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November 2018

Amid rising antisemitism and anti-Israel activism in Europe, over 3000 members of Jewish diaspora and supporters of Israel gathered in Frankfurt, Germany, for the 5th German Israel Congress this weekend. Widely regarded as the biggest pro-Israel event in Europe, the conference was attended by leading politicians, government officials, and public figures from Germany and Israel. Israel's Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan took the opportunity to urge the German government to take a tougher stance on Iran. "Germany should take a more aggressive stance against the Iranian regime," Minister Erdan said. "It was only yesterday that President Rouhani called Israel metastatic cancer. History has taught us that anti-Semitic threats from fanatical leaders, and exporters of terror who have hegemonic aspirations, must be taken seriously."

California is dead to me...a smoldering ruin of a once prosperous state. I spent a glorious Thanksgiving week in Michigan, enjoying my first snowfall in many years and escaping coverage of the wildfire disaster.  Before leaving, I went through my jewelry collection and packed sentimental favorites and valuable items in the event that San Diego was hit with a fire during my vacation. While I was organizing my case, my anger at the choices made by both federal and state politicians and bureaucrats that led to the loss of life was heating up as hot as any of those flames. And instead of meaningful change, Governor Jerry Brown's solution to this is to let the utilities charge us for the fire settlements likely to stem from this disaster.
California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a measure allowing utilities to bill their customers to pay for future legal settlements stemming from devastating 2017 wildfires.

*UPDATE 2:42PM: Ukraine's parliament has approved "martial law for 30 days in the regions bordering" Russia. The undeclared war between Ukraine and Russia took a horrific turn on Sunday after Ukraine claimed that Russia opened fire on its navy in the Kerch Strait, which separates the Black and Azoz Seas. The attack wounded six sailors and Russia seized at least three Ukrainian vessels.

Ohio governor John Kasich (R) has been an outspoken critic of President Trump and his voters, so it's perhaps not surprising that he stated Sunday he is "very seriously considering" running for president in 2020. It's not clear if he plans to primary the president or if he believes he can win on a "centrist" third party, even bipartisan, ticket.

Every year on November 25 we remember Johnny Micheal ("Mike") Spann, the first American killed in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks. It was on that date in 2001 that Spann was killed during a Taliban prisoner uprising at the Qala-i-Jangi fortress. The "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh was being held and interrogated at the fortress, though it remains unclear what if any direct role he played in Spann's death.

ESPN has been having a tough time figuring out what it wants to be.  Having injected leftwing politics and political correctness into its lineup, many sports fans on both sides of the political aisle were disgusted.  ESPN's ratings declined and suffered some self-inflicted bleeding over, among other things, the NFL kneeling controversy. Attempting to stem the bleeding, ESPN brought in a new president and slashed jobs and salaries.  But ESPN lost an additional two million subscribers in 2018; this brings their total loss of subscribers to almost 12 million since 2013 and 15 million since 2011.