Bernie’s Weekly Q&A (10/20)

The Israel/Hamas War, House Speaker chaos, Waka Flocka Flame, and more!

Welcome to this week’s Premium Q&A session for paying subscribers. I appreciate you all signing up and joining me.

Let’s get started:

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The Republicans in the House ruled by a fringe are sending the country a strong signal that they don’t know how to govern since even they are fractured. Surely this must cast a long shadow on winning the White House regardless of who the Republicans ultimately nominate. Am I wrong? — lensattic

By the time you read this, the GOP may have already picked a speaker. If that’s the case, I think voters might give Republicans a pass. November 2024 is a long way off. But if this is the second coming of the Kevin McCarthy 15-vote fiasco, then there’s a good chance voters, as you say, Len, will conclude that Republicans don’t know how to govern and so, yes, it may very well “cast a long shadow on winning the White House.” But again, I’m answering your question mid-week — by Friday this all may be moot.

Several U.S. news organizations including the New York Times bought at face value and reported without verification Hamas’s claim that the destruction of a Gaza hospital came from an Israel airstrike. That was not the case. Israel soon after proved that the explosion was caused (probably accidentally) by Hamas-aligned terrorists. Even taking into the account the fog of war, this would seem to be a serious (and dangerous) media screw-up. Your thoughts? — Ben G.

There is a storyline that exists in many newsrooms here in America, in Europe and in the Arab world. And it’s basically that Israel is the aggressor, Palestinians the victims. It’s just one more form of liberal bias. So they reflexively jump to conclusions before the facts are in. It’s predictable. And they’ll do it again sometime down the road.

John and Bernie: Many college and professional sports teams took time before last weekend's games to offer a moment of silence in honor of the casualties in Gaza. Some even took the extra step to post the Israeli flag onto their social media pages. I am all for this show of support and every morning pray for Israel, as Christians are charged to do Biblically. However as a conservative, this show of support gives me slight pause. I am among those (and I know you are too, Bernie) who have been critical of sports leagues and franchises mixing seriously woke politics into the candy store of sports. Am I being hypocritical in my advocacy of these same teams getting involved in geopolitics, even in righteous support of Israel? I don't think I am, but I definitely want to get your thoughts on how this is different. You two may be able to articulate a good position that I can't seem to explain to myself very well. — Steve R.