January 09, 2024
Republicans Threaten to Throw Biden Off the Ballot in Missouri... and Florida
Even the sad weakling "severely conservative" betrayer Mitt Romney is telling Democrats that their endless celebration of the Victory of January 6th is "a dead political horse."
Meanwhile, Michelle Obama proclaims herself "so terrified" over a possible Republican victory in 2024. She also beats the dead political horse of January 6th, claiming that Our Precious Democracy is at stake. No, not from the invasion that our treasonous "president" has invited to our shores. Over a failed riot three years ago.
The left is rigging the election on the pretext claim that Trump tried (and failed) to rig one first. Or rather, the claim that he attempted to un-rig the 2020 election that they had worked so hard to "fortify."
Republicans are calling for President Joe Biden to be removed from the 2024 primary ballot as former President Donald Trump is facing challenges to remove him from ballots in multiple states. As challenges are brought to disqualify Trump from 2024 GOP primary ballots in more than 30 states for allegedly instigating an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, Republicans are suggesting that Biden should be removed from the ballot in response, but because of the increased volume of illegal immigrants entering the U.S. through the southern border. The challenges against Trump have been made under the insurrection clauses of the 14th Amendment, a Civil War-era amendment that hasn't previously been used to disqualify a presidential candidate, Axios reported. The insurrection clauses do not specify whether a criminal conviction is necessary as a prerequisite. There have been candidates -- albeit on the fringes -- who have appeared on presidential ballots despite criminal convictions. Lyndon LaRouche ran his 1992 campaign from behind prison bars after a fraud conviction, and more famously, Eugene V. Debs ran his 1920 campaign from prison after being convicted of sedition. He garnered nearly a million votes. ... Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft (R), who is running for governor, posted on X on Friday following the Supreme Court taking up the Colorado appeal, saying the same standard should be applied to Biden as Trump. "What has happened in Colorado & Maine is disgraceful & undermines our republic," Ashcroft wrote. "While I expect the Supreme Court to overturn this, if not, Secretaries of State will step in & ensure the new legal standard for @realDonaldTrump applies equally to @JoeBiden!" Missouri state Sen. Bill Eigel (R), who is also running for governor, announced on Friday that he plans to introduce legislation that would disqualify Biden from the Missouri ballot. "By the Democrats' own standard, Joe Biden should be immediately disqualified and removed from the ballot for the 'aid and comfort' he has given our enemies," Eigel said in a press release, citing the treason clause in Article III of the U.S. Constitution. "Our country is being invaded, because Joe Biden has swung our southern border wide open. President Biden has allowed more than 8 million people to stroll across our border illegally, causing more harm to this country than any other president in American history," the state senator continued. ... Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who is running in the GOP presidential primary race against Trump, said on Friday that he's looking at blocking Biden from the ballot. "This is just going to be a tit for tat and it's just not gonna end well," DeSantis said. "You could make a case -- and I'm actually looking at this in Florida now -- could we make a credible case" to block Biden from the ballot "because of the invasion of 8 million. And again, I don't think that's the right way to do it." ... Last month, following Colorado removing Trump from the ballot, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) also suggested that Biden be removed from the ballot. "Seeing what happened in Colorado tonight ... makes me think -- except we believe in democracy in Texas -- maybe we should take Joe Biden off the ballot in Texas for allowing 8 million people to cross the border since he's been president, disrupting our state far more than anything anyone else has done in recent history," Patrick said.
Even the sad weakling "severely conservative" betrayer Mitt Romney is telling Democrats that their endless celebration of the Victory of January 6th is "a dead political horse."
It's not just a dead political horse, but another desperately dishonest ones: Despite the claims of the Democrat-Media Junta that Trump planned to join "his troops" at the Capitol and seize power, just-released Secret Service documents show he never had any plan to go to the Capitol at all.
Utah Senator Mitt Romney warned President Joe Biden against campaigning on Donald Trump's actions relating to the Jan 6 attack on Congress in an interview this week, arguing that voters are weary of conversations about it. ...
"Jan 6 will be four years old by the election. People have processed it, one way or another," he said. "Biden needs fresh material, a new attack, rather than kicking a dead political horse." His comments put the incumbent president in an awkward spot. Mr Biden is running for re-election despite his own cratering poll numbers, which show him losing support among key parts of his voter coalition including younger voters and people of colour. His likely opponent for the general election is none other than Mr Trump, who remains the frontrunner for the Republican nomination heading in to the Iowa caucuses this weekend.
It has become one of the enduring messages of the House Democrats' final report on the Jan. 6 riot: Donald Trump had a plan and an intention to go directly to the U.S. Capitol to join those disrupting the certification of the 2020 election results. "The Committee's principal concern was that the President actually intended to participate personally in the January 6th efforts at the Capitol, leading the attempt to overturn the election either from inside the House Chamber, from a stage outside the Capitol, or otherwise," the committee wrote in its final report in December, 2022. "The Committee regarded those facts as important because they are relevant to President Trump's intent on January 6th. There is no question from all the evidence assembled that President Trump did have that intent," it added. Lawmakers, pundits and journalists have all echoed that line in the months before and after the report's release. "I imagine that he thought that he would enter like Mussolini being carried on the shoulders of his supporters and enter the Capitol," Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said, comparing Trump to Italy's fascist leader during World War II. In his speech at Valley Forge on Friday reviving his argument that Trump and MAGA supporters pose a threat to democracy, President Joe Biden pointedly avoided making the claim. In fact, he took the opposite tact and suggested a cowardly Trump declined to join his supporters storming the Capitol. "He promised he would right them -- right them. Everything they did, he would be side by side with them. Then, as usual, he left the dirty work to others. He retreated to the White House," Biden said. Such conflicting portrayals may be confusing to voters. That confusion is also rooted in an undisputed fact: Trump never actually went to the Capitol after his speech on the Ellipse. The House Democrats' claims are based on two pieces of testimony. Some Trump aides recalled to the committee the 45th president mentioning in a meeting on Jan, 4, 2021, that he might want to go to the Capitol. And then former aideHe didn't go, and there was never a plan to go. But the media which will get you deplatformed for "misinformation" continues lying, claiming he was going to cross the Mall like it was the Rubicon and crown himself as emperor.Cassidy HutchinsonMadison Cornbread claimed in a disputed account based on hearsay that on the way back from his speech Trump lunged at the driver of the presidential limo to commandeer it and take it to the Capitol. The Secret Service and Trump deny that happened, and no evidence has emerged to validate Hutchinson's claim. That did not stop the account from making its way into mainstream media. The Democratic Party's narrative is further undercut by internal Secret Service documents reviewed by Just the News, which show there was no plan heading into the Jan. 6 event to take Trump to the Capitol.
Meanwhile, Michelle Obama proclaims herself "so terrified" over a possible Republican victory in 2024. She also beats the dead political horse of January 6th, claiming that Our Precious Democracy is at stake. No, not from the invasion that our treasonous "president" has invited to our shores. Over a failed riot three years ago.
"I am terrified about what could possibly happen," Obama said of the 2024 race in a Monday episode of Jay Shetty's "On Purpose" podcast. "Because our leaders matter. Who we select, who speaks for us, who holds that bully pulpit -- it affects us in ways that sometimes, I think, people take for granted," she said when asked to name some of her fears that keep her awake. "The fact that people think that: 'Government, does it really even do anything?' And I'm like, 'Oh my God, does government do everything for us,'" Obama, 59, continued. "And we cannot take this democracy for granted. And sometimes, I worry that we do." "Those are the things that keep me up," she said.Democrats are terrified that black voters are abandoning them, so they've instructed their most elderly partisans to get out there and terrify black voters so they'll vote as ordered.
Rep. James Clyburn, an early Biden supporter who propelled him to victory in South Carolina, now says he is 'very concerned' with the president's standing with the black community. Clyburn was asked on CNN about President Joe Biden's African American approval ahead of a Biden trip to Clyburn's home state on Monday. 'I'm not worried -- I'm very concerned,' the South Carolina Democrat said. ... My problem is that we have not been able to break through that MAGA wall in order to get to people exactly what this president has done,' Clyburn said. ...Clyburn raised the bloody shirt and claimed Trump -- who had barely started his election campaign in 2015 -- was "tied" to the racist shooting at the AME church in Charleston.
... Former President Barack Obama recently told Biden about the concerns he has with the structure of his reelection campaign, according to reports by the Washington Post and Politico. Obama reportedly grew 'animated' at a lunch with Biden before the holidays about the threat of Trump's possible return to power. He reportedly told Biden that his campaign lacked authoritative decision makers in key states who didn't have to clear everything with the White House.
"Is it fair to tie in any way what happened at the Emanuel AME Church to Donald Trump?" Tapper asked Clyburn "Donald Trump had barely launched his campaign when that attack happened." "I think it is very clear that Donald Trump's utterances way back before Charlottesville or at the time of Charlottesville ties him to what happened at Mother Emanuel," Clyburn claimed. "The fact of the matter is, that young man went into that church's basement, joined with those worshipers in Bible study, and murdered them." "And he said at the time that he was attempting to create a race war. But the people of Charleston, South Carolina, the families of the affected victims all came together to get beyond hate and reach out to help continue this pursuit of a more perfect union," he continued. "Donald Trump looked at those people in Charlottesville and said that there were good people on both sides. And those people were uttering things like, 'Jews will not replace us.' That is a religion. The AME Church Emanuel, that is religion. And Donald Trump has said things in support of those activities that ties him closely to what happened at Mother Emanuel."No word whether or not the Democrats are responsible for the thousands and thousands of murders and assaults committed by blacks against whites, by relentlessly dehumanizing white people and convincing some blacks that "liberation" from "white supremacy" justifies a code of "By Any Means Necessary."
Okay, so that's the standard. The rules are simple: 1. Project your malice onto a popular opponent
2. Accuse the popular opponent as being guilty of bad things you don't like
3. Immediately group all supporters - even casual supporters or just mere non-detractors - in with the popular opponent
4. Pursue collective punishment This is all quite straightforward and quite old. It's how industrial-scale slaughter happens. Genocide, democide, whatever-cide. Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!)
Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 01:34 PM | Comments (414) | Trackbacks (Suck)
House Releases Contempt Charges for Hunter Biden
What I think should happen now is that the Very Special Counsel assigned to Hunter Biden will take up the charges, and is more or less under pressure to seek a conviction. If a Very Special Counsel was needed for Hunter's gun and tax charges -- indicating that the DOJ felt there was a conflict of interest that needed to be cured -- then the Very Special Counsel is also needed for these contempt charges.
In fact, there's an even bigger conflict of interest -- Joe Biden does not want his son testifying about Joe Biden's criminal bribery. But who knows. Merrick Garland is an extremely corrupt individual. NeverTrump must answer for working so, so hard to put this criminal on the Supreme Court.Jim Jordan says that Hunter can and should get up to a year in the clink.
House Republicans on the Oversight and Judiciary Committees released resolutions Monday recommending Hunter Biden be held in contempt of Congress. House Oversight and Judiciary are advising the House to hold Hunter Biden in contempt for defying congressional subpoenas by failing to show up to a closed-door deposition Dec. 13, according to their resolutions and accompanying reports. OVERSIGHT REPORT: "Mr. Biden's testimony is a critical component of the impeachment inquiry into, among other things, whether Joseph R. Biden, Jr., as Vice President and/or President: (1) took any official action or effected any change in government policy because of money or other things of value provided to himself or his family; (2) abused his office of public trust by providing foreign interests with access to him and his office in exchange for payments to his family or him; or (3) abused his office of public trust by knowingly participating in a scheme to enrich himself or his family by giving foreign interests the impression that they would receive access to him and his office in exchange for payments to his family or him," the Oversight Committee report reads. House Judiciary's report contains similar remarks. "Mr. Biden's flagrant defiance of the Committees' deposition subpoenas--while choosing to appear nearby on the Capitol grounds to read a prepared statement on the same matters--is contemptuous, and he must be held accountable for his unlawful actions," the Oversight report adds. "Accordingly, the Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability recommends that Congress find Robert Hunter Biden in contempt for his failure to comply with the Committee subpoena issued to him."
A Democrat swatted the computer shop owner who sent Hunter Biden's laptop to the FBI. I'm sure Merrick Garland will get right on this, too.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) said on Sunday that Hunter Biden faces "serious stuff" with contempt of Congress proceedings that could lead up to a year in jail.
... "Well, if we pass it [contempt of Congress] out of the committee and then pass it through the full House, which I think we can do, then it goes to the Justice Department. That will be the attorney general's decision whether he's going to press charges," Jordan said. "But if he does, I mean, it could be up to a year of jail time for failing to come and comply with a deposition for subpoena, a subpoenaed deposition to be interviewed by Congress. So this is serious stuff," the chairman added.
Finally, I know you're going to have a hard time believing this, but Hunter Biden is being hit with new allegations of influence peddling.
The Delaware computer repairman who went public with the contents of Hunter Biden's laptop says his home was "swatted" Friday night. "My home was swatted tonight, I was not home but the outstanding men and women of the Wilmington PD responded quickly and professionally," John Paul Mac Isaac posted to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, on Dec. 29. "All that was achieved was the wasted time of the Wilmington PD. NOTHING, let me repeat that, NOTHING will take me out of this fight! Cheers!"
When the Vice President's son demands a foreign ally cough up some money, I've got to think that that foreign ally will do as asked.
Newly disclosed FOIA docs reveal Hunter Biden influence peddling for foreign policy organization New FOIA production obtained by America First Legal shows Hunter Biden's efforts to secure benefits for a organization for which he was a board member. By Steven Richards New documents uncovered by as part of a Freedom of Information lawsuit against the National Archives for documents related to the Biden family's dealings during the Obama Administration reveal how Hunter Biden used his influence with his father's staff to provide benefits to an organization where he served as a board member. The documents were provided to America First Legal (AFL) after it sued the National Archives and Records Administration in the District of Columbia federal court for documents related to now-President Joe Biden's time as vice president during the Obama Administration. The most recent document production shows that in 2015 Hunter Biden lobbied for his father, the then-vice president, to be the featured speaker at the Truman National Security Project's conference, while the younger Biden served as a board member at the organization. Last year, the Truman Center's keynote speaker was left-wing media personality Rachel Maddow. The Truman Project did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Just the News. President Biden's 2015 tax forms appear to show that he was not paid for the speech while he was vice president. Hunter Biden also appears to have used his foreign policy contacts through the administration to help secure a donation for the Truman Project and to attempt to further his own business interests.
... Hunter Biden served on the board of the Truman Project's Center for National Policy alongside Blue Star Strategies principal Sally Painter, with whom he would work to end Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin's investigation into Burisma later the same year that he secured his father's speaking role for the organization. ... During its existence, the Truman Project has been stocked with board members who are prominent Democratic national security figures, including Jake Sullivan, a Clinton State Department official and current Biden National Security Advisor; Matthew Spence, a senior aide to Obama's National Security Advisor; and Steve Israel, a former Democratic elected official, according to the Washington Free Beacon. Biden served on the board until at least 2019, according to the Beacon. ... After Hunter Biden's email to the office, the vice president's scheduler Kathy Chung conferred with Joe Biden and the vice president agreed to speak at the conference. AFL noted public reporting indicated Hunter Biden had helped Kathy Chung to secure her job in the administration prior to this interaction. ... Hunter Biden also appeared to use official foreign diplomacy of the Obama Administration to further the interests of the Truman Project and his own personal business interests at the same time, documents from the AFL FOIA production and evidence obtained from Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop indicate. The year prior to the speaking invitation to Vice President Biden, in 2014, Scott Bates and Michael Been of the Truman Project Board asked Hunter Biden to pitch a donation proposal to the Japanese ambassador on behalf of the organization, according to an email obtained from Hunter Biden's laptop.
Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:14 PM | Comments (371) | Trackbacks (Suck)
The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition
Imagine! An army targeting and killing its country's enemies! Israel paid a horrible price for the lazy assumption that their enemies would moderate their behavior...eventually. But history teaches a different lesson. Decisive victory rarely leads to bad things for the victor, but a measured response allows the defeated to entertain thoughts of revenge and revolt. Any rational observer of Islam will see its implacable philosophy, and its relentless march toward a world caliphate. Too many Western countries are falling to its advances; France and the UK, once the pillars of Western culture, are sad and diminished...waiting for the rapidly growing Muslim populations to overwhelm them, and all without firing a shot in defense of their countries and culture. Would anyone be surprised by a look into the not-so-distant future that shows Westminster Abbey and Notre Dame with minarets built on their roofs, calling Muslims to prayer inside? Israel has belatedly decided that their country and culture are worth defending, although to be fair, the people always felt that way...it seems however that its leaders embraced a more nuanced outlook that credited them with far more wisdom than has been shown to be the case. When will the rest of the West follow suit?
War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.-- William Tecumseh Sherman But the West wants clean humane, safe wars! Just like our playgrounds are now wrapped in padding and our children are not allowed to play, we protect ourselves from the reality of the world and the consequences of our own actions. Blowing up empty warehouses and carefully warning people before attacks (to minimize death!) might impress the Washington Post and the New York Times and Cambridge and Brentwood and the Upper West Side, but the West's enemies laugh at our weakness and are emboldened by it. Human nature has a long memory and keeps longer grudges. Eventually the butcher's bill needs to be paid. In the most recent CJN podcast, Michael Walsh and J.J. Sefton and I discussed the failure of the West to fight. Israel -- the tip of the Western spear wielded against Islam -- tried the soft post-WWII approach, and for their efforts got October 7th. But...
The commander in the regional alliance and two additional sources familiar with Hezbollah's thinking said Israel had abandoned the unspoken "rules of the game" that previously characterised its strikes in Syria, and seemed "no longer cautious" about inflicting heavy casualties on Hezbollah there. "They used to fire warning shots - they'd hit near the truck, our guys would get out of the truck, and then they'd hit the truck," the commander said, describing Israeli raids on arms transfers handled by Hezbollah before Oct. 7. "Now that's over. Israel is now unleashing deadlier, more frequent air raids against Iranian arms transfers and air defence systems in Syria. They bomb everyone directly. They bomb to kill."
Imagine! An army targeting and killing its country's enemies! Israel paid a horrible price for the lazy assumption that their enemies would moderate their behavior...eventually. But history teaches a different lesson. Decisive victory rarely leads to bad things for the victor, but a measured response allows the defeated to entertain thoughts of revenge and revolt. Any rational observer of Islam will see its implacable philosophy, and its relentless march toward a world caliphate. Too many Western countries are falling to its advances; France and the UK, once the pillars of Western culture, are sad and diminished...waiting for the rapidly growing Muslim populations to overwhelm them, and all without firing a shot in defense of their countries and culture. Would anyone be surprised by a look into the not-so-distant future that shows Westminster Abbey and Notre Dame with minarets built on their roofs, calling Muslims to prayer inside? Israel has belatedly decided that their country and culture are worth defending, although to be fair, the people always felt that way...it seems however that its leaders embraced a more nuanced outlook that credited them with far more wisdom than has been shown to be the case. When will the rest of the West follow suit?
Posted by: CBD at 11:00 AM | Comments (358) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Mid-Morning Art Thread
Kay Nielsen Sadly, there is very little art with wolverines as the subject.
Kay Nielsen Sadly, there is very little art with wolverines as the subject.
Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (449) | Trackbacks (Suck)
The Morning Report — 1/9/24
Americans are increasingly coming to understand the injustice of most Jan. 6 prosecutions. Without question, the events of Jan. 6 were not remotely an insurrection. No one was armed, and even if they were and managed to seize the Capital building, the Republic would never have been in the slightest jeopardy. Indeed, a number of leftist organizations have seized government buildings and suffered nothing for it. Jan. 6 was nothing more than a spontaneous protest that got, briefly, out of hand. There is no injustice in prosecuting anyone who assaulted a police officer, damaged or stole property or assaulted someone. However, arresting people who were given no notice they were prohibited from entering the building, were welcomed and escorted by the Capital police, never asked to leave and who merely took in the sights and took selfies, is unjust, a political abuse of power.This is why I say, to hell with Trump – meaning his candidacy as an issue or worse the issue going forward. I have my concerns and disappointments with him, and trepidations that perhaps he has not learned his lessons, especially in that last horrendous year of 2020. But, as I elucidated earlier, his candidacy has no bearing on American politics and elections as they once were since those quite obviously no longer exist. The simultaneous logic and illogic of what Joey Sponge-Brain Shits-Pants' handlers are putting on his teleprompter is mind-boggling. The rhetoric of comparing Trump to "literally Hitler" and by extension the 73 million of us who voted for him (and probably close to 200 million in total who, if they don't support him are against Democrat-Leftism) would be laughable until you start to unpack it a bit. On the one hand, the Democrats and their propagandists are trying to warn us not to vote for him. Yet, how can they compare him to a potential totalitarian dictator while spending the past three years impeaching and now prosecuting him for fomenting an insurrection while trying to remove him from ballots in all 57 states? If he really is a threat, why not just arrest him now, declare "Our precious democracy is saved!" (vomit) and be done with it? I think even they know that that would be "unsubtle," shall we say. There is a very good chance that all or virtually all of the disgusting, spurious, banana republic, kangaroo court charges brought by this filthy hack Jack Smith (for sure cheered on by if not likely at the behest of Obama and company) will be shot down by SCOTUS. Hopefully 9-0 but that's not a sure thing, and given the fact that Julia Roberts is loathe to entertain any truly serious cases and at most wants to split the baby so he can maintain his position on the DC cocktail party circuit, it might be a muddle that pisses everyone off. Ironic since Roberts supposedly wants to protect the Court, and either doing the right thing in trashing the case against Trump or something less than that will have the same effect. That is, the courts de-legitimization and ultimate dismantling so it can be "built back better!" The casting the wider net to "round up the usual suspects," in this case people who weren't even in the Capitol building, or even milling about in the immediate vicinity but in many cases just within the DC city limits is either an attempt to maintain this fiction about a Trump-fomented "insurrection" or a preview of what will happen should SCOTUS rule in his favor and nightmare scenario in their eyes, should he overcome the cheat and actually win come next November. As Buck Turgidson said to Merkin Muffley, "We are rapidly approaching a moment of truth, both for ourselves as human beings and for the life of our nation." Again, if Trump, the likely candidate wins, a) the Democrats and their minions will, in the most frighteningly laughable reaction ever, claim the election was stolen, march on the Capitol and engage in a real insurrection, and/or b) having been so thoroughly brainwashed into believing that Trump will send them to a death camp engage in civil unrest that will make the 2020 Dresdenization of American cities in the wake of the George Floyd incident look like a church picnic. Worse, both scenarios might very will include elements of law enforcement and the military actively participating with the BLM/Antifa cadres to seize control of the government in a Kalorama-declared state of emergency. And if that happens, then all bets are well and truly off in terms of what happens to Republican politicians, and of course Trump and his entourage. Piss and moan all you want about his age, his shooting himself in the foot about COVID lockdowns, his staffing choices and what he supposedly said or didn't say or do and should've said or done on 1/6/21 – it's not important. What this illegitimate junta and the corrupt apparatuses of law enforcement, the courts, the military and those who want to maintain power as the current advanced guard of the Socialist Anti-American Revolution in the Democrat Party and their RINO confederates, will do to maintain that power is the central issue of our times.The D.C. district attorney has already charged more than 1,400 Americans with crimes relating to the protests on Jan. 6. He has also handed down more than 900 convictions, with almost all having prison sentences. On the contrary, Graves admitted that a significant portion of the 2020 George Floyd rioters were not charged at all despite causing destruction and setting cities on fire.Thus does Graves, and the Department Of Justice (DOJ) admit their abuse of prosecutorial power, of discretion. A significant part of that abuse is “charge stacking,” an unethical prosecutorial practice designed to punish a defendant beyond the law, and/or to force a defendant to plead to something, even if he’s not guilty, rather than face multiple charges and an out-of-proportion sentence. Police officers, and prosecutors, have significant discretion. Few professional police officers would arrest anyone for trespassing unless they can prove they intended to trespass and were given notice, verbally or by signage, they were not welcome. Many officers wouldn’t make such an arrest unless the trespasser was told to leave and refused. Ethical prosecutors wouldn’t file a case for the same reasons. This daily reality across America makes the political nature of the prosecutions of more than 1000 Americans plain. And if that weren’t enough, the DOJ now intends to arrest another thousand and more for merely being present near the Capital building. Not for damaging property, assaulting anyone, not for theft, but merely for standing at some distance from the building for even a second. The DOJ has imprisoned Jan. 6 defendants without trial for years. Their conviction rate is high because the process is the punishment. Few can afford to travel repeatedly to DC, hiring a lawyer at $300 and more an hour to fight misdemeanor charges, or even charges stacked beyond credibility. To add insult to injury, many DC judges have imposed fines and sentences far in excess of those common and usual for such minor offenses, which further exposes the political nature of Jan. 6 prosecutions. Considering Joe Biden, at his Valley Forge speech, invoked “insurrectionists” or “insurrection” some 11 times, presaging his campaign strategy, one might be forgiven for thinking the DOJ little more than a Stasi-like arm of his reelection campaign.
- ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
- "I want to be clear though, I don't bring up these points to absolve the shooter of responsibility for the evil act he committed. He is solely responsible for his actions. I bring this up as a means to simply highlight that we have a mental health crisis in this country, and our mental health providers don't seem providing the proper care with the proper focus to their patients, and it goes beyond gender identity issues."
Is the Mental Health Community Using Trans Ideology to Sweep Real Mental Health Under the Rug?
- "Emails obtained by The Federalist show how Coconino County election officials have coordinated with a left-wing dark money group on election administration issues."
How a Left-Wing "Alliance" Skirted Arizona’s "Zuckbucks" Ban to Meddle in Key County’s Elections
- "If wisdom or fairness carry the day, large social media sites will lose their appeal and will not be able to block the American public’s full access to news and opinions in future election seasons."
Social Media Case Reinvigorates Debate Over Internet Fairness
- "The agent of our descent into tyranny."
The Dark Side of Free Speech
Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:51 AM | Comments (408) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Daily Tech News 9 Something
Top Story
- After telling its customers to "eat shit and die" and then correcting itself and explaining that what it really meant was that as long as its customers ate the shit the dying was entirely up to them, Unity has unexpectedly fired 25% of its staff. (Reuters)
The CEO of Unity is the former head of Electronic Arts.
- The 1800 abruptly unemployed Unity staff have nothing to fear though, because the US added 700 tech jobs last year. (The Register)
You mean 700 thousand, right?
700 thousand, right?
Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (205) | Trackbacks (Suck)
January 08, 2024
Monday Overnight Open Thread (1/8/24)
***
The Quotes of The Day
Quote I "They were also giving me dirty looks throughout the whole flight."
Unnamed 22 year old woman
Quote II “I am astounded that given the failure of U.S. policy in Sudan, including the 13 attempts to stymie the fighting that have produced no results, that Ambassador Godfrey would be selected for the award for Outstanding Leadership in Expeditionary Diplomacy,”
Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL)
Quote III “Look, the president has pardon power and pardon authority — I think that it’s a very important piece that people ought to consider when they’re thinking about for whom they’re going to vote.Someone who says that they would pardon individuals who assaulted the Capitol, who attempted to stop a constitutional process, who assaulted police officers – I mean, it was a bloody battle.” Former Rep. Liz Cheney (RINO-WY)
Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 10:01 PM | Comments (384) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Back to School Cafe
Alaska by @patrick_thun
Master of Quack-Fu uses the Deadly Peck technique to incapacitate a foe. Winter break is over: Back to school, kids!
Alaska by @patrick_thun
Master of Quack-Fu uses the Deadly Peck technique to incapacitate a foe. Winter break is over: Back to school, kids!
Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 07:50 PM | Comments (339) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Biden Summons the Press to "Friendly Chats" Where He Can Instruct Them Where Their Reportage Is Wrong and How to Report Better on His Successes
Via Semafor:
Speaking of massaging reports to boost Biden: the national recorded 439,000 fake phantom jobs as jobs created by Biden over the past year.
President Joe Biden's re-election campaign has begun organizing a series of off-the-record trips for top political reporters and editors to the team's headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware and meet top officials, including the campaign manager, deputies, and other senior advisors for background briefings on campaign strategy. They're also using it as an opportunity to tell them what they're getting wrong. Two people with knowledge of the situation told Semafor that during meetings with reporters from outlets like The New York Times, the Washington Post, and others, campaign officials have invoked a coverage spreadsheet laying out areas where the team believes their reporting has fallen short. In particular, campaign officials have chafed at some of the coverage of former President Donald Trump, feeling that outlets are too focused on his legal troubles and haven't paid enough attention to some of his incendiary recent statements on the campaign trail. A source familiar told Semafor that with the exception of its recent meeting with the Times, the campaign meetings had been "substantive" and "productive," and that Biden staffers were scheduled to meet in the coming days with political reporting teams from ABC, NBC, The Wall Street Journal, Fox, NPR, Reuters, Bloomberg, and others in Wilmington.
There's something wrong with previous U.S. jobs reports. The government quietly erased 439,000 jobs through November 2023, a closer look at the numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows. That means its initial jobs results were inflated by 439,000 positions, and the job market is not as healthy as the government suggests. Since the government wiped out 439,000 jobs after the fact, the total percentage of jobs created by the government last year is even higher. Increased government hiring has been driving the jobs numbers higher. ... "Time to stop trading off the payroll data," tweeted David Rosenberg, founder of Rosenberg Research Associates. By his calculations, he says the downward revisions came to "an epic 443,000," adding, "more than 40% of payroll growth in 2023" came from "the fairy tale 'Birth-Death' model" the BLS uses to "guesstimate" its jobs reports. Again, the government sector in December ranked high in job creation. It created 52,000 jobs in the final month of 2023. As FOX Business's Edward Lawrence points out, that brings the three-month average of jobs created by the government sector to 50,000 per month. Lawrence says Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su "would not answer if this is sustainable when I pressed her."
Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 06:40 PM | Comments (158) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Quick Hits
Billionaire former Harvard donor Bill Ackman is on the absolute warpath. In this very long tweet, he says he wants to use AI to start scanning the papers of all professors in the Ivy League and other elite universities to find plagiarism, and is willing to fund a company to do just that.
US intelligence: Yes of course that hospital in Gaza is a Hamas terror base.
PJ Media: Boy the media's doing a great job of hiding Biden's nuclear waste czar and felonious nonbinary Puppy Pervert Sam Brinton.
Politi"Fact" has done the most important "fact" check of the new year.
A new study from the Media Research Center found that 81% of all political jokes told on major late-night comedy shows in 2023 targeted conservatives. The media watchdog analyzed each of the 9,518 political jokes told between six major daily late-night shows from January 3 through December 22, 2023, and found that 7,729 of them took aim at "someone or something on the right side of the political spectrum." The shows analyzed were ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," NBC's "Late Night with Seth Meyers," NBC's "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon", CBS's "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" and "The Late Late Show with James Corden" (until its cancelation in April). MRC also put together a video of some of the "worst late-night moments of the year" to showcase several examples of late-night comedy's bias against conservatives.Jimmy Kimmel had the highest rate of anti-conservative "jokes." Wayne LaPierre has resigned as head of the NRA.
LaPierre cited health reasons for his resignation, effective Jan. 31, which NRA president Charles Cotton accepted. Head of General Operations Andrew Arulanandam will serve as the association's interim CEO and executive vice president, the release said. The announcement comes before trial proceedings begin Monday in New York attorney general Letitia James's (D.) lawsuit against the NRA. James, who has accused the organization of diverting money to LaPierre and other leaders, was seeking LaPierre's removal, among other remedies. LaPierre stands as an individual defendant in the trial.I missed this last week: The AP admitted that their article, claiming that conservatives had "discovered a new weapon against professors -- plagiarism," didn't meet AP's standards. Well, you published it, assholes. It did meet your standards.
"Plagiarism charges downed Harvard's president. A conservative attack helped to fan the outrage," the AP's new headline reads. "American higher education has long viewed plagiarism as among the most serious of offenses. Accusations of plagiarism have ruined the careers of academics and undergraduates alike," the AP's updated lede reads. Gay resigned following several allegations of plagiarism on Tuesday, and claimed any attacks against her were fueled by "racial animus" in a letter announcing her decision. ... "Reviews by conservative activists and then by a Harvard committee did find multiple shortcomings in Gay's academic citations. In dozens of instances first published by The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative website, Gay's work includes long stretches of prose that mirror language from other published works," the AP's original piece said. A paragraph placed high-up in the updated version read, "Reviews by Harvard found multiple shortcomings in Gay's academic citations, including several instances of "duplicative language." While the university concluded the errors 'were not considered intentional or reckless' and didn't rise to misconduct, the allegations continued, with new ones as recently as Monday." The updated report included a paragraph pinning the original allegations to "conservative activists," and cited the Washington Free Becaon's report on the allegations. Some took issue with the AP's definition of "scalping" in the original report, which called out Christopher Rufo, who wrote "scalped" on social media after Gay announced her resignation. The original report read,"As if Gay was a trophy of violence, invoking a gruesome practice taken up by white colonists who sought to eradicate Native Americans." "On X, formerly Twitter, he wrote "SCALPED," as if Gay was a trophy of violence, invoking a gruesome practice taken up by white colonists who sought to eradicate Native Americans and also used by some tribes against their enemies," the updated version read. ... Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle said the AP "buried the lede" and added, "the GOP stole this weapon from colleges, which for years punished people for plagiarism with little to no input from conservatives."
Billionaire former Harvard donor Bill Ackman is on the absolute warpath. In this very long tweet, he says he wants to use AI to start scanning the papers of all professors in the Ivy League and other elite universities to find plagiarism, and is willing to fund a company to do just that.
The Gestapo Media dug up flimsy claims of plagiarism against Bill Ackman's wife and then gave her 90 minutes to go through them all before publishing. She has 15 patents. I don't think you can plagiarize a patent application. The Patent Office strictly scrutinizes all patent applications for novelty. If it's not new, you can't patent it, period. He says he will not be bowed:
Bill Ackman
@BillAckman Last night, no one at @MIT had a good night's sleep. Yesterday evening, shortly after I posted that we were launching a plagiarism review of all current MIT faculty, President Kornbluth, members of MIT's administration, and its board, I am sure that an audible collective gasp could be heard around the campus. Why? Well, every faculty member knows that once their work is targeted by AI, they will be outed. No body of written work in academia can survive the power of AI searching for missing quotation marks, failures to paraphrase appropriately, and/or the failure to properly credit the work of others. But it wasn't just the MIT faculty that did not sleep last night. The @Harvard faculty, its governing board members, and its administrative leadership did not sleep either. Because why would we stop at MIT? Don't we have to do a deep dive into academic integrity at Harvard as well? What about Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Penn, Dartmouth? You get the point. While we are going to do a detailed review of plagiarism at MIT, we are not going to be the only ones who do so. Every college and university in the world is going to have to do the same for themselves. They will do so because they will need to validate all plagiarism accusations, or someone else will do it for them. The best approach, however, is probably to launch an AI startup to do this job (I would be interested in investing in one) as there is plenty of work to do, and many institutions won't have the resources to do it on their own. Perhaps more importantly, the donors are going to demand that the review is done by an independent third party. For who today is going to trust higher education to review itself?
Bill Ackman
@BillAckman I will pursue these societally important issues including problems with how our media operates, the ideological take over of our education system, discrimination in all forms, and free speech to the end of the earth. It is the most important battle I have ever taken on. And for investors who are concerned about my time management, other than words and ideas, the 'fuel' for my efforts comes from investment success. Not that I wasn't incredibly motivated before, but if it is possible, I am even more motivated now. And yes I am posting while on the elliptical for better time management.
US intelligence: Yes of course that hospital in Gaza is a Hamas terror base.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. is "confident" that Palestinian militant groups used Gaza's largest hospital to hold "at least a few" hostages seized during their bloody Oct. 7, 2023, attack and to house command infrastructure, an American intelligence assessment declassified Tuesday and shared by a U.S. official found. The assessment offers the firmest U.S. support for Israeli claims about the Shifa hospital complex, which was raided by Israeli forces in November in an operation decried by global humanitarian organizations and some members of President Joe Biden' s party. Yet the information released doesn't fully back some of Israel's most significant allegations that the hospital served as the central node for activities by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The U.S. official shared the assessment on the condition of anonymity. "The U.S. Intelligence Community is confident in its judgment on this topic and has independently corroborated information on HAMAS and PIJ's use of the hospital complex for a variety of purposes related to its campaign against Israel," the assessment states. It continues that it believes the groups "used the al-Shifa hospital complex and sites beneath it to house command infrastructure, exercise certain command and control activities, store some weapons, and hold at least a few hostages." The U.S. believes that Hamas members evacuated days before Israel raided the complex on Nov. 15 and that they destroyed sensitive documents and electronics before Israeli troops entered the facility. U.S. officials had previously pointed to classified intelligence, obtained independently from the Israelis, to offer support for Israel's raid.
PJ Media: Boy the media's doing a great job of hiding Biden's nuclear waste czar and felonious nonbinary Puppy Pervert Sam Brinton.
Fox News reported Sunday that Brinton, who "made headlines in mid-2022 after being appointed to lead nuclear waste policy at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy as a nonbinary gender-fluid person," has "avoided jail in two criminal cases, while a third criminal case and a related lawsuit remain ongoing." ... Now imagine for a moment that Brinton were, instead of a "they/them" perversion enthusiast with a taste for women's clothes, a family-first, devout Christian Trump administration appointee who had likewise been accused of several thefts. Do you think that proceedings in his case would, in that scenario, have been delayed multiple times? Do you think that he would still be a free man with nothing but a 180-day suspended sentence levied against him? Neither do I.
Women boxers are standing up to rail against new rules which will permit men to physically pummel them and perhaps murder them in the ring.
wretchardthecat
@wretchardthecat The failure of Biden's Iran containment policy, as with his border and economic policy is being driven by catastrophic results and not as spuriously alleged, by 'bigotry'.
These disasters are being exploited by Republicans, conservatives, libertarians and even civilization's foes. But they are not its cause. Institutional incompetence and madness are primarily to blame. Reality is striking back. Menendez, Santos, Hunter, Epstein, the porn shoot in the Senate, the emergence of weird cults in academia are symptoms of an underlying condition. Despite our denial the system is bound for the ER of history. Ignore the intellectuals who insist that we're alright. We're not.
As Bounding Into Sports recently reported, USA Boxing has announced a new "transgender policy" that allows biological males to compete against women in a combat sport. While there are some conditions on eligibility, the main, horrible point remains: the U.S. governing body for Olympic competition is now OK with men hitting women. This must please Ray Rice. The move faced vehement opposition from some of the most outspoken voices for protecting women's rights and women's sports, including Riley Gaines and Dana Loesch. But now, women's boxing champions are making their voices heard as well. And those voices are saying, "Hell no!"
... As the example of Fallon Fox demonstrates, allowing this injustice in women's boxing will definitely result in women getting seriously injured, and possibly even killed.
Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 05:30 PM | Comments (353) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Latest Epstein Documents Name the Clintons, Richard Branson, Prince Andrew -- and Donald Trump
She admits she lied about one major thing: She claimed she had video of the men who "raped" her. She was never able to produce these when asked, and later admitted she made it up.
She claims she made this up to protect herself from reprisals.
Deb Heine at American Greatness:
Business magnate Richard Branson, Prince Andrew, Hillary Clinton and former presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump were named in the latest Jeffrey Epstein documents released Monday. Sarah Ransome, one of Epstein's victims, claimed sex tapes were taken of the Duke of York, Bill Clinton and Branson, according to the newly unsealed court files. She has since retracted all of her claims, allegedly out of fear for her family.Ransome was 22 when she first met Epstein.
... "When my friend had sexual intercourse with Clinton, Prince Andrew and Richard Branson, sex tapes were in fact filed on each separate occasion by Jeffery," wrote Ransome to then-New York Post columnist Maureen Callahan in 2016. Callahan is now a DailyMail.com columnist. "Thank God she managed to get a hold of some footage of the filmed sex tapes, which clearly identify the faces of Clinton, Prince Andrew and Branson having sexual intercourse with her," she continued. "Frustratingly enough Epstein was not seen in any of the footage but he was clever like that!" Ransome alleged the footage was "backed up" on "several USB sticks" sent to Europe.
"When my friend eventually had the courage to speak out and went to the police in 2008 to report what had happened, nothing was done and she was utterly humiliated by the police department where she went to report what had happened with Epstein, Clinton, Branson and Prince Andrew," she said.
... Ransome made a number of other wild allegations in the emails, including an accusation that her friend was approached "by Special Agents Forces Men sent directly by Hillary Clinton herself." She also claimed that Trump had sex with "many girls," including an unnamed friend of hers. She told Callahan that Trump "liked flicking and sucking" her friend's nipples "until they were raw." She wrote: "They looked incredibly painful as they were red and swollen and I remember wincing when I looked at them." She added: "I also know she had sexual relations with Trump at Jeffery's NY mansion on regular occasions." Ransome also took aim at Hilary Clinton in her emails, saying: "I will make sure that neither that evil bitch Hillary or that paedophile Trump gets elected."More at the link. So I've done my due diligence and reported the claims, as well as the reasons to be skeptical of them. If you say I haven't been forward-leaning enough in denouncing these claims: Name me a single instance where Trump or any of his surrogates has thrown cold water on an allegation against Ron DeSantis. Shiiiiiiit, they make most of them up themselves. Did you know that Ron DeSantis is a groomer and also An Gay? Donald Trump told me so, and Donald Trump never lies. Trump can dig himself out of this himself as far as I care.
... Ransome did later retract her claims, telling Callahan she wanted to "walk away from this," citing fears for her family. In 2019, The New Yorker reported that Ransome admitted to "inventing" the tapes story "to draw attention to Epstein's behavior, and to make him believe that she had 'evidence that would come out if he harmed me.'" "I frequently experience flashbacks and wake up in a cold sweat from nightmares reliving the awful experience," Ransome stated. "I am hypervigilant, experience dramatic mood changes, and avoid certain places, situations and people. I will sometimes start crying uncontrollably and without apparent reason. I have worked hard with several mental health professionals who have diagnosed me with extreme symptoms of anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, PTSD, and tendencies to self-harm," she added. Ransome told the court that she twice attempted to kill herself and it is "only by the grace of God" that she continues to live.
Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 04:30 PM | Comments (353) | Trackbacks (Suck)
More Chatter About Biden Dropping Out of the Race by the Convention
A senior analyst at Democrat-connected bank JP Morgan predicts that Biden will in fact quit the race. Or the race will quit him, actually.
It could be that Biden is pushing this divisive, ugly "we will crush our political enemies using the power of the state" appeal because he's planning to drop out of the race by May, and figures that he'll do all the dirty work to allow the new candidate to just lightly run on Authoritarian Persecution of Political Enemies.
Even Biden's communications team at NBC "News" discusses Biden's possible withdrawal from the race.What if? The alte kacher can't walk ten feet without stumbling, shakes hands with ghosts, and has to be wrangled by the Easter bunny.
"There's no way the president would go home to Delaware and voluntarily give up an office he pined for his entire political career," writes Eamon Javers of CNBC and NBC senior national political reporter Peter Nicholas. "That's the conventional thinking in Washington, anyway." But what if Biden takes a hard look at his poll numbers and concludes he'd rather bail than risk losing to Trump, the GOP front-runner? Or if he is feeling every bit his age (81) and no longer wants all the travel and stress that come with the job? Or if he decides the negative attention heaped on his one surviving son, Hunter, would subside if he just took himself off the ballot and retired from politics? None of that is expected; neither is it out of the realm of possibility. Over the last 50 years, Democrats have grown accustomed to a comparatively orderly and transparent process that empowered voters, not party bosses, to choose the presidential nominee. Biden's withdrawal from the race would disrupt all that, setting off a frenzied scramble for the nomination unlike anything that most Americans have seen in their lifetimes. ... The possibility of Biden staying in the race is presented as equally risky for the Democrats. Citing Mitch McConnell's infamous brain freeze this past July, the authors ask, "What if something similar were to happen to Biden?"
Yeah, we'll just have to hope that Biden's speech doesn't devolve into gibberish. I can't even imagine what that would sound like.
A brain freeze of some sort, a bad fall on the steps of Air Force One, a speech that devolves into gibberish -- any fresh sign of frailty would reinforce Americans' impression that Biden is too old for the job. Biden's doctor proclaimed him "fit for duty" in February, but voters have their own ideas of how a president should look, act and sound -- and Biden isn't measuring up on that score. The White House has organized itself in ways that minimize the chances of a Biden stumble -- physical or otherwise. It's no coincidence that Biden is forsaking the long staircase on Air Force One for the shorter one that unfolds from the belly of the plane.
A senior analyst at Democrat-connected bank JP Morgan predicts that Biden will in fact quit the race. Or the race will quit him, actually.
In a report published on January 1, JP Morgan listed as its third prediction for the top ten surprises of 2024 that Joe Biden will drop out of the 2024 presidential elections due to health reasons. The full prediction states that "President Biden withdraws sometime between Super Tuesday and the November election, citing health reasons. Biden passes the torch to a replacement candidate named by the Democratic National Committee." ... Biden has the lowest approval rating of the last 10 presidents in the same time period, at 38%. ... These predictions were written by Michael Cembalist, Chairman of Market and Investment Strategy for JP Morgan Asset & Wealth Management, in honor of market strategist Byron Wien, who passed away last year at the age of 90.
Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 03:30 PM | Comments (471) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Elise Stfanik Calls January 6 Prisoners "Hostages," and Piggish Liz Cheney Snorts Her Way Through Another Feeding Trough of Outrage
Stefanik referred to the unjustly-imprisoned political prisoners as "hostages," and to show that she did not misspeak, she's posted the quote to her Twitter feed:
Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 02:23 PM | Comments (351) | Trackbacks (Suck)
With Border Crisis Metastizing, Biden Feels Pressure to Strike Deal With Republicans on Deporting Illegals
Republican Failure Theater is real, and it's spectacular.
DHS Secretary and future prison punk Mayorkas says that the borders are flooded due to "climate change."
Pressured by the record levels of migrant crossings reported in December, the Biden administration is weighing whether to restrict a key presidential immigration authority to convince Republican lawmakers to approve more aid to Ukraine and border funding. A small bipartisan group of senators has been negotiating with the White House since December to see if they can strike a deal on stricter asylum and migration laws, which Republicans have demanded in exchange for supporting President Biden's request for billions of dollars to fund border operations and military assistance to Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine. While the senators and the White House have reached high-level agreements on tightening asylum interviews, expanding expedited deportations and creating an authority to expel migrants without humanitarian screenings when border agents are overwhelmed, the negotiators have not resolved their differences on some key issues. Among those issues is immigration parole, a legal tool used by the Biden administration to resettle hundreds of thousands of migrants that Republicans want to severely limit.That's a deal-breaker for me. Biden has created a de facto open borders regime by just "paroling" all fake asylum seekers into the country to await a hearing, which they will probably not bother showing up for, in eight years. Plenty of time to have an Anchor Baby in eight years. Why bother with the asylum claims?
Ugh. The Republicans' top negotiator says he'll be releasing the text of a deal this week, which signals to me they've given up on the parole issue. Because the important thing is protecting Ukraine's borders, doncha know.
Senior White House officials have previously told Democrats in Congress that they would not accept the Republican demands to restrict parole. But during a White House meeting on Friday, Mr. Biden's advisers recognized that a border deal with Republicans would not be possible without the administration agreeing on limiting parole, people briefed on those talks told CBS News. Accepting restrictions on parole would be a significant concession to Republicans, since Biden has relied so heavily on the policy.
Nothing in there about limiting Biden's kingly power of parole. Meanwhile, Biden schemes that he'll "flip the script" on immigration and use it against Republicans.
Republicans' top negotiator on a potential border and immigration deal that could unlock tens of billions in aid for Ukraine said on Sunday that lawmakers could release the text of an agreement as soon as this week. Sen. James Lankford's (R-Okla.) optimistic remarks are the latest sign that his discussions with Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) could bear fruit after several days of urgent talks in Washington last week and months of behind-the-scenes discussions. The trio and the Biden administration are honing in on an agreement that could raise the standard for claiming asylum and potentially deliver new expulsion and enforcement authorities to the administration. It would also provide significant new resources for border adjudication and staffing.
Obviously, every Biden "solution" to illegal immigration is just to make more illegal immigrants legal ones and amnesty all the illegals already here. In the Sanctuary City of New York, Eric Adams is suing the bus companies bringing illegals, claiming they violate a New York City law requiring anyone who brings a "needy" person to the city to be financially responsible for that person. He's suing the bus companies for $708 million. Seems to me that Biden as been flying illegals to his city, too. Will he be suing Biden?
The Biden administration is attempting to flip the blame for the migrant crisis at the southern border onto Republicans. In anticipation of Speaker Mike Johnson heading to the U.S. southern border on Wednesday, the White House issued a statement accusing House GOPers of ducking the chance to address the issue they've been attacking. "Actions speak louder than words," White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement first obtained by POLITICO ahead of two days of Republican border visits. "House Republicans' anti-border security record is defined by attempting to cut Customs and Border Protection personnel, opposing President Biden's record-breaking border security funding, and refusing to take up the President's supplemental funding request."
New York City has been (unconstutitionally) blocking buses from discharging passengers in the city. The buses have been dumping them in the NY-adjacent cities of New Jersey. Now, NJ's leftwing hoodlum governor Phil Murphy previously declared that his petty fiefdom would "welcome immigrants with open arms, and, more importantly, open hearts." He also declared that the Statue of Liberty, with her stupid fucking poem, was "a Jersey girl." But now he's got his state police loading the illegals on to trains and sending them to NYC.
New York City has sued 17 charter bus companies that transported migrants from Texas, the mayor, Eric Adams, announced on Thursday. The lawsuit, filed in New York state court in Manhattan, says the city is seeking $708m from the firms because that was the cost it incurred to house the migrants and provide services to them over the past two years. In that time, more than 33,000 people were bussed to the city as a part of Operation Lone Star, a joint effort between the Texas department of public safety and the Texas military department that began in 2021 to curb illegal immigration. Operation Lone Star was born from what the Texas Republican governor, Greg Abbott, called "Biden's reckless open-border policies". But Adams said the transportation companies had violated a 19th-century New York state law that requires anyone who transports a needy person likely to seek government assistance from another state to cover their expenses.
LOL. People used to actually want to live in New Jersey, before Murphy.
Migrants in Jersey? Fuhgettaboutit. New Jersey officials are making sure the Big Apple doesn't dump the out-of-control migrant mess on the Garden State -- and are even deploying cops to usher asylum seekers from the US border onto Manhattan-bound NJ Transit trains as soon as they get off their buses. The scrap across the Hudson comes as New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy tries to rally the state's mayors to form a unified front, while New York City Mayor Eric Adams pleads with Murphy to take on at least part of the migrant burden that is burying the five boroughs. "New Jersey just said, 'F--k this,'" one source close to the situation told The Post on Wednesday. "New Jersey Transit cops were waiting for them in Secaucus to show them how to get on the train to New York." Multiple Garden State sources described the scene as hectic over the last few days, as nearly two dozen migrant buses rolled into train stations with "chaperones" -- with NJ Transit cops then taking over and serving as guides to get nearly 1,000 asylum seekers across the river. The process has been successful so far, with no migrants choosing to stay in Jersey.
Earlier this week, Abbott boasted online that he had sent 95,000 asylum seekers north -- including 33,600 to New York since August 2022 -- and would continue to do so. "Sanctuary cities like NYC & Chicago have seen only a FRACTION of what overwhelmed Texas border towns face daily," he wrote on X. "We will continue our transportation mission until [President] Biden reverses course on his open border policies."
DHS Secretary and future prison punk Mayorkas says that the borders are flooded due to "climate change."
Meanwhile, Boston's anti-white racist mayor affirms that Boston is a sanctuary city and that she'd love to have some illegals bused there by Abbott.
On Wednesday's broadcast of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stated that there are record numbers of people coming to the southern border because there has been "the greatest number of displaced people, not only at our southern border, not only in the Western Hemisphere, but across the globe" And "the effects of climate change, poverty, increasing level[s] of authoritarianism" are the root causes of this.
Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 01:23 PM | Comments (370) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin -- Sixth In Line for the Presidency -- Was Hospitalized for Four Days and Kept It a Secret
Generally. Because there are exceptions. Like when you're in the presidential line of succession, and your office has powers over peace and war. Apparently there is also a law requiring disclosures about incapacitation. Lloyd Austin covered up his hospitalization and now the leftwing propaganda media is covering for him, saying he's just a "private" person. Shitico:
It's as if every Biden Administration official was instructed to flood the media with the same talking point: That Austin should be excused for breaking the law because he's just such a private person.
In almost all cases I believe in medical privacy. I don't think anyone has any duty to share their medical information with the public.
Generally. Because there are exceptions. Like when you're in the presidential line of succession, and your office has powers over peace and war. Apparently there is also a law requiring disclosures about incapacitation. Lloyd Austin covered up his hospitalization and now the leftwing propaganda media is covering for him, saying he's just a "private" person. Shitico:
Pressure is growing on Capitol Hill and within the administration for someone to lose their job. By Lara Seligman, Alexander Ward and Connor O'BrienThe DOD chief of staff helped cover it up, and even hid the news from the Deputy Defense Secretary who's supposed to take over Austin's duties when he's incapacitated.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is one of the most reclusive Pentagon chiefs in recent memory. That's creating a major problem for him now. Austin's failure to inform his most senior advisers, congressional leaders and even President Joe Biden of his hospitalization last week due to complications from a medical procedure has erupted into a controversy that's left senior White House and Pentagon officials infuriated and befuddled. Some Republicans quickly called for investigations or even for Austin to be disciplined or fired. Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. C.Q. Brown was not informed of Austin's situation until Tuesday, the day after his hospitalization, a senior Defense Department official told POLITICO on Sunday. Even Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, who assumed some of his duties while he was in the hospital, did not know his whereabouts until Thursday, a second senior DOD official said after CNN first reported the news. "My sense is his desire to be private about a routine medical procedure kind of backfired when it didn't go as planned," said one senior U.S. official. "He's so loyal and duty-bound. It's all just very odd." Former and current U.S. officials who have worked with Austin say he is well-known as an introvert, shunning the cameras and keeping only a few close confidantes during his decades-long military career. As the four-star general overseeing U.S. Central Command during the Iraq drawdown, he rarely held press conferences. As defense secretary, in contrast to his predecessors, he takes only a handful of media on official travel. He has not done a press conference in the Pentagon since last July, although he regularly briefs the press during his travels. ... The first time Austin and Biden spoke since the secretary's Monday hospitalization was Saturday evening, a senior administration official said, even as tensions in the Middle East have spiked and the war in Ukraine has intensified. The conversation followed reports, first from POLITICO, that the Pentagon boss waited three days to inform the White House that he was out of commission.
While Austin entered Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Jan. 1, DOD chief of staff Kelly Magsamen didn't tell Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks -- who has occasionally assumed the duties of her boss -- or the White House of the secretary's status until Jan. 4. ... The revelation doesn't explain the full story of the communication breakdown -- or why the White House wasn't notified. Gen. CQ Brown, the Joint Chiefs chair, was made aware of Austin's status on Tuesday but apparently didn't tell anyone. Austin also has other aides who could've informed relevant officials in Magsamen's absence. ... Austin's job appears safe -- at least for the moment, but pressure is growing within the administration and on Capitol Hill for someone to lose their job. ... Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, slammed the decision to keep Austin's hospital stay secret, calling it a "shocking defiance of the law." Former Vice President Mike Pence told CNN on Sunday that Austin's actions were a "dereliction of duty." Concerns over Austin's absence are bipartisan. Though most members of Biden's party have either defended Austin or declined to comment on it, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee teamed up with his GOP counterpart to urge the Pentagon chief to provide more information. ... "Several questions remain unanswered including what the medical procedure and resulting complications were, what the Secretary's current health status is, how and when the delegation of the Secretary's responsibilities were made, and the reason for the delay in notification to the President and Congress," the lawmakers said. "Transparency is vitally important," they added. "Sec. Austin must provide these additional details on his health and the decision-making process that occurred in the past week as soon as possible."Don't worry, though: It's just because he's such a private person. A cipher, in fact.
"He's a cipher," said the senior DOD official. "He lets in very, very few people, and that can be a good and bad thing."
It's as if every Biden Administration official was instructed to flood the media with the same talking point: That Austin should be excused for breaking the law because he's just such a private person.
Have you considered the possibility that he's just a fucking dummy? He's a very, very private person, doncha know.
Austin's pursuit of a low profile gelled with the Biden administration's goal to turn the focus away from the Pentagon to the State Department and National Security Council...
Austin has long tried to stay out of the spotlight. ... Others say Austin has always been private to a fault. Even during senior-level Pentagon meetings, Austin rarely goes off script. "In every meeting, in everything, he says nothing," said one former senior Defense Department official, who worked closely with Austin in multiple senior jobs. "In a broad variety of meetings, he keeps his own counsel and you're never going to know what he's thinking."
Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:10 PM | Comments (508) | Trackbacks (Suck)
THE MORNING RANT: Wind Energy is Facing Stiff Headwinds and Falling Apart (literally); also, It’s Time for “Energy Sanctuary States”
*****
An existing wind farm in France is also going to come down.
“Bird-slaying French wind farm must be demolished, judges rule” [Brussels Signal – 12/13/2023]
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Future wind projects are also being killed off before they even start, including this one in New York.
“Equinor, BP cancel contract to sell offshore wind power to New York” [Reuters – 01/03/2024]
*****
It looked uncertain for a while, but it appears now that the Great Lakes will be spared from the nightmare of wind energy.
A federal judge has just done something unusual — ordered the removal of an energy project that’s been generating power for nine years. The December decision came as a shock even to the leaders of the Osage Nation, who have argued for more than a decade that the 84-turbine Osage Wind Farm interferes with the tribe’s mineral rights. The Oklahoma district court agreed that the wind farm had to go to protect the Osage Nation’s sovereignty. The project’s developers — Osage Wind, Enel Kansas and Enel Green Power North America — failed to get mining leases, despite digging up and crushing rocks to use as support for the turbines.Much praise to the Osage Nation for their persistence in winning this battle.
A French court has ruled that a controversial seven-turbine wind farm has to be demolished. Only 40 pairs of Golden Eagles are known to live in the French Massive Central area, covering 15 per cent of the French mainland. In January, one was found dead at the Hérault site, apparently struck by a turbine blade. Prior to that, the bodies of a black vulture and hundreds of bats had been discovered. In 2019 alone, more than 1,000 birds were reportedly found dead at the site. “This is a veritable graveyard at the foot of the wind turbines,” noted the environmental associations’ group lawyer Nicolas Gallon. Due to high wildlife mortality, the region’s prefect had ordered the wind turbines to be shut down in 2020. Local residents also complained about the loud noise made by the wind mills.What’s not to love about wind energy. It slaughters birds, produces an awful noise, and despoils the landscape, all while producing zero kw of reliable energy.
European energy firms Equinor and BP terminated their agreement to sell power to New York state from their proposed Empire Wind 2 offshore wind farm, citing rising inflation, higher borrowing costs, and supply chain issues.Heh. “Supply chain issues” is a blanket excuse used by climatistas for every failed green endeavor, be it electric vehicles or “green energy.”
"This agreement reflects changed economic circumstances on an industry-wide scale and repositions an already mature project to continue development in anticipation of new offtake opportunities," Equinor said in a statement on Wednesday,
Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM | Comments (349) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Mid-Morning Art Thread
Ivan Aivazovsky [Hat Tip: KT]
Ivan Aivazovsky [Hat Tip: KT]
Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (357) | Trackbacks (Suck)
The Morning Report — 1/8/24
When it was first reported on Saturday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has been in the hospital since January 1, it was natural to assume that key figures in the Pentagon and the White House, for whatever reason, chose to keep his hospitalization a secret. What possible motive could there be for doing this? Who knows? It didn't make a lot of sense, but the Biden [junta] has an extensive record of covering up scandals, so it wasn't exactly out of character for the Biden [junta] to cover something up. The truth that has been coming out over the course of the day suggests something far, far worse. According to the latest reports, not even the White House knew about Austin's hospitalization. "Senior Biden administration leaders, top Pentagon officials and members of Congress were unaware for days that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had been hospitalized since Monday, U.S. officials said Saturday, as questions swirled about his condition and the secrecy surrounding it," the Associated Press reported. "The Pentagon did not inform the White House National Security Council or top adviser Jake Sullivan of Austin’s hospitalization at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, until Thursday, according to two administration officials." That's bad. Really bad. And it gets worse. A source familiar with the situation told CNN that not even Joe Biden knew. "National security adviser Jake Sullivan ultimately informed Biden late Thursday afternoon, soon after Sullivan himself learned that Austin had been hospitalized, that source said. Austin was admitted to the hospital on New Year’s Day due to complications from an elective surgery," CNN reported. Let's think about this for a minute. Joe Biden, who is supposed to be the commander in chief, didn't know for four days that his own defense secretary, a member of his cabinet, was in the hospital. Now, considering what's going on in the world right now—the Israel-Hamas war, the Houthi attacks on container ships in the Red Sea, and many other things—how is it possible that Biden isn't talking to his defense secretary daily? Sure, he has time to give speeches about how Donald Trump is a threat to democracy, but he didn't even know his defense secretary was incapacitated for days? And does anyone think it's a coincidence that the Pentagon waited to reveal Austin's hospitalization on Friday, really, really close to Biden's big speech? Was someone hoping this wouldn't get noticed?Where to even begin to unpack what in normal times would be an unmitigated disaster of a raging clusterfuck of incompetence? While everyone is focused on how someone like Claudine Gay, who is barely competent enough to wipe down a blackboard can become not only a university president but the president of what supposedly is/was America's leading and most revered institution of higher learning, look who is running the country. No, not just the rotting, criminal pervert vegetable acting as Obama's front (arguably the #1 national security threat to whatever's left of America) but everyone of their underlings in the most crucial leadership positions running our domestic and foreign policy apparatuses. Then again, you can look at Alejandro Mayorkas and rightly blast him for destroying any notion of border security and sane, rational immigration policy. But is it incompetence or intentional? I'd argue that mere incompetence, while bad enough, is nowhere near as destructive as intentional acts and policies that are ideologically driven. And that is exactly what's going on at every level of the federal government, and every state and local government that has had Democrats and Leftists in control for even a nano-second, let alone the decades-long control in hell-holes like Detroit, to name just one. As for Lloyd Austin, he's every bit the boot-licking lackey that every other apparatchik in this illegitimate criminal junta is. Whatever his record was as a soldier, everything he and the Joint Chiefs who have gone along with the dismantling of our military that started in Obama's first term to the level of degradation we now can see in his third, is a red pubic hair's width away from treason. Here are the bullet points from his extensive rap sheet at the invaluable Discover the Networks:
* Was promoted to Four-Star General in 2010With that, I'll excerpt two items from their dossier that in particular are most cromulent given some of the current events making headlines:
* Retired from the Military on April 5, 2016
* Was sworn in as Secretary of Defense on January 22, 2021
* Voiced support for the Iran Nuclear Deal
* Vowed to rid the Military of “racists and extremists”
* Relies on the Southern Poverty Law Center for information
* Announced the establishment of the Countering Extremism Working Group
* Emphasizes “Diversity,” “Equity,” & “White Supremacy”
* Identified the 2020 coronavirus pandemic as America’s greatest national security challenge
* Declared climate change to be an “existential threat”
* Oversaw America’s abandonment of Afghanistan in 2021
Austin Orders Hundreds of Trump Appointees in the Pentagon to Resign By no means was the CEWG the only means by which Lloyd Austin had set out to purge America’s military of any members who held political opinions that differed from his. In his early days as Secretary of Defense, Austin ordered hundreds of former President Trump’s appointees from at least 31 Pentagon advisory boards and panels, to resign. Austin Emphasizes Leftwing Indoctrination Regarding “Diversity,” “Equity,” & “White Supremacy” Central to the worldview of the race-obsessed Defense Secretary Austin, is a belief that racism is America’s most salient and enduring feature. That belief animates Austin’s passionate crusade to impose racial “diversity” – by force – upon the military that he oversees. As Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said in May 2021 about Austin: “He’s certainly concerned about the diversity at the senior levels of the department. And this is not just senior enlisted levels, but senior officer levels, admirals, and generals. The numbers [of nonwhites] are not very high.” “[Austin] also believes there’s a sense of urgency here,” added Kirby. “The time is now to start to grow that [nonwhite] talent and develop that talent and provide opportunities for that talent to continue to advance of the ranks.” And for anyone who might wonder whether “diversity” is in fact a worthy goal for an institution whose main purpose is to defend a nation rather than to serve as a social laboratory for leftwing dogmas, Kirby explained that Austin “strongly believes that diversity is a readiness issue because it allows different perspectives, additional context, different lived experiences to inform the way we make decisions in the policies that we craft, the operations that we lead.” . . . When Austin subsequently stated that “diversity, equity and inclusion is important to this military now, and it will be important in the future,” [Sen Tom] Cotton replied: “This is not about diversity in general, though; this is about a very specific kind of anti-American indoctrination that is seeping into some parts of our military based on the whistleblower complaints we have received.”Yup. The phantom menaces within the United States of supposed white supremacy, Trump and "climate change," which even if real would be completely outside the purview of the DoD. Plus the notion that "diversity," that is prioritizing skin color, sex, sexual orientation and most crucially personal politics, over actual physical and mental qualification, are the keys to our preparedness is insanity writ large.
. . . Lloyd Austin isn’t exactly a standout in his role. Like everyone else in the Biden-Harris regime, he’s been lackluster at best, dreadful at worst. He bears at least partial responsibility for many of the foreign policy and military disasters throughout this dumpster fire of a presidential term. Austin has issued orders to the military in support of convoluted leftist redefinitions of extremism in an effort to drive Republicans out of the military. Austin implemented mandatory use of untested COVID vaccines and supervised the dismissal of servicemen who refused, even on religious grounds. Austin was in charge of the DoD when it so severely mismanaged the pullout from 2021 Afghanistan, leaving tens of billions of dollars’ worth of sensitive equipment behind, not to mention abandoning thousands of employees and allies to the Taliban. And that’s just the highlight reel of his disastrous tenure. . . . . . But all his failures notwithstanding – the Secretary of Defense remains a critical element of the decision process, whenever the United States has to make a quick policy decision. Even when it’s just being the person to say the cursory “yes, of course, make it so” to an obvious question – still, he is the one to say it, the one who has to say it. And that means both the DoD and the White House have to be able to reach him at a moment’s notice. . . . . . What’s most shocking about this story is that it provides a rare look inside the minds of the bureaucrats, the people we often think of as the technocracy, or even the Deep State. Obviously, someone at the Department of Defense knew Lloyd Austin was in the ICU at Walter Reed. Someone had to make up the lie that the man was working at home, to cover up the fact that he was suffering complications from some as-yet-unidentified elective surgery (if it was indeed elective, that’s a story in itself, as well). Some staffers, and presumably some undersecretaries, knew the truth of the situation and collaborated to keep both the whereabouts and the potentially life-threatening condition of the Secretary of Defense a secret from both his legislative and executive superiors. Why? Why did they think they had the right? That’s the really interesting lesson in this story, isn’t it?"Interesting" is a word and half. So while Joey Sponge-Brain Shits-Pants was kept in the dark, the raging incompetence at the highest echelons of this government notwithstanding, a crucial command-and-control link between the commander-in-chief and the head of the Defense Department was severed. God forbid, something happened during that time. But, then again, as I stated at the beginning, all things considered, would it have really mattered all that much? On second thought, maybe. Maybe there is still some underling somewhere with the horse sense to do the right thing had the shit hit the fan despite the fools, retards and maniacs at or near the top of the national command authority. And speaking of which, despite the obvious dementia rotting his preternatural, pre-dementia pea-brain, it's almost as if it makes him an idiot savant especially when it comes to preserving his power and going after his enemies. Witness his debasing our history and nation by oral defecation at Valley Forge. From Robert Spencer:
Barack Obama said it years ago: “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f**k things up.” On Friday, Old Joe proved his sainted predecessor right yet again in what was supposed to be a stemwinder campaign speech that would get his far-left base all fired up to do whatever it takes to get their favorite dementia-ridden kleptocrat back in the White House for four more years. The man who supposedly won eighty-one million votes after running a non-campaign from his basement called Trump a “loser” and charged that Bad Orange Man speaks “the same exact language used in Nazi Germany.” What? Trump speaks German now? Is he going to start barking at us with a slushy Austrian accent? Okay, I get it: Old Joe means that Trump’s rhetoric is like Hitler’s. Trump’s going to be a great dictator, grow a funny little mustache, put on a lumpy uniform, and have us all goosestepping into Poland in no time. Sure, Joe. I understand. But to say that he speaks “the same exact language used in Nazi Germany” is as ineptly stated as it is inaccurate. By any measure, Trump certainly does not echo Hitler’s rhetoric. The National Socialist leader was openly antisemitic; although Trump is charged with this, he was the most pro-Israel president since the founding of the modern state of Israel. Hitler was gleefully racist, another charge Trump has borne, and another that is without foundation. And Hitler was openly contemptuous of republican governments, while Trump insists that he will protect our tottering republic, and that Biden, the Disinformation Governance Board president, is the real threat to “our democracy.” Biden, however, is making it clear that his entire 2024 campaign will be a noxious mélange of fiction, fantasy and propaganda. He leaned heavily into the “insurrection” Big Lie, claiming that Jan. 6, 2021, was “the day that we nearly lost America.” Yeah, sure, Joe. Thank you for saving “our democracy” from a guy with Viking horns, Ray Epps, and a bunch of old ladies who were let into the Capitol by police who opened gates for them and then stood by placidly as the “insurrectionists” wandered around snapping selfies. Insurrection is an actual crime. Yet while people languish in prison for trespassing in order to bolster the left’s sagging “insurrection” narrative and propel Biden back into the Oval Office for another four years of open borders, skyrocketing inflation, managed decline, and enforced misery, the worst thing that has happened to this nation since 9/11 and Pearl Harbor and the extinction of the dinosaurs remains an insurrection without any insurrectionists. Old Joe, of course, didn’t see fit on Friday to make much of the fact that no one, not a single person, has actually been charged with that crime in connection with anything that happened on Jan. 6, 2021. On Saturday, however, Donald Trump Jr. wrote: “Happy Fake Insurrection Day!!! The first ever insurrection with armed tour guides and unarmed participants!”Roger Kimball:
According to Joe Biden, January 6 is “a day forever seared in our memory.” Why? “Because that day, we nearly lost America.” How’s that? Why, because that was the day Donald Trump showed he was willing to “sacrifice democracy” by unleashing a “violent mob” to storm the Capitol and undertake an “insurrection.” But no one believes this. Why? Because the more footage we see from the events of that day, the clearer it becomes that what happened on January 6, 2021, was not an insurrection. Moreover, Donald Trump, far from egging on his supporters to violence, went out of his way to urge them to protest peacefully. “I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful,” he Tweeted that afternoon. “No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!” The reaction to Joe Biden’s histrionic demonization of Trump has been swift and merciless. Remember the chap who was photographed carrying a lectern across a room in the Capitol? He now Tweets under the handle “Lectern Leader.” He posted the photo and had this to say about Biden’s speech: “Throwback to the time I brought America to its knees by moving furniture tens of feet and became king.” . . . As well it might. Joe Biden’s Valley Forge speech was supposed to inaugurate his 2024 campaign. I would not be surprised if future historians singled it out as the moment his campaign began its final retreat into senile collapse.Maybe. But lest we forget that all the instrumentalities of government, as well as a rigged voting system and laws that grease the wheels of Democrat fraud and muscle in the form of a corrupt judiciary and black-clad Antifa/BLM brownshirts, the situation remains in doubt until no more phony ballots can be found to overcome a potential Trump victory. Miranda Devine notes:
Joe Biden let slip a telling boast after his latest Dark Brandon speech. “I understand power,” he whispered into the microphone as the first lady wrangled him off stage to stop him impersonating a Roomba. While ostensibly a self-deprecating cliché about wives’ control over men, “I understand power” also was a statement of unwavering confidence in his own mastery of today’s political landscape. It’s hard to admit, given Biden’s manifest frailties and incompetence, but he’s right. The [spurious] president does know how to use power to transform the country. By being willing to lie and cheat and break every political norm, by siccing his Department of Justice onto his main rival and ignoring cries of foul, by hysterically overhyping the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, by hatefully demonizing conservatives as domestic terrorists and white supremacists, by dividing the country when he promised to unite us, he achieves his political ends. By dismantling border protections, for instance, he has allowed 8 million — and counting — illegal aliens to upend demographics and refresh Democratic voter rolls in the future. That is his legacy of change. As well, his corrosive “equity” agenda has entrenched in the psyche of a growing number of Americans a gnawing racial grievance and entitlement that knows no end. What did Donald Trump achieve of any lasting value in the four years he had power? Clearly, he was a better president on every important measure: the economy, the border, foreign affairs, energy policy. But every achievement of Trump’s was undone on day one by Biden, and many of his aspirations were foiled by Biden’s Deep State allies. Power is all Biden has ever cared about. In his dismal first speech of the election season near Valley Forge in Pennsylvania on Friday, Biden used the word 13 times. He said “insurrection” or “insurrectionists” 11 times, because that is how he intends to hang on to power, by fashioning his entire campaign pitch around Jan. 6 and Trump’s threat to “democracy.” “Democracy” came up 30 times in Biden’s speech, too. Apparently it’s “on the ballot.” “The alternative to democracy is dictatorship,” he thundered. It’s a bizarre statement for the president of a nation that was founded deliberately, not as a democracy, but as a constitutional republic, precisely to avoid the “tyranny of the majority,” which James Madison warned about. That’s why we have an electoral college, and not a presidential election determined by popular vote, where New York would overrule Iowa. . . . . . [Biden's] polls have stagnated at around 40%, a sore point he reportedly scolded his staff about last November. But the marvel is that they’re not worse. In the past 50 years, Trump, both Bushes, Carter and Nixon have all suffered from lower approval ratings. It’s too easy to dismiss him as a corrupt decrepit old fool. He likes to be underestimated. He plays the fool to that effect. But he became president despite the naysayers, and Democrats keep winning elections despite his record of ruin. If Trump does end up as the Republican nominee, as the polls suggest and the pundits insist, the ferocity of the attacks will be unprecedented. The 91 felony counts, the criminal trials, the efforts to throw him off the ballot, the media vilification, the doomsday rhetoric, all will accelerate. They are softening him up, like picadors poking at the bull, to drive him mad and sap him of energy so that by the time the broken down old matador enters the ring he is already half-dead. You may understand that the various legal prosecutions against Trump are bogus, and that Biden has weaponized the justice system in a deliberately explosive way. But there are a lot of independents in the country who don’t keep up with the news and still believe that you don’t get indicted on 91 felonies, and you certainly don’t get convicted, unless you did something wrong. Some may even still believe in “Honest Joe.” You may rail against their ignorance and naivete, but they will decide the election.Maybe, Miranda. My guess is the factor that will decide this election is if enough people across the political spectrum have had enough of getting kicked in the teeth and the wallet while the world is set to go up in flames, to show up in enough numbers to beat the cheat, especially in the swing states. And with no border, no military and no law and order, it's going to get hotter than hell here too. With what's going on all around us, I don't think there are any more independents in any significant numbers.
- ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
- Victor Davis Hanson: "American civilization has been turned upside down, and we have a rendezvous soon with the once unthinkable and unimaginable."
A Culture in Collapse
- "Essentially a kind of Hegelian synthesis of what appear to be dialectical opposites: the combination of oppressive government power against the innocent and the law-abiding and, simultaneously, a grotesque paralysis of the ability or the will to use that power to carry out basic public duties such as protection or public safety. And, it is characteristic of anarcho-tyranny that it not only fails to punish criminals and enforce legitimate order but also criminalizes the innocent."
Anarcho-Tyranny, Perfected
- "He suspects it is in part because the town is more than 90 percent white, a factor that makes it hard to secure federal aid under a little-known federal initiative established in one of Biden’s first executive orders. The program, Justice40, which the White House describes as a "whole of government effort," decreed that 40 percent of the beneficiaries of federal climate and environmental programs must come from "underserved communities." (And yet Johnson and Schemer just concluded a budget deal. Feh - jjs)
How the Biden Junta Put Race at the Center of Government Spending
- "This spring, the Supreme Court will review the federal government’s alleged efforts to pressure social media companies to censor protected speech."
A “Coordinated Campaign”
Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 07:55 AM | Comments (386) | Trackbacks (Suck)
Daily Tech News 8 Centaurus 2023
Top Story
- The FAA has grounded 170 Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft after important bits fell off one of them. (MSN)
Nobody was killed, but this is what is referred to in the industry as "not a good look".
Maybe we should wait for the Apple iPlane. (Twitter)
Sure they're shiny overpriced toys, but the thing fell 16,000 feet to the ground and it's not even scratched.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (172) | Trackbacks (Suck)
January 07, 2024
Sunday Overnight Open Thread (1/7/24)
***
The Quotes of The Day
The Comments of The Week
Vacation is done. The Holidays have passed. It is time to feature the best commenters on the web.
Quote I “I have been working to make sure that Donald Trump will be able to be on the ballot, and I am happy our motion to dismiss this lawsuit was granted,” Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray
Quote II “This was a riot and at some point, mature minds have got to kick in here and say, look, he has never even been charged with incitement, let alone rebellion and insurrection. “But more importantly, putting aside the fact that he hasn’t been convicted, this wasn’t a rebellion or insurrection."Jonathan Turley
Vacation is done. The Holidays have passed. It is time to feature the best commenters on the web.
Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 09:46 PM | Comments (474) | Trackbacks (Suck)
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