THE SHOW NOTES: The Anti-Semitic ICC, Russia's Ballistic Attack, & Do You Know Tulsi Gabbard?

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HEADLINE: A duct-taped banana sells for $6.2 million at an art auction - NPR

BREAKING 1: Jussie Smollett conviction overturned by Illinois Supreme Court - Fox News

BREAKING 2: The Justice Department is trying to make Google sell off its Chrome browser.

POST-FIRE: The Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris has been restored and is set to reopen on December 7th.

OUTRAGE: California has 459,192 ballots left to process. - X

BAD: 167,000 pounds of ground beef has been recalled following an E. coli outbreak.

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Do You Really Know Tulsi Gabbard?

The Anti-Semitic ICC

The International Criminal Court voted unanimously to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes in Gaza along with top Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif.

Reaction: The shocking move immediately drew condemnation from US officials and supporters of Israel around the world. Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune promised to pursue sanctions against the ICC if Chuck Schumer doesn’t do so before Thune takes charge.

Why this (doesn’t) matter: The ICC is basing its warrants against Israel on civilian casualty numbers provided by the Gaza Ministry of Health which is operated by Hamas. The court has been working to produce these baseless warrants since May in an attempt to equate the terrorist attacks of October 7th to the precise military operation that Israel has conducted in Gaza since then.

Context: The ICC has a long history of anti-Israeli and anti-US bias. For years, the court ruthlessly pursued investigations into Israel over its conduct in the West Bank and Gaza after harassing the US for its treatment of detainees in Afghanistan.

Blocking weapons: On the same day this happened, 19 Democratic Senators voted to block the transfer of US weapons to Israel in a surprising move that dismayed the moderates in the party. Even the White House condemned the decision claiming, “Disapproving arms purchases for Israel at this moment would … put wind in the sails of Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas at the worst possible moment.”

GEORGIA: Both Senators from the state of Georgia voted to block the transfer of weapons to Israel.

Bloomberg: Buffett’s $325 Billion Cash Hoard Is an Early Warning Signal

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. reported its stock holdings last week — a widely anticipated quarterly update of Warren Buffett’s latest trades. There were some notable ones, including the addition of Domino’s Pizza Inc. to Berkshire’s portfolio and more trimming of its stake in Apple Inc.

But those moves have been overshadowed by Berkshire’s $325 billion cash hoard, nearly double the company’s cash balance at year end, and the most Buffett has ever amassed. It also comes at a time when Buffett’s favorite valuation gauge — a ratio of the stock market’s value relative to the size of the US economy – is at a record high.

Full story at Bloomberg (paywall).

WSJ: Russia Fires Missile Capable of Carrying Nuclear Warheads at Ukraine

Russia fired ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads at Ukraine on Thursday, in what appeared to be a signal directed at the West after Ukrainian strikes using Western missiles this week.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched an intercontinental ballistic missile at the city of Dnipro in the early hours of Thursday morning, saying it was fired from Russia’s Astrakhan region, up to 650 miles away. The missile carried a conventional, nonnuclear warhead.

Full story at WSJ (paywall) or Fox News (free).

Presented Without Comment

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Market snapshot: