White House Dossier's

Blinken says US is 'ready' to get involved in Israel-Hamas war if line is crossed: 'We won't hesitate' . . . The United States is poised to get involved in the Israel-Hamas war should the conflict escalate into regional forces intentionally targeting American personnel, senior officials said. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Sunday that the U.S. expects Iranian proxies to seek opportunities to escalate the Israel-Hamas war and asserted that the Biden administration is prepared to respond accordingly if American civilians or armed forces become targets.

"This is not what we want, not what we're looking for. We don't want escalation," Blinken said. "We don't want to see our forces or our personnel come under fire. But if that happens, we're ready for it." Fox News

US troops in Middle East prepare for ‘prospect of a significant escalation’ in Israel-Hamas war . . . ‘PROSPECT OF A SIGNIFICANT ESCALATION’: The United States has positioned two aircraft carrier battle groups in the Middle East, deployed more missile defenses to the region, and evacuated nonessential personnel from its embassy in Iraq as Iranian-backed proxy forces have targeted U.S. troops in Syria and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants have attacked Israeli forces across the northern border with Lebanon. “Recently, we've seen rocket and UAV attacks against bases housing our troops in Iraq and Syria. We're concerned about potential escalation,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on ABC on Sunday. “In fact, what we're seeing is a prospect of a significant escalation of attacks on our troops and our people throughout the region.” Washington Examiner

Anti-Israel sentiment has permeated Biden administration from the start . . . Even as President Joe Biden touts his support for Israel, many of his appointees have expressed anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiments, even after Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and killed more than 1,400 people, including at least 31 U.S. citizens. "Biden has appointed the most anti-Semitic, anti-Israel people to important posts we've ever seen," Zionist Organization of America National President Morton Klein told Just the News. ZOA has identified dozens of current and former Biden administration officials with a history of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic comments.  Just the News

McConnell supports packaging aid to Ukraine and Israel together . . . President Joe Biden has a key Republican ally in his push to tie aid to Ukraine and Israel together: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. “I know there are some Republicans in the Senate, and maybe more in the House, saying Ukraine is somehow different. I view it as all interconnected,” McConnell said of the war in Ukraine and the ongoing battle between Israel and Hamas during an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation,” which aired Sunday. Politico

What Every Potential House Speaker Said About Jan. 6 Riot . . . A candidate forum is expected to be held on Monday evening where the nine candidates will attempt to garner support from their colleagues.

It is far from clear if any of the candidates will be able to get the almost unanimous support from GOP lawmakers in the lower chamber needed to reach the required votes, potentially leaving the House in limbo for the foreseeable future, nearly three weeks since McCarthy's historic ousting. Below, Newsweek has compiled what each of the nine GOP speaker candidates has said about the Capitol riot as they seek to get elected to the position which is second in line to the presidency after the vice president. Newsweek

Hamas terrorists had instructions for using cyanide-based chemical bombs, linking to Al Qaeda . . . Israeli officials say Hamas terrorists killed during the Oct. 7 attack in the southern portion of the country were found to be carrying instructions on how to use cyanide-based chemical bombs, according to reports. The massacre at the kibbutz is one of many scenes of unspeakable bloodshed perpetrated by Hamas. Axios reportedly reviewed Israeli intelligence that showed Hamas terrorists carried instructions stored on USB devices that included detailed diagrams for a "cyanide dispersion device." Fox News

Chaos Erupts In Middle East As Israel-Hamas Conflict Surges . . . In the wake of Israel’s attacks on Hamas, U.S. forces in the Middle East have endured several attacks as violent protests decrying Israel ensue throughout the region. Israel is carrying out a sweeping counteroffensive in the Gaza Strip after Hamas killed over 1,400 Israelis and kidnapped over 100 civilians, including children, during mass terrorist attacks that began on Oct. 7. Protests and violence have flared up in surrounding Middle Eastern nations – despite the Biden administration claiming days before the Hamas attack that the region is “quieter” than it has been in decades. Daily Caller

Israel to show unedited bodycam footage of Oct. 7 Hamas attack . . . The Israeli government will release raw, unedited footage of the Hamas attacks against the Jewish state on Monday. Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy said in a post to X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday that the footage from the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks will come from Hamas death squads' body cameras.  The Israeli Defense Forces have been collecting footage from the body cameras as Hamas "rampaged through the communities in southern Israel, butchering everyone in sight." Washington Examiner

Pro-Hamas protests have European politicians worried as US watches closely . . . Sympathy for Hamas’s war against Israel has been witnessed in some quarters on the streets of Europe and in certain U.S. cities, sparking new debates over what critics have called misguided multiculturalism, failed integration, underfunded police forces and unchecked immigration. The U.S. and E.U.-designated terrorist movement, Hamas, carried out a massacre of at least 1,400 people in southern Israel on Oct. 7 and kidnapped more than 200 people, including Americans. Fox News

What to know about Israel's military strength . . . Israel has for decades established itself as one of the most formidable and technologically advanced military powers in the Middle East. Why it matters: With an annual military budget exceeding $20 billion and access to some of the most advanced U.S. military hardware, Israel controls the skies and much of the sea around its territory, and it has superior cyber capabilities.

The Israel Defense Forces, founded two weeks after the state of Israel was established in 1948, relies on a tradition of compulsory military service beginning at age 18.

There are approximately 169,500 active-duty personnel and roughly 465,000 Israelis in reserve units.
In the days since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, more than 300,000 reservists have been called up.
The IDF's annual budget of around $23.6 billion, as of 2023, surpasses the total military spending of Egypt, Iran, Lebanon and Jordan combined. Axios

Money

Americans Are Burning Through Savings To Keep Biden’s Economy Afloat, Experts Say . . . Under President Joe Biden, economic growth has been partly sustained by Americans spending through their savings on everyday goods, according to experts who spoke to the Daily Caller News Foundation. Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a measure of economic growth, has remained persistently high, coming in at 2.1% for the second quarter of 2023, even as the Federal Reserve has attempted to tame growth through hikes of its federal funds rate. The main contributor to U.S. GDP is consumer spending, which has managed to notch consistent increases at the expense of the savings of average Americans, experts told the DCNF. Daily Caller

US retirement system earns just a C+ in global study . . . In a new ranking of global retirement systems, the U.S. notched a C+ grade that puts it on par with nations like Kazakhstan, Colombia, Spain and France. The new Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index, released Tuesday, rates retirement income systems across the world by using the weighted averages of adequacy, sustainability and integrity.  

The C+ rating means that America's retirement system "has some good features but also has major risks and/or shortcomings that should be addressed; without these improvements, its efficacy and/or long-term sustainability can be questioned," according to the study.

The U.S. scored 63 out of 100 possible points, coming in 22nd place out of the 47 countries examined. Fox Business

UNEMPLOYMENT RATES ROSE IN 16 STATES IN SEPTEMBER . . .  Unemployment rates rose in 16 states, and remained stable in 34 states and the District of Columbia in September.
The U.S. unemployment rate rose was unchanged over the month at 3.8% in September, but 0.3% higher than September 2022.
In total, 25 states had unemployment rates lower than the U.S. figure of 3.8 percent, 2 states and the District of Columbia had higher rates, and 23 states had rates that were not appreciably different from that of the nation. Nevada has the highest unemployment rate again at 5.4%, followed by the District at 5.0%, and California at 4.7%.
In September, 16 states had over-the-month unemployment rate increases, the largest of which was in Illinois (+0.3%). The Right Facts

The reality of 8% mortgage rates . . . Mortgage rates continued their unrelenting upward climb last week, adding potentially thousands in additional costs for would-be homebuyers. Rates on the popular 30-year fixed mortgage are currently hovering around 7.63%, according to Freddie Mac, well above the 6.94% rate recorded one year ago and the pandemic-era low of just 3%. This is the highest level for rates since December 2000. Fox Business

HOME SALES FALL TO LOWEST LEVELS SINCE 2010 . . . Existing-home sales fell 2.0% in September from August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.96 million.
Existing-home sales fell 15.4% from one year ago.
The median existing-home sales price for September rose 2.8% from one year ago to $394,300.
Sales in September fell to the lowest rate in 13 years, dating back to 2010.
First-time buyers were responsible for 27% of sales in September, down from 29% in August and September 2022.
“As has been the case throughout this year, limited inventory and low housing affordability continue to hamper home sales,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. The Right Facts

Culture

Chauvin Did Not Murder George Floyd . . . Thanks to the release of depositions in a sexual harassment law suit, we now know just how thoroughly corrupt was the prosecution of former Minneapolis police offer Derek Chauvin and his three colleagues in the May 2020 death of George Floyd. The depositions were taken this summer in response to a lawsuit filed by Amy Sweasy, a former Hennepin County prosecutor, against her then boss, former County Attorney Mike Freeman. Sweasy alleges that Freeman engaged in sex discrimination and professional retaliation. Whatever Freeman did or did not do to Sweasy, however, pales in comparison to what both of them and their colleagues did to the cops they prosecuted and the justice system they undermined. Spectator

Police say synagogue president murder showed 'no evidence' of a hate crime . . . The Detroit Police Department quieted the speculation that the stabbing of a synagogue president was a hate crime. "No evidence has surfaced suggesting that this crime was motivated by antisemitism," Police Chief James E. White said. "I again ask the community to remain patient while our investigators and law enforcement partners continue their work. Everything that can be done to bring this matter to closure is being called into service." Washington Examiner

Amid Weaponization Concerns, DOJ Internal Watchdog Stays Home . . . As the House of Representatives investigates the Justice Department for alleged politicization, the agency’s internal watchdog has expanded its telework policy. The Office of Inspector General is just one division of the Department of Justice. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz oversees more than 500 special agents, auditors, inspectors, attorneys, and support staff nationally, according the agency website. In an undated, nine-page memo, the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General announced that employees will be able to work from home two days per pay period. For a two-week pay period, that could mean an employee is allowed to report to the office only once in one week. Daily Signal

Brain hacking: Pentagon eyes mind-control technology . . . The Pentagon’s information warfare experts are warning about brain hacking, a technology capable of extracting and inserting information into minds. The effort to turn humans into X-men seems no longer science fiction. Indeed, an international race is underway to perfect brain machine interfaces that turn people into Professor X-like superhumans capable of controlling devices with their thoughts. Washington Times

Meet the Major US Philanthropy Financing an Israeli-Designated Terror Group  . . . The Rockefeller Brothers Fund touts its commitment to advancing "social change that contributes to a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world." It also bankrolls an Israeli-designated Palestinian terror group and has given millions more to groups that fund Hamas or have justified the terrorist group’s attacks against Israel. Free Beacon

The Supreme Court Could Decide The Future Of Child Sex Change Bans . . . As multiple federal courts have issued various rulings on the legality of child sex bans, legal experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the Supreme Court is likely to take up the issue. In Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky, federal courts have upheld child sex change bans, while bans in other states, such as Arkansas, have been struck down. The arguments against the bans are often derived from the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the 14th Amendment, but those arguments aren’t likely to survive on the Supreme Court level, where challenges to the bans are likely headed, legal experts told the DCNF. Daily Caller

Republicans To Spend Weekend Brainstorming How To Be Even More Of An Embarrassment . . . After another week of taking petty squabbling and gross incompetency to new heights, Congressional Republicans are taking the weekend to brainstorm how to possibly embarrass themselves even further. "Think people, think! How can we make even bigger fools of ourselves?" asked Patrick McHenry to the gathered Republicans. "I know we have it in us!" As reports surfaced that Democrats might regain significant control through a deal with the Speaker pro tempore, Republicans worried they were running out of ways to beclown themselves. Babylon Bee