Welcome to the RedState Weekly Briefing — where we take a quick look at the week’s most viewed stories in case you missed any of them. Grab a cup of coffee and sit down with this 21st Century Weekend Edition of your favorite (online) publication!
#1 – Whoops: Hamas Just Completely Nuked All Its Pathetic Apologists — by Bonchie
It doesn’t get any clearer than that. Hamas, which is the governing authority in Gaza, has no interest in the two-state solution being bandied about by clownish Western politicians. They are not going to suddenly disengage and act like human beings if Israel takes down the border fencing and extends a hand of peace. Instead, they would simply use that as an opportunity to kill more Jews because, and stick with me here, they just want to kill Jews.
American college campuses and newsrooms, among other places, are filled with naive imbeciles who believe that all cultures are the same and ultimately want the same things. They simply can’t fathom anyone could think differently than they do. No matter how much evidence emerges, they refuse to believe that Gazans don’t want a secular state, living in peace with their Jewish neighbors. Rather than living in reality, they project their own desires onto a group of people who do not share them.
#2 – Rude Awakening: Dr. Sheila Nazarian Blasts Mayim Bialik’s Belated Epiphany Regarding Antisemitism — by Susie Moore
I discovered Bialik’s video after seeing a response posted by Dr. Sheila Nazarian, blasting Bialik for her (previous) naïveté regarding the state of the world and the looming threat of antisemitism. Nazarian, an Iranian-American Jew whose own family escaped from Iran following the revolution in 1979, is a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, best known as the host of a Netflix reality series and for guest stints on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” and “Basketball Wives.”
I have no idea if Nazarian and Bialik have ever crossed paths, though they both reside in the Los Angeles area and obviously have Hollywood/celebrity ties. What struck me about Nazarian’s response was that it beautifully (if hauntingly) encapsulates the harsh reality of a world in tumult, one in which there’s a heightened degree of danger, particularly for Jews. Her words rebuke Bialik, yet there is shared pain and sorrowful understanding.
#3 – Gretchen Carlson’s Ignorant Tweet About the AR-15 Sets the Internet Ablaze — by Nick Arama
“Ordinary people didn’t have AR-15s before 2004,” Carlson claimed.
“They’re not some time-honored American tradition, they’re a recent mistake that we could fix and save thousands of lives in the process.”
Oh my, how wrong can you be?
Carlson got whacked with a Community Note pointing out how wrong she was about people not having such guns before 2004: “For more than a half-century, the AR-15 has been popular among gun owners, widely available in gun stores and, for many years, even appeared in the Sears catalog.”
Indeed, it’s been available to civilians since it was made in 1959.
Yes, Gretchen, the right to bear arms is a “time-honored American tradition” (in addition to being a protected Constitutional right). You don’t get to decide what guns people can and cannot have, particularly when you, like Joe Biden, don’t have any idea what you are talking about.
#4 – UPDATED: The Mocking of Gavin Newsom’s Glamour Shot at China’s Great Wall Is Something to Behold — by Jennifer Van Laar
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s been in China this week, mugging with Xi Jinping, signing meaningless climate accords with the CCP, test driving fake Tesla trucks made by a blacklisted Chinese manufacturer. What better way to memorialize the trip than to have a Zoolander-style photoshoot at the Great Wall?
I first became aware of the Great Wall visit when Fox Los Angeles reporter Elex Michaelson, who’s accompanying Newsom, tweeted a short candid video.
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I could tell that Newsom was having fun posing for the cameras and rolled my eyes, hoping he had the self-awareness to not actually send out a photo from the Great Wall (given his dictatorial bent), but that hope was in vain. Within hours, his office sent out a still to their press list.
#5 – Gina Carano and South Park Are Giving Disney Their Wake Up Call About Kathleen Kennedy — by Brandon Morse
Carano revealed that, during her employment with Lucasfilm, she was asked to unfollow certain accounts on Twitter because they’d said some bad things about Kennedy. Carano saw this as an issue because she knew that being in the public eye meant getting haters, but Carano also saw these people as opportunities to win over new fans. Moreover, some of these “haters” were actual fans of Star Wars that felt the universe had gone in the wrong direction, and that their criticisms were worth listening to.
But Kennedy didn’t just ignore them, she actively had these fans attacked, causing one of the worst collapses of a fan base in history.
“One of the problems your overlords are having now is that they’ve made a lot of people completely stop caring about one of the most beloved franchises in history, all by bullying, pushing aggressive agendas & trying to silence the people criticizing them,” said Carano.