had no clue about what was about to happen to them after November 5.