CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Gun-Banning NM Governor Smacked Down Again. “By actually applying the Bruen test, and using it to strike down half of the remaining decree, the courts have giving gun owners at least three-fourths of a loaf here.”

PRIORITIES: ‘Pathological Liar’ or ‘Brave’ Victim? The Curious Case of the ‘Islamophobic Hate Crime’ at Stanford. “It took the university president’s office four days to condemn the Hamas terrorist atrocities on Israel, but within 20 hours of the attack on Omira, Stanford’s president and provost had condemned the drive-by Islamophobic hate crime in a statement.”

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Food banks struggle as more people face food insecurity. “Food inflation is only running about 3% now, but rent inflation is over 7%. And for low income or working families, rent can account for about 50% or more of their income. So, as those costs are continuing to go up, the money just isn’t going as far, and food tends to be a flexible expense.”

WHEN YOU LIE DOWN WITH DOGS…: Antisemitic Mob Shows Up for Biden Fundraiser, Vandalizes Jewish Neighborhood.

YEAH, THAT’LL HELP: Hillary will take on a ‘growing role’ in Biden’s reelection campaign after hosting $1m fundraiser at her Georgetown home.

FREE SPEECH: ‘He’s Back’ Trends on X as ‘Most Censored Man’ Alex Jones Is Allowed to Speak on Platform Again.

COLD WAR II: China Will Have 1,000 Nuclear Warheads by 2030.

According to a new Department of Defense (DoD) report on the military power of China, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) nuclear arsenal grew from 200 to over 500 warheads in just the past four years and will hit 1,000 and by 2030 and 1,500 by 2035. The 150 percent growth since 2020 is thus in the books and unprecedented.

As for the future, the key driving factor is the 300–360 new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silos that were built over the past few years. The silos are able to hold either the DF-31 or the DF-41 ICBM—capable of carrying three to ten warheads, respectively.

The additional major factor is the four new strategic nuclear-armed submarines (SSBN) projected to be fully operational by 2030, each with 20 missiles and three to six warheads per missile. The US Pacific Command says the submarines already in the Chinese fleet are currently being fitted with multiple warheads.

Previously: Don’t Look Now, But There’s a Nuclear Nightmare A-Brewing.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: UPenn’s Magill Shouldn’t Be the Only Domino to Fall. “A few deposed university presidents aren’t going to change the toxic culture that got all the kids goosestepping, but public awareness can be a powerful thing. When the public starts withholding precious funding, the power grows.”

UGH: Hamas conned Israel into complacency by passing intel on Islamic Jihad.

According to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Hamas provided unspecified information about Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an Iran-backed terror group in the Strip second in power only to Hamas.

The move was intended to build an image that Hamas wanted to avoid a conflict with Israel and instead was interested in some collaboration, the official said.

In May, when a several-day flare-up of violence broke out in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Islamic Jihad, Hamas pointedly remained on the sidelines, with many seeing the decision as a sign of either the group’s maturity or its weakness.

In the weeks since the October 7 assault, reports have built a picture of an Israeli intelligence establishment so deeply invested in the notion that Hamas was not looking for a fight that information and warnings of a possible attack, including Hamas battle plans that found their way into Israeli hands, were dismissed.

Senior Israeli officials have admitted that they were wrong in the assessment of Hamas’s mindset as well as Israel’s ability to thwart the group via technological means.

Hamas played a long game — and Israel forgot that Hamas’ only game is to murder Jews.

DAMN: Israeli Hostage Rescue Attempt Ends in Failure.

INCENTIVIZING BAD BEHAVIOR: Portland will consider race, gender to ‘support’ disruptive students.

Do “restorative practices” work? Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute talks with Harvard’s Jal Mehta about the gap between theory and practice.

“The idea here is that when an offense has been committed, students and an adult will come together to talk about the issue,” says Mehta. “Using a structured protocol, the offender will generally get to hear about what sort of harm they caused and offer some amends, and then the community gets to decide together how to move forward.” The problem is that it’s hard to implement.

The intentions may be good, says Hess, but the results are disappointing. He thinks restorative justice is “willfully naive” and ignores human behavior. “Wired to test boundaries,” children “benefit from norms, expectations, and predictability even more than grown-ups do,” he argues.

Plus: “Portland (OR) schools will design ‘support plans’ for disruptive students that consider trauma, race, gender identity/presentation and sexual orientation, reports Alec Schemmel.”

If Portland wanted to generate tensions between white kids/not-white kids or straight kids/not-straight kids — who were probably mostly getting along to begin with — what would they be doing differently?

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE: State Department Bypasses Congress to Send Tank Ammunition to Israel.

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: ‘I Just Got Out of Prison’ T-Shirt Guy Just Got Sent Back.

DON WE NOW OUR WHAT APPAREL? This Christmas, Disney Decides Not to Say ‘Gay.’

I DIDN’T BOTHER DRUNKBLOGGING THE LAST ONE: Why Have Pointless Debates When Trump Is Going to Win?

TEXAS: Suspect In Six Murders Out On Bail Thanks To Soros-Backed Group. “When news dropped about the six-body Austin-San Antonio murder spree, I thought “Should I do a post on that?”, but didn’t see any political angle. But now one has come to light: The accused spree killer was previously out on bail thanks to yet another George Soros-funded ‘criminal reform’ group.”

UNDERSTANDING YOUR CONSTITUENCIES: Rep. Pressley Calls for Giving 16-Year-Olds and Felons the Right to Vote.

IT IS UNWISE TO DISPLEASE COMRADE XI: Missing Chinese Foreign Minister Died by Suicide or Torture. “The report, based on interviews by Politico Europe with unnamed sources who have access to top Chinese officials, spotlights what Politico says was a campaign to dislodge allegedly disloyal officials by Chinese President Xi Jinping — one with echoes of the sweeping purges carried out by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.”

That’s old school.

ABOUT DANG TIME: This CNN Reporter Just Had a Come to Jesus Moment About Hamas.

OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY: California’s budget deficit swells to record $68B as tax revenue falls. “California’s budget deficit has swelled to a record $68 billion after months of unexpectedly low tax revenues, a shortfall that could prompt the state’s deepest spending cuts since the Great Recession.”

The smartest people keep assuring me that the economy is doing well and yet tax receipts are falling everywhere from Sacramento to Washington, DC.

CRISIS BY DESIGN: 12,000 Illegals Cross While Mayorkas Says Building Border Wall Limits Asylum.

“INVESTS”: Biden Invests $3 billion in California’s High Speed Rail.

The money will help buy six electric trains and bankroll construction and design of a train station and other facilities and projects along a 171-mile stretch of rail line in California’s central valley—far from either Los Angeles or San Francisco. So far this year the California bullet train project has also received nearly $230 million in U.S. taxpayer money through the 2021 federal infrastructure bill.

Biden’s fresh money infusion comes as the high speed rail project already has a projected $100 billion deficit after spending more than $11 billion. California Democrats and Republicans alike have blasted the enterprise as costly with little to show for the time and money spent so far. California governor Gavin Newsom (D.) has criticized the project as overly expensive and time-intensive and proposed a scale-back—an idea he later said was taken out of context by the media.

“Only the Biden administration would look at a project that’s years behind schedule and tens of billions over budget and think ‘that’s a good place to invest another $3 billion,’” said Republican assemblyman James Gallagher, the state assembly’s minority leader.

Somebody’s getting the money but, judging by the zero miles of track laid, it sure isn’t people with any genuine interest in building railroads.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Dems Won’t Be Able to Sweep Hunter Biden Under the Rug Next Year. “The longer Hunter stays in the news, the more difficult it is for the Dem water-carriers in the media to keep up the ruse that President LOLEightyonemillion was never involved in any of his little boy’s questionable side hustles.”

REAL MONEY: Elon Musk’s SpaceX is now valued at $175 billion in the private market—that’s larger than any IPO valuation in history. “Musk is in talks to sell between $500 million and $750 million of SpaceX stock at a valuation of $175 billion or more, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing unnamed sources. The figures mean the private space giant, which still hasn’t announced plans to go public, is more highly valued than any initial public offering in U.S. history, topping Alibaba’s $169 billion IPO valuation from 2014.”

THE TIKTOK GENERATION: That Sound You Hear Is Gen-Z Voters Running Into the Arms of the Democrats.