By Mike Huckabee
June 23, 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.
Mike
DAILY BIBLE VERSE
It is joy to the just to do judgment: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity.
Proverbs 21:15
OceanGate Titan update
By now, I’m sure you’ve heard, but the Navy announced that it had found a debris field about 1600 feet from the wreckage of the Titanic, and it’s been identified as the wreckage of the OceanGate Titan sub. They believe the sub imploded, killing all five people aboard instantly. They also believe this happened several days ago, just hours after the sub went into the ocean.
The Navy detected sounds that they suspect were the implosion, but they withheld that information to ensure that search and rescue missions continued. The more recent “banging” sounds that were detected hadn’t been conclusively linked to the sub and must have come from some other source, as our guest submarine expert Bill Sanner predicted yesterday.
It's a tragic irony that 111 years after the Titanic sank because its makers put too much faith in their technology, more people have lost their lives in the same place for the same reason. Our prayers and condolences to their families.
SCOTUS: 8-1 Ruling
This morning, the Supreme Court issued an 8-1 ruling, handing a big win to the Biden Administration and a big loss to American sovereignty and immigration law enforcement.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/supreme-court-hands-biden-admin-major-win-immigration-case
With only Justice Alito dissenting, the SCOTUS found that Republican states did not have standing to challenge the Biden White House’s narrowing of ICE arrest and deportation enforcement only to “recent border crossers; threats to public safety; and national security threats.”
The SCOTUS ruled that "The threshold question is whether the States have standing under Article III to maintain this suit. The answer is no." While monetary costs are an injury, the injury to allow standing must also be "legally and judicially cognizable." Several conservative Justices said that the states lack standing "because federal courts do not have authority to redress their injuries." The ruling said they were not stating that states may never have standing over an alleged failure to make more arrests or prosecutions – including if the Executive Branch "wholly abandoned" its responsibilities in this regard -- but not in this case.
So a big win for the Biden principle of doing as little as possible to enforce immigration laws decimated by his deliberate refusal to do his duty of securing the border, on the basis that he didn’t “wholly abandon” his sworn duties. What a travesty and tragedy for anyone who cares about national sovereignty or the rule of law.
America the Beautiful
God's creation is all around us. We are blessed with his bounty. Take a moment to enjoy it.
Must-Read:
The fact that so much bad stuff is coming out about Joe Biden and actually getting reported suggests that the Democrats and their media sycophants realize that Old Joe will be roadkill if he actually runs again in 2024, so they’re greasing the floor to slide him out the door. They’re terrified of Robert Kennedy Jr., so California Gov Gavin Newsom is warming up in the wings.
Newsom has everything the Democrats love: “charisma,” presidential hair, and far-left politics that are impervious to facts. He proved this recently by going on Sean Hannity’s show and dispensing a blizzard of bull droppings about how amazingly successful his policies have been in California. He not only denied all the things that have residents fleeing in record numbers, he also denied that people were fleeing.
There was so much manure being flung that Hannity couldn’t respond to all of it. But it was a great indicator of how Newsom, the Party and the media are planning to gaslight Americans into thinking it would be a great idea for the whole country to jump into the black hole of California governance.
That’s why I hope you will read this and share it far and wide, so we can be prepared to counter the onslaught of pro-California propaganda that’s likely coming our way.
Brandon Smith at Discern Report went through all the jaw-dropping whoppers Newsom dispensed on “Hannity” and corrected them with the devastating facts. If you watched that interview and were packing your bags to move to the liberal Utopia of San Francisco, this should get you unpacking and thanking your lucky stars that you read it before calling U-Haul.
Related: If you need any more reasons not to move to California, Democrat legislators just advanced a bill that would allow children as young as 12 to be “emancipated” from their parents and moved to state-run shelters on the say-so of therapists and counselors. The bill’s backers claim it’s to protect children and ensure they have access to mental health care, but detractors say it’s opening the door to letting the state remove parents from decisions over things like giving “trans” surgery to minors.
https://freebeacon.com/california/california-assembly-bill-665/
Going after Justice Alito
The left’s groundless attack on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas seems to have fizzled, so now they’re going after fellow conservative Justice Samuel Alito. The far-left media outlet Pro Publica launched an assault on Alito’s ethics for allegedly failing to report some gifts of airfare and lodging he received on a fishing trip to Alaska over 15 years ago.
Pro Publica contacted Alito for his response, but he’s smart enough to know a trap when he sees one, so instead of letting them edit and cherry pick his response, he released a full statement in advance, laying out the fact-free nature of their allegations and that there were no conflicts with any cases before the Court, nor was it required under the rules at the time that he disclose any of it. In fact, if he was trying to conceal it, why did he talk about it in front of a crowd during a speech at the Federalist Society convention?
Law professor and Instapundit blog master Glenn Reynolds has more on this latest attempt by the left to undermine the conservative Court majority…
https://nypost.com/2023/06/22/propublicas-lame-hit-on-alito-a-dark-money-assault-on-high-court/
And there are a lot more details here, although I warn you that due to this being National Review, you have to get past the requisite Trump-bashing…
https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/06/justice-alito-has-done-nothing-wrong/
I think my favorite part of this story is that while Pro Publica claims to be an independent news watchdog and accuses conservative Justices of letting gifts influence their actions, they rake in millions of dollars in anonymous donations, with a quarter of their budget for 2022 coming from just two donors that they refuse to name.
https://freebeacon.com/media/propublica-takes-millions-from-secret-donors/
Just a reminder
The Biden DOJ is trying to put former President Trump in federal prison for allegedly letting someone without a top security clearance see a classified document that was reportedly a crackpot plan to invade Iran that he never approved. They call this revealing state secrets and endangering national security.
So what do you call it when Joe Biden stands up in front of a roomful of donors at a fundraiser and blurts out the state secret that the Chinese balloon he recently let float across the US was loaded with “a boxcar full of spy equipment,” something the public wasn’t supposed to know?
And no, I don’t mean you call it a “miracle” just because he was able to stand up and say something coherent.
Related: Former President Barack Obama said the Trump indictments uphold the basic principle that “nobody is above the law.”
Say, wasn’t Obama aware that his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was using her personal email address when writing to him about classified documents and conversations, instead of the secure government account she was required to use? And we know what she did with classified documents and subpoenaed devices, so if nobody is above the law, she should be a convicted felon and he should be an accomplice to her crimes, right? Nothing personal, just wanted to make sure we’re all on the same page here about laws applying equally to everybody.
I well remember the arguments LGBTQ activists made for same-sex marriage:
If you’re a Christian and oppose it, you won’t ever participate in a gay wedding, so it will never affect you in any way! The ink was barely dry on the SCOTUS ruling okaying it before radical activists and leftist lawyers and politicians were suing Christian bakers, florists, photographers and other business owners into bankruptcy to try to force them to violate their religious beliefs by participating in same-sex weddings. So that was a big, fat lie.
Then in almost record time, we went from “you must accept transgender people in society” to “you must accept transgender people in women’s bathrooms” to “you must accept dudes who claim they feel like women in women’s sports” to “you must accept groomers in drag and gay porn in elementary schools and letting your children be permanently disfigured with drugs and surgery without your permission.” So how is that going over with John and Jane Q. Public?
https://www.westernjournal.com/fewer-americans-see-sex-relations-morally-acceptable-poll/
In the latest Gallup “Values and Beliefs” poll, support for the belief that “gay and lesbian relationships are morally acceptable” has dropped seven points in just one year, from 71 to 64 percent. Among Republicans, the drop was from 56 to 41 percent. That 71% figure shows how well they were doing at winning over Americans up until they started pushing too hard, going from “We just want to be allowed to live our lives” to “You will live and believe the way we tell you, or else!”
Some other signs of a growing backlash against leftists and woke fascists having too much power: in 2021 and 2022, more poll respondents identified as liberal than conservative. Now, the split is 38% conservative, 29% liberal. And the biggest rise in moral support for any issue was a jump from 55% to 60% for the death penalty, which I assume is a reflection of the violent crime waves set off by criminal-coddling leftist DAs in blue cities.
Let’s hope this is a good omen for the 2024 elections. I’ve always said that nothing makes Republicans look good like Democrats holding full power for a while. Maybe someday, even voters in places like Chicago, Baltimore and Seattle will figure that out.
“You Will Be FORCED To Care!”
I wonder if Target’s executives are starting to regret embracing wokeness so hard? They not only lost billions in market value by repelling their customers with all the “in-your-face” “Pride Month” merchandise (including “tucking” swimsuits for transing little boys), they then got bomb threats from radical trans activists for daring to move it to the back of the store (hey, they just tucked it away so nobody would see it!) And now, they’ve got a new headache.
The Attorneys General of fifteen blue states have written a letter to Target, implicitly threatening them if they don’t keep kowtowing to the radical LGBTQ agenda.
The letter warns Target to be “mindful of its obligations” to the LGBTQIA+ community (they're "obligated" to do their bidding?) and “to double down on inclusivity, reject hate in all its forms, and stand firm in the face of intimidation and discrimination.” (Note: the only “discrimination” is that discriminating customers decided to shop elsewhere, while the only intimidation came from violent trans activists, but never mind.) The letter goes on, “While these laws certainly do not create a legal obligation for retailers to offer any particular merchandise or create any particular displays” (wow, nice of them to acknowledge that), “they do demand that customers be treated equally.”
“While we understand the basis for this action” (removing “Pride” merchandise that wasn’t selling even to gay people and that was repelling other customers), “we are also concerned it sends a message that those who engage in hateful and disruptive conduct can cause even large corporations to succumb to their bullying, and that they have the power to determine when LGBTQIA+ consumers will feel comfortable in Target stores—or anywhere in society.”
So the upshot is that they think corporations shouldn’t have to react to the “bullying” of their customers, but they should definitely cater to the bullying of leftist attorneys general. It’s good to know that crime is so low in blue states that their top legal officials have time to run Target stores instead of prosecuting criminals. Which is a surprise, considering how many Target stores are moving out of blue states because they’re being robbed into bankruptcy.
Related: Speaking of retail stores dealing with blue state prosecutors, in Queens, New York, a man in a facemask and hoodie entered a Walgreens in mid-afternoon, calmly lit a blowtorch, and melted the plastic security cabinet open while customers and employees did nothing but stand by and film him on their phones. He then stuffed nearly $500 worth of merchandise into his bag and left.
But that was too much work for the shoplifters who now run San Francisco. They just entered Walgreens, ripped the plastic doors off the security cabinets, and stole everything inside. Bottom line: the only people being stopped from accessing merchandise by security cabinets are actual shoppers.
But on the plus side, at least nobody misgendered the thieves.
Advice for parents:
If you’re thinking of sending your kids to Texas Christian University, you might reconsider after reading this story.
Unless you think it’s worth paying tuition for your son to learn how to be a drag queen or be taught that “the gender binary is a tool of white supremacy,” or that it’s “violence” to ask a man in a dress if he’s a man.
And my advice for Texas Christian University: Either change your curriculum or change your name.
BIDEN CASE: mounting evidence of massive public corruption
Two days after it was announced, predictably, that Hunter Biden had reached a sweet no-prison deal with prosecutors that appeared to effectively shove the larger case under the rug, the stunning claims of not one but TWO fed-up IRS whistleblowers were made public. Anyone who isn’t gasping at these serious charges, demanding to see the evidence now and calling for the end of this administration (White House and Justice Department) if they are true is probably beyond hope. I’ll just shake my head and say, “Bless your heart.”
Before going on to the nature of these new claims, let’s take a quick look at the preposterous political privilege --- in Delaware, also called “the Delaware Way” --- inherent in Hunter’s deal by comparing it with what other, less-connected defendants have received. Miranda Devine at the NEW YORK POST reports that Chris Tiganti, the former Delaware beer baron who went to prison over corrupt campaign donations (“bundling”) to Joe Biden, says, “If you want to know why I went to jail and Hunter didn’t, it’s because my name is Tiganti, not Biden. It’s pretty simple. If your name is Biden, then investigations last as long as they need to and end [in your favor].”
In Hunter’s case, the investigation against him in U.S. Attorney David Weiss’s office dragged on for five years before he was finally charged with two tax misdemeanors and one gun charge. He won’t get jail; maybe he’ll get probation. As Devine puts it, Weiss “has had long experience of Biden family shenanigans in the incestuous state where Joe Biden has held public office since 1972.”
Devine has the details of Tiganti’s nightmarish ordeal, from which Biden was kept a safe distance.
Now, on to the breaking news from the House Ways & Means Committee, which is the one committee authorized to hear testimony about tax issues. Gary Shapley and another whistleblower both testified for more than seven hours, according to sources for THE DAILY CALLER. Their testimony, given to both Republican and Democrat committee attorneys, reportedly implicates both Attorney General Merrick Garland and IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel in lying to Congress about political interference in the Hunter Biden probe. Garland and Werfel said there wasn’t any; they say there absolutely was.
Shapley is the longtime IRS agent who oversaw the Hunter Biden case. He’s the one who originally came forward to say the IRS violated normal protocols to benefit Hunter. The second whistleblower testified on June 1, essentially corroborating his claims, and told the committee that he was retaliated against as early as October 2022. (Both say they faced retaliation.)
In a press conference on Thursday, Ways & Means Chairman Jason Smith of Missouri said that “Weiss tried to bring charges [against Hunter] in the District of Columbia around March of 2022 and was denied.” Also, “Weiss sought to bring charges in the Central District of California in the fall of 2022 and had that request denied in January 2023.”
Weiss had also sought special counsel status in the spring of 2022 but “was denied.” Merrick Garland has resolutely stood against the appointment of a special counsel to look into Biden finances.
Smith said Thursday, “I can now confirm that we have credible whistleblower testimony alleging misconduct and government abuse that is resulting in preferential treatment for the President’s son, Hunter Biden. He noted that Hunter “has been under investigation for tax crimes that include evading taxes on income” from foreign sources.
(By the way, the least surprising revelation is that the investigation of Hunter Biden began as an offshoot of an investigation into a foreign amateur pornography platform.)
According to both whistleblowers, IRS agents were told by federal prosecutor Lesley Wolf that they’d never get approval for a warrant to search Joe Biden’s guesthouse because evidence would be found there. She said there was more than enough probable cause, but, as Shapley quoted her, “the question was whether the juice was worth the squeeze.” (Do you think that question ever occurred to the people who greenlighted a guns-drawn raid on former President Trump’s house to seize paperwork?)
As reported by the NEW YORK POST, she also “discouraged them from pursuing lines of questioning related to Joe Biden, saying at one point that there was ‘no specific criminality,’ according to Shapley.” Wolf also delayed letting them talk with one of Hunter’s business partners, he said, because “she did not want to ask about the Big Guy [or about] ‘dad,’ [Shapley] said.”
“Crucial information about the investigation was divulged to Hunter Biden’s attorneys,” they had testified. For example, they were given a heads-up when there was likely going to be a search of a northern Virginia storage unit where Hunter had files.
They also said there were pervasive “unjustified delays,” including “authenticating a WhatsApp message [from July 30, 2017], in which Hunter demands payment from Chinese officials noting that his father was in the room.” (Yes, you read that right. Pretty much the cherry on top of the corruption sundae for both Hunter and Joe; more on that below.)
Rep. Smith said that “despite what whistleblowers described as a clear-cut case of tax liability on these payments, IRS investigators found themselves hamstrung internally.” They even were subjected to “bullying and threats from the defense counsel.” (Recall that Hunter’s attorneys took an extremely aggressive stance, even towards others caught up in in the fray such as computer repair technician John Paul Mac Isaac.)
And speaking of the laptop, Smith related that “...Hunter’s infamous abandoned laptop was verified by the FBI in November 2019, but investigators thereafter were barred from seeing it, Shapley said.”
Hunter did indeed get a sweetheart deal, as “the IRS recommended charges...that included attempt to evade tax [on $8.3 million from foreign entities Ukraine, Romania and China] --- a felony --- fraud or false statements --- a felony --- and willful failure to file returns, supply information, or [re]pay tax crimes.”
The Delaware federal prosecutor has said the investigation is ongoing, but legal experts say this could just be a strategy so they’re able to say they can’t comment.
The ‘Justice’ Department released a statement: “Both the Attorney General and U.S. Attorney David Weiss have said, U.S. Attorney Weiss has full authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges as he deems appropriate.”
But Kimberly Strassel at THE WALL STREET JOURNAL said this: “The Beltway press corps spent the week quoting ‘experts’ assuring the public that Hunter Biden’s plea deal didn’t amount to special treatment. You can believe that, or you can read the sworn testimony of Internal Revenue Service investigators who say the opposite...this glimpse turns this week’s Hunter plea into a joke. The Justice Department needs to provide answers.”
Democrat Ethan Bearman, adjunct professor at Loyola Law, brushed off the whistleblowers’ claims in an appearance on FOX NEWS late Thursday night, saying, “The whistleblower sounds like somebody who has an agenda…”
Wouldn’t you love to hear one or both of the whistleblowers respond to that? It’s hard to imagine what agenda that might be, to cause these whistleblowers to upend their lives and careers.
Rep. Smith appeared on HANNITY Thursday night, saying whistleblowers had showed that for the years of 2014 and 2015, Biden (estimating conservatively) would have owed $300,000 on his “foreign resources.” But “because they delayed, the statute of limitations has expired for any criminal penalties for [those years].”
As to the most serious charge of all, that a WhatsApp message placed Joe Biden with Hunter during a conversation with a Chinese official, there’s photo confirmation that Hunter was at his father’s house the day that message was sent. It sounds like an extortion attempt: “I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled...If I get a call from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. All too often people mistake kindness for weakness --- and all too often I am standing over [the] top of them saying I warned you.”
According to Shapley, it was this message that caused FBI agents to want to search the Biden guest house, one of the things they never got to do. It would be bad “optics.”
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6329940502112
Be sure and watch the segment with Gregg Jarrett and Alan Dershowitz as well. Jarrett dismantles the statement by the DOJ. And Dershowitz says that if Joe really was sitting there in that room with Hunter, “that would be an impeachable offense; that would be the crime of bribery.”
By the way, Dershowitz said something VERY interesting: that Hunter can’t plead the Fifth under questioning now, because his lawyers have said “he’s no longer subject to any criminal prosecution.” But the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware has said the investigation is ongoing. So, which is it? Can Hunter be made to answer questions or not?
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6329944742112
Hunter and his wife were seen last night at a state dinner also attended by AG Garland. Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton made a good point on FOX NEWS last night about why the Bidens act with such impunity. “Well, I guess you could say that Joe Biden’s gotten away with it now for 50 years,” he said, the most recent example being the slap on the wrist his son just got.
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6329939420112
But the evidence is mounting that Joe Biden was very much involved in his son’s foreign business deals, and that he has repeatedly lied about it. Most of the media will play dumb, but polls show the American people are wising up. There’s really no going back from what we’ve learned. This is a must-read story from the WASHINGTON FREE BEACON…
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