Issue: Crime

The shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an ICE agent is bringing out the worst in those most closely involved in this preventable death. That’s the gist of the Wall Street Journal’s lead editorial this morning:

The tragic killing of a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis by a federal immigration agent is again showing America’s political leaders at their worst. In a rush to control the narrative, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claimed the officer fired defensively to halt an “act of domestic terrorism.” Mayor Jacob Frey demanded that the feds “get the f— out of Minneapolis.” ….

What happened in Minneapolis was fast, a matter of moments. That’s why such killings are investigated. A model of old-fashioned circumspection Wednesday was border czar Tom Homan, who said he wouldn’t “prejudge” split-second events based on early video clips. “It’d be unprofessional to comment on what I think happened in that situation. Let the investigation play out, and hold people accountable,” he said. “Give them time to look at all the videos, talk to all the witnesses, talk to the officers, and make an educated decision.”

The public is learning more about Renee Nicole Good, who was killed, and the ICE agent. “Killer Agent Unmasked,” the Drudge Report homepage unhelpfully screams. Drudge links to a less incendiary U.K. Daily Mail story. “Warrior of the Left” is how the New York Post describes Ms. Good on its cover. Inside the newspaper backs this up with a profile of Good:

Renee Nicole Good, the mom who was killed by a federal agent after veering her car toward him, was an anti-ICE “warrior” and was part of a group of activists who worked to “document and resist” the federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota, The Post can reveal.

Good, who moved to the city last year, linked up with the anti-ICE activists through her 6-year-old son’s woke charter school, which boasts that it puts “social justice first” and prioritizes “involving kids in political and social activism,” multiple local sources said.

“She was a warrior. She died doing what was right,” a mother named Leesa, whose child attends the same school, told The Post at a growing vigil where Good was killed Wednesday.

The same paper has a report on the radical leftist groups, including one funded to the tune of $7.8 million by George Soros, behind the anti-ICE protests in Minnesota. The Left apparently is trying to characterize Good as “a young observer” of the protests. A Washington Post report says Good moved to Minneapolis “for community.”

“Democrats: No One Would Get Shot If We Just Let Them Attack Law Enforcement” is the headline on an Eddie Scarry piece at The Federalist. The ICE officer in the case was dragged 100 yards with his arm pinned to the vehicle. It is suggested that the previous event might have factored into his split-second decision. More on the ICE agent whose name, arguably unwisely, has been released.

Fire & ICE: An enthusiastic Matt Vespa of Townhall enthuses that yesterday’s White House briefing was “absolute fire,” demanding more of Vice President J.D. Vance, who said that Good was responsible for her death. Meanwhile, Minnesota “leaders” have “escalated” the dispute over the shooting. Local officials are not happy that the FBI says it will conduct the investigation. Not meaning to cast aspersions, but you like to put your fate into the hands of F-word addicted Mayor Jacob Frey or Governor Tim “The Menace” Walz? Highly recommended: Charles C.W. Cooke’s “How Not to Think about the ICE Shooting in Minneapolis.”

Meanwhile, Federal agents shot two people last night in Portland in an incident stemming from a traffic stop. The two shot were illegal immigrants and members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. No word yet on whether they’d been attracted to Portland for the community.

Before We Leave Minneapolis: “The Left’s Minnesota Problem” is the headline of Kimberley Strassel’s column this morning. And do they ever have one. Strassel gives an enthralling account of how the multi-billion-dollar welfare fraud can affect politicians not named Walz. But the GOP might be able to benefit. Strassel concludes:

Much depends on Republicans, specifically on whether they can realize that Minnesota isn’t a rah-rah MAGA state, and that any such candidate will likely lose. Their failure to acknowledge that up to now is among the reasons they’ve remained locked out of statewide office. The GOP’s large field at least offers some potential.

Mr. Walz might have hoped his announcement would limit fallout to his state. But this scandal could become a liability for progressive welfare-for-all governance nationwide, if the GOP is smart enough to take advantage of it.

Welfare grift isn’t just a Minnesota problem. Again, one question is whether Republicans can take advantage of this.

Good Trouble: Anti-government protests are spreading in Iran. A writer for the London Spectator suggests, “The end is drawing near for Iran’s mullahs.” Reuel Marc Gerecht and Rat Takeyh ask whether Iran’s revolutionary regime can hold the line against protests. Iranian-born Sohrab Ahmari had a good piece in Unherd on ending Iran’s “cycle of violence.”

Food for Thought: “At Last, the Truth About Food” is the title of Mark Hyman’s Free Press piece responding to RFJ Jr.’s new food pyramid. “For decades, federal dietary policy fomented chronic obesity and illness. Now, it’s acknowledged a basic reality: What we eat matters more than how many calories we count,” Hyman argues.

Apparently, Human is not the only meat-eater at TFP. “TGIF: Eat Real Food” is the headline to Nellie Bowles’ Friday TFP column. All Great Minds Think Alike: Dr. Ben Carson also has something to say. Greg Gutfeld said something last night on The Five that I’ve been thinking about—that the real, unsung hero is the late Dr. Atkins of Atkins-diet fame. The experts ridiculed him when he said pretty much what the new pyramid makes clear.

Lefty Politico is crowing that 17 Republicans defected and voted to extend ObamaCare subsidies for three years. The Senate also advanced a war powers resolution aimed at hampering President Trump’s free hand in Venezuela. Five Republicans voted for the resolution: Senators Rand Paul, Lisa Murkowski, Todd Young, Susan Collins, and Josh Hawley.

Meanwhile, Heather Mac Donald charts a win for the president in “Trump Forces the New York Times’s Hand on Crime” in City Journal:

The New York Times is growing desperate. In its efforts to discredit Donald Trump’s crime initiatives, it has deliberately drawn attention to black-on-black crime. …

The Times’s spin on Trump’s allegedly racist crime policies and rhetoric has a few problems—among them hypocrisy, double standards, and inconsistency. If Trump has failed to publicize the black homicide victims mentioned in the Times’s story, he was only following the paper’s lead. None of those killings got any coverage in the paper at the time.

The Times has ignored even more egregious murders than the garden-variety gang violence that now so moves the paper to sorrow. Three-year-old Honesty Cheadle was caught in a drive-by shooting after a Fourth of July cookout this year. Another three-year-old, Ty’ah Settles, suffered a similar fate in May 2024. Neither loss earned notice from the Times. …

Times columnist Jamelle Bouie expressed the paper’s position: There was “no public safety emergency in Washington, D.C. Crime is . . . at a 30-year low,” Bouie said on August 16. Trump was merely demonizing the “residents of D.C. as essentially incapable of self-government.”

What does that acceptable crime picture look like? In 2024, D.C. saw 187 homicides, or over 15 a month.

The New York Post columnist Douglas Murray says Trump is right to ask for more military spending, but that he should threaten our enemies, not our allies; He Was Ignoring Eviction Notices: “Giant bear living under LA man’s house finally leaves after 37 days — thanks to this bizarre method.”

Also being evicted from their nests: California billionaires, who are targeted by Governor Gavin Newsom’s billionaire-targeted new taxes. TGIF. 

The 22-year-old man accused of murdering Charlie Kirk has high-powered lawyers, but they forgot to give him advice on courtroom demeanor: Try to look serious at your murder trial:

The man accused of assassinating conservative activist Charlie Kirk looked calm and chuckled with his lawyers as he made his first in-person court appearance – as a judge named Erika Kirk as the official victim representative for her slain husband.

Tyler Robinson made his first in-person appearance in court in Provo, Utah, yesterday. One issue was whether to allow cameras into the trial. Robinson’s lawyers argued against cameras. Erika Kirk supports them. U.S. District Court Judge Tony Graff is mulling this over and will decide by December 29.

A New York Post editorial urges us to rally behind Erika Kirk against Candace Owens’ toxic conspiracy theories. The feisty tabloid drew the line at being too specific on Owens’ conspiracy theories, but National Review, praising Erika Kirk’s courage in the face of this added tribulation, has more information. National Review editors say that Erika Kirk’s anger is justified. What’s wrong with us?

“Democrats Lambaste Noem, Demand She Resign at Combative Congressional Hearing” is the headline on a Washington Post story. What the story omits: Noem won hands down. Here is another account. This exchange with Rep. Bennie Thompson, co-star of the choreographed House January 6 hearings, was the most revealing:

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) asks about “the unfortunate accident that occurred with National Guardsmen.” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem: “You think that was an unfortunate accident?!? It was terrorist attack. He shot our National Guardsmen in the head!” Rep. Thompson: “It was an unfortunate situation, but you blamed it solely on Joe Biden…Who approved the asylum application for this same person?”

A marathon fight to reform health care is in the offing for early next year. The Hill reports:

Only a holiday miracle can prevent ObamaCare subsidies from expiring on Jan. 1, setting up a major health care fight next month when lawmakers turn their attention to a 2026 spending bill and another potential shutdown fight.  

After dueling partisan bills failed in the Senate on Thursday, attention now turns to the House, where Republican leaders are teeing up a vote on yet another partisan health care package that does not include the enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies.

Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi [see above] isn’t the only member of Congress who is confused. “Progressives Struggle to Take America’s Side in a Fight” is a National Review article about the Left’s take on Venezuelan dictator Maduro. A Wall Street Journal editorial headlined “Trump Puts the Oil Squeeze on Maduro” is not confused:

President Trump is finally taking action beyond rhetorical threats to squeeze Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro out of power. The U.S. seizure of an oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast hits the dictator in the pocketbook, which is why he is screaming so loudly….

Mr. Maduro is accusing the U.S. of piracy, but he’s the one who stole Venezuelan democracy and caused millions of his countrymen to flee. More than eight million Venezuelans live in exile, destabilizing societies across the hemisphere while he props up the aging Cuban police state….

The seizure signals that Mr. Trump isn’t backing down on his effort to oust the dictator. This wouldn’t be a coup, but a liberation for Venezuelan democracy. Mr. Maduro lost a presidential election in July 2024 to opposition candidate Edmundo González, and he’s stayed in power through theft and terror.

The seizure of the tanker strikes at the heart of Maduro’s grip on power. Rescued at Sea: Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado risked her life to leave Venezuela to get to Oslo and beyond, where she will be an advocate for liberty in Venezuela. Her escape is the stuff of legend.

The Sick Man of Europe Is Europe: “European leaders are furious at President Trump following his recent derogatory comments about their Continent,” according to a Wall Street Journal editorial headlined, “The Real Reason Europe Is ‘Decaying’.” The editors contend that “the Continent faces a crisis, but not one JD Vance wants to admit.”

The editorial on Europe’s first crisis—the one cited by the administration:

The Administration’s National Security Strategy last week stirred outrage by warning that America’s European allies face “civilizational erasure.” Mr. Trump’s foreign-policy panjandrums mean primarily that mass immigration and deepening political illegitimacy are sapping Europe’s vim and vigor. Mr. Trump followed this week by describing Europe as “weak” and “decaying.”

The strategy, a brainchild of Vice President JD Vance and his circle, implies the U.S. may withdraw from its longstanding security cooperation with Europe if Washington decides Europe is no longer worth defending. A particular threat concerns the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The strategy paper warns that mass (read: Muslim) migration means some NATO members could within a few decades be majority non-European.

Messrs. Trump and Vance have a point.

The editors argue that there is a second, even more serious, cause of Europe’s decay:

But the Trump diagnosis ignores the biggest threat to Europe’s well-being. That is Europe’s generous social-welfare states and the cascading fiscal, economic and social ills they create.

Government social expenditure in the U.S. accounted for 19.8% of GDP in 2024, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In France the figure was 30.6%, in Germany 27.9%, and in Italy 27.6%. This share will rise as populations age. These columns recently documented the severity of the old-age entitlement problem in France and Germany especially.

This fact explains much of what ails Europe. …

One additional way for a country to go broke is the expensive and unrealistic environmental regulations required to reach “net zero.” But help is on the way ….

“Revenge of the Climate Realists” is the headline on Peter Savodnik’s piece at The Free Press. “For years, those who questioned the calamity of climate change were treated like pariahs. Now, their day of vindication has come,” is Savodnik’s argument.

“Affordability” is the word on all tongues. “Is There an Affordability Crisis?” is debated at The Free Press, with the likes of Tyler Cowen, Jason Furman, Kyla Scanlon, and others weighing in. Political consultant David Winston issues the electorate’s inflation report and tells us what to look for in the lead-up to the midterms.

Here’s something else that will determine the midterms: the rise of the mini-Mamdani’s. That’s Kimberley Strassel’s term for the new kind of Democratic candidates springing up in the mold of New York’s socialist Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. Her conclusion:

[I]f progressives emerge from this primary season firmly back on top the party, they might just mitigate some of that GOP risk.

“School Districts Are Keeping Parents in the Dark over Social Transitioning” is the headline on a National Review story. Yes, public-school administrators STILL think they know better than parents. Creepy stuff:

So-called social transition, including going by a name and pronouns that  do not  match a person’s sex, is a major intervention in a child’s life that can place the child on a difficult-to-escape  pathway to medicalized transition, carrying the risk of life-altering damage.  Yet over  1,000 school districts — attended by over  12 million students — have secret-transition policies that direct school officials to hide information about children from parents.

Meanwhile, as you may recall, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon has sued the Loudon County Public School System. Dhillon’s suit alleges that Christian students were being forced to accept radical gender ideology that conflicted with their religion.

Well, somehow this seems the perfect spot to mention Carrie Gress’s “How Feminism Became the Biggest Pagan Megachurch In the World.” Fascinating thesis.

I’m off for an unplanned trip for a funeral, and this is my last Musts for the year. Many thanks to readers and Independent Women for allowing me this opportunity. Merry Christmas, and looking forward to seeing you next year.  

How did an “almost autistic-like” thirty-something who lives in his mom’s basement pass for a criminal mastermind?

It turns out that the mysterious J6 Pipe Bomber, who fits this description, seemingly eluded the Biden FBI for five years. He was arrested last week. Today, the New York Post’s Miranda Devine ponders this incongruity:  

The arrest of the alleged J6 pipe bomber just lumps mystery on top of mystery.

What we know from court documents and media reports since his arrest Thursday is that suspect Brian Cole Jr., is a black, 30-year-old loner who lives in his mom’s basement in the middle-class suburb of Woodbridge, Va., a 20-minute drive from Washington, DC. According to his family, he is borderline autistic, and incapable of such a crime….

[FBI Director Kash] Patel hinted on Friday at a reason the FBI under [former Director Christopher]Wray during the Biden administration may not have wanted to solve the case: “intentional negligence.”

Devine proposes a reason behind the alleged “intentional negligence”:

Demonizing Trump and his supporters and extracting every morsel of political capital out of J6 was the priority of Joe Biden and his congressional hatchet woman Nancy Pelosi. Wray, the consummate political animal who wanted to stay on as FBI director, tailored his response to suit.

Nothing would be permitted to interrupt the false narrative that J6 was an “insurrection” worse than 9/11 committed by “Ultra-MAGA,” “white supremacist domestic terrorists” who “killed four cops.” None of that was true, of course.

You’ll have heard that CNN’s Jake Tapper gamely insisted that Cole is “a white man.” He is not, but that would have fit better with the Biden administration’s popular “white supremacy” motif. Cole is black.

Not to dispute Brian Cole Jr.’s autism diagnosis, but the rise in such diagnoses may have an unsuspected cause: welfare fraud. That’s Allysia Finley’s diagnosis in her highly recommended column in the Wall Street Journal:

Diagnosis rates of autism among children have more than tripled over the past 15 years. One reason, which Minnesota’s welfare scandal lays bare with shocking details, is Medicaid fraud and abuse.

Medicaid pays healthcare providers big bucks to diagnose and treat children with autism—sometimes tens of thousands of dollars a month for a single child. Yet states rarely verify that kids who are diagnosed actually meet the medical criteria for the disorder or that they get appropriate treatment from qualified specialists.

The result: Children covered by Medicaid or the government-run Children’s Health Insurance Program are 2.5 times as likely as those with private coverage to be diagnosed with autism. …

In Minnesota, the number of autism providers soared 700%, and payments to them increased 3,000% between 2018 and 2023. According to a federal indictment, Asha Farhan Hassan set up the ABA therapy provider Smart Therapy, which employed young relatives with no formal education beyond a high school education as “behavioral technicians.”

Ms. Hassan and her business partners allegedly recruited parents by paying them monthly kickbacks of up to $1,500 a child. She worked with a licensed therapist “to get the recruited child qualified for autism services. There was no child that Smart Therapy was not able to get qualified for autism services,” according to the indictment….

Government largess is making disability and indolence a way of life for too many Americans, including veterans.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, who was videotaped supporting one of the fraudsters, says the real victims are members of the Somali community. Ms. Must bets that Rep. Omar would agree with USA TODAY columnist Sara Paqueno, who says that “Somali Americans are throwing Trump’s ‘garbage’ back at him.” The Somali community is politically relevant, and Minnesota office seekers face a real dilemma. None of this is good for former Veep hopeful Governor of Minnesota Tim Walz. Alas, poor Tim has once again become the butt of cruel jokes (here, here, and here). Not so funny, Jason Rantz charges that Democrats built a public assistance system designed to be robbed.

Meanwhile, the Minnesota scandal is the starting point for a Wall Street Journal editorial headlined “ObamaCare Is a Mecca for Fraud”:

The Minnesota Medicaid grift illustrates how open-ended government welfare can easily become an inducement for fraud. A new Government Accountability Office report finds the pandemic-era sweetened ObamaCare subsidies are also ripe for gaming….

In 2023 one Social Security number was used to apply for more than 125 policies. Perhaps this was identity theft, but it’s also possible brokers submitted fake Social Security numbers to enroll ineligible or phantom people in plans. Brokers earn more in commissions from insurers if they enroll more people in ObamaCare. …

Using Census Bureau data, Mr. Blase estimates that about 6.4 million people this year were improperly enrolled in subsidized ObamaCare plans, costing taxpayers $27 billion. He has also found that about 40% of enrollees in plans fully subsidized by the government filed no medical claims. GAO’s report suggests many may not be real people. Others may have employer coverage and been enrolled by brokers without their knowledge.

Meanwhile, former physician and Republican Senator Bill Cassidy yesterday discussed his plan to reduce the cost of health insurance on “Face the Nation” and warned that the Trump administration’s possible new guidelines on hepatitis B vaccinations for infants would be “a mistake.” PJ Media’s Catherine Salgado likes the potential new Hep B guidelines.

New York’s new socialist Mayor hasn’t even moved into Gracie Mansion, but he’s already giving New Yorkers helpful tips on how to resist ICE. It came in the form of a video, released yesterday. And congrats to Mamdani’s newly appointed education adviser, Zakiyah Shaakir-Ansari, an ardent admirer of fabled cop killer Assata Shakur; Assata took up residence in the idyllic paradise called Cuba after her prison break in the U.S. Kiddies will relish learning about Assata.

Ms. Must always remembers to thank the National Guard members who are making D.C. feel so much safer. Apparently, this isn’t a universal social norm. “Hate Thy Neighbor: How Progressive D.C. Treats National Guardsmen with Contempt” is the headline of a Free Press story by Mary Eberstadt. “Before Sarah Beckstrom was shot and killed in an ambush in the capital, she was spat at by locals,” Eberstadt notes.

In “Immigration Gone Wild,” Victor Davis Hanson considers how we got into this mess:

Was it misplaced idealism to welcome in millions of the world’s poorest, who would soon make it even more difficult for the nation’s citizen poor to find affordable housing and health care?

Was the agenda to create future dependencies and constituencies for an otherwise ossified Democratic Party?

Or was it an effort to ensure, in DEI terms, that the oppressed and victimized would outgrow the inert white oppressors and victimizers?

There’s no escape. In “Tribe Mentality,” Naomi Schaefer Riley writes in the Free Beacon that even chick lit has been invaded by politics:

The past few years have seen the almost unprecedented intrusion of politics into chick lit. It seems no novel about the life of wives or mothers can be complete without the occasional diatribe about systemic racism or Donald Trump or the genocide launched against transgendered people. For someone who is looking for a little escapism, the proverbial beach read is no longer a place to find it. But just as these authors are clearly under the sway of their political environment—or at least virtue signaling to show that they don’t just care about romance or drama in the PTA—they are also influencing the political environment as well. And they can use the broader audience they attract to plant information about niche ideological hobby horses.

Chicks. (Oh, Loosen Up.) When Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green went on “60 Minutes” last night, she and CBS veteran Leslie Stahl, alas, did not hit it off. Not the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Whither Ukraine? The president’s son says the president could just walk away, according to Politico.