Down the streets I'm the tab next door, I'm the link you've been waiting for ...
REAL TRUMP JUSTICE. Ft. Hood killer Nidal Hasan will be sent back to the scene of the crime for his execution. Say what you will about Trump (believe me I have) this is the kind of justice that only he would have the balls to deliver. https://t.co/fprR83d7lj
— David Mastio (@DavidMastio) October 7, 2026
Ed: This is actual justice for those who were killed and wounded on this battlefield in the war on terror. It’s not too far from where I live now, in fact. If the Army wants a civilian observer, I’d be willing to volunteer. I have mixed feelings about the death penalty in the normal civilian context, but this was an act of perfidy and treason in a war. Hasan sided with the enemy, and only the maximum consequences will suffice as a precedent and deterrent. Follow the thread to get to Mastio’s article, which has more detail.
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Jeffrey Blehar at NRO: The insanely tendentious rhetoric — Gaza was suddenly characterized as “an open-air concentration camp,” the Israelis their repulsively hypocritical “jailers” — took the familiar path, using Jewish history as a club against Israel: You complain about the Holocaust, and here you are, committing “genocide”! Of course it was a farcical claim — people die in war, especially when terrorists hide among civilians. And while it is no doubt terrible to live in a war zone, the blame lies with those who started that war. But the reason you keep hearing the argument made is because Israel’s enemies seek desperately to strip it of the armor of its moral reason for existing. (If you need World War II explained to you — apparently Tucker Carlson still does! — then you’re probably beyond help.) The rhetoric on college campuses and online was vastly cruder, and eventually all of it was given political expression by Democratic Socialists like Zohran Mamdani and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Three years on, the situation has only grown worse. Israel has become a key fracture point within the Democratic Party coalition. Republicans have their Carlsons and Fuenteses to wrangle with, to be sure, but there is no serious political debate on this subject within the elected party. Meanwhile the one thing that seemingly unites every wing of the young socialist left isn’t socialism at all — it’s hatred of Israel on existential moral grounds. The Israelis are butchers and settler-colonialists, we are told, an invasive (white, really) race falsely grafting themselves onto a foreign land. To support them is to violate what has now become the central, sacred progressive taboo. That has obvious political consequences for the left, but for the nation as well: for example, many openly debate whether a Zionist Jew like Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro could ever hope to win a national Democratic primary campaign in 2028. ...
While Israel’s intertwinement with the United States’ various foreign policy blunders in the region has done it no reputational favors, it is the concocted narrative of the so-called Gaza genocide that has catalyzed the activist left and steers its passions. At least it’s the one thing all of them seem to agree about: They will never forgive Israel for refusing to die.
Ed: I made the same point in my earlier post about the new Nakba. The progressive/socialist Left is obsessed with their occupier/occupied narratives, and in this case, they get it exactly backwards. The Arabs are the colonizers in this area and the Jews are the historical possessors. The Left wants Israel to be annihiated not because of cosmic colonizer justice, but because Israel represents Western civilization, which is the real target of the self-loathing Left.
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ARMY FIRING SQUAD EXPLAINER How will the Army shoot Nidal Hassan? Well, the current regulation doesn’t specify the process. The Provost Marshal General will have to come up with a plan. The plan will have to be approved and survive a court challenge; below is how it was done in the past. If I was advising @PeteHegseth, I would recommend that he direct the Provost Marshal to adapt the old plan with modifications (because that piece of garbage is in wheelchair). I would also do some deeper research to see if these procedures had ever been successfully challenged in court, or better yet, upheld. The plan will undoubtedly provide the basis for one of the frivolous flurry of last minute appeals and petitions designed to keep that trash breathing. Planning considerations will include the large number of witnesses, because victim and next of kin get to be there. I would probably do it out on a remote firing range with berms that would screen it off from outsiders, but where there would be plenty of room for witnesses – maybe even seating. I would be alert to the possibility of drones. I would also consider issuing M14s to the firing squad. A 5.56 mm round would probably do the job but why take any chances? Go with 7.62 mm. I would also see that the firing squad trained, trained and trained again. You want it like clockwork, and if somebody’s going to falter, you want find out before the big day. I would have at least five alternates and an assistant NCOIC. Another challenge would be selecting the firing squad. You’re going to have a lot of people volunteering for it. I would consider providing preferences to soldiers at Fort Hood on the day of the murders. You need to screen out nuts and weirdos, to the extent that @secwar’s policies haven’t already done that. You’re looking for squared away troops who are willing to take on the job because it’s a job that needs to be done; while people wanting a piece of this guy is understandable, this has to be done coldly and professionally. One final note – there’s no Christa Pike problem under the old procedures. If the volley doesn’t kill him, the squad sergeant shoots him in the head with his pistol. He should be issued an 1911A1 .45. Again, maximize the chances of success. I say we stick with tradition.
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) October 7, 2026
Ed: Good background here from Kurt, so click through to read it all. I hadn't considered the issue of drones, though.
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Eli Lake at The Free Press: In the final year of the Biden presidency, the crowd that wanted Israel cut off from American weapons was largely stymied by the president and his senior staff. Now with the Democrats out of power, the dissidents of 2023 and 2024 are taking their revenge. And their tale is told in the new book Crossing the Red Line, by Akbar Shahid Ahmed, senior diplomatic correspondent for The Washington Sun. ...
Despite his errors and bias, Ahmed’s book is useful in one respect. It unintentionally exposes a deep rot within the U.S. foreign policy bureaucracy. We learn, for example, that a senior official in the State Department’s human rights bureau, Christopher Le Mon, discouraged his colleagues from attending a film composed of footage captured on October 7 (much of it from Hamas GoPro cameras) sponsored by the Israeli embassy in Washington. Le Mon viewed the screening “as likely risking trauma among staff, which State was unprepared to handle, and offering no policy benefit to experts steeped in details of violence in the region.”
Then there is Josh Paul, a former State Department official who worked in foreign military sales and became the first Biden official to resign over the war. His concerns about policy emerged on October 8, 2023, a day after the pogrom. He emailed dozens of his colleagues with worries that Netanyahu may go too far, Ahmed reports. He was later vexed that there “was no deliberation over shipping bombs and ammunition to a government that was speaking of collective punishment for Palestinians.” So on October 17, 10 full days after Israel absorbed a killing spree and hostage-taking of medieval cruelty, he scoured classified intelligence seeking evidence that Biden “was privately restraining Israel or that media coverage of Israeli attacks was exaggerating their viciousness. He found none,” Ahmed writes. That afternoon, he resigned. ...
If this is what the next Democratic administration looks like, then the jihadists will have won their next war against the Jewish state before it’s even begun.
Ed: Be sure to read it all. This may not have direct implications in the upcoming midterms – with the exception of the Michigan Senate race – but it has huge implications for the 2028 presidential race.
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Hamam al-Hammami, the FlyDubai co-pilot accused of trying to crash Flight 1073 near Tel Aviv last week, told investigators this was his second attempt. He prepared the same attack in July and pulled back because he cared about one of the crew.
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) October 7, 2026
The Omani national looked for work…
The Omani national looked for work at airlines flying to Israel. The plan was to incapacitate the captain and crash into a target such as Ben Gurion Airport.Oman Air had already barred him from flying over extremism concerns. FlyDubai hired him without checking with Omani authorities. - WSJ
Ed: I bet that goes over well with the crew on Flight 1073.
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Scott Johnson at Power Line: United States Attorney Daniel Rosen announced the filing of a one-count complaint alleging a terrorism charge against 18-year-old Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud –make that “Minnesota man” Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud. He allegedly planned and obtained an AK-47 and sufficient ammunition to kill 30-60 “kuffar” at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota on October 24. He planned an imminent mass murder of innocent Minnesotans.
Why the Mall? Because “its owned by Jewish so if I kill even 30 people noone would go there anymore” {sic]. He was referring to the Ghermezian family.
The attack was timed to coincide with a Hmong Arts Celebration that would gather “asians Chinese Vietnamese and other kuffar” at the Mall. Sheikhdoon was not shakin’ with the multicultural spirit. But that’s okay! The Islamic thing is what it is and we are to accommodate it in the multicultural spirit, even if it belies it.
Ed: Will Minnesota voters deliver consequences to its progressive political establishment for the cancers growing from the radical Left and its allies? The “gang violence” in Edina, coupled with this case, will make anyone associated with the DFL establishment very nervous. And they should be.
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I don't think this approach is going to bring down gas prices...
— Jesse Arm (@Jesse_Leg) October 6, 2026
Reporter: "You’re taking an anti-pipeline stance?"
Abdul El-Sayed: "Yes. I do not believe we should be investing in moving fossil fuels." pic.twitter.com/XaSbMgUQsd
Ed: I understand why voters would be unhappy with Trump over gas prices. I cannot imagine thinking that Democrats would be an improvement. Take a look at pump prices in California and compare that to Texas. If Democrats return to power, so will the restrictions on exploration, extraction, and refining that drove up prices in the Obama and Biden administrations, and that are crippling Californians under Gavin Newsom's governance.
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Free Beacon: Ohio Democratic House nominee Don Leonard's campaign quietly deleted a video from its YouTube channel where he condemned the "genocide in Gaza" and "terrors that are happening with our ICE agents here in the homeland." He also thanked his "Muslim brothers and sisters" for helping him secure his party's nomination.
Leonard, a former Ohio State University professor who denies being a democratic socialist despite supporting the Bernie Sanders-backed Working Families Party, posted the video in early May shortly after he won the primary for the 15th Congressional District, but is now nowhere to be found. He begins the video, a recording of which was obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, with a traditional Arabic greeting and promises to "represent the interests of Muslims."
"As-salamu alaykum my Muslim brothers and sisters," Leonard said. "We did it, and we did it together. We sent a signal that no longer can the Democratic Party simply run establishment candidates who are unwilling to speak truth about the genocide in Gaza or the terrors that are happening with our ICE agents here in the homeland."
"No longer will Muslims sit back and allow the Democratic process to unfold without them," he continued. "No longer will they hold their nose and simply vote for the lesser of two evils, but rather to demand representation and to support those candidates who are willing to represent the interests of Muslims and the shared interests of all Americans."
Ed: Gee, I wonder why this disappeared in the general election?
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I may be in a small cohort here, but I experienced October 7 and Charlie Kirk’s assassination very similarly. Not because the scale or facts were similar or comparable, but because they showed me with equal clarity who would cheer if my family and I were murdered. This understanding is now central to my politics.
— Inez Stepman ⚪️🔴⚪️ (@InezFeltscher) October 7, 2026
This understanding is now central to my politics.
Ed: Mine too.
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David Harsanyi at WashEx: Pro-terrorist activist Mahmoud Khalil was asked by CNN the other day if he would condemn Hamas. He, of course, would not, calling the question “silly” and “disingenuous.” It is not “black and white,” he whined.
Even if you oppose Israel’s reaction to the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, the answer is still black and white for any person with a conscience. Certainly, it should be for any person who wants to become a naturalized citizen of the United States. After all, Hamas is designated by the State Department as a terrorist organization for, among other things, murdering Americans.
But the fact that Khalil can’t condemn Hamas — and anyone paying attention understands that he supports the terrorist army — not only tells us that he deserves to be deported but also that it’s imperative we deport him.
During the 1960s and 1970s, immigration officials grilled newcomers to the U.S. and elsewhere about their affiliations with communist parties. Why would we import people who want to destroy our system? Newcomers were, and still are, compelled to disavow associations with illiberal movements, violent groups, and ideologies. They were also required to promise not to engage in any subversive or revolutionary activity.
Well, Khalil’s entire job as an “activist” is to engage in subversive or revolutionary activity.
Ed: No non-citizen is "owed" access to the United States. Radicals and revolutionaries – and especially those who act as apologists for terrorism – should be removed pronto as an example to others.
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Jews: Wake up. The Left HATES you. Have a little self respect, get off your knees, stop begging for an acknowledgement of your humanity, and walk away.
— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) October 7, 2026
Ed: Indeed, but that's not all they hate. They hate the West, they hate America, and they hate the values that built both, which are rooted in Greek, Roman, and Judeo-Christian philosophy.
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Kira Davis: The heart of this mother cannot bear to dwell on the horror and degradation of that day and the ensuing days of the hostages. I will leave that to other, stronger commentators and there will be no shortage today.
But here is what I remember about that day and what stands out for me. I remember being horrified. I remember my heart screaming for the children who were taken, shrinking at the stories of rapes, tortures and outright murder. I remember feeling rage. But then…confusion.
I expected the entire civilized world to be outraged. Instead, I discovered the attack quickly became “controversial.” It seemed unfathomable to think anyone living in civilized society would think any differently about it once they learned 1200 people were murdered…once they learned about the horrible fates of Shiri Bibas and her babies, Ariel and Kfir…and so many others.
Suddenly, Jewish students were being attacked on campuses and Jewish businesses were being targeted for boycotts or vandalism. A million think pieces about the definition of terrorism and the ‘colonialism’ of Israel sprang up overnight. The mainstream news quickly settled into covering the event as some kind of conflict rather than a murderous invasion of a sovereign nation.
Ed: I have often said and written over the last three years that I went to bed on 10/6/23 in America, and woke up on 10/7/23 in the "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" scene from Cabaret. Kira hits that nail on the head in this essay. Read it all. And if you don't recall that scene and get my point ...
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Ed: Trade in the swastika for radical Islam, and this is what the political environment has felt like for the past three years. I cannot even imagine what it feels like for my Jewish friends.
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Since Oct 7 2023, every human on the planet has had a choice. To stand with Israel, the Jewish people, and Western Civilization, or with Hamas, Terrorism, and the evil actors who would tear it down. That Time for Choosing is ever-present. Who do you choose? #WeAreNotOk https://t.co/FIW8ChBx2T
— John Ondrasik (@johnondrasik) October 7, 2026
Ed: I posted this earlier today, too, but I want to make this the final Final Word for today. Either we resolve ourselves to defeat terrorism or we will be ruled by the terrorists. Who will you choose?
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Last night's lyric: "Really Saying Something" by Bananarama.
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