By Mike Huckabee
January 2, 2024
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Blessings on you and your family from all the Huckabee team! Today, if you have a moment, leave me a comment about something you read. Comments help me fine tune what I am writing, and they show that we have an active community of readers.
Sincerely,
Mike Huckabee
Daily Bible Verse
Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord and depart from evil.
Proverbs 3:7 KJV
Newsletter Notes
8 stories
3,307 words
Reading time: About 14 minutes
Breaking News
Two people were killed and numerous others injured when a deranged man drove a car full of explosives into a crowd leaving a New Year’s Eve concert in Rochester, New York. At first, authorities suspected terrorism, but they’ve reportedly ruled that out after finding a suicide note. They believe it was an insane act of an emotionally-disturbed man. More details at the link.
https://nypost.com/2024/01/02/news/two-dead-five-injured-in-fiery-crash-outside-rochester-concert/
Israel-Hamas War Update
Over the holidays, useful idiots around the nation continued to try Americans’ patience by attempting to block holiday travel and disrupt Christmas and New Year’s celebrations with their moronic support of Hamas and demands for a ceasefire. I doubt the truth will penetrate their cement skulls, but it’s Hamas that’s refusing to agree to a ceasefire. In fact, here’s the latest on how Hamas is trying to use ceasefires to drag out the war and continue to hold hostages and get more terrorists released.
The IDF also announced Monday that it has killed Adil Mismah, a Hamas commander who took part in the October 7th attack. They also struck a target run by Hamas and Islamic Jihad and confiscated a substantial amount of weapons.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/idf-confirms-troops-killed-hamas-leader-involved-attack
Meanwhile, the intensity of fighting in the northern Gaza Strip has started to wind down, and Israel is allowing some Israelis to return to their homes within a few miles of Gaza.
Tragically, we learned over the Christmas break that 70-year-old Israeli-American Judith Weinstein Haggai, who was believed to have been taken hostage, was actually killed by Hamas during the October 7th attack. Her husband, Gadi Haggai, was previously confirmed dead. It was thought that they were taken hostage, but apparently, they were both killed in the attack and Hamas had been holding their bodies. Yes, that’s who you’re supporting, Ivy League protesters.
Melania Trump update
One of the more reprehensible traits of the leftist media is the way they threw away the notion of not attacking a politician’s family when it came to Trump. They ran ugly rumors about his young son Barron and viciously attacked his wife Melania every time she appeared in public. She was a beautiful woman, an ex-model and one of our most fashionable First Ladies, yet she never appeared even once in four years on the cover of a major women’s or fashion magazine. That should give you an idea of the lockstep leftist “mean girls” mindset of those publications. When she did appear recently at Roselyn Carter’s funeral, they couldn’t even show enough respect for Mrs. Carter not to use the occasion to criticize Melania.
So it’s hardly a surprise that she would avoid public appearances, although they also use that as grist for concocting nasty rumors. Well, former President Trump revealed why Melania hasn’t been seen in public much lately: he said her 78-year-old mother, Amalija Knavs, is “very ill.” He added, “Hopefully, she’ll be recovering,” but admitted, “It’s a tough one, a very tough one.”
https://www.westernjournal.com/trump-reveals-crushing-news-melania-no-wonder-hasnt-public-lately/
I know you will join me in sending prayers and positive thoughts for Mrs. Knavs’ complete recovery because, unlike so many people in the leftist press, you are good people who haven’t let politics completely erode your sense of human decency.
Swatting politicians
When Maine’s Secretary of State Shanna Bellows decided to declare herself judge, jury and executioner and remove Trump from the ballot for committing a crime he hasn’t even been charged with, she probably thought it would result in cheers and confetti raining down on her. Instead, she’s getting rightly slammed.
There’s now a motion in the legislature to impeach her…
And on Friday, her home was “swatted,” making her one of a number of prominent politicians to fall victim to the latest dangerous prank of making a fake 911 call to report a shooting or violent crime so that armed cops show up at someone’s house. This is something that calls for a major crackdown before someone gets injured or killed. Over the past few weeks, it’s also happened to Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Brandon Williams and Kevin Miller, and even to the New York estate of George Soros.
Although it’s possible the caller didn’t intend to swat Soros. Maybe he just called 911 to complain about all the shootings and violent crimes that are the direct result of George Soros and the operator misunderstood.
Biden is setting records
You can’t say the Biden White House isn’t setting records. CBS News reports that as of December 27th, border agents reported 225,000 migrant encounters, a new monthly record. That doesn’t include the roughly 50,000 entrants they process at legal ports of entry each month or the remaining four days of the month. Added together, it’s likely we saw a staggering invasion of 300,000 border crossers in just one month.
As CBS put it, these numbers highlight “the magnitude of the extraordinary migration crisis the Biden administration is grappling with.” I believe they meant to say, “the magnitude of the extraordinary migration crisis the Biden administration deliberately caused.” You’re welcome.
Final Celebrity Farewells of 2023
By “Huckabee” pop culture guru Pat Reeder (http://www.hollywoodhifi.com)
I don’t know why TCM releases its “In Memorium” video in mid-December because there are usually some deaths of famous people before the end of the year, and sadly, this year was no exception. Among those who passed over the Christmas-New Year’s week were two famous comedians and a highly-honored actor.
British actor Tom Wilkinson died Saturday of undisclosed causes at 75. He was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for “In The Bedroom” and Best Supporting Actor for “Michale Clayton.” He also appeared in dozens of hit films, including “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” “Batman Begins,” “The Full Monty,” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/12/30/full-monty-actor-tom-wilkinson-dies-at-75/
Stand-up comic Shecky Greene died Sunday in Las Vegas of natural causes at 97. Greene appeared in a number of sitcoms and movies, and was a frequent performer on the old variety shows and Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show.” But his real stomping ground was Las Vegas. He was one of the few performers who was allowed to “go long” (within reason) if he felt like it. Usually, casino bosses strictly enforce show lengths to ensure the crowd leaves the theater and gets back to gambling ASAP. But they knew Shecky drew in the high rollers who would gamble anyway, so they gave them what they wanted.
And last Tuesday, Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers died at home in California at 86, following a battle with cancer.
While the Smothers Brothers are probably best remembered for the controversy over their 1960s CBS series, that was only a small part of a career that spanned decades. Tom and his younger brother Dick started as a folk music act, but they said they didn’t know many songs, so they started doing humorous banter (“Mom always liked you best!”), which took over the act and made them stand out in the self-serious folk music scene. They cut over a dozen albums and even did a short-lived sitcom in 1965 with the ‘60s high concept of Tom being Dick’s dead brother/guardian angel.
“The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” debuted in 1967 and was an immediate hit with younger audiences. It was the first show to feature hip musical acts like The Who (it’s the show where Keith Moon put explosives in his bass drum without telling anyone and destroyed Pete Townshend’s hearing), and one of the first to feature hippie/pot jokes and do songs and sketches critical of the Vietnam War. It gave a first break to such writers as Steve Martin, Bob Einstein (aka “Super Dave Osborn”) and Mason Williams (“Classical Gas.”) But the controversial political content was too much for CBS, which fired Tom and Dick, sparking a lawsuit. Little remembered is the fact that they actually brought the show back more than once, but its moment had passed. They went on to other endeavors, including live shows, the Broadway hit “I Love My Wife,” Tommy’s winery and his later fame with kids as “The Yo-Yo Man,” showing off his trick yo-yo skills.
Dick Smothers later said that they were actually moderates, and if you look back at the show, its political satire is pretty tame compared to what we see now. It was just the first to do it. Years later, in accepting an honorary Emmy, Tommy jokingly thanked his writers for getting him fired.
I’d recommend checking out some of their albums of folk music-based humor, like “Curb Your Tongue, Knave,” or the funny children’s album, “Aesop’s Fables The Smothers Brothers Way.” And if you want a reminder of my favorite bit from their CBS TV show, look for a copy of the LP “Pat Paulsen For President.” Paulsen’s deadpan bumbling speeches are still a hilarious send-up of a certain type of clueless politician who could actually end up being President these days.
A Pearls Before Swine New Year
Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for January 01, 2024 - GoComics
Dems’ New Year’s resolution: to get Trump off the ballot
When last we saw the news about Special Counsel Jack Smith --- and I hope you didn’t spend much of your Christmas week thinking about HIM --- Santa had disappointed him badly by giving him an order from the Supreme Court declining to rule on Trump’s presidential immunity without letting the DC Circuit Court rule first, as they would normally do for any other person besides you-know-who.
In his all-out effort to railroad President Trump before the ‘24 election, Smith thought it was fine to cut out a step in the process. In the interest of time, you know. And besides, this is Trump, who doesn’t deserve the rights of...well, any other American citizen you can point to. We’ve got to stop Trump from becoming President again because he’s the reincarnation of HITLER! Why, if he became President again, he would literally declare himself dictator, the way he did last time. Oh, wait, he did nothing like that. Still, he might try to get other candidates’ names taken off the ballot! No, come to think of it, that’s the Democrats. Never mind.
“Is this [Supreme Court ruling] going to upset the plans of Jack Smith?” law professor Jonathan Turley asked earlier this month. “Yeah!”
So let’s see how Smith is doing, coming into the New Year. Well, in his zeal, he appears not to have taken any time away from his work saving “our democracy.” In the hours before 2023 became 2024, he made an appellate filing saying that Trump is “a danger to the American republic.” As reported in the NEW YORK SUN, “The special counsel reckons that the ‘Founders did not intend and would never have countenanced’ the expansive vision of presidential immunity propounded by Mr. Trump.’
“Rising to high rhetorical dudgeon, Mr. Smith declares that Mr. Trump’s invocation of the protections of the office he once held ‘threatens the democratic and constitutional foundation of our Republic.’” (At least a Democrat finally remembered we’re a republic, not a democracy.)
Smith’s brief reprises his core allegation that Mr. Trump “conspired to use knowingly false claims of election fraud with the goal of overturning the legitimate results” of the last election and “disenfranchising millions of voters.”
While Mr. Smith allows that presidents are shielded from civil liability for their official conduct, he maintains that “any burdens of post Presidency criminal liability have minimal impact on the functions of an incumbent and are outweighed by the paramount public interest in upholding the rule of law through federal prosecution.”
He also argues that the double jeopardy argument doesn’t apply simply because Trump was acquitted of insurrection in his impeachment, saying Trump can still be prosecuted for the underlying acts. (Curiously, Smith didn’t charge Trump with insurrection while charging him with CONSPIRACY to commit insurrection.)
Smith brought up a point made by one of President Clinton’s attorneys, Nicole Seligman, during Clinton’s Senate impeachment trial, who argued that if the Senate acquitted the President (they did, of course), he could still be prosecuted in criminal court, like any other citizen, after his presidency was over.
Smith cited the “rigorous standards to prove criminal offenses and evidentiary limitations that would come into play” with the prosecution of a President. Now, that’s one of those statements that should come with its own laugh track. By now we’ve all seen the “rigorous standards” this special counsel holds himself to.
Here’s the full story at the NEW YORK SUN…
Now let’s move to the current status of state-by-state efforts to simply have President Trump dropped from primary ballots. Judge Andrew Napolitano, speaking on NEWSMAX on New Year’s morning, said the Supreme Court should strike down “unanimously” these states’ attempts to block him in this way. A party-line vote will be seen as --- what else? --- political, and Chief Justice Roberts can’t let the court be seen as acting on this out of partisanship.
“There’s a lot of people who criticized the Chief Justice John Roberts,” he said, “but one thing you cannot criticize him for is his ability to amass a majority on the Court. He said that what’s going on inside Roberts’ head right now is this: “How can this be resolved with unanimity because the Court cannot be made to look political.”
He fears that a split decision could be so divisive that it could cause one of those “black swan” events, similar in power to COVID and the BLM riots, for disrupting the ‘24 election. “The Court can’t take sides in a political dispute,” he said. The Court has the final word on what the Constitution means, and that final word needs to be articulated with unanimity, not an easy task when you have six conservatives and three liberals.” He’s hoping the liberals can rule with the majority, that they will see the dangers of taking the right to vote out of Americans’ hands under the guise of a so-called “insurrection” that wasn’t one.
Napolitano is hopeful, saying that “something happens when you have a lifetime job, something divorces you from the political process and causes you to focus on just the meaning and values and history of what you’re interpreting, in this case the 14th Amendment.” Well, let’s pray he’s right, as university professors have lifetime tenure and it doesn’t seem to be helping there.
You can imagine what Napolitano had to say about Shenna Bellows, the Democrat secretary of state in Maine who singlehandedly took Trump off the ballot in that state. “She’s in the process of printing ballots almost literally as we speak,” he said, sometime in the next few weeks. She may very well have thought that she could catch the Republicans flatfooted and print the ballots without his name on [them] before there’s even time for an appeal. That would be a gross abuse of her office.”
The Supreme Court has to weigh in in Maine, he said, because the “Constitution has to mean the same thing in all states of the Union,” not 51 different things.
“It’s a crazy situation that they have in Maine,” he said, “whereby a single unelected official can decide who gets on the ballot and who doesn’t --- without charges, without a trial, without a jury, without any conviction, without any finding of fault on the part of Donald Trump.”
All in the name of protecting “our democracy.”
https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/andrew-napolitano-supreme-court-donald-trump/2024/01/01
Here’s some background on Bellows. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung sums it up well: “The Maine secretary of state is a former ACLU attorney” (correction: director of the state ACLU, but not an attorney), “a virulent leftist and a hyper-partisan Biden-supporting Democrat who has decided to interfere in the presidential election on behalf of Crooked Joe Biden. We are witnessing, in real time, the attempted theft of an election and the disenfranchisement of the American voter.”
https://dailycaller.com/2023/12/29/shenna-bellows-donald-trump-maine-ballot-aclu-2024-primary
HUMOR BREAK! Here’s the BABYLON BEE’s take on the above observation. Democrats are NOT stealing the election in secret! They’e doing it right out in the open, so there!
Even the legal analyst at CNN, Elie Honig, cast shade on Bellows’ decision to take Trump’s name off the primary ballot in Maine. Sure, the Constitution is clear that if you “engage in insurrection, and you’re out,” he said. The complicated part is “who gets to decide, and by what process.”
He explained that “if you look at the hearing, and she details this in the ruling, they heard from one fact witness, a law professor. She based her ruling on a lot of documents, but also YouTube clips, news reports, things that would never pass the bar in normal court. She’s not a lawyer, by the way. It’s a smartly written decision, clearly consulted with lawyers, but this is an unelected– she’s chosen by the state legislature. Chosen, elected by the legislature, but not democratically elected.”
“Clearly consulted with lawyers.” Wouldn’t it be fun to know if she consulted with congressional attorneys for the J6 Kangaroo Kommittee? After all, that’s the kind of “evidence” they were using in their staged and scripted “hearings.”
Last week on Sean Hannity’s show, former Hawaii congresswoman and presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard had similar words for Bellows, sounding the alarm about Democrats who “will stop at nothing” to maintain power. And she’s right --- when have they ever backed down?
And, importantly, it’s not just Democrats. (Please heed this warning when considering other GOP candidates.) Gabbard noted that “efforts to sideline Trump extend beyond the Democratic Party, with some Republicans ‘threatened by’ his departure from ‘their establishment ways.’” She didn’t name names, but I’m sure you can think of a few. Some of them are running for President.
From her interview with Pete Hegseth:
I Just Wanted to Say
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