That’s been the mantra of the Left for some years. It’s an extreme rendition of the obligation of folks—especially those with public influence—to speak and act against bad behavior, especially atrocities. It’s a mantra that was born in objections to the rise of, and increasing publicity surrounding, violence against women and children, increases (in publicity, at least) roughly coinciding with the time of the Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein exposures.
Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R, NY) asked a question of three university presidents, Claudine Gay of Harvard, Elizabeth Magill of Penn, and Sally Kornbluth of MIT, a simple, straightforward question at last week’s House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing regarding campus antisemitism:
Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Penn’s rules or code of conduct, yes or no?
Magill’s answer, smirk on her face:
It is a context-dependent decision, Congresswoman.
Gay repeated the claim:
It can be, depending on the context.
Kornbluth tried to dodge the question altogether:
The headline on Jason Gay’s op-ed on Christmas gifts in Friday’s The Wall Street Journal actually reads,
The Elusive Challenge of De-Escalating Gifts
That’s the point, though. In Gay’s piece, the season isn’t about Christmas, it’s about whether to incur the expense of profligately scattering presents about, with the Christmas season serving merely as backdrop and an excuse for the ostentation, or as a device for crying about the money—and intrafamilial competition—involved.
Gay pretended to considerable angst about trying to tamp down the gifts (with nary a word about Christmas itself), and he offered a number of excuses [sic] for the failure to tamp. A couple were these:
Progressive-Democrat Joe Biden, through his Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, is busily trying to tie Israel’s hands (plural) behind its back as it fights its war of survival against the terrorist organizations of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorists ensconced in Gaza Strip. Blinken’s words:
“…the imperative to the United States that the massive loss of civilian life and displacement of the scale we saw in northern Gaza not be repeated in the south.” He said Israel must take “more effective steps to protect the lives of civilians.”
Recall the…incident…a few days ago in which a Hillcrest High School teacher was terrorized, solely for her support of Israel during the current Hamas-instigated war against Israel, and driven into a locked room for her own protection when 400 of the high school’s students rioted and targeted her, threatening to kill her, while waving Palestinian flags.
New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks is vociferously denying that those students were radicalized; he’s insisting, instead, that
This is a really good school with wonderful young people. And I’m so taken aback by this notion that these kids are terrorists…or radicalized.
Javier Milei, the newly elected Argentine President, is, indeed, talking a good game. It’ll be well worth watching to see if he can deliver—and he has many large obstacles in his way, including (this is far from an exhaustive list) opposition to his wish to get rid of the nation’s central bank (and the economic pitfalls associated with it, both near term as Argentina’s economy adjusts, and longer term with currency controls devolved to the provincial banks or to individual banks (some of which may already be too big to control without stern measures aimed at them in particular)), opposition parties bent on restoring/maintaining their own political power, general resistance—both political and popular—to any change of such magnitude, and his own political inexperience and naivete.
A bunch of staffers in a broad reach of offices in the Biden administration Executive Branch have signed a letter. Carefully anonymously.
Four hundred government officials from 40 departments and agencies within President Biden’s administration signed a letter opposing the president’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war and demanded a cease-fire.
The Tuesday letter, first reported by the New York Times, includes officials from the State Department, White House, National Security Council, and the Justice Department. The signatories of the letter remained anonymous to protect against professional retaliation.
They…wish to see…President Biden to
Plainly not Progressive-Democrat Mayor Eric Adams’ New York City, not when he considers taking care of the City’s burgeoning illegal alien population to be far more important than protecting the Americans and legally present foreign nationals who are already in the City. Thus,
A freeze on new NYPD recruits is among the “horrendous” budget cuts expected to come down Thursday—as the Big Apple grapples with the soaring cost of the migrant crisis, The Post has learned.
And
The budget slashings come after Adams estimated the surging [illegal alien—my term, not Adams’ euphemism] crisis will set the city back $12 billion over the next three fiscal years.
The FBI wants a new headquarters building, and the GSA has identified the new location for it, in Greenbelt, MD. The FBI had wanted Springfield, VA, and they’ve raised ethics concerns over the GSA’s site selection process. Those concerns, however real, are in the rumble seat compared to the problem either site presented: both are far too deep inside the DC bubble. One is just 11 miles southwest of Capitol Hill, and the other is just 12 miles northeast of Capitol Hill.
The House of Representatives has passed a bill that provides $14.3 billion in aid for Israel as it defends itself against the war of annihilation that the terrorist Hamas is waging.
Progressive-Democrat Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has vowed to kill the House-passed bill.
The Senate will not take up the House GOP’s deeply flawed proposal. Instead, we will work together on our own bipartisan emergency aid package that includes aid to Israel, Ukraine, competition with the Chinese government, and humanitarian aid for Gaza.
This is the Progressive-Democratic Party, blocking aid to Israel.