IT’S MY THURSDAY ESSAY FOR VIP SUBSCRIBERS: How the Trump Team Lost the Epstein Narrative.

TO BE FAIR, THAT’S A LOW BAR: Chris Cillizza Thread on Biden’s Decline PROVES Public Is Better at Journalism Than He and His Colleagues. “Imagine if Melania Trump and staffers tried to do this with Trump. Do any of us believe the media would just drop the story only to write books about it later?”

INSURRECTION, STRAIGHT UP: Saboteurs Busted for Spiking Tires of LA ICE Vehicles. But Wait, What About Those Bags? “Four saboteurs arrested by Border Patrol for spiking their tires while on an immigration operation on Tuesday have been identified. And, you could say, they left their seeming benefactor, a government-subsidized NGO, holding the bag.”

BREAKING: JFK Airport Issues Travel Warning Over Anti-Semitic Protests.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Get your own soapbox.

A music teacher in a Maine elementary school, Marissa McCue Armitage has decided to teach about controversial topics, she writes in Education Week. She knows some parents don’t want their kids hearing about settlers stealing Indian land at Thanksgiving, the dangers of climate change, challenging gender norms or the horrors of slavery. But, after attending DEI workshops, she’s decided to “cover the hard stuff.”

Yes, she teaches music. Or that’s what she’s paid to teach.

She needs to be taught to stay in her lane.

VICTORIA TAFT: Commie Congresswoman and Harvard Prof Are Put on Blast for Holding Mob Boot Camp.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: The Jig is Up: Everytown Has Figured Out That Eliminating the $200 Transfer Tax is Just the Latest Step Toward Eliminating the NFA Completely.

BRUTAL: Understanding The Speed Of The Texas Flood.

HOW IN THE TANK WAS THE MEDIA FOR HARRIS? THIS IN THE TANK: Behold the World’s Most Awkward Interview.

GOOD. NOW MULTIPLY IT AGAIN: US Army multiplies PAC-3 MSE missile production by four to support long-term air defense strategy.

WELL, GOOD: Meme Maker’s Conviction Thrown Out in Free Speech Win.

FORMER PYTHON TERRY GILLIAM: Trump Saved Us from Humorless Woke Scolds. “Gilliam may be mad about his project’s plight, but he seems happy that President Donald Trump made it safe to laugh again stateside. That revelation came through in a surreal Hollywood Reporter interview with the 84-year-old legend.”

THEY ALWAYS HAVE: Legal Immigrants Say No Amnesty for Illegals.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO NONPROLIFERATION? Russia ‘Ready to Assist Tehran in Refilling’ Uranium Stockpiles, Foreign Minister Says.

Russia’s foreign minister on Tuesday said that his country is prepared to help Iran replenish its uranium stockpiles, offering Tehran a path to a rebuilt nuclear program in the wake of the U.S. and Israeli campaign to prevent the Islamic Republic from building a bomb.

“Moscow is ready to assist Tehran in refilling its depleted uranium stocks,” Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov reportedly said during a meeting with BRICS member nations in Brazil.

“Russia has technological solutions for uranium depletion and is ready to work with Iran in this field,” Lavrov said in remarks published by Iran’s state-controlled media. “We have technological capacities and we are ready to offer them, taking the excess of overly enriched uranium and returning the power-generation-grade uranium to the Islamic Republic and its nuclear facilities.”

The U.S. and Israeli air campaign destroyed Tehran’s top nuclear sites, including the mountain bunker at Fordow that stored much of the country’s uranium. Russia’s offer to replace the uranium could lay the groundwork for Iran to restart its weapons work.

Then again, the Kremlin either could not or would not assist Tehran in its greatest moment of need, so this might just be more stupid bluster.

INDEED: No Brother Left Behind: Why Men Need Encouragement and Each Other.

DOG BITES MAN: The Media Deploy A Cadre Of ‘Experts’ And ‘Advocates’ To Lie About Medicaid.

But the bias doesn’t end there. Weixel’s Medicaid story includes all manner of cues designed to tilt a reader’s bias toward the leftist perspective.

Only Leftist “Experts” Consulted: The story quoted analysts from the Center for American Progress, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Kaiser Family Foundation. While Weixel described CAP as “Democratic-aligned,” he neglected to mention that the other two foundations also have a leftward slant; while not as outwardly partisan as CAP, they definitely have an ideology behind them. Of course, he didn’t quote any policy experts who support Medicaid reform.

Politicians versus “Experts:” Rather than quoting conservative analysts who can speak to the merits of reforming Medicaid, Weixel instead used a generic quote about the legislation from President Trump, followed by a quick rebuttal that “experts … say … the legislation would enact an unprecedented reduction” in Medicaid. Of course, only some “experts” take the view that said reduction will cause harm — but Weixel didn’t bother to quote any who disagree. A variation on this trick has the reporter describing one side’s position — “Republicans argue that …” — allowing him or her to characterize, or mischaracterize, policy views without giving voice to any of the people who hold them.

“Advocacy” Bias: In addition to using the term “experts” to describe the leftists claiming the legislation will harm Medicaid, Weixel also trots out a similarly loaded term: “advocates.” The left and the media (but I repeat myself) use this term frequently. One will almost never hear the term used to describe someone conservative, who “advocates” for less spending — or protecting the unborn, for instance. Instead, the media invariably apply the term to someone promoting more taxes, more spending, and more welfare — more government control, in other words.

The bias, and the contrast, are practically self-evident.

Read the whole thing.

ASHLEY MCCULLY: New Jersey Is Coming for Homeschoolers.

HE ISN’T WRONG: Trump calls Staff Gen. Milley ‘idiot’ for leaving military equipment in Afghanistan during withdrawal.

Trump, who historically has pushed to recover billions of dollars’ worth of equipment US troops left in Afghanistan, said that Milley argued at the time it was cheaper to leave the equipment there.

“That’s when I knew he was an idiot,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday. “Didn’t take long to figure that one out. But they left all that equipment. But they left their dignity behind. It was the most embarrassing moment, in my opinion, in the history of our country. Not that we got out. We should have not been there, but that we got out the way we got out with great embarrassment and death.”

Milley, who is now retired, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

To be fair, what’s there to say?

OH MY: The Deepfake Era Just Got Real: Someone’s Pretending to Be Marco Rubio.

RELIGION OF PEACE UPDATE: Hostages released from Gaza detail sexual violence as Israeli report concludes Hamas used it as ‘weapon of war’ on October 7.

The Dinah Project experts — all women — gathered first-hand testimonies from the 15 returned hostages, one survivor of an attempted rape during the October 7, 2023 terror attacks, 17 eye and ear witnesses and 27 first responders who attended the scenes of the attacks.

These testimonies, coupled with forensic reports and photographs and videos from the attacks, led them to conclude that Hamas used sexual violence in a widespread, systematic and “tactical” way as a “weapon of war.”

The report, published on Tuesday, describes some of the survivors’ experiences.

One female hostage was beaten and sexually assaulted at gunpoint while in captivity, according to the report. She said she was chained by an iron ankle chain for three weeks and was repeatedly asked about the timing of her menstrual cycle. The report details that many of the 15 former hostages were threatened with rape in the form of forced marriage. Almost all of them reported verbal sexual harassment and some physical sexual harassment, including unwanted touching of private parts, it said.

All believable, in light of what Hamas chose to broadcast and brag about on Oct. 7.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: For Your Consideration — James Comey in an Orange Jumpsuit. “Longtime readers of mine know that James Comey has long been near the top of my list of undesirables who I think deserve some righteous legal scrutiny. The smug jerk smirked his way through the Biden years, thinking that he got away with his interference in the 2016 presidential election.”

HE SAYS THAT LIKE IT ISN’T BEAUTIFUL: Trump Megabill Will Supersize ICE’s Mass-Deportation Push. “Overall, the law provides $170 billion in new funding for immigration and border enforcement. A substantial $46.5 billion will go toward completing Trump’s beloved border wall. But since border crossings have dropped to very low levels this year, the administration’s more immediate priority will be supercharging ICE’s mass-deportation initiative aimed at immigrants already in the country. The megabill makes ICE the largest federal law-enforcement agency by far and channels $14 billion in new money to local law-enforcement agencies that cooperate with its work — some very serious dollars for often cash-strapped police departments.”

STOP TRYING TO MAKE FETCH HAPPEN: About That Kamala Harris Comeback…

LEAKED MEMOS: Harris warned to distance herself from Biden and go on Joe Rogan podcast.

In a series of memos from Maria Comella, a Republican political strategist who has advised Democrats including former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Comella told Harris campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon that the then-vice president was not providing voters with a “reason” to cast a ballot for her.
…
Comella also advised Harris to acknowledge how Democrats had missed “the mark” on the economy and inflation, border security, the COVID-19 pandemic, crime and public safety, and climate policies, such as Biden’s electric vehicles mandate, during her sit-down interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier and more broadly on the campaign trail.

“Create clear daylight/differentiation between a Harris and Biden administration,” she wrote. “Acknowledge where the Democratic Party hasn’t gotten it right — a willingness to not just work with the other side, but call out your own party when necessary. Meet the moment by contrasting the stakes on the issues.”

Comella also encouraged Harris to appear on Joe Rogan’s podcast and not underscore the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol during her closing argument address at the Ellipse.

“Be prepared to play,” she wrote of Rogan. “While he won’t be aggressive, he will be looking for authenticity and it’s an opportunity to differentiate in style.”

These were all bad decisions. But they were also the best decisions available, once the quality and preparedness of the candidate were taken into account.

YES: Britain’s Crackdown on Speech Proves That We Were Right to Fight.