By Mike Huckabee
May 5, 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.
With gratitude,
Mike
DAILY BIBLE VERSE
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13
NYC Subway story
I haven’t written until now about the death of Jordan Neely, a black, mentally-disturbed homeless man who died after he went on an incoherent rant on a New York Subway that made passengers feel threatened and he was placed in a chokehold by an unnamed Marine veteran. Many people were leaping to conclusions, declaring it murder and even a lynching (yes, Congress members did that!), without regard for whether they were inciting George Floyd-style riots. Call me old fashioned, but I prefer to wait until I know what actually happened before accusing someone of murder.
Last night, the New York coroner ruled that the cause of Neely’s death was homicide, which set off the expected protests, and the attempts to politicize and exploit Neely’s death.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/
Few of the people doing this seem to care that it was their own policies that allowed Neely to remain on the street despite his obvious mental problems, or that created the atmosphere in which New Yorkers no longer feel safe on subways. It’s always about finding someone else to blame.
In this case, it appears likely that the Marine vet will be charged, but the “homicide” ruling isn’t as cut and dried as it sounds. This article explains some of the legal nuances, both why the young man is facing a tough legal road (he reportedly held Neely in a chokehold for 15 minutes, and continuing to use force after the immediate threat has passed negates a self-defense plea) and why it might be difficult to prove it was murder (he obviously didn’t intend to kill Neely.)
Now, unlike everyone else in the media it seems, I’m not going to comment further until I know more facts.
Moscow drone attack update
We still don’t really know the true story behind the alleged “assassination” attempt on Vladimir Putin, supposedly via a bomb planted by a drone on the roof of the Kremlin, which seems like an awfully unfocused and ineffective way of targeting one man. Russia used it as a pretext to blame the attack on the US and to threaten an escalation of the war against Ukraine, which prompted some to suggest it was a Russian false flag operation. But others think it was an attack by Ukraine, as a morale-booster and a warning to Putin that Ukraine could bring the war to Russia’s doorstep.
What’s the truth? At this point, if anyone knows for sure, then nobody seems to know who that is. Stephen Green at PJ Media has more on this story, along with some reasons why we need more information and discussion before we stumble into World War III by taking the word of the Kremlin on what really happened.
National Day of Prayer news
Thursday was the National Day of Prayer, established as the first Thursday in May by a law signed by President Eisenhower in 1952, a law I fear would never pass Congress today. There were events all across America, and Fox News Digital asked faith leaders nationwide for their comments on the importance of prayer. You can read that article here:
The National Day of Prayer Task Force created a live stream video that you can now watch anytime on their Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/
President Biden issued a proclamation for the National Day of Prayer. It drew criticism for seeming to imply that miracles were accomplished through collective actions rather than by God. But at least it did mention God twice, which is an improvement over Biden’s 2021 proclamation, which managed to proclaim a day of prayer without mentioning God at all.
https://www.westernjournal.
I don’t ask people what they pray for or about, because that’s personal and I think the important thing is that people just open their hearts to God and pray. But a new survey found that 61% of Americans said that they do pray. Nearly half of these respondents said praying makes them feel less anxious or depressed, and a third said it makes them feel like better versions of themselves.
Thirty-nine percent of respondents said they practice meditation, which was classified as a “spiritual practice” (if focusing on yourself without God can be called that.) The report found that “Millennials and members of Gen Z were more likely than older adults to meditate or engage in other mindfulness practices.” Personally, I would strongly advise them to pray. For inspiration, they should read the Bible. If they need more incentive to pray, they should look at the national debt that’s being left to them.
Another interesting finding is that despite a rising number of American saying they have no specific religious affiliation (and some governments practically waging war on churches to force them to close), during the COVID lockdowns, 53% of people who prayed said they prayed more and many sustained that greater level of prayer after the pandemic ended.
New Jobs Report
The Labor Department reported Friday morning that the US economy added 253,000 jobs in April, far more than the 180,000 predicted.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/
Normally, that would be great economic news, but thanks to the government’s out of control spending, it’s a mixed bag. It means the 10 consecutive interest rate hikes by the Fed don’t yet seem to be cooling off the economy enough to rein in inflation. However, the government did revise job gains for February and March down by a total of 149,000, indicating that job growth is getting weaker. So congratulations to our leaders on that accomplishment, I guess. At least they know how to weaken job growth. I knew they had it in ‘em!
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Kim Gardner resigns
Last night, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner suddenly announced her resignation.
https://redstate.com/
Garder is a typical leftwing prosecutor who’s presided over a violent crime wave by refusing to do her job and prosecute criminals. This move comes after months of calls for her to resign, two-thirds of her prosecutors quitting in protest, and a judge blasting her office as “a rudderless ship of chaos.” That same judge had just ruled that there was sufficient evidence for a case to proceed against her for “indirect criminal contempt” for acting with “intentional disregard for the judicial process.”
It's not clear at this writing whether her resignation will lead to the case being dropped. Let’s hope she isn’t facing a prosecutor like herself who believes in letting criminal conduct slide.
Stop lying
You know the White House is distorting and demagoguing the House’s “Limit, Save, Grow Act” (the bill to raise the debt ceiling while also putting in place spending restraints) when even the Washington Post’s “fact-checker” Glenn Kessler calls them out for it.
For the record: No, the bill doesn’t slash 81,000 jobs from the Veterans Administration, increase the disability claims backlog by 134,000 and reduce outpatient visits for veterans by 30 million. The Republicans already made it clear that VA spending is exempt from cuts. But the Biden White House tweeted out that false claim anyway, adding that the nonexistent cuts to veterans’ health care are an “insult to all the men and women who fought to protect our freedom.”
You know what’s a real insult to veterans? Lying to them.
Kamala Harris: Our new AI Czar
In what may be the year’s biggest “No, This is Not The Babylon Bee” story, the Biden White House is dealing with the potentially exponential threat of Artificial Intelligence by appointing VP Kamala Harris as “AI Czar.” In short, we’re doomed.
Greg Gutfeld said this will show whether Artificial Intelligence can be defeated by Natural Stupidity. Personally, I have my doubts, especially since, in the case of Kamala Harris, “AI” stands for “Always Incoherent.”
Message to the Left: Clear this up for me please
I’m sincerely confused, and maybe some leftist school officials would like to clarify things for me. On the one hand, I am told that we need to respect the feelings of kids. In fact, their opinions are so sacrosanct that if they say they want to be the other gender, we must respect that to the point of ignoring (or even criminalizing) their parents’ objections and giving them hormones and surgery without parental consent.
On the other hand…if a 12-year-old boy in Massachusetts wants to express the scientifically accurate view that “There are only two genders” on a T-shirt, his school doesn’t respect his views at all, orders him to take it off in violation of his free speech, and when he refuses, kicks him out of school for “targeting students of a protected class.”
(By the way, does anyone else think it’s odd that minors who are not protected from irreversible medical procedures they don’t understand and may deeply regret are considered the only “protected” class?)
Likewise, two families in Colorado are suing their school district, claiming teachers and administrators pressured their young daughters to join a secret LGBTQ club. They were also allegedly told that they were transgender if they didn’t feel comfortable in their bodies (what adolescent girls do?), suffered suicidal thoughts, and were convinced they needed “transitioning” when they’d never even thought of it before.
Finally, in the UK, a Christian mom vowed to appeal after a court dismissed her lawsuit against a school for forcing her four-year-old son to participate in a Gay Pride Parade in violation of the family’s religious beliefs. Again, what happened to respecting the views of children?
And on the subject of expressing your views on a T-shirt, the mom noted that when the deputy head of the school showed up to an appointment to discuss this with her, she was wearing a T-shirt that read, "Why be racist, sexist, homophobic, or transphobic when you could just be quiet?"
Nothing says you’re there for a free and open discussion like a T-shirt that conveys the message, “Think exactly like I do or shut up.”
So please, clear it up for us: do minors deserve to have their opinions and feelings respected, or does that only apply if they agree with the radical opinions and feelings of their teachers and school officials?
In Case You Missed It
The election software company Konnech withdrew its defamation lawsuit against True the Vote, its founder Catherine Engelbrecht and contractor Gregg Phillips, whose arrest, strip-search and jailing in solitary confinement struck me as a judicial outrage right out of a Third World dictatorship.
But this might not be over. Engelbrecht said Konnech’s aggressive lawsuit was designed to shut down all conversation about its activities and resulted in her and Phillips’ wrongful imprisonment. True the Vote issued a statement calling the lawsuit "meritless and intended to harass," adding, "They have failed. We are evaluating our options with regard to holding them accountable for their unwarranted actions. We believe Konnech dismissed its lawsuit because it saw that it would lose." Stay tuned...
A drunk driving arrest with national implications...
California State Sen. Dave Min was arrested Wednesday night for drunk driving. Min is the leading candidate in a swing US House district, and here’s how the arrest might affect the balance of power in the House in 2024.
Of course, that rests on California Democrats caring if the person they vote for drives drunk. Judging by their state’s government, Democrat voters apparently don’t even care if they govern drunk.
"S" = Socialism
At ESPN, where the “S” apparently stands for “Socialism” instead of “Sports” these days, the anchors are getting all triggered by the use of the phrase “Mount Rushmore” to describe the best athletes.
Keep this up and they’ll earn a hallowed place on the Mount Rushmore of Stupidity.
Today’s Must-Read, by Chris Queen at PJ Media
It’s about an article from the left-leaning site Vox on how the poultry industry determines the sex of chicks in the egg so that non-laying males can be culled without having to kill them. But look a little deeper and it’s actually about a branch of liberalism (animal rights activists) tacitly admitting that gender is set well before birth and that fetal chicks can suffer pain from being culled (i.e., aborted) even at a very early stage of development inside the egg shell.
Even more surprising, they’re trying to determine the gender before the chick in the egg can feel pain because killing a fetal creature that suffers pain is wrong. At least, it’s wrong when it’s a chicken. Just like basic biological facts about gender still apply, but only to chickens, apparently.
Headline of the Day!
“CDC Investigates After Dozens Test Positive for COVID After CDC Conference.”
A video worth 1,000 words
The loneliest people at Fenway Park are the workers at the Bud Light concession stand.
For some reason, Smirnoff looked at Bud Light’s implosion on the “trans” altar and declared, “Hold muh beer! Or muh vodka!”
These guys seriously need to quit sampling their own merchandise.
DC jury convicts Proud Boys of “seditious conspiracy”
I’ve been clear from the outset that the events of January 6 should make no one proud. But a subsequent trial and verdict sure won’t make you proud of our ‘justice’ system.
After a nearly four-month trial, four of five Proud Boys were found guilty of seditious conspiracy related to January 6 in a Washington DC court on Thursday. For more detail, we went to the definitive source on this story, Julie Kelly at AMERICAN GREATNESS.
Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, and Zachary Rehl were all convicted of seditious conspiracy and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. Dominic Pezzola was found guilty of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, and they were all convicted of conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging any duties, obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder, and one count of destruction of government property.
For taking a police riot shield during the chaos, Pezzola was also found guilty of assaulting or impeding law enforcement and also of robbery.
Some charges are still unresolved, and Kelly says it’s “unclear” how Judge Tim Kelly (no relation) will instruct the jury on handling those.
We’ve covered this mess of a trial on and off as it started and stopped, especially the last-minute revelation of numerous FBI informants within the group. Kelly’s report has links to the various controversies that came up during court.
“Seditious conspiracy” is a statute that originated after the Civil War to deal with those who rebelled against the United States. Until 2022, no one had ever been convicted of it. But the language is vague enough to facilitate the criminal prosecution of public dissent. Both seditious conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding are felonies punishable by up to 20 years in prison --- each.
These individuals were essentially found guilty by reason of inflammatory group chats. They brought no arms to the event, they assaulted no officer, and group leader Tarrio wasn’t even in Washington on January 6. He was in a Baltimore hotel.
Though Judge Kelly was a former Trump appointee, Julie had the impression he was “acting as a second lawyer for the prosecution, routinely rubber-stamping government motions that make the convictions ripe for appeal.” And there had better be one.
One important reason for appeal is the make-up of this jury. Of course, in DC it’s virtually impossible to get an impartial group of 12, but this particular jury appears to have been dripping with bias. According to LAWFARE writer Roger Parloff, “Six jurors had participated in liberal-leaning protests or marches, while none mentioned conservative-leaning demonstrations. The protests included, in two cases, ‘women’s’ marches; in two cases, ‘anti-gun’ marches; and, in four cases, protests related to Black Lives Matter or George Floyd’s murder, which, as we’ll see, are of particular concern in this case. One sitting juror had a Black Lives Matter sign in her yard.”
As if that weren’t bad enough, at the time of jury selection, the J6 Kangaroo Kourt was holding its televised hearings, even singling out the Proud Boys, but Judge Kelly was not persuaded that the hearings would influence an already-partisan jury pool
Julie Kelly notes that prosecutors often mentioned President Trump during the trial, and believes that “the convictions will bolster Special Counsel Jack Smith’s ongoing investigation into Donald Trump for similar charges.” (He’s also in charge of looking into Trump’s alleged possession of classified documents at Mar-A-Lago.) If you doubt that this is the endgame, here’s what attorney Andrew Weissmann (who ran the Mueller investigation of Trump) tweeted after the verdict: “[Huge] win for the government and our democracy --- terrorist group, unleashed by the former President, held to account. Makes charging the leader of the seditious conspiracy, one Donald J. Trump, imperative.”
This is surely the ace up their sleeve if Trump maintains his level of support leading into the ‘24 election. They don’t seem to understand that their misuse of the legal system to target Trump is backfiring --- convincing many conservatives that we need HIM in office to take THEM down.
Proof that Morell’s “classic earmarks” letter WAS pure politics
We now have proof that Mike Morell’s “classic earmarks” letter was not an intelligence product but simply a political contrivance masquerading as one, designed to give then-candidate Joe Biden cover during the final 2020 presidential debate that would be happening in a couple of days. The proof comes from Morell himself.
John Solomon has an email exchange between former acting CIA Director Morell and Obama’s CIA Director John Brennan from the period in which Morell was soliciting those 51 signatures for the letter.
Morell wrote to Brennan: “Can I add your name to this list? Will be adding Leon [we’re guessing Panetta], Sue Gordon, Jeh Johnson, George, Lisa Monaco [the current deputy AG/former Obama counsel], and Mike Rogers (DIR/NSA) today. And working on adding Dan Coates, Mike Rogers (HPSCI) and Tom Bossert. And lots of other IC career folk.”
But the telling line is the last one: “TRYING TO GIVE THE CAMPAIGN, PARTICULARLY DURING THE DEBATE ON THURSDAY, A TALKING POINT TO PUSH BACK ON TRUMP ON THIS ISSUE.” (Emphasis ours.)
Brennan’s reply was, “Mike, you know that’s not our job. We’re part of the intelligence community, not the Biden for President campaign.” Kidding! He didn’t say that.
Brennan’s reply was essentially, “Where do I sign?” Without asking any questions regarding verification of the claim, he wrote back, “Ok, Michael. Add my name to the list. Good initiative. Thanks for asking me to sign on.”
As Solomon put it, “This is the ultimate proof that what went out on that letter was a political dirty trick coordinated with the Biden campaign.”
Jonathan Turley has a new column dealing with Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s role in the creation of that letter. By insisting the letter wasn’t his idea, Turley says, Blinken is “claiming the political version of the immaculate conception” to suggest that he is free from blame. But Blinken is in serious trouble, as Turley explains. Highly recommended reading…
A great companion piece to Turley’s piece, if you’d like a deeper dive, is this new column from Margot Cleveland at THE FEDERALIST, examining the evidence brought forth in the First Amendment case Missouri v. Biden, brought by the attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri. That case has already revealed plenty about the government’s “collusion” with Twitter regarding so-called “content moderation” (censorship).
RELATED: Independent journalist Michael Shellenberger, whose name will be familiar because of his work on the “Twitter Files” for Elon Musk, is sounding the alarm on behalf of freedom of speech around the world.
“There has been no moment similar to this one,” he says, “in the roughly 30 years of widespread public Internet usage in Western society.”
As you know, he and his colleagues have been involved for the past few months in the exposure of what they call the “Censorship Industrial Complex” in America. But they now think it goes far beyond that, to the imposition of an international system of totalitarianism, “to end freedom of speech as we know it.” He cites the European Union’s effort to enact “sweeping new powers” to regulate social media companies.
Through their “Digital Services Act,” they want to make tech companies share their data with so-called “vetted researchers” from non-profits and academia. (Editorial comment: Uh-oh.)
In Ireland, he says, the government might soon be able to imprison citizens simply for possessing material described by officials as “hateful.”
In Canada, what citizens are able to see online can be filtered and manipulated by a state agency.
In Australia, he says, “a single government official can compel social media companies to remove posts.”
Oh, but this sort of thing would never happen in America, right? Sorry to burst that bubble, but Shellenberger also cites the disastrous RESTRICT Act, sponsored by Democrat Senator and Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Mark Warner, which, Shellenberger says, would call for heavy fines and prison for anyone accessing “blacklisted” networks (not necessarily just TikTok) through a VPN (Virtual Private Network). That’s just one of the shocking provisions contained in that piece of proposed legislation. Here’s a refresher…
https://reason.com/2023/03/31/
“We are thus witnessing the emergence of a governmental apparatus with the power to control the information environment in ways that determine what people believe to be true and what they believe to be false,” Shellenberger warns. Ominous, yes, but to fight the enemy, we have to understand what it is
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