By Mike Huckabee
January 31, 2023
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BY MIKE HUCKABEE
Blessings on you and your family from all the Huckabee staff! Thank you for subscribing and I hope you enjoy today’s newsletter which includes my morning and evening editions.
With gratitude,
Mike
DAILY BIBLE VERSE
14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.
Psalms 19:14
Winter storm
By Mike Huckabee
I hope you’re staying warm and safe. My writers and I are working from home because we’re under an ice storm that’s stretching from Texas to West Virginia. It’s causing lots of traffic accidents and canceled flights. If you must leave the house, please be extremely careful, but do try not to leave. Driving in this storm will be very treacherous. If at all possible, stay home, and be sure to take care of your animals, too.
If you’re in the storm’s path, please keep a close eye on the weather news. And here’s a link to a page that continually updates news related to the ice storm.
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-
A “public health emergency”
By Mike Huckabee
President Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services (which really should change its name) is reportedly considering declaring a “public health emergency” to promote access to abortion. Apparently, it’s a public health emergency that not enough babies are being killed in the womb.
https://dailycaller.com/2023/
This came directly from HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, a far-left lawyer with zero experience in health or medicine but a history of taking campaign donations from Planned Parenthood and abusing his powers as California Attorney General to prosecute reporters for exposing their practices.
Becerra said, “There are certain criteria that you look for to be able to declare a public health emergency. That’s typically done by scientists and those that are professionals in those fields who will tell us whether we are in a state of emergency and based on that, I have the ability to make a declaration.”
Okay, then let’s take a look at what science has taught us in recent years about pregnancy. Look at how much more we know and can actually see involving the development of a child in the womb from conception, and how the odds of a child surviving premature birth have greatly increased.
Now, compare that to the barbaric practices of the abortion industry and its acolytes. Like Minnesota’s Democrat Governor Tim Walz, who is about to sign a bill legalizing abortion right up to the minute of birth, a bill that’s been called the most extreme in the nation. But guess what its supporters call it. You guessed it: protecting the right to “reproductive health.” I guess babies don’t have that right. Republican State Sen. Julia Coleman said future generations will "look back in horror" at this bill. But I guess these Democrats don't care about future generations.
Elsewhere, Democrats are blocking efforts even to extend the basic human right of emergency medical care to babies that survive abortions and have already been born. Tell me again, which one is allegedly the "party of science"?
Still celebrating
By Mike Huckabee
I'm still celebrating the acquittal of pro-life activist Mark Houck, whom the Biden “Justice” Department was trying to railroad into prison for 11 years for allegedly violating the FACE Act that criminalizes blocking entrances to an abortion clinic. What Houck actually did was shove a pro-abortion activist who ignored a warning not to get in Houck’s son’s face and try to intimidate him. Local authorities investigated and refused to press charges, I assume under the “He Had It Comin’ Act.”
At this link, Houck talks about the incident, the Biden DOJ’s attempt to frighten pro-life activists into silence with the threat of politicized prosecutions, and the ordeal his family went through. As a reminder, they didn’t just arrest him on this empty charge. They sent a SWAT team of about 25 armed officers to his home, where they pounded on the door and pointed guns at him, his wife and his children as they hauled him away in handcuffs.
That’s the kind of outrageous, traumatic experience no American should ever have to endure when he did nothing remotely deserving of it. This collection of responses to the verdict makes the very good point that even with the acquittal, the “shock and awe” process and the fear and expense of defending himself was the point.
The process was the punishment: they want all pro-life activists to think that if they draw the feds’ attention, they could be next. That’s why this DOJ/FBI has to be relentlessly investigated by House Republicans, and we need to get control of the Senate and White House back in 2024 to institute a thorough top-to-bottom cleaning out and reform or better yet, complete dismantling and rethinking of these agencies. Installing leaders who can tell the difference between terrorists/criminals and American citizens who disagree with Joe Biden would be a great start.
For more, here’s a good commentary from Bonchie at Redstate.com, and a quote worth sharing:
“This was a political persecution meant to discourage pro-life Americans from speaking out to defend the lives of babies in the womb. How disgusting and depraved does someone have to be to want to throw a man in jail for 11 years for defending his son from a pro-abortion fanatic? And how disgusting and depraved does someone have to be to be a person who ‘escorts’ people to kill their children?”
Speaking of political prosecutions, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is still trying to indict former President Trump. Now, he’s convened a new grand jury to examine the so-called “hush money” payment (if you’re not a Republican, that’s called a “non-disclosure agreement”) between Trump and porn star Stormy Daniels over an alleged affair that Daniels described as consensual and Trump denies ever happening.
https://www.charlotteobserver.
If you think this sounds awfully familiar, that’s because it’s been dragging on in media sewers since 2016, so long that Daniels’ lawyer, Michael Avenatti, has already been charged and convicted and sentenced to prison for stealing money from her.
https://www.foxnews.com/
The allegation has already been investigated by federal prosecutors, who declined to pursue it, and Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr., who, as much as he hates Trump, dropped it. The Trump Organization called Bragg’s revival of it “simply reprehensible and vindictive," and Trump himself called it “a continuation of the Greatest Witch Hunt of all time.”
But let’s be fair: As Manhattan’s D.A., Alvin Bragg has a lot of free time on his hands. It’s not as if he’s prosecuting any actual criminals, the ones who are committing record numbers of robberies, rapes and homicides on his watch. Aside from oiling the revolving door that releases them back onto the street, I don’t know what he does with himself all day. He needs his Ahab-like obsession with any alleged wrongdoing by Trump, no matter how dated, petty, biased or unprovable it is, to keep him occupied.
You know, I think that the grand jury might be looking into indicting the wrong person.
Biden’s “economic plan”
President Biden (or whoever writes his tweets) boasted on Twitter that his “economic plan” (I don’t know what that plan is, other than expanding regulations and spending trillions of dollars we don’t have) is working because the government reported that the economy grew by 2.9% in the last quarter of 2022.
Well, I don’t mean to throw a stink bomb at his tea party, but you’ve got to whistle past a lot of very worrisome numbers to arrive at that sunny conclusion. Economics researcher E.J. Antoni at the Heritage Foundation is ringing the alarm bell, but will anyone in the media listen when they think their job is to protect Biden and the Democrats, not your job or savings?
Related: At least the British media is taking notice of America’s economic problems. The Daily Mail reported on a survey by the industry publication Pymnts.com and LendingClub that found that 24% of Americans had trouble paying their bills in December and 166 million (64% of the population) were living paycheck-to-paycheck due to spiraling inflation.
That includes 8 million Americans (nearly 5%) who make over $100,000 a year. Before you dismiss them as spendthrifts, remember that in some cities (especially those run by Democrats, like San Francisco and New York), the sky-high cost of living combined with all the taxes makes $100,000 a year feel like couch cushion change.
Remember when the White House tells you that inflation is coming down, that just means that the price increase from one year ago was less than the annual price increase over the previous year. And the second year's inflation was added on top of the first.
Funny business in Arizona
By Mike Huckabee
In the stinks-to-high-Heavens 2022 Arizona elections, Democrat Kris Mayes won the Attorney General’s race by 280 votes, one of the closest elections in America. She immediately began withdrawing her Republican predecessor’s lawsuits to stop the Biden Administration’s unconstitutional actions, declaring, “We’re not going to be engaging in political lawsuits at the Attorney General’s Office anymore.”
Now, just days later, the recently-elected Democrat Secretary of State Adrian Fontes has written to Mayes, asking her to investigate GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake on felony charges for sharing images of ballots with clearly unmatched signatures.
As noted at the link, those ballots and signatures were lawsuit evidence already made public by the Arizona Senate Elections Committee. So now we’ll see if Mayes is serious about not pressing political lawsuits. I’m not holding my breath, considering her first priority was to order her office’s “Election Integrity Unit” to “fight any effort by anyone to eliminate vote by mail.” So if you think vote-by-mail is an open door to vote fraud and speak out in support of election integrity, you’ll be targeted by the “Election Integrity Unit.”
I recently noted how you can always tell what Democrats are really doing by what they accuse their opponents of doing. In Arizona, they’re defending election integrity by fighting election integrity and ending political prosecutions by launching political prosecutions.
Let’s all keep praying that Kari Lake’s lawsuit to overturn that election succeeds, and I have the feeling that the more Arizonans see of the Democrats who somehow squeaked into office, the more of them will be joining us.
Mark your calendars!
By Mike Huckabee
If you can afford $35 to $95 a ticket (plus the no-doubt exorbitant Ticketmaster fees), you can see millionaire socialist Bernie Sanders live, giving a speech about how bad capitalism is!
Omen for 2024?
By Mike Huckabee
Saturday in the Pegasus World Cup horse race in Florida, a horse named “Ridin’ With Biden” was expected to come in third out of 13 horses, but instead it came in dead last.
https://www.westernjournal.
If only it hadn’t wandered off the track halfway through to try to shake hands with an invisible donkey.
“Connect the Dots”
By Mike Huckabee
It’s time to play “Connect the Dots” again and see if you, the casual reader, can make a connection between two stories that a lot of highly-paid Hollywood executives just can’t seem to grasp.
First story: HBO has canceled the low-rated reboot of the TV series “Gossip Girl,” which went far beyond the network original by stuffing it with LGBTQ messaging, nudity, wild sex among high school students (including an orgy) and constant leftwing badmouthing of conservatives (Warning: just the descriptions of the show at the link might offend you.)
Second story: Last year, Hollywood “entertainment” companies lost a combined $542 billion in market value, with losses being led by the wokest companies: Disney, Netflix and Comcast.
Bonus story: If you’re having trouble spotting the connection, here’s a clue: “Top Gun: Maverick,” a pro-American, pro-military, completely non-woke movie that just entertained audiences is closing in on a $1.5 billion box office take worldwide.
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/
Laugh of the Day!
Finally, a good use for AI-generated Internet content. Behold the Babylon Bee’s AI-Powered AOC Article Generator that creates a hilarious new fake story about AOC every time you hit “Refresh.”
https://babylonbee.com/article/aoc-is-a-genius
"Russia collusion" and "Biden transparency": two huge frauds
By Mike Huckabee
On Saturday we brought you the story of Twitter File #15 --- “Twitter knowingly used fake Russia stories” --- the file that reveals Twitter’s internal communications about Hamilton 68 and the Soros-funded Alliance for Securing Democracy. Thanks to Matt Taibbi, we can see that Twitter figured out early on that the computer “dashboard’ supposedly designed to ferret out Russian “bots” trying to influence American politics was a total sham, and that almost all of the hundreds of accounts they were monitoring weren’t Russian at all, just legitimate accounts that happened to be right-leaning. We saw that even the account of David Horowitz (!) of the Freedom Center was flagged as Russian!
https://www.frontpagemag.com/
But Twitter never confronted ASD about this. Instead, they went right along with the hoax.
Dan Bongino talked about this in his Monday podcast, lamenting that this hugely important story was lost in the deluge of other news. He had choice words to say about Clint Watts, the (yes) former FBI agent who spearheaded this utter fraud. Watts is “the face of the Deep State, or I don’t give a (bleep) what you call it," Bongino said. "He’s just epidemic of how it works.” Bongino pointed to a video in Taibbi’s first tweet, showing Watts lying on TV about tracking Russian accounts and the existence of these Russian bots. It’s not surprising that Bongino would be sickened by someone “who abuses his position as a former FBI agent” to go out and “propagate a bunch of these fake Soviet agit-prop themes.”
Of course, the “Alliance for Securing Democracy” isn’t about securing democracy at all --- unless by “securing” you mean putting under your control, which makes it NOT democracy. Why don’t they just call themselves the “Ministry of Truth” and be done with it?
Bongino brought up the names of the same people we found on their website: Hillary’s campaign manager John Podesta, former acting CIA head Mike Morell, the TDS-afflicted Bill Kristol and others, including (sadly) enough establishment Republicans to make this tax-exempt nonprofit appear “bipartisan.” They’re all united in their hatred of President Trump and what they think of as “MAGA extremists.”
Watts was working for MSNBC (big shock) when Twitter File #15 was dropped and his grand deception was revealed. But he’s still right there.
Bongino explained how ASD propagandizes. “They’ll make spurious accusations based on the thinnest connections,” he said, which could be discounted immediately if the media would just ask the most basic questions. But they don’t, and someone like Watts will just use innuendo, vague comments that arouse suspicion, without having any real evidence at all.
Watts even did this during a congressional hearing, trying to make the “bot” story believable by expounding, “Part of the reason active measures have worked in this U.S. election is the Commander-in-Chief has used Russian active measures at times against his opponents.” He mentioned Paul Manafort, which was always effective. But his main concern was that Trump kept claiming the election could be rigged, because that was “the number one theme” pushed by RT (the news outlet RUSSIA TODAY). And “he denies the intel from the United States about Russia.”
Try not to laugh when you read this next line from the creator of the bogus Hamilton 86: “Until we get a firm basis on fact and fiction in our own country, get some agreement about the facts, whether it be ‘Do I support the intelligence community or a story I read on my Twitter feed,' we’re gonna have a big problem.”
The implication is that Trump, and all of us good little sheep, should beleeeeve the intel community. Let’s see...am I going to believe the intel community? The same one that told me Hunter’s laptop was Russian disinformation? The same one that was, as Bongino put it, “the single biggest source of misinformation about Trump”? That would be a NO. As for Twitter, it was just helping perpetuate their Russia Hoax. It would have been folly to believe either one.
Everybody pretended the Russia Hoax was true. Remember how they played it with the Steele “dossier”? It was easy to discredit Steele’s claims, and one person at the DOJ even pointed out some obvious mistakes, but they just ran with it anyway. Recall this from John Solomon in 2019.
Taibbi’s latest drop really shows how far-reaching this leftist consortium of self-described “securers of democracy” really is. We’ve got NGOs (non-governmental organizations like ASD, many Soros-funded), lobbyists and liberal money people, the media, social media, politicians, the State Department, CIA, FBI, all “knee-deep in a massive misinformation machine,” as Bongino said, “where they will do anything to protect their grift.”
“And their grift is evidenced by nothing greater than the Biden scandal.” He argues that if Biden goes down for this, they all do, “because they’re all doing it.” Trump would have exposed this, so they had to take him down.
I mentioned last week that this would have to do with Mike Flynn. More on that soon, but first recall that retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn was going to be President Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, and he was on to them. In fact, he had long wanted to reform the intel community. We got into the Way-Back Machine and found this from the NEW YORK POST, about Biden reportedly being the one who brought up using the Logan Act to prosecute Flynn. (It’s an obscure law dating to 1799, designed to prevent civilians from conducting foreign policy, and no one has ever been convicted of violating it.) Biden’s suggestion was immortalized in FBI agent Peter Strzok’s handwritten notes from the January 4, 2017, Oval Office meeting of Obama, Biden, Brennan, Comey, Clapper, Strzok, Susan Rice and Sally Yates.
When asked about this later, Biden feigned ignorance.
https://nypost.com/2020/06/24/
As for the latest on Biden’s classified documents, Jonathan Turley recommends focusing on the thousands of documents housed at the University of Delaware. Biden “effectively locked away his records by giving them to the university,” according to Turley, and has refused to let the media or the public to see them. Anything potentially embarrassing has been shielded. But now, there’s additional concern that Biden might have included classified materials in his stash. If Biden won’t open the records to outside review, Turley says, “his pledge to be transparent is “transparently dishonest.” The FBI could just take them, but do you see any movement in that direction? Me, neither. Details here…
It’s not just the University of Delaware stonewalling; it’s also the ‘Justice’ Department. On Monday, House Judiciary chair Jim Jordan got a letter saying the DOJ couldn’t disclose information because it might jeopardize their own probe. While Congress “has a clearly legitimate interest in determining how the Department enforces statutes,” the letter stated, “Congressional inquiries during the pendency of a matter pose an inherent threat to the integrity of the Department’s law enforcement and litigation functions.”
But Ohio Rep. Mike Turner, the new chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, says the DOJ does NOT have the authority to bar members of Congress from viewing this classified material. He told ABC’s “This Week” that “Congress has subpoena power, and its ability to compel the administration is absolute.”
Finally, here’s some news for those who have been asking lately about the Durham Report. THE NEW YORK TIMES published an article that legal analyst Margot Cleveland describes as a “pre-emptive strike” to discredit Durham. It was written by three of the NYT’s top collusion hoaxers: Charlie Savage, Adam Goldman and Katie Benner, who try to give the impression Durham is coming up dry when they know nothing of the kind. In fact, Cleveland shows how these crafty wordsmiths use the same “innuendo” tactic used by Clint Watts, as described above. Cleveland goes through a lot of what we already know that emerged from Durham’s two trials. He traced the whole Russia Hoax back to Hillary and the DNC, remember?
As we wait to read Durham’s findings, I would highly recommend reading this..
RIP Cindy Williams
By “Huckabee” pop culture guru Pat Reeder (http://www.hollywoodhifi.com)
This is sadly becoming a frequent task, but I again have to report the passing of a beloved figure from 20th century pop culture. Cindy Williams, best known as Shirley in the top-rated ‘70s sitcom “Laverne & Shirley,” died last Wednesday at 75 after a brief illness, according to her family.
https://www.foxnews.com/
Her children released a statement reading, "The passing of our kind, hilarious mother, Cindy Williams, has brought us insurmountable sadness that could never truly be expressed. Knowing and loving her has been our joy and privilege. She was one of a kind, beautiful, generous and possessed a brilliant sense of humor and a glittering spirit that everyone loved…We have always been, and will remain, SO proud of her for many things...her lifelong mission to rescue animals, her prolific artistry, her faith, and most of all, her ability to make the world laugh! May that laughter continue in everyone, because she would want that. Thank you for loving our Mom, she loved you too."
Here are some tributes from co-workers and famous fans who describe her as being as upbeat, kind and funny as her TV character.
Of course, Williams also appeared in many other TV shows and movies such as “American Graffiti” and Frances Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation,” a great and very prescient movie about using technology to violate people’s privacy. She auditioned to play Princess Leia in “Star Wars,” but they went another direction. She also wrote the recent memoir, “Shirley I Jest: A Storied Life.” But as that title suggests, she’ll be best remembered as the sweet beer factory worker Shirley Feeney, pal and roommate of the late Penny Marshall’s brassy Laverne DeFazio.
People today may not realize just how popular “L&S” was. Launched as a spin-off of two characters who appeared in an episode of “Happy Days” (they were more like ditzy party girls; it’s jarring to watch now), “L&S” debuted at #1, and in its first two years, beat “All In The Family” in the ratings. It ran for eight years and was so popular, it once pulled a 60 share in the ratings, which Penny Marshall noted only happens for things like the Super Bowl or the Academy Awards (well, back then.) It was sold into syndication for the then-record price of $50,000 an episode.
Despite its popularity, “L&S” was dismissed by critics and repeatedly snubbed by the Emmy Awards. Neither star was ever nominated for Best Comedy Actress. The show received only one Emmy nomination, for Best Costume Design. But today, I’ll bet “L&S” reruns pull higher ratings than the Emmy Awards.
Since you count on me to tell you things that are left out of other obituaries, I’ll mention a couple of her more obscure projects: the 1976 LP “Laverne & Shirley Sing” is a bit disappointing since they mostly play it straight and sing ‘50s oldies covers. The back-up group includes the Wrecking Crew and Melissa Manchester, but it’s not a stand-alone gem like the “Lenny and the Squigtones” album that was a forerunner of Spinal Tap.
https://www.allmusic.com/
Another odd entry on her resume is “Laverne & Shirley In The Army,” a 1981-’82 Hanna-Barbera cartoon series featuring Williams and Marshall’s voices. They played L&S as Army privates bossed around by a talking pig named Sgt. Squealy (hey, it’s Hanna-Barbera.) It was proof, as in the slapstick of “Laverne & Shirley,” that Cindy and Penny would do anything to make an audience laugh, and that’s a better and more lasting legacy than an Emmy Award.
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