RealClearInvestigations'
Picks of the Week
December 1 to December 7 In RealClearInvestigations, John Murawski reports on the ambitious movement to reform what many see as the left-wing capture of America’s leading universities – by reviving the classical liberal arts, the great books, Western Civilization, Socratic dialogue, and civil discourse: In less than a decade, conservative reformers have created 13 relatively large civics centers at eight public universities – including five in Ohio alone – designed to operate autonomously, similar to law schools or business schools, with their own deans, their own majors, sometimes their own Ph.D. programs, and in a few cases their own designated buildings. Donald Trump’s election looks likely to aid the movement, as the president-elect and his supporters are vowing to reclaim universities from "Marxist maniacs." Much of the mainstream media coverage of this movement has focused on criticism from the educational establishment – which commonly derides the programs as “freedom schools” and conservative “safe spaces.” Critic of the movement: “To me civics is a code word the Right uses. … They don’t have ‘capitalism studies’ in their title … but making the world safe for the capitalists is one of the unspoken objectives.” Advocate: “I have people hugging me and thanking me for taking this on, and people who won’t speak to me in the elevator.” Waste of the Day
by Jeremy Portnoy, Open the Books $20M Grant Pays for Deluxe Coffee Maker, RCI
Postal Service’s New Scanners Are Missing, RCI
Debt-Mired Illinois Seeks to Raise Pensions, RCI
$106 Million, and Federal Building Less Safe, RCI
Pentagon’s Audit is a Mess, Year After Year, RCI Election 2024 and the Beltway House Democrats pressured U.S. Capitol Police to provide special financial assistance and even a promotion to the officer who fatally shot unarmed protester Ashli Babbitt during the Jan. 6 riot, resulting in tens of thousands of dollars in taxpayer and charitable assistance not provided to other officers, according to internal emails reviewed by Just the News. The records show that pressure also came from then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's staff and from then-Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, causing Capitol Police to find any solution they could to make [Michael] Byrd and Democrats happy. … [Capitol Police] helped set up a GoFundMe that landed Byrd more than $160,000 in extra funds. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D- Calif., was one of the many progressives who donated to and promoted the fundraising. This article reports that the Capitol Police promoted Byrd despite his “significant disciplinary record that resulted in six referrals to the USCP’s Office of Professional Responsibility.” In a separate article published in 2021, Paul Sperry reported for RealClearInvestigations on questions surrounding Byrd’s history and his lethal actions on Jan. 6. Other Election 2024 and the Beltway Joe Biden Issues Sweeping 2014-24 Pardon of Hunter, Politico
Hunter's Judge Slams Joe’s ‘Rewrite' of History, Politico
With Pardon, Joe Hides Own Influence-Peddling Crimes, Breitbart
Will Pardon Lead to Immunized Hunter Testifying vs. Joe?, Ras-Stack
Biden Considering Preemptive Pardons for Trump's Foes, Politico
Trump Names Kash Patel to Lead FBI, National Review
Biden Admin's Revolving Door with Left-Wing Green Groups, Free Beacon
Report: Hegseth Forced Out of Non-Profit for Misconduct, Guardian
News Outlet in Trump Impeachment Got Major Gov't Funding, Drop Site Other Noteworthy Articles and Series Federal agents are arresting a record number of individuals on the terrorist watchlist at the northern U.S. border, including a Jordanian national with ties to terrorism who recently was removed from the country after illegally entering from Canada. Overall, the greatest number of KSTs [known or suspected terrorist] have been apprehended under the Biden administration in U.S. history: 1,903. The majority, 64%, totaling 1,216, were apprehended at the northern border coming from Canada between fiscal years 2021-2024, according to CBP data. A record 687 KSTs were reported at the southwest border over the same time period. … Unlike the 1,954-mile U.S.-Mexico border, there are no border walls and significantly less technological equipment and agents to patrol the U.S.-Canada border, the longest international border in the world totaling 5,525 miles. In their quest to build fentanyl empires, this article reports, Mexican criminal groups are turning to an unusual talent pool -- not hit men or corrupt police officers, but chemistry students studying at Mexican universities: People who make fentanyl in cartel labs, who are called cooks, told the New York Times that they needed workers with advanced knowledge of chemistry to help make the drug stronger and “get more people hooked,” as one cook put it. The cartels also have a more ambitious goal: to synthesize the chemical compounds, known as precursors, that are essential to making fentanyl, freeing them from having to import those raw materials from China. If they succeed, U.S. officials say, it would represent a terrifying new phase in the fentanyl crisis, in which Mexican cartels have more control than ever over one of the deadliest drugs in recent history. “It would make us the kings of Mexico,” said one chemistry student who has been cooking fentanyl for six months. This article reports that the three chemistry students who spoke to the Times said they had different jobs within the criminal group. Sometimes, they said, they run experiments to strengthen the drug or to create precursors. Other times, they say, they supervise or work alongside the cooks and assistants who produce fentanyl in bulk. A chemistry professor at a university in Sinaloa State said he knew that some students enrolled in chemistry classes just to become more familiar with skills needed to cook synthetic drugs. In the 14 months since the Israeli military launched its invasion of Gaza, Israeli soldiers have posted thousands of photos and videos from the battlefield, recording their actions in the war and broadcasting them on social media. A Washington Post review of more than 120 verified photos and videos of the war in Gaza posted between October 2023 and October 2024 found: [Israeli] forces demolishing entire buildings, including homes and schools, as well as looting and torching them. Other visuals have Israeli soldiers posing next to dead bodies and calling for the extermination and expulsion of Palestinians. Running through many of these images is the theme of exacting revenge on Gaza for the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack, the bloodiest day in Israel’s history. … Taken together, the visuals and witness accounts point to a war where some soldiers have engaged in battlefield excesses. In some cases — such as the torching of homes — soldiers said they were following direct orders. “It’s a breakdown of not just military discipline, but a break in understanding what it takes to represent the IDF and Israel,” said Asa Kasher, a professor who helped write the IDF Code of Ethics, which says soldiers should act with professionalism and discipline, and who viewed videos verified by The Post. This article reports that the Post shared verified videos with the Israeli Defense Forces, “which said it had conducted ‘disciplinary talks’ with some of the soldiers involved because of incidents that ‘deviated from IDF values and principles and contradicted regulations.’ It did not provide further details.” Two decades ago, United Nations and several non-governmental organizations launched a global partnership – now called the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC – that used evidence-based metrics to identify food insecurity and then engage with international experts and stricken countries to alleviate the suffering. This article reports that as hunger crises sweep parts of the developing world this year, the technocratic assumptions on which the IPC warning system rests are colliding with messy and brutal realities: In March, the IPC warned that famine was imminent in northern Gaza. In August, it said famine had taken hold in part of Sudan’s North Darfur state. Nevertheless, U.N. officials said in early November that the entire population of northern Gaza was at “imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence.” In Darfur, little aid has reached Zamzam, a famine-stricken camp for displaced people, and its estimated 500,000 residents are at risk of dying of hunger-related causes. Critically, the IPC is struggling to access the data it needs to conduct informed analyses. With most of the world’s food crises being driven by conflict, it has become increasingly difficult to gather the information the IPC requires to classify vulnerable nations on its five-stage acute food-security scale. In Gaza, Israeli bombing and restrictions on movement have impeded efforts to collect statistics on malnutrition, deaths unrelated to trauma, and other essential data. In Sudan, violence, military roadblocks, bureaucratic obstruction and a telecommunications blackout have disrupted efforts to test for malnutrition, count deaths and survey people about their access to food. This article reports that the IPC is especially hampered by two of the organization’s frequently false assumptions: That the world will respond promptly to its warnings - in reality, significant aid sometimes comes after the starving are already dying in droves – and the belief that governments in hunger-stricken countries will cooperate fully with the IPC, the U.N. and other outside helpers. Medicare Advantage insurers collected billions of dollars a year in premiums to provide medical coverage for about one million veterans who get most of their care from the separate VA system, a Wall Street Journal analysis found: The analysis found the insurers paid far fewer medical bills for those veterans than for typical members. About one in five members of Medicare Advantage plans that enroll lots of veterans didn’t use a single Medicare service in 2021, the Journal found. That compares with 3.4% of members of other Medicare Advantage plans. The federal government paid insurers an estimated $44 billion from 2018 through 2021 to cover Medicare Advantage-plan members who were also users of VA services, based on average payments for all members of those plans. The VA spent $46 billion on the same group’s medical care, according to VA data reviewed by the Journal. The figures exclude pharmacy costs, which many Medicare Advantage plans focused on veterans don’t cover. This article reports that some Medicare Advantage companies are openly chasing veterans, rebranding their insurance offerings with names like the Humana Honor plan, the Aetna Eagle plan and UnitedHealth Group’s Patriot plan. Almost all the veteran-branded plans offer cash rebates to induce veterans to sign up, a perk that is rare in other Medicare plans. | 