Tom Smothers Dead: Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour Co-Host Was 86

  The Hollywood Reporter   Tom Smothers, the countercultural comedy icon admired for the 1960s variety program he created and hosted with his younger brother, Dick, and for the tenacity he displayed in frequent clashes with CBS censors, has died. 

"Smothers died peacefully at his home on Tuesday with his family at his side following a recent battle with cancer, according to a statement brother and co-star Dick Smothers in a statement shared with The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday by a spokesman for the National Comedy Center. 

“ 'Tom was not only the loving older brother that everyone would want in their life, he was a one-of-a-kind creative partner,” Dick said in a statement shared with The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday by a spokesman for the National Comedy Center. “I am forever grateful to have spent a lifetime together with him, on and off stage, for over 60 years. Our relationship was like a good marriage – the longer we were together, the more we loved and respected one another. We were truly blessed.' ”

Hamas Rejects Egyptian Ceasefire Plan Requiring Relinquishing Gaza Control

 Sinwar Says “Crushed” IDF (legalinsurrection.com)   . . ."Netanyahu also told the families of remaining hostages that the military campaign would continue and intensify (emphasis added):

I want to tell you, members of Knesset and dear families, we would not have succeeded in freeing more than 100 hostages thus far without military pressure. All the pressures that we are applying, diplomatic, intelligence and others, would not succeed without military pressure. We will not be able to release all the hostages without military pressure, operational pressure, diplomatic pressure. And therefore there is one thing we will not do—we will not stop fighting.

I came here directly from Gaza. Just an hour ago, I was in the Salatin neighborhood, which abuts Jabaliya and Beit Lahiya. There, in the dust and the mud and among the ruins, I met the heroic and determined fighters of the Bahad 1 reserves brigade. You should hear them. I spoke with Brigade Commander Yehuda, who commands the reserves brigade. I asked him what they most needed. He told me that there are battles all the time and that they killed terrorists, and that unfortunately they lost several of their brothers-in-arms, but that they keep fighting. They kill terrorists all the time, day in and day out, even on an hourly basis. I asked him, ‘What do you need the most?’ And he answered, ‘Time. We need time.’

We need to keep going until the end. I spoke with Uri, a battalion commander in the reserves. He is a father of eight children. Five of his family members are fighting in Gaza. He told me, ‘We need to keep going until the end.’ He hasn’t been home in two months. He told me, ‘My wife is at home and tells me to take two more months. Take however long it takes. To the end.’

I heard similar statements from the family members of our brave fallen soldiers. You should hear them. They speak with broken hearts and with tears in their eyes, but I must tell you, with their heads held high. They weep and I embrace them, and they stand with their heads held high. From the depths of their grief, they cry out, ‘Our children did not die in vain. We cannot stop the war until we ensure total victory over those who seek to kill us.’

To you, IDF soldiers, and to you, hurting families and relatives of the hostages, and from this podium, I say: We are not stopping and we will not stop until we are victorious, because we have no country but this one, and we have no other way. Together with you, together with every home in Israel and every citizen of Israel, I pray for the well-being of our hostages, our brothers and sisters: ‘Our brothers, the entire family of Israel, who are delivered into distress and captivity, whether they are on sea or dry land – may God have mercy on them and remove them from stress to relief, from darkness to light, from subjugation to redemption now, speedily and soon.’

"The reference to “I have no other country” must have been deliberate."

Half of U.S. Buick Dealers Take Buyouts Rather Than Sell EV’s

 (legalinsurrection.com)   "The market for electric vehicles isn’t as robust as climate cultists and their media minions would have Americans believe.

"A few weeks ago, I reported that car dealerships across the country were begging Biden to use his pen-and-phone to rescind the mandate to end unrealistic EV mandates that have sprung up in blue states.

"In another article, I noted Congress budgeted $7.5 billion to build tens of thousands of electric vehicle chargers across the country, and none had yet been built. Since then, one tax-payer funded EV charging station was built. In London, Ohio, and apparently, no one is using it.

"There are even more signs that the American public is pushing back against this net-zero nonsense.

"General Motors is relearning an important lesson in capitalism: Smart businesses don’t sell things customers aren’t buying.

"General Motors bought out roughly half of Buick dealers across the U.S. due to their reluctance to sell electric vehicles as the automaker looks to transition to EVs.

"About half of GM’s 2,000 Buick dealers accepted the voluntary buyout. The program remains open so additional dealers may opt to take the buyout instead of making the EV-related investments that GM required for them to continue selling Buicks, as GM is planning for the brand’s vehicles to be 100% electric by 2030.

WATCH: Delta Employee Schools Transgender Activist Whining About Being Misgendered

  PJ Media 

What I love about this video is that the Delta agent made it clear that he wasn't taking any of Dorfman's crap. Dorfman isn't a victim here. He's just a whining activist who expects everyone to affirm his delusion.

Watch it here.

   "Over the weekend, a man who pretends he’s a woman recorded an exchange between himself and an employee of Delta Airlines, whom he accused of “misgendering” him. The clip went viral, though most of the reaction I’ve seen has been in praise of the Delta employee, who wasn’t taking the man’s crap during the busy holiday travel season at La Guardia Airport.

"According to Newsweek, the triggered traveler is actor Tommy Dorfman, 31, who appeared on the Netflix show "13 Reasons Why," which ended in 2020. He decided to identify as a woman the following year.

"The video, which Dorfman originally posted on TikTok, starts in the middle of the exchange. 

"And what about when a Delta employee misgenders you intentionally?” he says from behind the camera.

" 'I'm so sorry,” the agent says to a woman off-camera. “While she’s — he's talking, you're talking over him."

"You just misgendered me again multiple times; both of you have,” Dorfman complained.

"It wasn't intentional, but if you want to take it personally, that's also okay,” the agent told him. 

"Well, she did do it intentionally twice,” Dorfman said.

"I did not do it intentionally,” a woman off camera, presumably another agent, insisted.

Related: Preferred Pronouns or Prison? I’ll Take Prison

"You said 'she,' and then you said 'he,'” Dorfman pointed out.

"You're being condescending. And if you want to continue, I have full authority to escort you out of the building right this moment if you want to play that game with me. ". . .

Like Bud Light, Harvard discovers backlash

 Don Surber

The damage came quicker and deeper than anyone could imagine. At least one law firm dropped recruiting Harvard grads. Kids who applied for Harvard and were accepted are rejecting Harvard!

"On October 7, the Palestinian army broke its 15th ceasefire, invaded Israel, raped and slaughtered hundreds, took hostages, and then stole back to Gaza City which is a cover for the 300 miles of tunnels and fortifications below ground which Palestinians use to launch terrorist attacks on Israel.

The UN said nothing, instead it waited until Israel’s inevitable response so it could condemn Israel because the UN has become the Nazis it was formed to fight.

The reaction in the United States was heartening but also sad. Most of the nation rallied behind Israel in a manner not seen in decades, but the young lefties aped academia and condemned Israel.

"For example, Canary Mission reported that Omer Bartov is a professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies in the Department of History at Brown.

He blamed Israel for Palestinians raping, torturing, murdering and mutilating Israelis on October 7.

"Bartov wrote, “On 7 October, this repressed reality literally exploded in the country’s face. This was an event waiting to happen. If you keep over 2 million people under siege for 16 years, cramped in a narrow strip of land, without enough work, proper sanitation, food, water, energy and education, with no hope or future prospects, you cannot but expect outbreaks of ever more desperate and brutal violence, inexcusable as those atrocities were.”

"Israel gave Palestinians Gaza and provided them food, fuel and water. But hating Jews helps advance one’s career in the Ivy League.

"Republicans who control the House called in the heads of MIT, Harvard and Penn to answer why it was OK for students to attack Jews.

"Congresswoman Elise Stefanik asked them repeatedly whether calling for the genocide of Jews violated their rules on speech. The three presidents — all women — responded with smirks. Their performance was so terrible that the New York Times headlined its report, “College Presidents Under Fire After Dodging Questions About Anti-Semitism.”

"Worse, donors very publicly withdrew. Penn’s Liz Magill was smart enough to resign and go back to her day job as a law professor at the school.

"But Harvard’s Claudine Gay is weathering the storm which is heading to hurricane level. Zero has got her back.

"The New York Post reported, “Former President Barack Obama has secretly lobbied Harvard University officials to stick by embattled President Claudine Gay as she faces pressure to resign for giving cover to anti-Semitism on campus and for committing plagiarism.”

"Obama backing her damages his brand too. Brilliant!" . . .

Hundreds of California Pizza Hut locations announce ‘no more delivery’

 Olivia Murray - American Thinker   "Imagine if you will, a world in which businesses exist to make a profit, and free people consent to labor for these businesses in exchange for pay, and then a government comes in and legislates that these businesses pay their new employees a price they cannot (or do not want to) afford, so they eliminate the positions, fire the workers, and remove a service to paying customers they once provided—and certain people (read, average Democrat voters) still can’t figure out what factor in the equation caused the whole mess.

"See a new report below, published by CBS News yesterday:

California Pizza Hut operators cutting all delivery driver jobs in 2024 due to minimum wage increase

Two Pizza Hut franchise operators with hundreds of stores across California will lay off all delivery drivers in February, according to a report by Business Insider. That's more than 1,200 jobs.
…

Business Insider says the Pizza Hut franchisees explain they are cutting all delivery driver positions as the company braces for California's minimum wage increase for fast food workers coming in 2024.

California-based fast food chains with 60 or more locations nationwide will have to begin paying employees $20 an hour in April, higher than the state minimum wage of $16 that becomes law on Jan. 1." . . .

Why Ordinary People Enable Totalitarians

Intellectual Takeout

 "Cicero said history “casts light on reality and is a guide to life.” The wisdom gained by understanding the past helps prevent the same errors from being repeated.

"Sebastian Haffner pursued answers to the questions of how the Nazis rose to power in Germany and why the German people did not stop them. In 1939, he wrote but never finished his partially autobiographical book Defying Hitler: A Memoir.  Haffner’s probing analysis led him to conclude that the choices and mindset of ordinary Germans were responsible for Hitler’s coming to power. Germans were enablers and victims of Hitler.

"Haffner was the pseudonym of Raimund Pretzel. Haffner received training as a lawyer, but circumstances compelled him to pursue a career as a historian and journalist. He fled Nazi Germany for England in 1938.

"Why should we care about Haffner’s explanation of historical events in terms of the mindsets of ordinary people? After all, as Haffner observed, the great man theory of history is widely held:

"If you are looking for the great men, Haffner wrote, you will believe the history of the 1930s “is a kind of chess game among Hitler, Mussolini, Chiang Kai-shek, Roosevelt, Chamberlain, Daladier, and a number of other men whose names are on everybody’s lips.”

"When we accept the great man theory, ordinary people have little responsibility. They are seen in Haffner’s words as “anonymous others [who] seem at best to be the objects of history, pawns in the chess game, who may be pushed forward or left standing, sacrificed or captured.”

"Haffner rejected the great man principle and articulated “the simple truth” that “decisive historical events take place among us, the anonymous masses.” He explained,

The most powerful dictators, ministers, and generals are powerless against the simultaneous mass decisions taken individually and almost unconsciously by the population at large. It is characteristic of these decisions that they do not manifest themselves as mass movements or demonstrations. Mass assemblies are quite incapable of independent action. . . .

How Do You Kill Democracy? Vote Democrat -

  The American Spectator | USA News and Politics

Democracy Dies in Denver

"Four Biden campaign operatives on the seven-member Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday evening kicked Donald J. Trump off the Centennial State’s presidential ballot. They abused Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to disqualify Trump because, they claim, he incited an insurrection on January 6, 2021. Never mind that Trump has not been convicted of, tried for, nor even charged with insurrection. Indeed, the U.S. Senate acquitted Trump of all January 6-related accusations for which the House impeached him that January 13.

• Around October 2011, under President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden, the Justice Department tapped the phones of then-Fox News correspondent James Rosen and his parents on Staten Island. DOJ was probing Rosen’s sources related to his coverage of U.S. policy on North Korea.

• Obama-Biden perpetrated political profiling by denying 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status to scores of conservative and Tea Party groups in 2010 to 2012. According to a sample of 111 such outfits, the House Ways & Means Committee found that the IRS granted tax exemption to 100 percent of left-wing organizations, but only 46 percent of conservative establishments. IRS foot-dragging and rejection of center-right applications crippled conservative groups that aimed to educate voters before the 2012 election.

• During Obama-Biden, the FBI launched Operation Crossfire Hurricane, to spy on the 2016 Trump campaign. Special Counsel John Durham concluded that the FBI relied on “raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence.” This FBI probe was worse than Watergate even without a break-in.

• Hillary Clinton paid Democrat election law firm Perkins Coie to commission Fusion GPS’s notorious “dirty dossier” that smeared Trump as a Russian agent. Fusion GPS, in turn, paid former British spy Christopher Steele for “evidence” of Kremlin ties. Steele’s “source” was Igor Danchenko — a Russian employee of the Brookings Institution. Danchenko’s wild accusation, that Trump in 2013 watched two prostitutes urinate on each other in his Moscow hotel room, fueled the left’s outlandish sex fantasy that Kremlin extortionists controlled Trump.
• After Trump upset Hillary Clinton in November 2016, Democrats rioted, committed arson, and relentlessly called Trump’s election illegitimate. Martin Sheen, Mike Farrell, and other Hollywood stars concocted their own fake electors scheme: They urged electors to support someone other than Trump in the Electoral College, never mind that voters selected them to back Trump.

• Democrats objected to Trump’s slates of electors during the January 6, 2017 certification ceremony for Electoral College ballots. House Democrats vocally opposed Trump’s electors from 10 different states. These included Michigan and Wisconsin, which Trump barely won, but also Alabama (where Trump trumped Clinton by 28.3 percent), West Virginia (42.2 percent), and Wyoming (47.6 percent).

How Do You Spell ‘College Antisemitism’? D.E.I.

  Issues & Insights (issuesinsights.com)

He went on to say that this problem “is not going to be changed by hiring or firing a single person. This is the task of educating a generation, and also a vast unlearning.”

"In a rare show of bipartisanship, 84 Democrats joined 219 Republicans on a resolution condemning antisemitism on college campuses and calling for the presidents of Harvard and MIT to resign after they refused to condemn student calls for genocide of Jews at a House hearing. The University of Pennsylvania’s president, who was also at that hearing, has already stepped down.

"But even if all three of them were gone, so what?

"The problem is far wider and much deeper than antisemitism at three elite schools. And if you want to stamp out intellectual and moral rot driving it, start by firing the army of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” staffers at colleges across the country.

"Two years ago, Jay Greene, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former head of the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, did groundbreaking work on the DEI bloat at 65 universities that are members of the five “power” athletic conferences: the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big 10, the Big 12, the PAC 12, and the Southeastern Conference.

"What he found was that these schools averaged 45 DEI staffers, which was 1.4 times larger than the number of history professors. More recently, he looked at three public colleges in Virginia and found they had 6.5 DEI staffers for every 100 faculty members, which is higher than any single public university outside Virginia.

"Later, Greene studied their posts on Twitter (now called X), and found that the ranks of DEI staff were full of antisemites. He found that 96% of their tweets about Israel were critical of the Jewish state, while 62% of the tweets about communist China were favorable." . . .

Israel, Do Not Place Your Security in Joe Biden's Hands

 Matt Vespa (townhall.com)

. . ."Israel invaded Lebanon twice before, in 1982 and 2006. For over ten years following the 1982 incursion, they remained in southern Lebanon until their withdrawal in 2000. With the Hamas attacks, Israel has made it clear that unless the UN and the Lebanese government get their act together and retake control of the southern part of the country from Hezbollah, they will go in and do it. Most air operations are now being geared toward Lebanon. The Wall Street Journal reported that in October, Israel was prepared to launch a massive pre-emptive strike against the terror group. Still, Biden was able to talk Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu out of it (via WSJ): 

President Biden urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt a pre-emptive strike against Hezbollah forces in Lebanon days after Hamas militants’ Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel, warning that such an attack could spark a wider regional war. 

Israel had intelligence—which the U.S. deemed unreliable—that Hezbollah attackers were preparing to cross the border as part of a multipronged attack, pushing some of Israel’s more hawkish officials to the brink, officials said. 

Israeli warplanes were in the air awaiting orders when Biden spoke to Netanyahu on Oct. 11 and told the Israeli prime minister to stand down and think through the consequences of such an action, according to people familiar with the call. 

The Israeli attack didn’t go ahead. And the conversation between Biden and other U.S. officials and Netanyahu and his war cabinet—the details of which haven’t been previously reported—set a pattern of White House efforts to guard against any expansion of the conflict that could draw in the U.S. 

[…] 

The U.S. role in stopping Israel from carrying out a massive attack on Hezbollah in October shows the critical role diplomacy has played in preventing the conflict from metastasizing into a larger regional war. 

[…] 

There are signs of progress in the diplomatic efforts, however. Lebanon Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib has told French interlocutors that his country is ready to work on a deal, according to Lebanese officials. 

And after more than two months of strikes that have delivered a significant blow to Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, Israeli officials also expressed optimism that the militant group would agree to withdraw its forces from the Israel-Lebanon border. 

“The feeling is that this is doable now,” one of those officials said. 

New Attacks on Ships in Red Sea Reported As Biden's Operation Fails to Deter Houthis

 Spencer Brown (townhall.com)

"Barely one week after the Biden administration proudly announced the formation of an international coalition to protect freedom of navigation for ships transiting the Red Sea amid escalating attacks on vessels from Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, its failure to deter aggression is already apparent. 

"On Tuesday alone, there were two separate incidents reported from the ships on the Red Sea, one involving missiles and another involving unmanned aircraft.

"According to a bulletin from UK Maritime Trade Operations, one incident was reported by a vessel in the Red Sea "approximately 60 NM from Al Hudaydah" on Yemen's coast Tuesday. An explosion was heard, missiles were sighted within four miles of the reporting vessel, and another explosion was seen in the water within half a mile of the ship." . . .

How to get Hamas to release the hostages

 Joseph Puder - American Thinker  "Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas chief terrorist in Gaza, has no incentive to make a deal for the release of the estimated 129 Israeli hostages.  Thanks to the Biden administration, he believes he has the upper hand in his war with Israel.  After all, the U.S. and its allies are providing humanitarian aid to Gaza, as well as food, water, and fuel.

"Sinwar has all he needs to sustain his fight against Israel.  The Iranians provided him with enough ammunition, and cash to fire rockets into Israel, albeit at a reduced rate.  Additionally, Sinwar watches the Israeli TV stations and reads the Hebrew newspapers, and he has concluded that the families of the hostages and the Biden administration are pressing the Netanyahu government hard enough for him to ultimately relent and declare a ceasefire.  Under such circumstances, Hamas and terrorism worldwide will triumph." . . .

Here is the horrific video of Naama Levy being dragged by her hair by #Hamas.
Note how her pants are torn at the knees and her backside is bloodied.🤬https://t.co/xT82sjPBsj

— Dena Grayson, MD, PhD (@DrDenaGrayson) December 9, 2023

 'I Am Disappointed': Father of Hamas Hostage Slams Michelle Obama for Being Silent About His Daughter’s Kidnapping (atlantablackstar.com)

"If President Biden is serious about the release of the Israeli hostages, there are two essential steps the administration must take.  First, the U.S. must increase its pressure on Qatar, the primary paymaster of the Hamas terrorist organization.  Top Hamas leaders, including Ismail Haniyeh, the group’s political chief, and former head of the organization Khaled Meshaal, have been living in luxury in Doha, Qatar’s capital.  According to the New York Post, these top leaders are worth a total of $11 billion.  While Gaza Palestinians languish in poverty, Meshaal and Haniyeh live billionaire lifestyles.

"President Biden conferred to the Qatari regime the status of a key U.S. ally.  The U.S. Central Command headquarters is based in Doha, along with the largest U.S. military installation in the Middle East, the Al Udeid Air Base.  Yet the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, is ideologically allied with the Muslim Brotherhood, and the regime supported the jihadi-Islamist groups in Syria and is the major supporter of Hamas.  The U.S. has leverage over the Qataris by virtue of being Qatar’s chief defender from regional hostile forces, including Iran.  Biden’s cozy relations with the Qatari regime should lead to better results from the Qataris.

"The second step would be to condition future humanitarian aid pouring into Gaza on the release of the Israeli hostages.  Hamas must allow the Red Cross or other neutral doctors and nurses to visit the Israeli hostages and provide them with humanitarian aid that has, thus far, only been granted to the Palestinians in Gaza."