Friday and Saturday, the Israeli air force gelded Iran, diminishing the Mullahcracy’s sway and putting paid to the Russian-supplied defense systems. At the same time, the refusal of the owners of the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post to do the expected and endorse Kamala Harris for President has roiled their partisan activist staffs. Harris angered her rally crowd by promising a Beyoncé concert and delivering just a Beyoncé abortion speech at the same time Trump had an engaging three-hour conversation with Joe Rogan.

Iran

First accounts of the Israeli bombing on Friday night were sketchy but as time progressed, we are getting a clearer picture of what is happening. Once again we turn to Hussain Abdul-Hussain of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy for clarification.

@hahussain

My take on Israel retaliation air strike on Iran: Only 13 months ago, it was believed that #Israel did not have the capacity to threaten #Iran nuclear sites, that if Israel tried, it risked unleashing a devastating response from Iranian proxies -- Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis and militias in Syria and Iraq. On 10/26, Israel: 1- Had its fighter jets spend hours in Iranian airspace, striking once and twice, at will, showing that Israel's air force was prepared to wage war, 1,500 miles away from home. Whether Israel took out Iranian air defenses or not is irrelevant since the Jewish state struck with impunity and with Iran unable to ward off the attack. 2- Iran had no ability to respond in real time. With its inability to engage Israeli air force in its air space or scare it away, Iran's only response was to launch missiles on Israel. Even this Iranian response did not come. An educated guess: Moving the big missiles into position to strike would have given away their storage location and allowed Israel to hit the launchers with the missiles still on them. 3- Iranian ring of fire is now a relic of the past. With Nasrallah and Sinwar swimming with the fish, all Hezbollah could muster was its usual daily 150 rockets and three to five drones, the drones that hit Bibi's house but fail to break its window. All those who expected a knockout Israeli blow might have been disappointed. But Israel is taking on a country eight times its size at a distance of 1,500 miles. Israel showed Iran that if it comes for a second round, the 2,000 lb bunker busters can make of Fordow what it made of Nasrallah and Safieddine. Of course, don't expect Iran to say anything other than "we did not even suffer a scrape."

Israel reportedly destroyed all the radars of Russian S-400 and S-300 systems, leaving Iran’s entire airspace blinded and in a second onslaught on Saturday it struck near Shiraz, Isfahan, Mashhad and in the northern region near Kurdistan. 

“In #Iran, the king is naked. #Israel has proven that it can fly over the country with impunity, maneuver at will, and destroy military installations of its choosing. Dictatorships, as a rule, do not survive long after such a humiliation.”

Those who wished Israel would take out Iran’s nuclear facilities and oil refineries were disappointed and pointed to President Biden for reining them in. Others praised Israel’s restraint. Nevertheless, Parchin, the Iranian base said to be weaponizing nukes, was apparently bombed.

The people of Iran repeatedly and at great risk oppose the ruling mullahs, and it is hoped that as the rulers’ minions are defanged, they will rise to the occasion and oust them from office at last. Israel has made clear its fight is not with the people of Iran but with those who oppress them.

No Endorsements

One of the advantages about being old is that I remember the darnedest things, like the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC where the Court held that corporations and other associations could not be barred from spending money on political advertising. The Left went mad about it. Of course they did: The biggest press in the country was in their hands and could be counted on to do their work for them. The idea of losing their monopoly was more than they could tolerate. This week, owners of two of those newspapers they regularly relied on to provide free campaign advertising, the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post, refused to endorse Harris for president, overruling their woke staffs. The nerve of the men who pay the pipers calling the tune! A number of writers at the LAT resigned. At the Washington Post, Robert Kagan, husband of Ukraine war Hawk Victoria Nuland, did so.

It's hard to escape believing this was one way for the Time’s owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong and the Post’s Jeff Bezos from clearing their financially sinking decks of deadwood without having to pay them off. It was great fun reading the indignant wokesters. My favorites were the predictably inconsistent Jen Rubin and anti-Israel Karen Attiah. 

At Instapundit, Ed Driscoll can barely restrain his amusement:

OCTOBER 25, 2024

COCKBURN: Jennifer Rubin’s resignation from the Washington Post is surely imminent.

Public statements from leading Post personalities have been aghast. Columnist Karen Attiah tweeted, “Jesus Christ.” Then, an hour later, “…” Then an hour later still, “What an absolute stab in the back. What an insult to those of us who have literally put our careers and lives on the line, to call out threats to human rights and democracy.”

Of most interest to Cockburn, however, were the remarks of fellow columnist and MSNBC mainstay Jennifer Rubin to the LA Times resignations earlier in the week. In response to Sewell Chan’s resignation from the Times, she wrote, “Bravo. All respect.” Followed by, “and where are the rest of them?”

The implication is clear: now that her paper, too, is refusing to endorse the sainted Kamala Harris, Rubin must be set to join the charge of resignations in disgust, along with Robert Kagan, as a sort-of Potomac Joan of Arc. The prospect brings a tear to Cockburn’s eye. Such bravery.

Ed Morrissey adds: WaPo: Never Mind on That Whole Darkness Thing.

Besides, it’s hardly a secret how the Post views Trump at least, if not Harris. They adopted their banner not after January 6, but just after Trump took office in 2017. Bezos owned the Post at that time too, and had used the slogan during the 2016 election  before Trump had even formally won the nomination. It’s still on the masthead, and even as Bezos put it there, Allahpundit recognized it for what it is:

The timing gives the slogan the same effect as that dopey NBC News story from a few days ago noting that Trump would not, in fact, become the shortest-serving president in American history. It’s a declaration of opposition to the new administration. If it wasn’t, they would have slapped it on the front page back when Barack Obama, a.k.a. “the greatest enemy of press freedom that we have encountered in at least a generation,” started snooping in journalists’ phone records.

With all that as background, does the refusal to participate in endorsements really matter? It does to Lewis’ predecessor, Marty Baron, who called Lewis and Bezos cowards for refusing to participate:

Colleagues were said to be “shocked” and uniformly negative. Post corporate spokespeople have not responded to multiple messages left by NPR on the subject.

Former Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron, who led the newsroom to acclaim during Trump’s presidency, denounced the decision starkly.

“This is cowardice, a moment of darkness that will leave democracy as a casualty,” Baron said in a statement to NPR. “Donald Trump will celebrate this as an invitation to further intimidate The Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos (and other media owners). History will mark a disturbing chapter of spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.”

As Baron’s statement hints, if you’re on Twitter today, it may seem like every employee at the Post has very publicly lost his mind. 

The Nation, where you can never be Left enough, endorsed Harris on September 23 but then on October 25 said she did not “deserve the Nation’s endorsement.”

You may dispute the worth of these endorsements as you may dismiss those of Harris’ celebs, but the response to the press non-endorsements by their staffs, rather puts paid to any claim of reporters’ nonpartisanship, doesn’t it?

As the week ended Harris had a big rally in Texas where attendees had been promised a Beyoncé free concert and instead got the singer’s riff on abortion. The boos of the disappointed crowd could not be restrained and this was going on as Trump had a lively and interesting three-hour chat with Joe Rogan, something Harris had declined to do. 

It appears that Trump is trending upward and Harris is falling. If this holds and he wins, Steve Hayward offers some sage advice to him about how to get off to a fast start:

• Suspend all UNRWA funding
• Name an acting deputy secretary for civil rights in the DoJ and have that person abolish every DEI office of every college and university, with suspension of all funding for everything unless they do
• Indict HHS assistant Secretary Rachel Levine for her role in dropping age requirements for transgender surgery on minors
• Pardon every person convicted for non-violent crimes on J6
• Revive congressional committees on internal security to investigate Iranian penetration in “or influence over our government”
• Impound some spending
• Remove those civil servants who are useless or obstructive, order them to work at home and then cut off all email and access to department computer servers
• Demand that environs like Martha’s Vineyard and Marin County take their share of migrants granted asylum

It’s a start. I’d add another: Put Steve Hayward on your transition team.