Iran and Israeli Strikes Complicate Negotiations. Homeless Guy Allegedly Penn Station Stabber. Socialist Gains on Spencer Pratt. President Storms Off ‘Meet the Press’. Wiccan Chaplains & More
It’s fair to say that Tehran remains noncommittal about giving peace a chance.
On Sunday, Tehran launched a barrage of airstrikes against Israel—the first since the ceasefire began in April. Not surprisingly, Israel struck back:
The exchange of fire threatened to further complicate efforts to broker a lasting peace deal to end the months-long U.S.-Israeli war with Tehran and raised the prospect of a return to open conflict.
The Israeli Air Force hit sites in western and central Iran, its military said on social media early Monday local time, without providing further details.
Iran’s attack on Sunday followed Israeli military strikes on what Israel said were suspected Hezbollah positions in Beirut’s southern suburbs earlier in the day.
President Trump appealed for peace, telling both sides to “immediately stop ‘shooting.’” The president further stated that Israel’s prime minister would be forced to play ball with Iran after the Islamic Republic launched a missile attack on the Jewish State Sunday—and insisted that he is still the one who “calls the shots.”
Iran wants money for peace, which could “be a minefield” for President Trump. Fox Digital is a good place to look for frequent updates. Oil prices are rising, and stock futures are mixed this morning. This Just In: Iran says it has ended strikes.
Penn Knife Horror. Six people were stabbed in New York’s Penn Station, which is contiguous to Madison Square Garden, where the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs are scheduled to play this evening and Wednesday. One victim was seriously injured. In custody is a suspect who is believed to be homeless and “emotionally disturbed.” Our cities are increasingly dominated by homeless people, and it’s about time that we come to grips with the truth that affordable housing is not the key to solving the homelessness problem.
It’s becoming less likely that reality star Spencer Pratt, who raised consciousness about drugs and mental health as the real causes of homelessness, will make it into the runoff with incumbent LA Mayor and famed junketeer Karen Bass. Socialist City Council member Nithya Raman has overtaken Pratt in the vote count, but the race remains uncalled. Looks like LA, with its myriad urban problems, might opt for business as usual.
Business as usual for the state of California includes a dysfunctional system for counting votes. In a more normal state, we’d know the results of the primary races by now. John Fund writes:
California has deliberately slowed down ballot-counting to accommodate its chaotic expansion of mail-in voting. The Washington Post’s editorial board calls the Golden State in this regard a “national embarrassment.” The New York Times sighs that California’s elections are in the “pretelegraph era” (though it also claims that this is somehow a “gift to Republicans”).
The system is indeed a designed mess. …
“I’d like to believe California can be saved from the Left. It may be too late,” demographer Joel Kotkin writes in the UK Telegraph. Kotkin says that conservatives may get excited about Pratt or Steve Hilton, still in the running to make the gubernatorial runoff, but demography is against them:
California’s insanely slow-moving vote count leaves the possibility that one or another will fall behind once the union-led “ballot harvesting” of late ballots alters the result. This has become increasingly common, with conservative candidates often eliminated weeks after election day….
California’s demographic profile is increasingly bad for Republicans. The state has been consistently losing its Anglo population, as well as the middle class, particularly families of all ethnicities, to Texas, Arizona, and Nevada. Those most likely to stay, notes the Public Policy Institute, tend to be young and often underpaid professionals, the very class that elected New York mayor Mamdani, public workers and their wards.
Sasha Stone on the “Worst Case Scenario for Los Angeles.”
President Trump cut short an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press by storming off the set. The triggers were election fraud and the anti-weaponization money. Variety reports:
“I don’t know what’s going to happen with the weaponization fund,” Trump stated. “I love the idea, because people like you, the fake dirty press, the crooked press, people like stupid Biden, he’s not smart enough to know what’s going on, but people that surrounded him, surrounded his beautiful Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, what they did to the lives of people, they destroyed people. They sent people to jail who did nothing wrong.”
Eventually, Trump had enough and told Welker before walking off, “You’re a one-sided crooked network. Sorry. Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough. Thank you, darling. Have a good time.”
For gluttons, see Axios’ “5 key moments from Trump’s cut-short ‘Meet the Press’ interview.” The New York Press has the six words that led to the president’s premature exit.
“The Food Stamp Rolls Decline—Hurray” is the headline on a Wall Street Journal editorial. GOP reforms are paying off as more recipients work or volunteer, the editors argue:
These are sensible and welcome changes that 20 years ago would have been supported by both parties. The press treats every departure from welfare as a tragedy, but the real regret is that welfare programs have become permanent entitlements that too often erode the work ethic and breed a culture of dependency on government.
Mark the food-stamp progress as a Trump win for the country that never would have happened if today’s Democrats were in power.
“The Rise of the UnJews,” by Joel Kotkin (congrats for two Must citations today, Mr. K), in City Journal, argues that “Anti-Zionism is rising among diaspora Jews; the future of Jewish identity may be increasingly Israeli.” Kotkin writes:
A clear danger should lead to greater solidarity, but instead we are seeing greater division among Jews. Shockingly, the scourge of Jewish anti-Zionism has metastasized after October 7, often allying itself with Islamists committed to the eradication of Israel and, in some cases, assaults on Jewish communities around the world….
The election of fervent anti-Zionist Zohran Mamdami as mayor of New York City reflected the growing power of unJews. He won one-third of Jewish voters and as much as two-thirds of those under 45, according to exit polls.
Another Must Hit for City Journal. “Jefferson’s Greatest Sentence,” by Michael Gibson, writes about Walter Issacson’s new book, “The Greatest Sentence Ever Written.” Gibson writes that the book reminds us that “we are a nation dedicated to a proposition.”
“The Four Sources of Voters’ Economic Rage,” by Inez Feltcher Stepman, explains that “American Dream costs (for ownership of homes, etc.) are constraining household budgets, even when other economic indicators look good. The Wall Street Journal reports that the American job creation machine has come back to life.
Presbyterians In/Wiccans Out. The Department of War has removed Wicc, and about 180 other “belief systems” as recognized religions. This primarily influences the hiring of military chaplains:
Some of the belief systems that have been removed from the list include atheism, which was replaced by a general “no religion” or “agnostic” designation; pagan or Earth-based faiths such as Wicca, Druidism, Heathenism and members of The Troth; New Age beliefs such as Eckankar, Rosicrucianism, shamanism and spiritualism; as well as other alternative belief systems, including Deism, Unitarian Universalism and practitioners of “magick.”
The religions that remain are various denominations of Christianity, Buddhism, Mormonism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism and the Baha’i faith.
We are waiting anxiously to see if Wiccans will hex the Department of War.
Jim Geraghty explores why so many Democrats seem willing to overlook Maine Senate hopeful Graham Platner’s—un—faults. Julian Epstein writes in the New York Post that “Graham Platner and ‘New Wave left’ detest Western exceptionalism.”
Sleepwalking Democrats have leveled charges of fascism so habitually, in such zombie-like fashion, that they don’t even recognize real Nazism when in their midst.
Former CBS “60 Minutes” reporter Scott Pelley’s meltdown indicates, according to Becket Adams, that he saw himself more as a tenured sage than a reporter. Satire: “Fallen Hero: CBS Fires Scott Pelley After Decorated Career ‘In Combat’.”
Scott Pelley isn’t the only person who won’t go away. Don’t miss Miranda Devine’s “Democrats can’t escape the Bidens and their drama — even if they’re done covering for them.”
