Shalom, Hamas! IDF Pounding Gaza With Massive Aerial Bombing

 

Enough is enough. Hamas’ dithering, prevarication, and outright disrespect in the release of the October 7 hostages reached a boiling point. The terror group intentionally dragged their feet, which they’ve been doing ever since these mind-numbing talks started. In no way would Hamas ever fully agree to honor these ceasefire agreements. The transfer of the bodies of the hostages who Hamas murdered was also horrifying and used as propaganda props. Israel had enough: they began bombing Gaza tonight. The total obliteration of this terror group should be the only endgame. No more talking, no more ceasefires—and Jerusalem doesn’t have a half-braindead president shilling for terrorists anymore from the Oval Office (via ABC News): 

Israel Defense Forces are conducting a series of “extensive strikes” throughout the Gaza Strip overnight on Tuesday local time, officials said in a statement. 

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said the IDF is targeting Hamas terrorists throughout the region and will act with “increasing military force” against Hamas from now on. 

“The IDF is currently attacking Hamas terrorist organization targets throughout the Gaza Strip, with the aim of achieving the war goals as determined by the political echelon, including the release of all our hostages – living and dead,” the leaders said in the statement. 

The strikes are targeting areas in Gaza including Rafah, Khan Younis, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat, Al-Bureij, Al-Zaytoun, Al-Karama and Beit Hanoun. 

In their statement, Netanyahu and Katz said the changes to the IDF’s defensive guidelines come after Hamas “rejected all offers” on a conclusive hostage deal with Steve Witkoff, the U.S.’s special envoy to the Middle East. 

🚨 BREAKING: the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is over, the war has resumed.

PM @netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz have “instructed the IDF to take strong action against the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip.”pic.twitter.com/odroKfjok8— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) March 18, 2025

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Hamas refused to release any more hostages (via Fox News):

The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is over as Israeli fighter jets began striking the Gaza Strip after Hamas refused repeated hostage deal offers, officials said. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began striking Hamas terrorist targets across Gaza “in order to achieve the war objectives set by the political leadership, including the release of all our hostages—both the living and the fallen,” the office of Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a letter. 

“This decision comes after Hamas repeatedly refused to release our hostages and rejected all proposals presented by U.S. President’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, as well as the mediators,” the letter states. 

🚨 BREAKING: CEASEFIRE IS OVER! IDF JETS ARE CURRENTLY POUNDING HAMAS TERROR TARGETS ACROSS GAZA. Netanyahu says this is after Hamas rejected all proposals by Steve Witkoff and President Trump. pic.twitter.com/sG9QVzXwgr— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) March 18, 2025

⚠️FIRST video of the heavy IDF strikes all throughout Gaza.

The Gates of Hell have officially opened. https://t.co/TBPyUSdMf7 pic.twitter.com/7S5bqj6nmj— Raylan Givens (@JewishWarrior13) March 18, 2025

BREAKING: The IDF is absolutely obliterating Hamas infrastructure inside the Gaza Strip.

This comes after Hamas planned to launch another Oct. 7th-style attack and refused to release the hostages. pic.twitter.com/7DGjk5uulH— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) March 18, 2025

Is This the Aide Behind Biden’s Controversial Autopen Signings?

 

A key aide to former President Joe Biden is under scrutiny following accusations that she overused the former president’s autopen, a device typically used for signing official documents. This raised concerns about the authenticity of her signature on critical matters. In addition to this controversy, she faced a Hatch Act complaint for allegedly making illegal fundraising solicitations in her official government role. These allegations have sparked criticism over potential misuse of power and violation of ethics rules within the Biden administration.

Reports suggest Neera Tanden, Biden’s former White House Staff Secretary, may have used the autopen to sign pardons while President Biden was golfing in St. Croix in December 2022. The Oversight Project pointed out that six individuals received pardons during Biden’s vacation on December 30, 2022, raising concerns that the president may not have been present or fully aware that the pardons were being signed. 

Last week, I covered a report about documents signed by Biden’s autopen that could be considered invalid, alleging that one of Biden’s key aides may have abused the device to sign official papers. President Donald Trump has increased scrutiny over Biden’s use of the autopen throughout his presidency, with sources close to the administration suggesting that the device may have been misused.

Trump claimed that Biden’s autopen pardons are “null and void” “because I’m sure Biden didn’t have any idea that it was taking place.” 

In response, Tanden, an ultra-progressive liberal, lashed out at Trump, urging lawyers to file lawsuits against the president. 

“More importantly, does this mean everything with a Trump autopen signature is void in this Administration and the last? Because there’s a lot by autopen in every Administration. Some enterprising lawyers may want to sue,” Neera Tanden wrote on X on Monday. 

Yes, this is a real post. Trump says the pardons signed by former President Biden are “void” because of the lie and conspiracy theory that Biden used an auto pen.

So does this mean anything Biden signed is fraudulent in Trump’s eyes? pic.twitter.com/mFwgHncQbf— Stephen Anderson (@stephenreports) March 17, 2025

Tanden was the president of the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank that has championed progressive policies. Renowned for her outspoken criticism of conservatives, Tanden has long been seen as a symbol of the liberal establishment’s overreach. Her recent role in the Biden administration only reinforces the connection between her and the administration’s profoundly progressive agenda.

Additionally, Tanden was charged with violating the law by using social media to solicit campaign donations for Democrats despite being warned that such actions violated the Hatch Act. The Hatch Act restricts political campaigning during government hours, yet Tanden allegedly continued posting on social media, disregarding the warning. 

“The absolute best thing you can do to prevent a MAGA sweep is to contribute to the campaigns of frontline House candidates,” an Aug. 28 solicitation Tanden reposted. However, she deleted it after the special counsel warned her.

The Trump Counterrevolution’s Next Moves Abroad

 President Donald Trump caused a stir, again, when he suggested that the recent independence vote in Greenland was good news and that someday, sometime, somewhere, the United States might have to absorb Greenland. I guess he meant militarily.

That’s not a wise thing to say because we understand that Greenland is a huge near-continent-sized country with only 56,000 residents. And it’s kind of an ossified colonial client of Denmark. But nevertheless, there are ways to partner with the people of Greenland, whether they remain a colony of Denmark or whether they’re independent, that will keep Russia and China out.

The same thing is true of Panama. We don’t need to keep saying that we may someday, somewhere need to use force to restore Panama. We don’t really want—I don’t think we want the Panama Canal back. All we want is—and we have achieved that—is not to have the Chinese controlling the exit and the entrance to the Panama Canal.

And now it looks like American companies will assume those roles at—as I said—the exit and the entrance of the Panama Canal. It does no good to even suggest the United States would use military force. We have a treaty with Panama. We’ll respect it. They have violated it, no doubt, by inviting in the Chinese. They’ve seen the error of their ways. And I think there’s going to be some type of restoration in our relationship. Same thing with Greenland.

But this brings up a larger point. I think, given the radical nature of the Trump counterrevolution, we need to be very careful how we speak. The quieter that we can be, the more effective and more encompassing can be the reforms. The louder you are, the less leverage and clout you’ll have.

So, let’s take a few examples, very quickly. On the tariffs—and we’re in a near tariff war with Canada—rather than keep threatening, “We’re going to pay 25%—we’re going to have 25%, 50%. And how dare you? We don’t need anything you have.” Why not try something different? Such as:

We don’t like tariffs necessarily. We didn’t want to put tariffs on Canada. The whole idea of our North America Free Trade Association of the past was to eliminate tariffs. But for some reason, you, Canada, insidiously, incrementally have been adding tariffs and the result of that is that you’re running a $50 billion surplus with the United States that comes at the expense of our working class. And we are subsidizing your defense. You have a powerful, wonderful military tradition. So, why don’t you, on your own accord, give us some initiatives that would bring back equity, parity? It’d be very easy to do.

Or Donald Trump could act this way on the cuts:

We didn’t run up the debt. We owe $37 trillion. We are running $1.7 trillion deficits. We are paying interest at $3 billion every day. We have to make the cuts just for the interest. This is unsustainable.

We welcome all sorts of talks about cuts. We don’t like laying people off. But all you do is you give this negative advice to us and nothing is constructive. You tell us where to cut. Maybe you’ll have a better idea, maybe a broader idea, maybe a more fundamental cut. Former President Barack Obama used to give us all sorts of ideas, but he never followed through.

It was not my—Donald Trump—ideas to have to make these fundamental cuts. I inherited an unsustainable situation. And I don’t like it, but I have no choice. But I welcome anybody on the other side of the aisle who has a better idea or the public at large, but we have to stop the borrowing.

And as far as Ukraine, Donald Trump is under all sorts of criticism because he, at first, had a legitimate beef with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. And then Zelenskyy agreed to a ceasefire.

Now we’re trying to woo Russian President Vladimir Putin into a reciprocal agreement where there might be a ceasefire, we might have a DMZ, we might have American commercial activity, the minerals deal as a buffer, etc., etc. Russia’s kind of worn out.

And he’s facing all sorts of criticism. All he has to say is:

Vladimir Putin did not invade in my first term. He invaded during Barack Obama’s term and Joe Biden’s term. Even during George W. Bush’s term he invaded. It wasn’t I who got us into this mess. We cannot watch aimlessly and helplessly as 1.5 million lives are consumed with death, wounding, capture, missing—these casualties. All we’re trying to do is stop the Stalingrad.

We’ve welcomed all sorts of initiatives, all sorts of suggestions. We have open ears. We have given billions of dollars to help Ukraine. But at this date, the slaughter continues. And we’re going to try to find mutually agreeable solutions to stop the killing and to turn Ukraine from a charnel house, a desolation, a desert into a prosperous, affluent society again.

And we’re going to try to make sure that we’re not an existential enemy of Russia and, especially, not an existential enemy of China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and an array of anti-Western societies. That’s all we’re trying to do. And we’re doing it modestly, but we’re doing it effectively.

And we are welcome to any suggestions. But the prior solution—as long as it takes, give them as much munitions, money, ammunitions, you name it—it was no solution at all. It was a prescription for mass death.

Gavin Newsom’s California in ‘Existential Freefall’

  California Gov. Gavin Newsom, as I had mentioned earlier, has had a series of podcast interviews and he’s selected conservatives. Charlie Kirk, Michael Savage, and others have been meeting with him.

Steve Bannon was the most recent and they’re asking him a series of questions, but none of them seem to really get to the heart of the matter. And that is to ask Gov. Newsom why this state is a dysfunctional and unsustainable project.

I’m not talking just about the $100 to $200 billion high-speed rail debacle. I’m not even talking about Gov. Newsom’s blowing up of four dams on the Klamath River. Took about a quarter of $1 trillion that he took out of a bond measures fund to do what? To build reservoirs.

I’m not even talking about his cancellation or delaying of three reservoirs— Los Banos Grande, the Sites Reservoir, and Temperance Flat—which would have given us, in a year like this, where we have ample rainfall and snowmelt, about 5 million acre-feet of storage, which would have come in handy in August.

I’m not talking about any of that. I’m talking about the more dire catastrophes.

Right now, the state started the year 2024 $76 billion in debt. We have the highest income tax rate at 13.3. We have the highest gas taxes at nearly 70 cents a gallon. We have among the highest sales taxes, property taxes.

But here’s my question. Right now, Gov. Newsom, half of all births in California are covered by Medi-Cal. We have spent almost $11 billion on indigent aid, mostly for people who are here illegally. You are now broke. Even that was not enough. You are asking to borrow $3.4 billion from the general fund, which was in arrears, to pay for the health care of people who were largely allowed to come into California illegally. More importantly, in addition to that, almost 20% of all the people who are PG&E—Pacific Gas and Electric—users have not paid their bills. It’s a fantastic multibillion-dollar shortfall. What is your plan to address that?

If it’s to raise rates, we already pay 70% to 80% higher electric bills than any other state, and in general, higher than the average American. We’re up to German territory. What is your solution to that?

Recently there have been surveys of roads and infrastructure. California is either dead last or among the five worst states as far as the conditions of their freeways and general roads. How can that be when we have the highest gas taxes in the United States by far?

So, my question to you is, you’re governor, you have this enormous tax base, you have a $9 trillion industry in Silicon Valley, and yet you will not address these existential needs that we don’t have affordable power; we don’t know what to do with the millions of people, 1 out of every 5, who won’t or can’t pay their power bill; we don’t have enough money to give medical support for illegal aliens.

Twenty-seven percent of the population of the state was not born in the United States. That’s an enormous task of integration and assimilation and civic education in our schools, which we’re not doing.

Our school test scores are among the bottom 10 in the United States.

And given all that, it’s an abject disaster because what you have done, governor—and you didn’t do it all, you inherited a lot from your predecessor, Jerry Brown—but you created a state which has the highest taxes and the worst social services.

And the result of that is three things.

No. 1, 10 to 15 million people said, “If I’m going to pay the highest taxes and yet live in a state that has a high crime rate, poor social services, awful schools, I’m out,” and they have left. And that was our traditional middle-class entrepreneurial cohort.

Second, we have more illegal aliens than any other state in the union. You have welcomed them in without any plan: how to assimilate, integrate, house, feed, take care of their health needs. So, we have a huge number of poor people; 1 out of every 3 people on public assistance in the United States lives in California. We’re up to 20% of our population lives below the poverty rate.

Third, the only reason that this country, this state is even in existence is that we have this global tech empire in Silicon Valley. But the result of it is we have a pyramidal medieval society in which we have a small billionaire class and 1% of Californians pay about 50% of the income tax that has utopian agendas about solar and wind power and diversity and equity, but they’re not the majority of the population. They’re not the minority of the—they’re a tiny little influential coastal elite who has become the richest group of people in history because of Silicon Valley.

And then you’ve taken the middle class and driven them out of California. And then we have this large segment on the bottom of the pyramid that is poor. It cannot afford to pay its power bill. It has no access to health care because the system is broke, given the numbers of people who’ve come here from southern Mexico and other places in dire poverty. And you have no plan, instead we’re talking about transgender athletes and men participating in women’s sports.

That’s nothing, that is, of all the great issues in the world, that’s nothing compared to what’s going on in California. We are in an existential freefall. And you as governor either can’t or won’t do anything about it. And if this continues, in another decade, this is going to be a completely medieval Third World society, if it isn’t already.

A Perfect Storm Threatens Universities

 

Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. Have you noticed the dilemma that higher education is in? Recently, the Trump administration cut off $400 million in federal grants and aids to Columbia University for its inability to stop rampant, overt, and shameless antisemitism on the campus.

It’s widespread in higher education and the country’s been appalled by it. But for some reason, higher education seems to equate Jewish Americans and, by definition, Israel with the white oppressor side of their Marxist binary, which is non-white oppressed versus white oppressor.

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What I’m getting at is, it’s almost as if people who chase Jewish students down, scream at them, yell antisemitic epithets, disrupt their classes have a free pass because they’re self-described diversity, equity, inclusion students.

There’s other things that are going on that are even more serious, though. For a long time, the university has decided that it will make no more pretense that it’s disinterested. It’s partisan, and it’s political, and it’s left-wing, and it’s proud of it.

We can see that in the way that speakers are treated at campus. If you go to a campus as an invited speaker and you speak in any fashion to express doubts about abortion on demand, transgenderism in general, Green New Deal, unlimited support for the Ukraine war, you may find yourself the object of student disruptions.

We’ve had one, recently, at Stanford University. We’ve had the law school disrupted by students who tried to shout down a federal judge. But that’s not unique. It’s everywhere.

The university also believes that it’s not subject to the 1964 and 1965 civil rights statutes. By that I mean, they have instituted racial, gender, and sexual orientation bias in admissions, promotions, hiring.

It’s worse even than that. Theme houses—that’s the word they use for racially segregated dorms. Safe spaces—that’s the word they use for racially set aside zones on campus for particular people of a particular race.

In addition to all of that, there is no protection for anybody, really, to tell you the truth, especially on an elitist campus. If you’re accused of a crime, especially sexual assault, sexual harassment, there’s no guarantee that you will be accorded protections under the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments.

All of this is starting to change. We’re in a perfect storm, as far as higher education. There are fewer students because of declining fertility. Our fertility rate is 1.6 nationwide.

More importantly, people are questioning the value of a higher education degree. With the onset of diversity, equity, and inclusion therapeutic classes, the old reason to go to the university—to be roundly and disinterestedly educated—disappeared.

So, students did not get formal instruction in analytics, in English composition, in spoken and written fluency in English, etc., common historical knowledge, math and science literacy. And employers are starting to know it. They’re starting to see that, if they’re going to hire someone from Harvard, Princeton, Yale, or Stanford versus Texas Tech or SMU or Georgia Tech, they’re not going to be better prepared. They’re probably going to be less well prepared. And they’re probably going to go to human resources on the first day of the job.

I’m exaggerating but you can see what I’m saying.

But there are other forces that don’t look good for higher education besides fertility and the questioning among the American people of the quality and value of a bachelor’s degree from our elite institutions. We’re $1.7 trillion in student debt. And the Trump administration is looking at this. And there are certain recommendations on the horizons, as we speak, the university is not prepared for.

No. 1, the House and the Senate are trying to adjudicate how much they should tax the multimillion-dollar income on many of these multibillion-dollar endowments. It could be 15% to 20%.

We’ve mentioned cutting off federal funds for two universities that do not protect their Jewish students.

There’s also another factor going on and that is National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health grants. The federal government is now saying, “Don’t charge us an overhead of 60%, 50%, 40%. You universities don’t do that with the Gates Foundation grants or other private sector grants. From now on, you’re not gonna charge more than a 15% overhead.”

And when you add that radical reduction in surcharges to a possible and likely tax on endowment income, the universities, in many cases, the most prestigious and wealthy, may be looking at $300, $400, $500 million shortfalls in their annual operating budget, besides any punitive action that the federal government exercises because of their unwillingness or inability to protect Jewish students.

Do we see any reaction from college presidents? Is there a summit? Is there a sense of urgency? Is there some consensus that we don’t charge the federal government more than we do private grant-making institutions? Is there some notion that we should, I don’t know, honor the content of our character rather than obsess on the color of our skin?

I don’t see anything coming from the universities other than outrage. They have a rendezvous with destiny and it’s here before they know it.