WELL, AN ATTACK ARM: Conservative Group Reveals ProPublica As The Attack Arm Of The Democratic Party. “Relied upon as a supposedly unbiased source of news reporting and opinion research, ProPublica has produced numerous hit pieces on conservative and Republican office-holders, while virtually ignoring targets on the left.”

WELL, YES: Some Democrats worry Biden’s team is ignoring political warning signs.

This is from the American Left’s unofficial mouthpiece, the Washington Post:

“I am concerned,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said in an interview. “I was concerned before these numbers. I am concerned by the inexplicable credibility that Donald Trump seems to have despite all of the indictments, the lies, the incredible wrongdoing.”

New York Times-Siena College polls found Biden trailing Trump in five of the six most competitive battleground states: Trump led Biden by 10 percentage points in Nevada, six in Georgia, five in Arizona and Michigan and four in Pennsylvania. Biden led Trump by two in Wisconsin. In 2020, Biden defeated Trump in all six of those states, though generally by very narrow margins.

Of particular concern to Biden allies are indications that his support among Black voters, who were critical to his victory in 2020, may be softening.

“People fundamentally misunderstood what Black voters said in 2020,” said Cliff Albright, co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund. “The depth of support was never there. The enthusiasm was never there for Biden. We were very pragmatic. We knew he was the best chance to beat Trump.”

If a president is going to lead through times of turmoil — particularly turmoil he brought on himself — it helps immensely to have a wellspring of popular support. Biden was never more than “Not Trump,” even to Democrats, with support “a mile wide and an inch deep.”

If that.

Previously: The Wheels Are Coming Off the Biden Administration.

And: The Man Who Helped Make Obama Now Wants to Unmake Biden.

IF YOU OWE THE BANK A THOUSAND DOLLARS, YOU HAVE A PROBLEM. IF YOU OWE THE BANK A TRILLION DOLLARS…: Developing countries owe China at least $1.1 trillion – and the debts are due.

OH, CANADA:

"BREAKING:
I now face a 2-year ban by the CPU for speaking publicly about the unfairness of biological males being allowed to taunt female competitors & loot their winnings.

Apparently, I have failed in my gender-role duties as “supporting actress” in the horror show that is my… pic.twitter.com/CJxVZtG0VA

— April Hutchinson (@Lea_Christina4) November 7, 2023

Shut up, they explained.

MOSTLY PEACEFUL PROTEST: Several young kids escape injury after woman targets what she thought was an ‘Israel school.’ “The building, however, is associated with Radical Hebrew Israelites, a group the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated a ‘hate group,’ noting its ideology has become increasingly antisemitic, anti-white, anti-LGBTQ, xenophobic and misogynistic since the 1960s.”

SPLC promotes hate and violence.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: It’s Star Wars, but It’s Real. “The video quality might not be quite up to the standards of Industrial Light & Magic, the special effects company founded by George Lucas to make Star Wars possible, but this Star Wars is for real.”

NOT ANTI-WAR, JUST ON THE OTHER SIDE: ‘War Criminals Work Here’: Pro-Palestinian Activists Vandalize Israeli Company’s Virginia Office.“Palestine Action U.S. vandalized the Arlington, Va., offices of Elbit Systems late Sunday night, the group claimed on X, formerly Twitter. Members of the group smeared red paint on the doors to Elbit’s building and spray painted ‘Shut Elbit Down’ and ‘We Will Be Back!’ on the entrance. The group boasted on X that this was ‘the THIRD Elbit location hit in one night in the U.S.,’ part of a coordinated attack that also included offices in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Elbit Systems is a frequent target of anti-Israel activism, thanks to its work providing the Jewish state with counterterrorism equipment.”

Antiterrorism is terrorism now because of course it is.

I LIKE THE CUT OF HER… WELL, EVERYTHING: ‘Wonder Woman’ Gal Gadot to Host Screenings of Hamas Violence Against Jews.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Sorry, Obama: ‘We’ Aren’t Complicit. It’s You Who Has Blood on Your Hands.

In 1953, the Swiss novelist Max Frisch published a play called The Arsonists. It’s a pitch dark comedy about a small town ravaged by a group of maniacs disguised as traveling salesmen, who sweet-talk their way into people’s homes and then set them on fire. Its protagonist is a dolt called Biedermann—bieder being German for honest, respectable, and upright. He’s aware of the danger, and yet, when the arsonists knock, he lets them in. The tragedy, Frisch argues, is that he almost has no other choice: The arsonists are such smooth talkers that it’s easy, when listening to them, to ignore the large drums of kerosene and the matches they’re holding in their hands.

I thought of The Arsonists this week when I heard snippets of a podcast interview featuring former president Barack Obama on the Middle East. “Nobody’s hands are clean,” Obama said. “All of us are complicit.”

Nah, man. Not all of us are complicit. It’s just you.

Read the whole thing.

I INSTALLED ONE THAT COVERS MY WHOLE WIFI NETWORK: Media Mock Speaker Johnson and His Son for Using Anti-Adult Content App.

I LOVE A GOOD SALE BUT DISCOUNT SEASON FATIGUE IS ABOUT TO BECOME A THING: Amazon will drag out Black Friday and Cyber Monday into 11 days of deals beginning Nov. 17. “The retail giant announced Monday that its 2023 Black Friday sale will start on Friday, Nov. 17 (or a week before the actual holiday), with doorbusters lingering through Cyber Monday on Nov. 27. That’s 11 full days of holiday savings where we can expect to see new record-low pricing on brands like LEGO, Peloton, and YETI, per a press release, as well as limited-time restocks of popular gifts.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Democrats Finally Realizing That Biden 2020 Was a Horrible Idea. “Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) is what got us in this predicament. It affected even the better brains among the Democrats. All of their efforts were on one goal in 2020: NOT TRUMP. That was the prize and that was the focus. It’s not that they didn’t bother to look ahead and ponder the consequences, it’s that they were incapable of doing so. The blind TDS rage made them rabid animals.”

GOING TO POT: Marijuana raises risk of heart attack, heart failure and stroke by up to a THIRD, two major studies find.

Using marijuana regularly is ‘strongly’ linked to heart failure and stroke, two major studies suggest.

One paper that tracked 160,000 adults over 54 years old for four years found those who smoked marijuana daily had a 34 percent higher risk of heart failure.

And in a second, researchers found hospitalized people over 65 years old who had used marijuana — but not cigarettes — were 20 percent more likely to suffer a major heart event or stroke.

So it’s more than just the usual complications that come from smoking tobacco.

CHRIS QUEEN: Outwitting, Outplaying, and Outlasting the Left. “It’s always worth celebrating when someone on the right manages to survive the left’s censorship, so here’s a recent example.”

SHAKEOUT: Astra, low on cash, defaults on loan.

Astra had been working to raise additional funding. The company said in a separate Oct. 23 SEC filing that it had signed a non-binding term sheet with JMCM Holdings LLC to be the lead investor in a loan of up to $25 million. The funds, Astra said, would be used to pay off the August loan and for “general corporate purposes.”

In the new SEC filing, Astra said it is in “continued discussions” with other investors about financing, but could not guarantee it could close any deal, or that the terms of any funding would be the same as what it disclosed in October.

In an Aug. 14 earnings call, Astra executives said they were working to identify strategic investors for both its Astra Spacecraft Engines spacecraft propulsion business as well as its Rocket 4 launch vehicle in development. The company had laid off a quarter of its workforce between the beginning of July and early August and shifted others from rocket to satellite propulsion work, delaying work on Rocket 4.

Always sad to see in such an exciting industry but with so many startups the shakeouts are inevitable.

HARDBALL: Starbucks to Union Employees: Sucks to Be U.

Monday the company announced another 3% pay increase — and new benefits — for most retail workers but long-term employees will enjoy a 5% bump. Starbucks North America exec veep Sara Trilling said the pay raises are “what makes us all partners. And an important way we do this is by investing in our partners’ journey, to bridge to a better future at Starbucks and beyond.”

But not if you belong to a union.

Much more at the link.

THAT WOULD BE NICE: Is Marvel Learning the Lessons of ‘Go Woke, Go Broke’?

NEVER BEND THE KNEE TO THE MOB: #SwiftiesForPalestine Trends As Fans Try to Bully Taylor Swift Into Opposing Israel.

CHANGE? Disney Taps PepsiCo Veteran Hugh Johnston As CFO, A Rare Outsider In A Top Executive Role.

It’s the Woke creatives who need to be given the boot at Disney, but maybe a cost-conscious CFO is the person to make the cuts.

#RESIST: Trump Slams ‘Election Interference,’ ‘Political Warfare’ Before NYC Testimony.

WELL, THEY CAN’T HAVE IT: New Jersey Wants Your Baby’s Blood. “Pretty much every state does blood testing for newborns to screen for genetic disorders, but as far as I can tell, only New Jersey keeps it around for whatever they damn well please, be it criminal, commercial, or secret clone armies.”

TALES FROM THE GRAUNIAD: I’m a Jew at ‘The Guardian.’ I Don’t Feel Safe at Work.

I see a colleague who had posted about “decolonization” all over social media over the weekend. They’re laughing with the rest of their team. They’re having a great day. I used to love their podcast, full of hot takes and celeb gossip. Now they’ve evolved into an expert on the Middle East. It doesn’t look like their family is in the middle of it, though.

No one else at work speaks to me about it. I nod my way through conversations about fonts and I stumble home.

I go back the next day. I look at the front page. A photo of Gaza and “violence escalates.” Israelis “dead” but Palestinians “killed.” If they can’t empathize with the Jews now, they never will.

I email the editors. I tell them that my newspaper’s coverage has been upsetting. They tell me that their thoughts are with my family but they stand by the paper’s reporting.

I hear colleagues complaining about the newspaper’s “American readers. They’re always accusing us of antisemitism.” They’re laughing.

Not anti-war but pro-Hamas.

SHE OUGHT TO BE EXPELLED: 22 Republicans Saved Rashida Tlaib From Censure. Here’s Who They Are.

THAT’S QUITE THE EXCLUSIVE YOU HAVE THERE, REUTERS: Exclusive: Russia’s Putin to stay in power past 2024, sources say. “The sources, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of Kremlin politics, said that news of Putin’s decision had trickled down and that advisers were now preparing for the campaign and a Putin election.”

TO ASK THE QUESTION IS TO ANSWER IT: Why Can Everyone Celebrate Who They Are Except Christians?