Source: The American Conservative
by Eldar Mamedov
“With the shock overthrow of the Assad dynastic dictatorship that ruled Syria since 1971, new diplomatic opportunities are opening for the incoming administration. If President-elect Donald Trump is serious about his ‘ending forever wars’ rhetoric, Syria offers him a chance to grab a low-hanging fruit. Encouragingly, Trump himself seems to realize that. Commenting on Syria, he suggested that the events unfolding there are ‘not our fight.’ He said that the ‘U.S. should have nothing to do with it (the situation in Syria). Let it play out. Do not get involved.'” (12/12/24)
“We don’t do hot takes at The Dispatch, but I’ll confess to one that’s lukewarm: I’m coming around on Donald Trump’s scheme to use recess appointments to avoid the Senate confirmation process. I still believe all of his nominees should be confirmed, to be clear. Americans voted for an authoritarian kakistocracy last month and they should have it. We owe it to democracy to run this experiment, for better or worse. And if it goes as badly as I expect, we’ll have the consolation of knowing that we deserve what we’ve gotten. But if you’re still naive enough to care about civic norms, a case can be made that having Congress recess so that Trump can temporarily fill Cabinet positions with whomever he likes would be marginally less demeaning to the Senate than confirming his nominees would be.” (12/11/24)
“Two real estate tycoons and their brother were arrested on federal sex trafficking charges, New York prosecutors announced Wednesday. Oren and Tal Alexander are accused of using their wealth and prominent positions in real estate in ultra-luxury markets in N.Y. and Florida for over a decade to ‘repeatedly and violently drug, sexually assault and rape dozens of women,’ per an indictment unsealed Wednesday. The two brothers and Oren Alexander’s twin, Alon Alexander, have previously denied sexual assault allegations after lawsuits were filed in civil court against them earlier this year.” (12/12/24)
“The introduction and expansion of fully refundable child tax credits in eleven states are a significant positive development in family policy. However, as highlighted in our research, the design choices states make when implementing these reforms can vary in effectiveness, with some approaches proving more beneficial than others …” (12/11/24)
“Israeli forces completed their first withdrawal from a town in southern Lebanon, handing control to the Lebanese military under a ceasefire agreement, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Wednesday. Army General Michael Kurilla, CENTCOM’s commander, visited the monitoring headquarters in Beirut for the ceasefire and met with the commander of Lebanon’s armed forces, General Joseph Aoun, CENTCOM said in a post on X. … The U.S. and France serve as monitors of a 60-day truce between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah that calls for a phased withdrawal of Israeli troops after more than a year of war.” (12/12/24)
“President-elect Donald Trump says the special tariffs he has threatened to impose on goods imported from China, Canada, and Mexico are aimed at stopping illegal drugs from entering the United States. The federal government has been trying and failing to do that for more than a century, and there is no reason to think this puzzling tactic will be any more successful.” (12/11/24)
“In what appears to be a last-ditch effort to limit [sic] the harms of smoking before its term ends, the Biden administration has proposed a rule that would significantly lower the amount of nicotine in tobacco products. The agency’s efforts to counter the dangers of the addictive chemical stretch back to 2018, when it first proposed the idea. Then, FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf went even further in 2022 and announced that the agency was developing a rule that would require tobacco companies to reduce the amount of nicotine in cigarettes.” [editor’s note: Less nicotine in a cigarette means more cigarettes get smoked — and it’s the tars, not the nicotine, that are most harmful. This is a recipe for, among other things, increasing lung cancer and emphysema rates – TLK] (12/12/24)
