For from him and through him and for him are all things.

To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Romans 11:36

How did we (and Israel) not know? Part III

Today we have an update on the fate of the monster who goes by the name “Mohammed Deif,” the one-armed, one-legged, one-eyed bomb maker-turned-terrorist-leader reportedly responsible for the planning of Saturday’s grisly massacre in Israel.  He’s been one of the Israeli military’s “Most Wanted” since 1995.  We heard a tentative report earlier Wednesday that he might have been killed along with some accomplices, but it appears now that he is still out of reach.  Here’s more about him…

https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20231010-mohammed-deif-the-elusive-architect-of-hamas-s-attack-on-israel

As Brian Killmeade reported on Jesse Watters’ FOX NEWS show Wednesday night, the military has caught up with some of his family members.  Retired Marine Corps. Col. Chris Douglas, whose background includes investigating the explosion in Afghanistan that killed 13 Americans, appeared on the show to discuss the current manhunt.

He said it’s challenging to find this terrorist because the population in that region obviously isn’t turning him in.  This could mean either that they uniformly support him or that they are too afraid of him to make a move.  He’ll be “very tough to find,” as he’s “just hiding among the populace.”  There’s also an extensive tunnel network, he said, but one would think Israeli intelligence would’ve had that figured out.

When Kilmeade asked Col. Douglas if our abandonment of $4 billion worth of fighting equipment in Afghanistan might be related to this, he answered, “I mean, it’s hard to say that it isn’t.”

“The Middle East is the most complicated region in the world,” he said.  “And although security wasn’t perfect in Afghanistan, it was more secure than it is now, with the Taliban in charge and all of the weaponry that we left behind and the manner in which we left.  That said, the allies and partners within the region and around the globe definitely weren’t convinced that we were the force of choice in the future for incidents such as this.”

He put that about as delicately as it can be stated.  Suggested translation:  it made us look pathetically weak around the world.  Tragically, in many circles --- Harvard University comes to mind --- Hamas is being seen as strong and heroic right now, and even justified in what they have done (as if anything could ever justify THAT).  So, what has to happen to change that twisted perception?

“Speed, surprise, and violence in action” is what they [the Israelis] need now, Col. Douglas said.  “They’ve got to respond swiftly, violently, and then, what’s gonna have to follow after that, though, is once they’ve defeated Hamas, any remaining need to be held to account.  And they need to rapidly establish some sort of assistance package to Gaza; that’s gonna be the next.  Because otherwise, it’s gonna be just this continuing problem, without providing some sort of stability.”

And what about the security of our own border?  Kilmeade brought up the 6,000-plus “alien apprehensions” of Afghanis crossing into the U.S.; the 164 from Lebanon; the 659 from Iran; the 30,000 from Turkey (and of course these are just the apprehended ones), and asked, “Should we think that all these people want to be part of the American Dream?”

With an uncomfortable chuckle, Col. Douglas said, “You’d be naive to think that.  The manner in which this happened in Israel should be a call to our elected officials, our President, to establish some sort of border security and to determine who here at home may wish us harm.”

That obviously makes too much sense for our current leadership to do.

………..

One Democrat talking point the past few days has been that “this isn’t the time to talk about the security failures.  We’ll work on that later.”  Certainly, they don’t want to dwell on a topic that brings up our own border security, but that consideration in the coming months is one huge reason why we have to determine the cause of this intelligence failure NOW and make sure it doesn’t happen here.

Bonchie at REDSTATE was right out of the gate with at least a preliminary look at how this could happen.  “Clearly, intelligence resources were involved,” he said on Sunday of the attack, “and the multitude of weaponry, including thousands of rockets, was not produced by the Palestinians.”

“At this point, anyone denying Iran’s involvement might as well proclaim that the sky is not blue,” he said.  “Iran’s own Supreme Leader came out and praised Hamas’ attack as it was occurring.  Now, we have further confirmation, including from Hezbollah, Iran’s chief anti-Israel terror militia, that Iran was directly behind planning and pulling the trigger on the invasion.”

https://redstate.com/bonchie/2023/10/08/confirmed-iran-planned-and-green-lit-murderous-hamas-attacks-on-israel-n2164840

He pointed out that Biden’s Iran policy saved them when their economy --- and possibly their Islamist regime --- was on the verge of collapse, with renewed oil sales and unfrozen assets that are enriching them by tens of billions of dollars.  We would add that the Biden administration has dispersed other questionable funds, more than $730 million to a UN agency that the State Department said in 2021 has assisted Hamas.  (Unbelievably, the UN doesn’t categorize Hamas as a terrorist group.)

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/biden-admin-sent-730m-to-un-group-despite-calls-for-anti-jew-violence-rotten-to-the-core/ar-AA1i0g76

Hamas and Hezbollah are also reportedly rolling in cryptocurrency, and Iran funds Hamas to the tune of about $100 million a year.

https://nypost.com/2023/10/11/hamas-palestinian-terrorists-raised-nearly-100m-in-crypto/ 

Bonchie also noted that this approach to Iran policy dates back to Obama and that many of the players today are his holdovers.  Jake Sullivan is one of those, a chief architect of Obama’s all-important “Iran deal.”  (We were saying in those days that Obama seemed more like the president of Iran than of the United States.  His administration was all about that deal, remember?)  And recall our recent story about this official, Ariane Tabatabai, in light of what just transpired with Iran’s help.  This is a must-read now in case you didn’t see it the first time...

https://www.frontpagemag.com/chief-of-staff-of-pentagon-counterterrorism-office-served-iranian-gov/

Tabatabai, an Iranian immigrant working in the Obama administration, recommended sharing intelligence with Iran in 2016, among other suggestions (the article has startling details) for working with them --- as an ally.  In 2021, after Biden’s State Department brought her in as a senior adviser, a congressional letter suggested her security clearance be pulled because she obviously had a “relationship” with Iran.  The letter said that Tabatabai “has echoed Iranian regime talking points and has made excuses for Iran’s oppressive government.”

But that congressional letter was taken about as seriously as most other congressional letters are these days.  State Department spokesman Ned Price defended Tabatabai, saying that any security-related concerns about her were “baseless and illegitimate.”  He called expressions of these concerns “smears and slander.”  And today, Tabatabai is still in the Biden administration, with the impressive title of Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict. 

This is true even though Iran envoy Robert Malley --- now under investigation for mishandling classified documents and suspected of being part of a spy ring for Iran --- personally brought her onto his team of negotiators.  “Even in the face of serious evidence that the State Department and the Department of Defense are employing an enemy government agent, the Biden administration is not backing down,” Daniel Greenfield writes for FRONT PAGE Magazine.  “The speed with which Tabatabai...has been able to fully penetrate the highest echelons of our national defense in a little over a decade is a testament to the national security collapse within a disloyal bureaucracy.” 

https://www.frontpagemag.com/iranian-agent-in-pentagon-counterterrorism-office-accused-of-sabotaging-intel/

There are other stunning examples as well, as guest Brooke Goldstein, CEO of The Lawfare Project, laid out on Wednesday’s HANNITY.  (See full show, about 15 minutes in; the interview isn’t broken out as a clip. This requires a cable subscription; the show should be free on YouTube in a day or so.)

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6338901912112

We still don’t know exactly what contributed to this stunning security failure, both here and in Israel.  But after reading about such pro-Iranian people in our own government, it starts to seem possible that our government MIGHT have, um, “missed” an operation largely planned by Iran.  If anyone in our State Department or Pentagon had any hint of this impending vicious attack and Israel was not warned, that would make our government complicit in the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust.

New Israel developments

Here is Fox News’ link to continually-updated news on the ongoing war in Israel against Hamas.

https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/hamas-attack-israel-war

Some of the major developments of the past 24 hours: At least 25 Americans are among the known dead. At least 2400 people have been killed, including 1200 in Israel. They include 222 Israeli soldiers. According to Israeli news reports, around 1,500 Hamas terrorists were killed in Israel and it’s estimated that hundreds of militants are among the dead in Gaza.

Israeli airstrikes have destroyed a number of Hamas operational centers, and in one attack, they reportedly killed Muhammad Abu Shamla, a senior Hamas naval operative.

It was reported earlier that Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s planned trip to the Middle East had been postponed, but he flew to Israel on Wednesday to appear beside Prime Minister Netanyahu in a show of solidity. He tweeted, "I’m in Israel today to make one thing clear: The United States stands with Israel and its people, and we will always stand — resolutely — against terrorism.”

Breitbart.com also has a good round-up of news from Israel that covers more stories, including Israel’s shut down of water, power and fuel to Gaza. Authorities say they will not restore these basic supplies until the hostages being held are released. To those demanding they give humanitarian aid to Gaza, Israel’s energy minister said they will provide humanitarianism when they see humanitarianism from Gaza.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/10/12/blockade-no-power-or-water-for-gaza-until-all-hostages-released-says-israel/

Breitbart also reports that an ISIS flag was found on a Hamas militant who participated in the mass murders at a kibbutz in Israel, lending evidence to the claim that Hamas is part of ISIS.

https://www.breitbart.com/middle-east/2023/10/12/islamic-state-flag-found-on-hamas-terrorist-participating-in-kibbutz-massacre/

And one more note for the “It can’t happen here” crowd: The Federalist reminds us that last month, the DHS admitted that thanks to the ongoing open border crisis created by Joe Biden, “individuals with potential terrorism connections” are actively attempting to enter the US amid the huge throng of unvetted illegal entrants.

https://thefederalist.com/2023/10/11/dhs-admits-bidens-border-crisis-is-making-it-easier-for-terrorists-to-enter-america/

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

Matthew 5:9

How did we (and Israel) not know?  Part II

Yesterday, we mentioned that THE NEW YORK TIMES had written an editorial actually blaming Trump --- it never fails --- for the weekend massacre in Gaza, and that the piece had failed even to mention Presidents Biden or Obama, or the nation of Iran.  Similarly, when Biden spoke briefly on Tuesday, he didn’t mention Iran, either.

There was not a word of condemnation for the #1 state sponsor of terrorism around the world, the state we know was helping Hamas and Hezbollah.  And when John Kirby was asked about the relative importance of this threat on Tuesday by FOX NEWS’ Martha MacCallum, he agreed with Biden’s statement that “The only existential threat humanity faces, even more frightening than a nuclear war, is global warming going above 1.5 degrees in the next 20, 10 years.”  He said Biden stands by that statement, and that “climate change IS an existential threat; it actually threatens and is capable of wiping out all human life on Earth, over time.  I mean, that’s --- I don’t know how [much] more existential you can get...”

Really??  As if that much warming were even happening (it’s not --- and 1600 climate scientists and scholars have said the climate is not an emergency:  https://www.thecollegefix.com/more-than-1600-scientists-and-other-scholars-sign-no-climate-emergency-declaration/).  In contrast, according to “Scientific Aspects of Nuclear Explosion Phenomena” by Samuel Glasstone and Philip J. Dolan, if a nuclear bomb goes off, “immediately after the explosion time, the temperature of the weapon material is several tens of million degrees and the pressures are estimated to be many million atmospheres.”  In “Physics:  Its Methods and Meanings” by Alexander Taffel, it says the explosion “reaches a temperature of millions of degrees Celsius.”

Presumably this might cause a wee bit of environmental damage.  Now there’s some global warming we all ought to be more concerned about, on a scale we can’t even comprehend.  Why, it might even be capable of wiping out all human life on Earth, over not very much time at all.  Isn’t that the very definition of an existential threat?

https://hypertextbook.com/facts/1999/SimonFung.shtml

It’s time to push back against having our intelligence insulted by politicians and their henchmen, over and over again.

Biden did manage to acknowledge that Americans have been taken hostage.  (Sean Hannity reported Tuesday night that the family of one presumed hostage hadn’t received any communication at all from the White House.)  As for the Americans who are alive and haven’t been taken hostage, they’re apparently stuck for now if they want to fly out, as commercial planes are not flying in.

(Actually, there was one airline out, at least at first, but you probably didn’t hear about it because it came thanks to former President Trump. Here’s the story of a man and his wife who were able to fly to Dubai then home to DC via Emirates Airlines, due to the historic Abraham Accords normalizing relations between Israel and the UAE. He credits Trump, thanks him profusely and calls their departure “miraculous.” So that’s why you’ll never hear this story in the mainstream media.)

https://www.westernjournal.com/american-thanks-trump-bringing-wife-home-war-torn-israel

Let’s hope these Americans don’t have to stay there as long as the ones who were left in Afghanistan after our shamefully haphazard pull-out in August 2021.  As of this March, there were about 175 Americans still left behind, some of them being held captive by the Taliban.  That’s from Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s testimony before Congress…

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/mar/23/175-americans-are-still-afghanistan-some-held-tali/

Accounts differ as to whether the $6 billion (!!!) of frozen assets Biden has promised Iran access to in return for five American hostages can be re-frozen at this time.  Apparently, it can be, though, because this move is being seriously discussed.  That money should never have been part of any hostage deal in the first place and should stay FROZEN colder than a terrorist’s heart.

https://dailycaller.com/2023/10/09/biden-admin-iran-defense-payment/

But let’s get back to the question of how these monsters were able to slip up on Israeli and, it seems, American intel agencies for this slaughter of Jews.  The NEW YORK POST reports that the mastermind was a man named Mohammed Deif; their headline offers some welcome unintentional humor (our favorite kind) on a day when we can really use some.  Just read the POST’s headline…

https://nypost.com/2023/10/10/who-is-mohammed-deif-palestinian-militant-behind-israel-attack/

“Palestinian militant behind Israeli attack is slippery, one-armed, one-legged former bomb maker,” it reads.  Okay, we take our laughs where we can find them.  Presumably this guy got out of bomb-making because after the first two attempts, he realized he just wasn’t very good at it.

He’s obviously better at planning.  He’s got a reputation as a “psycho” and a “cat with nine lives” because he’s survived so many assassination attempts.  We know he’s responsible for this massacre because he posted a video on Saturday announcing the start of the people’s “revolution.”

The name “Deif” means “guest” in Arabic and apparently refers to his habit of moving around a lot and staying with a variety of other operatives to avoid detection.  As the POST reports, “Deif has remained in the shadows for decades despite Israel’s best efforts to take him out at least five times in assassination attempts.”  Now this wheelchair-bound savage will be deified by Hamas, Hezbollah and their contemptible fans.

Col. Eyal Rosen of the Israeli army reserves said his “main goal is to destroy Israel.  This is one of the first steps --- this is just the beginning.”

So, apparently this guy is so slippery that Israeli intelligence hasn’t been able to find him or know what he’s up to, even with the many people, including Iranians, who must have been helping him.  One would think, though, that even if they didn’t know of his plan, they (and we) would have been extra-cautious around the 50^th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, with tensions rising and other factors that made the day significant.  We hope to bring you more about the cause of this deadly intel failure very soon, but in the meantime, let’s look at the situation in our own country and the likelihood of a similar failure.  JUST THE NEWS has done that.

https://justthenews.com/government/congress/intel-missing-hamas-attack-plus-rising-number-suspected-terrorists-border-pose

Does the fact that the U.S. has 18 intelligence gathering agencies give you any peace of mind?  Me, neither.  Those agencies have been busying themselves targeting Trump supporters as dangerous domestic terrorists and didn’t pick up on the threat in Israel --- or didn’t move on that threat --- and probably don’t have a clue what thousands of potential terrorists, mostly young men, coming across our southern border are doing here.

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy spoke about this on Monday, saying, “Looking at our own intelligence failures, we have to look at our border....[This year] in my own state [California], we caught two from Yemen on the terror watchlist; [also some] from China and others.  Why are they coming to America?  What do they have planned and who are they communicating with?”

The NEW YORK POST has a good summary of the large number being apprehended.

https://nypost.com/2023/09/15/160-people-on-terror-watch-list-stopped-at-us-border-in-2023/

Of course, these are just the ones we apprehended.  Do you think any terrorist working for a slippery eel like Mohammed Deif would let himself get caught?

Israel has (well, had) a border fence, but as part of their carefully plotted attack, Hamas broke it down to come through.  Here, it’s been so much easier for young men from all over the world to slip in gradually, as the Biden administration has installed handy turnstiles in areas that have any barrier at all.  Come right in!  Feel free to mix in with the people pouring in from this hemisphere, and then go wherever you like.  We won’t stop you.

The Senate Intelligence Committee released a redacted threat assessment just a few weeks ago, on September 20, warning about Hamas and Hezbollah in the context of the Iranian regime.  “Iran has growing intelligence and CI [aside:  as in “confidential informant,” such as American Robert Malley and his associates] capabilities to advance its geopolitical objectives,” it says.

No kidding.  We would add the phrase, “in large part because of this administration’s Iran policy.”

Update on the Biden financial scandal

 Of course, no matter what else is happening in the world, information about this scandal continues to drip out.  Thanks to an August 2022 Freedom Of Information Act request by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller’s organization America First Legal, we finally know that then-Vice President Joe Biden’s office exchanged nearly 20,000 emails with Hunter Biden’s investment firm Rosemont Seneca.  (Of course, Joe Biden knew NOTHING about his son’s business affairs.)  Details here…

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/then-vp-joe-bidens-office-exchanged-nearly-20000-emails-with-hunters-investment-firm/

New claim

The media is making much of a new claim that former President Trump verbally shared classified information about US nuclear submarines with an Australian billionaire. But there seems to be less to it than meets the eye, as this story at Redstate.com explains.

https://redstate.com/streiff/2023/10/06/new-leak-about-trump-spilling-submarine-secrets-has-the-special-counsels-fingerprints-all-over-it-n2164744

Another aspect of it that’s not getting much attention is that these alleged conversations took place when Trump was President and had absolute authority to declassify anything he wanted. This should have nothing to do with the documents case Jack Smith is pressing. So why is it suddenly appearing now, if not for the purpose of tainting the jury pool against Trump, as if that’s even necessary in a DC court?

To me, the bigger issue is: why was this information leaked, and who on the prosecutor’s staff is going to be indicted for it? After all, I thought illegal sharing of confidential information was the most serious offense possible, and should result in multiple felony charges. I’m eagerly waiting to see those charges filed against Smith and his team for leaking evidence to the media.

Prosecutors told to look for more evidence helpful to Powell’s case

The judge in Fulton County, Georgia, DA Fanni Willis’ ridiculous RICO case issued a ruling that could be favorable for attorney Sydney Powell. She is accused of several felonies such as conspiracy to commit election fraud and conspiracy to commit computer trespass for allegedly accessing voting machines in Coffee County to see if they were tampered with. Powell denies involvement and claims that county election officials authorized the examination of the machines. You know, like people do who have nothing to hide (they’ve been indicted, too, by the way.)

Powell’s attorneys moved for the case against her to be dismissed after they dug through the 5 terabytes (!) of data dumped on them by Willis and found election board emails that discuss a “written invitation” to inspect the machines. That would be known as “exculpatory evidence,” or evidence that the defendant isn’t guilty, which prosecutors are required to share with the defense. No wonder Willis wanted to dump a mountain of data on the defense and rush to trial before they could read it all.

The judge ruled that he doesn’t have the power to dismiss the charges on those grounds. But as the Epoch Times reports (and few other outlets will), he did order the prosecutors to look for more evidence helpful to Powell’s case and warned that if it later turns out they were holding back exculpatory evidence, it could undermine their case. I’d say that if there’s evidence proving the defendant’s innocence and they hid it, it should not only obliterate their case, it should result in firings and prosecutions of the prosecutors.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/judge-to-order-prosecutors-to-look-for-more-evidence-helpful-to-sidney-powell-in-trump-georgia-case-5505008

The Wars of Yom Kippur

By Colonel Ken Allard

Our minister began the service this morning this morning by leading the congregation in an emotional prayer for “the peace of Jerusalem,” exactly as Psalm 122 mandates. “May all who love this city prosper. O Jerusalem may there be peace within your walls.” Why talk about peace after the savage surprise attack by Hamas? With exquisite cruelty, the Hamas outrage began not only on Shabbat, the Israeli Sabbath, but also on the 50^th anniversary of Yom Kippur.

Inevitably, I remembered another Yom Kippur, this one in 1973 when TV was black, white, grainy and often hours or days behind events. Back then, I was a young intelligence officer, deployed close to the heavily militarized border between east and west Germany. Guard towers, minefields, and razor-wire obstacles (supposedly vetted by East German Olympians) marked the death zones. But our greatest concerns were carefully concealed in wood-lines just east of the border region: multiple armored divisions and mobile artillery (lots of it) belonging to the Group of Soviet Forces, Germany. Although their normal wartime mission was to split NATO forces and make a run for the English Channel, in October 1973, they were watching closely to see how American forces would reinforce their Israeli allies.

On that other Yom Kippur, Israel had been badly surprised when they were attacked across the Suez Canal by Egyptian forces; meanwhile, heavily reinforced Syrian armies were attacking across the Golan Heights to threaten the Jewish state from south to north. Because both Arab armies had been armed and supplied by the Soviets, Israel experienced intense electronic warfare as well as the first wide-spread use of precision-guided munitions. These Soviet-based technological advances suddenly seemed capable of offsetting the traditional Israeli advantages in sophisticated battlefield equipment and innovative leadership. Worse yet, the new technologies created logistical nightmares as both sides learned new principles of war: “What can be seen can be hit; and what can be hit can be killed” (often on the first shot). With their client-states as aggressors, the Soviets watched gleefully: How would the US Army react to our first ‘real war’ since Vietnam?

After 50 years of hindsight, I am still astounded by how effective that reaction turned out to be. US logistics were turned upside down as critical equipment meant to deter the Russians was quickly stripped, packed and shipped to Israel. Armor and artillery went by sea from Bremerhaven while ammunition and spare parts flew on giant transports taking off from every US outpost. Although President Nixon had only begun to deal with the Watergate issues that would eventually drive him from office, his leadership under fire insured that Israel would never question the US security commitment. As Israeli forces were smoothly re-equipped, the tide of battle turned as well; daring Israeli counter-attacks in the Sinai and the Golan suddenly threw back Egyptian and Syrian armies. When those counter-attacks threatened Cairo and Damascus, the Russians mobilized their airborne forces to intervene directly; but that threat was countered when the US promptly took its forces to DEFCON 3. Before the crisis finally de-escalated, US and Soviet forces in several theaters stood muzzle-to-muzzle, another Cuban Missile Crisis though never acknowledged as such.  

What does this brief historical review suggest about the current Yom Kippur War? 

• The same Chinese symbol stands for both “crisis and “opportunity” – highlighting the synergy of time and boldness in retaliating effectively. No matter how grievous earlier provocations, Israel has long and bitter experience having its freedom of action curtailed by diplomatic second-guessing. So strike now and strike hard!

• For now, don’t waste precious time now worrying about intelligence failures. Leave all that to future punditry on MSNBC/CNN while taking advantage of the opportunities that any crisis brings. But do not repeat the American experience by failing to purge the intelligence bureaucracy.

• The most important priority for Israel is not a cease-fire but striking hard body-blows, first at Hamas but even more importantly at Iran, the war’s architect and engineer. Above all, destroy the uninterrupted terrorist logistics of both Hamas (south) and Hezbollah (north) even if it means seizing and holding territory.

• Finally, both the Biden White House and the alleged Republican leadership in Congress need to pull their socks up, using support for Israel to re-build bipartisanship. The current confusion can be glimpsed as American naval forces move closer to Israel. While that deployment may delight sailors anticipating future port-calls, if the Pentagon hopes to influence regional events, then promptly re-deploy those ships to locations that more directly threaten Iran.  Why else are they there?

COL (Ret.) Ken Allard is former draftee who became a West Point professor, Dean of the National War College and NBC News military analyst.

Where is U.S. counterterrorism analyst Jade Parker?

There appears to be a mystery concerning the whereabouts of an exceedingly sharp, credentialed U.S. counterterrorism analyst who had tweeted shortly before disappearing that she thought she might have identified the RNC/DNC pipe bomber and his “network” from January 6, 2021.  According to a report in REVOLVER, she has vanished.  This is all we know so far.  Maybe she’ll see this new story and pop up out of nowhere, saying, “Hey, guys, I’m fine!  I was just working undercover!”  Maybe not.

The story at the link offers video of her and some details that are known about what she was working on, involving some very dark, fringy groups.  She had said she didn’t see January 6 as an insurrection.  Rather, she said, it was “a provocation to get people to believe --- and the people on the ground, too --- to believe they’re part of a revolution.  But also, more important than that, to get everyone else to believe there’s an impending civil war.”

FBI whistleblower Kyle Seraphin said that “there’s no reason why we should not have run this person into the ground and found out who it was.  And that person should have been charged.  The only reasonable thing I can think of is:  Somebody doesn’t want that person to be found, and the most likely reason is that person is or was a federal source for some agency at some point.”

Parker’s social media accounts have gone dark, her colleagues didn’t respond to emails, and she herself could not be reached.  Where is she, and what would she tell us about the pipe bomber, three years after the bombs were found?

https://headlineusa.com/exclusive-analyst-vanishes-after-claiming-to-identify-pipe-bomber/

Well-deserved ridicule

It was bad enough that rabid anti-Trump New York Attorney General Letitia James is prosecuting Trump for allegedly overvaluing properties that she’s wildly undervalued. But when she decided to try to turn her ludicrous undervaluations into an Internet meme, she was just asking for the well-deserved ridicule she got.

https://twitchy.com/dougp/2023/10/05/ny-ag-letitia-james-real-estate-appraisal-cred-called-into-question-for-this-mar-a-lago-meme-n2388175

In a related story, after Trump called James a “corrupt attorney general” who is prosecuting him as “a political stunt, a fundraising stunt,” James resorted to playing the victim card. She claimed she’s prosecuting him because “I will not sit idly by and allow anyone to subvert the law.” She declared his criticism of her to be “offensive” and “baseless” and “comments that unfortunately fomented violence, comments that I would describe as race-baiting, comments unfortunately that appeal to the bottom of our humanity,” and she declared, “I will not be bullied.”

https://www.breitbart.com/news/the-donald-trump-show-is-over-new-york-attorney-general/

So to recap: she’s ignoring a historic violent crime wave to try to drive a political opponent into bankruptcy, which is her way of holding everyone equally accountable under the law. For her to run for election on a promise to “get Trump,” then stretch the law like saltwater taffy to do it, is NOT bullying, but him criticizing her for doing that is. Also, it’s racist to criticize her for abusing her power. I mean, just look at how nice Trump is when he talks about white male special counsel Jack Smith.

https://www.breitbart.com/news/the-donald-trump-show-is-over-new-york-attorney-general/

Those claims are like Joe Biden’s German shepherd: not only will that dog not hunt, I hope it eventually bites her in the rear.

The race for Speaker

The race for House Speaker seems to have come down to only two candidates: Jim Jordan and Steve Scalise. Fox News had planned a debate for Monday, but that was canceled. In the meantime, Scalise took to Twitter and Fox News to make his case for getting the gavel.

https://redstate.com/beccalower/2023/10/06/scalise-makes-his-case-shares-the-big-reason-speaker-battle-needs-to-be-resolved-soon-n2164772

Speaking of the Speaker, there are a lot of contradictory opinions on the eight Republicans who ousted McCarthy with the unanimous votes of all the Democrats. This is a good analysis that tells you who they are and how this stand is likely to affect their political fortunes.

https://redstate.com/jenniferoo/2023/10/07/why-the-gang-of-8-who-helped-matt-gaetz-tank-mccarthy-are-toast-n2164767

A court victory for Donald Trump

Donald Trump finally scored a court victory in New York when an appellate judge put a halt on the civil court judge’s overreaching order to cancel his business certificates and dissolve his companies in New York. More details and Trump’s reaction here:

https://redstate.com/beccalower/2023/10/06/trump-organization-hails-appeals-court-ruling-halting-ny-judges-order-dissolving-his-companies-n2164770

Hillary returns

I feel that I must apologize in advance for ruining your Columbus Day weekend by bringing up Hillary Clinton. Unfortunately, she emerged from her voter-enforced retirement for a typically sycophantic CNN interview and said something so outrageous and (as always) lacking in self-awareness that she wormed her way back into the news, so I guess I have to tell you about it. I’ll try to make it as short as possible, and then we’ll move on to more pleasant subjects, like inflation and the Ukraine war.

Hillary started by claiming that the man who beat her for the Presidency and may be elected again next year, Donald Trump, is an “authoritarian populist” who has no credibility because he’s fighting criminal and civil charges (again with the lack of self-awareness: Trump is only facing those charges because her Party has weaponized the “justice” system to prosecute political opponents, something Trump could have done to her with real justification; but he took the high road and said that in America, we don’t do that. Of course, we do it now, thanks to her Party.)

She then went on to make the clueless comment that’s getting the most negative attention she’s received since calling half of America a “basket of deplorables.” She painted Trump’s supporters as a cult of bigots who "maybe they don't like migrants, maybe they don't like gay people, or Black people, or the woman who got the promotion at work they didn't get" (more projection: she’s the woman who didn’t get the promotion she thought she deserved.) She called them “MAGA extremists” and said, “at some point, you know, maybe there needs to be a formal deprogramming of the cult members.”

https://www.foxnews.com/media/hillary-clinton-floats-formal-deprogramming-trump-supporters-suggests-gop-base-bigots

Nothing says you oppose authoritarianism like claiming that half the population should be put into reeducation camps.

As for her other blatant acts of projection: if anyone’s followers are an unthinking cult who overlook nastiness, it would be hers. Trump’s campaign slogan was “Make America Great Again.” That was all about helping Americans. In their attempt to smear his supporters, leftists sneer the acronym “Maga,” but never dare say what it stands for. And do you remember Hillary’s campaign slogan? It was “I’m with Her.” Nothing about what she wanted to do to help the nation or her fellow Americans, but about others pledging eternal fealty to her – you know, like cultists do for cult leaders.

Hillary lost in 2016 for a number of reasons: her coldness and arrogance; her record of tragic failures and scandals (Benghazi), her nepotism, her habits of rule- and law-breaking and enriching herself through bribes disguised as charity donations, and more.  But what truly sealed the deal and convinced many voters to roll the dice on Trump was her inability to disguise how utterly contemptuous and out of touch she is with regular working Americans. Like many cult leaders, she thought she had a divine right to rule us all (recall that horrifying children’s book about her, “Some Girls Are Born To Lead,” which one Amazon reviewer facetiously praised as a “genuinely funny” satire of Soviet-style hagiographies.)

Hillary might think that she’s helping Biden defeat Trump, but all she’s doing is reminding Americans of why they voted for Trump and why that was the correct decision, and that all the endless anti-Trump media propaganda since shouldn't convince them otherwise.

Okay, I’m done with this unpleasant subject, except to link to this palate cleanser from the Babylon Bee…

https://babylonbee.com/news/elderly-woman-escapes-nursing-home-rants-about-deprogramming-the-populace

One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: "Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent."

Acts, 18:9

Message to Readers: I wish things were different

I wrote last month about an investigation into all the liberal groups that fund and feed “information” to the A.P., and how that helps to explain why so many “news stories” on subjects like “climate change” read like activist group press releases. From those stories, you’d think there is no other viewpoint other than turned-up-to-11 hysteria. 

Unfortunately, if I summarize the stories for you, it will possibly result in my newsletter being demonetized or blocked or having our ads removed by certain Internet “gatekeepers” who have decided that their views are the only objective truths allowed to be aired in public. This is why, if you’d like to help pay my staffers so that we can keep bringing you the real stories every American needs to know, you should subscribe to the Substack version. Just click here:

Subscribe to The Morning Edition (substack.com)

You’ll find subscription plans as low as $3 a month for the full newsletter with exclusive subscriber-only content, no gatekeeper censorship, and no ads. Plus, you get a 20% discount on “Huckabee” merchandise, so unlike an electric car, it really does pay for itself! But sorry, no government subsidies.

I email daily and my politics newsletters usually take 10-15 minutes to read. I cover the news of the day and the liberal media. I write about the upcoming elections and dive deep on the Biden scandals. I will also share my opinion of the Trump indictments. I don’t think you will regret supporting a reporting of the facts, not the liberal bias the mainstream media gives you these days!

With gratitude,

Mike Huckabee

Subscribe to The Morning Edition (substack.com)

More totally unsurprising news:

World Aquatics has scrapped plans for a new “open” swimming race category that would allow “transgender” athletes to compete against each other. It seems that absolutely nobody signed up. I guess it’s just no fun if you have to actually compete on a level playing field instead of stealing trophies from the girls.

https://twitchy.com/laura-w/2023/10/04/swimming-world-cup-scraps-plan-for-open-races-due-to-lack-of-participants-n2388129

Funniest Story of the Day!

The Grace Hopper Celebration, a leftist employment conference which bills itself as the “largest networking opportunity for women and ‘non-binary’ in technology,” was shocked and outraged after a group of “cisgender” men grabbed a lot of the discounted academic tickets, jammed the presentation booths, and took up a lot of the job interview slots. They reportedly claimed they “identified” as female or non-binary.

https://redstate.com/streiff/2023/10/04/men-punk-a-leftist-women-only-tech-employment-conference-by-registering-as-non-binary-n2164675

The head of the organizing group put out a message, saying, “We tried to create a safe space, and this week we saw the outside world creep in. This makes me angry, and it makes me sad, but mostly it makes me want to fight.”

Wait, is she threatening self-proclaimed trans and non-binary people? Who is she to deny their personal truths and misgender them?! Haven’t we all learned from people like her that if you say you’re female or “non-binary,” you ARE, and it’s an act of hate and violence to question that?

I’d say these folks were “hoisted by their own petards,” but I don’t want to misgender them by assuming they have petards.

By the way, this story shows how hard it is for the satirists at The Babylon Bee to stay ahead of how crazy the real world has become.

https://babylonbee.com/news/genius-frugal-family-poses-as-illegal-immigrants-to-get-free-hotel-oom-in-nyc

Elvis Chan’s latest subpoena:  “Elvis...has...left the building!” AGAIN!

A couple of weeks ago, Margot Cleveland wrote an article listing questions that Congress should ask Elvis Chan when he came in for a subpoenaed interview that was scheduled to take place on September 21.  Chan had previously been asked to appear voluntarily to face questions about his role in suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story before the 2020 election, but that meeting had, as the mainstream media like to say, “fallen through.”

Cleveland’s article was written on September 20, when it was thought (ha!) that Chan might actually show up, considering the fact that he’d been subpoenaed this time.  In her words, “...[Chan] is first in line to untangling the truth about how the government interfered in the 2020 election by running an info op to convince voters that Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation.  Given Chan’s testimony in the civil lawsuit brought by Missouri and Louisiana and several individual plaintiffs in Missouri v. Biden, as well as since-uncovered documents from Facebook, the importance of questioning Chan cannot be overstated.”

According to Chan’s deposition in the Missouri v. Biden case, he was one of the “primary” FBI agents who communicated with social media companies about so-called “disinformation.”  Specifically, “during the 2020 election cycle, Chan [head of the San Francisco field office] coordinated meetings between the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) and at least seven of the major tech giants, including Meta/Facebook, Twitter, Google/YouTube, Yahoo!/Verizon Media, and Microsoft/LinkedIn,” with meetings occurring weekly as the election neared.”

Chan had testified that the FBI had discussed with top officials at these various tech companies the likelihood of a potential “hack-and-leak” operation taking place before the 2020 election.  This would purportedly have been something similar to the so-called Russian “hack-and-leak” --- note that there has NEVER been any actual evidence of a hack --- of the Democratic National Committee hack and WikiLeaks release of internal DNC emails.  (It seems that they followed one made-up “hack-and-leak story with another.  Funny how they use the same well-worn pages of their playbook over and over.)

As Cleveland described in detail, Chan also identified specific agents involved in these discussions.  He claimed not to recall, however, whether anyone within the FBI suggested that he personally raise the possibility with tech giants of something like this happening.  These words, said under oath, would come back to haunt him and are likely the reason why he’s dodging subpoenas now.

Even back then, the FBI had already known for almost a year that Hunter’s laptop was the real deal, that he had abandoned it at John Paul Mac Isaac’s computer store, and that the material on it was genuine.  They even HAD CONFISCATED IT from Mac Isaac.  And, according to the sworn testimony of IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley before the House Ways and Means Committee, they had verified the laptop’s authenticity by matching it to Biden’s iCloud ID in November 2019.  So they were lying to the social media companies.

We know from Chan’s testimony in Missouri v. Biden that he had served as supervisor for the team that investigated the so-called DNC hack until the San Francisco office handed it off to FBI headquarters.  (Wouldn’t it be nice to question him further about THAT.)  And just as there was no evidence of that DNC hack --- it may very well have been an inside job; hope we find out --- there also was no specific intelligence suggesting there were any plans for a Hunter laptop-type scenario.  But the warning about this coming “Russian disinformation” was disseminated anyway, thanks to the protective eye of our ever-watchful FBI, “prompting Twitter and Facebook to censor the Hunter Biden laptop story following the NEW YORK POST’s story breaking.”

Details about this that Chan did not include in his deposition were included by one of the other agents involved.  It was Section Chief Laura Dehmlow’s testimony before the House that revealed what happened when somebody from Twitter asked if the Hunter laptop story was real.  As we’ve reported, an analyst in the FBI Criminal Investigative Division managed to say “Yes, it was,” but then an FBI attorney broke in on the conversation to say, “No further comment.”  That became the go-to reply by FBI officials when they were asked about this later.

Chan claimed in his testimony that he was not aware of other inquiries from social media companies about the Hunter laptop.  But House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said last month that his committee had received internal Facebook documents that contradict that testimony.  A number of questions need to be resolved.

In Cleveland’s words, “Knowing who knew the laptop story was accurate but still fed the hack-and-leak hysteria will point to the players responsible for interfering in the 2020 election by silencing the truthful reporting of the Hunter Biden laptop story.”

As it happened, of course, Elvis Chan never showed up for his September 21 testimony.  (The next day, this newsletter summed up his failure to appear in “Elvis...has...left the building!”)  Here’s the link to Cleveland’s piece from the day before his no-show, when getting some answers from him seemed at least a possibility.

https://thefederalist.com/2023/09/20/what-congress-should-ask-the-fbi-agent-involved-in-censoring-hunter-biden-laptop-story/

So why is this important today?  Well, after failing to show up for his first subpoenaed testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Chan was rescheduled to come in Thursday of this week.  And once again, he didn’t show.  According to the DAILY CALLER, Chan was “nowhere to be found.”  Elvis has left the building, AGAIN.

Russel Dye, a spokesperson for the committee, said, “Everything is on the table for Mr. Chan, including contempt.”

In deciding not to show up, Chan had to choose between two possible outcomes:  contempt if he didn’t show up, perjury if he did.  If they want to charge him with contempt, they’ve got to find him first.

https://twitter.com/Jim_Jordan/status/1688553339624042496

If he appeared before the committee, Chan would have to try to resolve his testimony in Biden v. Missouri with those internal Facebook documents that suggest he lied under oath about conversations he had with them about the laptop before the election.  And, really, there seems to be no way to do that.

If Jim Jordan is going to become Speaker of the House --- and let’s keep our fingers crossed --- one of the best parting gifts he could offer as he leaves the Judiciary Committee would be to hold no-shows like Elvis Chan in contempt when they defy a subpoena.  If you or I defied a subpoena and failed to appear, we’d hear that jail door clang shut in no time.  We KNOW that any Trump official would, no matter how solid his reason for not testifying. Chan has now skipped out on three interviews, two of them subpoenaed.  Republicans are going to have to get tough about this if they want to get to the bottom of corruption within the FBI and DOJ.  This avoidance reaction shows we’re over the target.  Republicans finally have subpoena power, but what good is it if it isn’t enforced?

https://dailycaller.com/2023/10/05/fbi-agent-lying-hunter-biden-laptop-dodges-testimony

RELATED:  You know that wealthy Hollywood entertainment lawyer Kevin Morris, known affectionately (or not) as Hunter’s “sugar brother,” resolved Hunter’s massive tax bill and also paid a reported $20,000 a month in rent for Hunter’s Malibu beach house.  In an update, Morris is continuing to pay a significant portion of Hunter’s mounting legal bills, which have exceeded $10 million since 2018 and are growing at about $1 million each month.  And now that his “sweetheart” deal isn’t happening, he’s facing a trial.  A very expensive trial.

But a source close to Hunter told the DAILY CALLER that it’s Morris who is encouraging Hunter to fight, especially against the ongoing investigations by House Republicans.  It was Morris who advised Hunter to hire big-time DC attorney Abbe Lowell, and that takes some serious bacon.  But he presumably is getting some fabulous paintings in return...

https://dailycaller.com/2023/10/04/hollywood-attorney-hunter-biden-helping-legal-bills

President Trump endorses Jim Jordan for Speaker

The latest news in the race for a new House Speaker is that this morning, Donald Trump endorsed Jim Jordan. That’s good news for Jordan but bad news for those who were hoping Trump would get the job, if for no other reason than to see him standing over Nancy Pelosi with a gavel in his hand.

https://www.westernjournal.com/trump-breaks-silence-lawmaker-won-complete-total-endorsement-speaker-role/

I’m sure Rep. Jordan would make a great Speaker, and that was confirmed for me when I heard that the panel on “The View” is going berserk over the idea. Sunny Hostin railed that Jordan is a “terrorist” and a “chaos agent” (this is even better than Trump’s endorsement!), and she claimed that when he appeared on “The View,” “He immediately was screaming and yelling and terrorized me and the other experts on the panel.”

https://twitchy.com/brettt/2023/10/05/sunny-hostin-recalls-when-jim-jordan-terrorized-the-panel-of-the-view-n2388181

First of all, I find that very hard to believe. If he raised his voice at all, it was probably just to be heard over all the simultaneous shrieking by the hosts. Secondly, I think the fact that she called the panel on “The View” “experts” tells us that we can pretty much disregard anything else she said.

Finally, if you need any further reason to support Jim Jordan beyond Trump endorsing him and “The View” condemning him, this should seal the deal: Liz Cheney warned that if Jordan becomes Speaker, it will spell the end of the Constitution because…uh, something about January 6^th, of course.

https://redstate.com/bonchie/2023/10/05/liz-cheney-jumps-into-the-speaker-fight-to-deliver-a-desperate-warning-n2164730

Another Biden flip-flop

The Biden White House, stung by the bipartisan disapproval of their open-borders invasion of America, did a surprise 180 this week. First, they re-started construction on the border wall Biden originally wanted destroyed; and now, they’ve actually announced plans to restart deportations of illegal migrants from Venezuela.

https://www.westernjournal.com/biden-continues-immigration-reversal-big-deportation-announcement/

Does anyone else think it’s odd that of all the people they’ve let into the US, the only ones they’re deporting are a German homeschooling Christian family and people who left Venezuela because they hate socialism?

 I JUST WANTED TO SAY: 

Thank you for reading my newsletter. 

For more news, visit my website.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

Proverbs 3:5

Certain Internet “gatekeepers” have decided my newsletter's fate...

I wrote recently about an investigation into all the liberal groups that fund and feed “information” to the A.P., and how that helps to explain why so many “news stories” on subjects like “climate change” read like activist group press releases. From those stories, you’d think there is no other viewpoint other than turned-up-to-11 hysteria. But that’s not at all true, as this story shows.

https://tinyurl.com/45rjrvwm

Unfortunately, if I summarize that story for you, it would possibly result in this newsletter being demonetized or blocked or having our ads removed by certain Internet “gatekeepers” who have decided that their views are the only objective truths allowed to be aired in public. This is why, if you’d like to help pay my staffers so that we can keep bringing you the real stories every American needs to know, you should subscribe to the Substack version. Just click here:

https://govmikehuckabee. substack.com/subscribe

You’ll find subscription plans as low as $3 a month for the full newsletter with exclusive subscriber-only content, no gatekeeper censorship, and no ads. Plus, you get a 20% discount on “Huckabee” merchandise, so unlike an electric car, it really does pay for itself! But sorry, no government subsidies.

I email daily and my politics newsletters usually take 10-15 minutes to read. I cover the news of the day and the liberal media. I write about the upcoming elections and dive deep on the Biden scandals. I will also share my opinion of the Trump indictments. I don’t think you will regret supporting a reporting of the facts, not the liberal bias the mainstream media gives you these days!

With gratitude,

Mike Huckabee

https://govmikehuckabee. substack.com/subscribe

It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.

Psalms 118:8 KJV

The second GOP primary debate

Last night, Fox Business News aired the second GOP primary debate, featuring seven of the candidates, but not Donald Trump, who is leading in polls by over 40 points and continues to ignore the debates.

Given that fact, and how badly done that debate was, I’m not sure how much space my readers want me to spend on it. So I’ll just give you a few general impressions, report on the reactions, point you to more if you want it, and move on to other things.

First of all, I think the two biggest impressions left on most viewers were of candidates talking loudly and unintelligibly over each other and moderators asking the dumbest questions since “The Newlywed Game.” Nobody covered him/herself in glory, but worst of all was moderator Ilia Calderon of Univision, who seemed to be asking questions straight out of a DNC email. With all the horrendous disasters of the Biden Administration that should have been addressed, she kept asking questions like, how will you help the Dreamers, or how will you reduce “gun violence”?

The obvious answer to that should have been, “No gun ever committed violence. Violence is committed by criminals, sometimes using guns that are almost exclusively obtained illegally, which is why gun control laws mostly disarm law-abiding citizens. Since statistics show that what you call ‘gun violence’ occurs almost exclusively in Democrat-run cities where criminals are set free over and over to prey on innocent citizens, the most effective thing people can do to stop it is to vote Democrats out of office and let Republicans run places like Chicago, New York, Detroit, Baltimore and L.A. for a change. Next question.”

And while I love Dana Perino, one embarrassing question blew up in her face when she asked the candidates to say which of them should be “voted off the island” “Survivor”-style. They all refused to answer and Ron DeSantis rightly called the question “disrespectful.” I’ve said before that these are not debates, they’re a TV game show, and this was the most obvious example of it yet.

As to who did the best job, it’s hard to say. DeSantis seemed to be the most controlled adult in the room (that includes the moderators), and he did a good job of addressing the threat of China and correcting Calderon for repeating Kamala Harris’ lie about Florida’s black history curriculum. His performance was probably good enough to keep him hanging in as the solid second choice, but he didn’t have any standout moments that might cause his support to jump. Ramaswamy did a good job of staying positive and not attacking the others. And North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum barely got a word in but was good when he did. His own opinion of the debate was no higher than mine.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/09/28/doug-burgum-rips-fox-univision-debate-the-american-people-lost-tonight/

A couple of the candidates tried one-line zingers that fell flat (Tip: hire comedy writers who know your personality well enough to craft jokes that work coming out of your mouth and don't make the audience cringe.)

With possibly the most important election in American history looming, and a three-year Biden record of not just failure but willful destruction of the nation that should have been the main focus, we mostly got candidates fielding dumb questions straight off cue cards from “The View” and attacking one another at headache-inducing volume. The whole evening was perhaps best exemplified by the moment when Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy started yelling over each other about curtains. I kid you not.

https://www.westernjournal.com/gop-debate-contenders-insist-trump-shown-heated-exchange-curtains/

(One commentator mentioned that Haley’s best moment was telling Ramaswamy, "Every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say." But this was undercut when it was noted that his book carries a blurb praising his vision and intellect from…Nikki Haley.)

Some of the terms pundits used to describe the debate included “unwatchable,” “idiotic” and “hot mess.” Many said the winner was Donald Trump for not showing up, while the Babylon Bee declared that the winner was “the mute button.” A couple of live bloggers from PJ Media suggested for the next debate shock collars for the candidates when they talk over someone else whose turn it is, and stronger shock collars for the moderators when they repeat leftist talking points. If that sounds cruel, it’s nicer than Chris Queen’s suggestion of trap doors under the podiums. Another commentator had the line of the night when he tweeted when it was over that he couldn’t wait to go into the bathroom, light some candles, dim the lights and slip into a nice hot bath with his wife’s hair dryer.

Fox News has reactions from prominent conservatives…

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/conservatives-pundits-name-winners-losers-2nd-gop-debate

Redstate.com condensed the evening into seven particularly wild moments…

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/spencerbrown/2023/09/28/seven-cant-miss-moments-from-the-second-gop-debate-n2629055

Here’s what Fox Business News thinks were five “breakout moments” (I don’t think they mean breaking out in yelling; there were far more than five of those)…

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/republican-debate-highlights-5-key-moments-gop-brawl-california

Breitbart.com had an excellent live running commentary that summed it all up well in the moment...

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/09/27/gop-debate-livewire-trump-to-meet-striking-autoworkers-as-7-other-candidates-debate-in-california/

This is the Daily Caller’s take…

https://dailycaller.com/2023/09/28/republican-primary-debate-recap-ramaswamy-desantis-haley-california/

And for true masochists, here’s the entire debate streaming online. You’ll need a cable TV subscription to sign in, but I’m sure it’s worth the money. Just remember to keep your finger on the mute button…

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6337443912112

Trump in Michigan

Former President Trump didn’t attend the GOP debate or even watch it. He was speaking to striking UAW auto workers in Michigan. Trump praised them as the people “who built this country” and who make it run. He said, “I put everything on the line to fight for you. I have risked it all to defend the working class from the corrupt political class that has spent decades sucking the life, wealth, and blood out of this country. That’s why I’m here tonight to lay out a vision for a revival of economic nationalism.”

https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2023/09/27/trump-in-michigan-you-built-this-country/

His elitist critics will look at that, see the word “nationalism” and call him a fascist, while I suspect the working people in the crowd who’ve been hammered by Bidenflation and stagnant wage growth will get what he’s saying. This is why they ignore the partisan indictments. They've learned to have zero respect for the people behind them, and Trump is very clear in reminding them of why.

While Trump didn’t watch the debate, he did offer a reaction to Chris Christie calling him “Donald Duck” (“Duck,” get it? He “ducked” the debate!...Is this an audience or an oil painting?) Trump offered a deadly rejoinder based on one of his most notable skills:

“Anyone that would come up with that nickname shouldn’t be running for President.”

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/trump-fires-back-gop-opponents-take-turns-bashing-him-republican-debate

Biden tried to steal Trump’s thunder, it didn’t work out too well

The day before Trump spoke to striking auto workers in Michigan, President Biden attempted to steal his thunder by showing up to walk the picket line with them. It was a move that I’d call highly inappropriate. It’s one thing to take sides in a major labor dispute when you’re a candidate, but when you’re the President and ostensibly in charge of the Labor Department, you should try at least to pretend to stay above taking sides. But then, Biden has never been shy about proclaiming that he’s owned 100% by labor unions.

Still, many of the workers who spoke to reporters weren’t impressed by Biden’s political theater. His visit was just a brief stopover on his way to a big bucks fundraiser, and they know his push for electric cars is killing their jobs just as his economy is killing their budgets. It was notable that during his visit, he failed even to mention his EV mandates. Also worth noting: all the CO2 spewed by Air Force One to take him on this trip to suck up to autoworkers who’ve been hurt by his campaign to force everyone else to cut their CO2 emissions.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/09/26/joe-biden-fails-to-mention-his-china-friendly-electric-vehicle-mandates-in-visit-with-striking-auto-workers/

I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:13

Certain Internet “gatekeepers” have decided my newsletter's fate...

I wrote recently about an investigation into all the liberal groups that fund and feed “information” to the A.P., and how that helps to explain why so many “news stories” on subjects like “climate change” read like activist group press releases. From those stories, you’d think there is no other viewpoint other than turned-up-to-11 hysteria. But that’s not at all true, as this story shows.

https://tinyurl.com/45rjrvwm

Unfortunately, if I summarize that story for you, it would possibly result in this newsletter being demonetized or blocked or having our ads removed by certain Internet “gatekeepers” who have decided that their views are the only objective truths allowed to be aired in public. This is why, if you’d like to help pay my staffers so that we can keep bringing you the real stories every American needs to know, you should subscribe to the Substack version. Just click here:

https://govmikehuckabee. substack.com/subscribe

You’ll find subscription plans as low as $3 a month for the full newsletter with exclusive subscriber-only content, no gatekeeper censorship, and no ads. Plus, you get a 20% discount on “Huckabee” merchandise, so unlike an electric car, it really does pay for itself! But sorry, no government subsidies.

I email daily and my politics newsletters usually take 10-15 minutes to read. I cover the news of the day and the liberal media. I write about the upcoming elections and dive deep on the Biden scandals. I will also share my opinion of the Trump indictments. I don’t think you will regret supporting a reporting of the facts, not the liberal bias the mainstream media gives you these days!

With gratitude,

Mike Huckabee

https://govmikehuckabee. substack.com/subscribe

The Hunter/Menendez connection; Gal Luft gives new evidence to impeachment inquiry

First a recap and update:  Yesterday, we included a story that suggested a tie between Hunter Biden and newly indicted Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, not really knowing what the significance might be.  The news also broke that Menendez had hired the same lawyer, Abbe Lowell of the Democrat powerhouse firm of Winston & Strawn LLP, who is Hunter’s lead defense attorney in the tax/finance case supposedly being investigated by Special Counsel David Weiss.  Lowell is the same attorney who got him off with a hung jury the last time he went to trial.

https://dailycaller.com/2023/09/25/bob-menendez-hires-hunter-bidens-lawyer-bribery-defense/

But today, it’s reported that a 2010 email from Hunter’s infamous laptop, uncovered by the non-profit investigative group Marco Polo, raises questions about the extent of Sen. Menendez’ connection to the Bidens.

In this email, Menendez’ chief of staff, Danny O’Brien taps Hunter Biden and his former business partner Eric Schwerin with a request for --- what else? --- access to the Big Guy, a.k.a. Vice President Biden.

The email apparently was written after Joe Biden’s office had already turned down a request to give the keynote speech for the “United States – Spain Council’s Annual Forum” in July 2010.  (And this was long before he started “putting a lid on the day” at 4PM or whenever.)  O’Brien asked Hunter and Schwerin to extend an invitation to VP Biden to please do this.

Details on this developing story are at the link.  As HeadlineUSA.com reports, “The contents of the email, dated April 7, 2019, reveal that Menendez had already established a backchannel through Hunter.  It is not immediately clear how or when Menendez’ office began communicating with Hunter’s associate.”

https://headlineusa.com/menendezs-backdoor-access-to-biden-uncovered-in-hunter-emails/

Now to the main story:  One of the more obscure names in the Biden corruption investigation is Gal Luft, the Israeli professor and former Israel Defense Forces officer who has been a fugitive for six months after skipping bail in Cyprus, where he’d been awaiting extradition on what he has said are bogus arms-dealing and foreign lobbying charges.  Luft has reached out to the House impeachment inquiry with new evidence.

In an open letter to House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer of Kentucky, Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan of Ohio, and Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith of Missouri, the three who are heading the impeachment inquiry, he told them that the very same day (July 30, 2017) Hunter gave an ultimatum to CEFC executive Raymond Zhao (recall the threatening message on WhatsApp, with Hunter saying his dad was sitting right there next to him), an FBI mole dubbed “One-Eye” --- you can’t make this stuff up --- tipped off Hunter and his Chinese partners that the partners had been named in four sealed indictments by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.

According to Luft, CEFC executive Patrick Ho, who was staying in a Manhattan hotel at the time, received an urgent phone call later that night from CEFC president Chan Chauto in Shanghai, telling him to leave the U.S. immediately.  Ho flew to Hong Kong the next day and remained there for four months.  On September 10, 2017, Hunter would sign an attorney engagement letter agreeing to represent Ho for a $1 million retainer.

Luft says that sometime in September, Hunter and his uncle Jim flew to Hong Kong to meet with Ho.  They asked him to buy two “burner” iPhones for them before telling him the coast was clear to fly back to New York.  But wherever they got that idea, they were wrong!  When Ho landed at JFK Airport in November, he was arrested on charges of bribery and money laundering.  The first call he made after his arrest was to Jim Biden, looking for Hunter.  Hunter asked another lawyer, Edward Kim, to do the legal work, possibly because Hunter was too busy smoking crack.  We made that last part up, but it might very well be true; who knows?

Later that day, Kim emailed Hunter asking him to “find the names of the FBI agents you spoke with, that would be helpful.”  Hunter replied, “Working on it.”  “The FBI agents”??

On the same day as Hunter’s “shakedown” WhatsApp message, Zhao told him in a follow-up message that “CEFC is willing to cooperate with the family.  [Aside:  note his choice of words, “the family.”]  He thinks now the priority is to solve the problem mentioned last night.”  Luft believes “the problem” refers to the indictments by the Southern District of New York.   As you know, within 9 days of this shakedown by Hunter, CEFC would wire $5.1 million to entities in the U.S. to transfer to Hunter.

In his letter to the committees, Luft wrote, “The existence of a potential mole within the FBI and/or Justice Department who conveyed to Chinese individuals information about sealed indictments has, apparently, to this day never been solved.  Perhaps Congress should investigate the issue as part of its impeachment inquiry.”  Perhaps indeed.

Comer said that Luft’s letter was “helpful,” and that he looked forward to investigating Luft’s allegations of an FBI mole.  His committee, he added, would like to interview Luft.

According to Miranda Devine, the timing of Luft’s emergence is fortuitous, because the impeachment inquiry that begins this Thursday will focus on the Bidens’ business relationships in China.  “Comer,” she says, “is set to reveal two new tranches of evidence this week, including a new Chinese wire to Biden family members and new documents provided by the IRS whistleblowers.

Democrats smeared Chairman Comer in June for wanting to interview Luft, saying Luft was “a Chinese spy” because of his association with CEFC.  (We would add that the Bidens also had an association with CEFC; what does that make THEM?)  Comer had this comeback: “All I know is that [Luft] was getting money from the same company the Bidens were getting money from...is the President’s son a Chinese spy?  They took money from the same company.”

To that, Rep. Dan Goldman of New York, who in his reflexive dishonesty is gaining a reputation as the perfect new spokesperson for the Democrat Party, actually said, “Who cares if they had money from the same company?”

Great report; recommended highly...

https://nypost.com/2023/09/25/offering-dirt-on-hunter-bidens-fbi-mole/

Miranda appeared on Monday’s HANNITY TV show, saying she sees this as “another piece of the jigsaw puzzle slotted into place.”

What we’ve just learned, she explained, is the timing of Hunter’s “shakedown” message to CEFC.  It was the same day that Chinese business partner Patrick Ho got tipped off to drop everything and get out of America immediately.  Too bad the whole Biden family didn’t do that; think what it would’ve saved the country from.

Hannity had another segment to discuss Sen. Menendez, now that he’s been charged with taking bribes for working on behalf of Egypt.  Guests Clay Travis and Gregg Jarrett talked about this, with Jarrett saying, “Even a top lawyer like Abbe Lowell will not be able to help Bob Menendez weasel out of this one.”

This is in large part because the fingerprints of his co-defendant are on the envelopes filled with cash that were found in his house.  Plus, the gold bars have serial numbers that are also linked to his co-defendant.  And there’s much more, not the least of which is that he’s not a Biden (never mind the similarities in the allegations).  Even Perry Mason couldn’t get this client off.

Note: Menendez claimed that the $480,000 in cash the FBI found in his house is his own savings, taken out of the bank over the years and stashed away for “emergencies” because “of the history of my family facing confiscation in Cuba.” I fear government confiscation of my money, too, because of Democrats like him, but that doesn’t hold water as an excuse. Aside from DNA and fingerprint evidence, and the unexplained gold bars, Menendez was born in New York five years before the communist revolution in Cuba.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/menendez-ripped-by-critics-after-shameless-defense-of-keeping-over-400k-in-cash-in-his-home-so-corrupt/ar-AA1hfdv1

His excuse is being met with widespread mockery, with some saying it’s ridiculous even by New Jersey political standards. But Menendez insists that he will be exonerated and remain Senator, adding, "The court of public opinion is no substitute for our revered justice system. We cannot set aside the presumption of innocence for political expediency when the harm is irrevocable."

I agree, and I will defend even his right to the presumption of innocence, but come on, you’ve gotta give me something work with!

 I JUST WANTED TO SAY: 

Thank you for reading my newsletter. 

For more news, visit my website.

Menendez press conference

Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez will hold his first press conference today after being charged Friday by the FBI with accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in the form of cash, gold bars, etc. He’s expected to announce that he’s running for reelection.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bob-menendez-announce-re-election-bid-new-jersey-1st-public-appearance-post-indictment-report

I have a suggested campaign slogan: “Menendez: The gold standard of Senators.”  

In other news, Menendez has hired Hunter Biden’s attorneys to represent him. That might be the most predictable news of the day.

https://dailycaller.com/2023/09/25/bob-menendez-hires-hunter-bidens-lawyer-bribery-defense/

Unprecedented move

In an unprecedented move for a sitting President, Joe Biden will go to Michigan Tuesday and walk in the picket line of striking UAW auto workers. If you’re looking for the union label, you’ll find it tattooed on Joe’s backside, and it reads, “Property of the UAW.”

https://nypost.com/2023/09/22/biden-to-join-the-picket-line-with-uaw-strikers/

For the record, I think the striking workers have legitimate beefs. I also think that the union bosses are making ridiculous demands, like a 40% raise and a 32-hour work week at a time when new cars already cost more than houses used to and most Americans can’t afford one. Both sides need to compromise, and it doesn't help to have the President of the United States taking sides in the name of political theater.

That linked story includes reaction from the Trump campaign, which claims Biden is only coming there because Trump plans to visit the striking workers on Wednesday, and Democrats are terrified that union workers will realize Biden’s push to force everyone into EVs is costing them jobs. Oh, I'd be surprised if they didn't know that already.

Trump poll gains, cause Biden White House to panic, Part II

I always urge people not to put stock in early polls, which can change on a dime. But this one might explain why Democrats are suddenly looking as panicky about Joe Biden being their 2024 presidential candidate as they would be about him being their Uber driver.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/09/24/wapo-abc-poll-trump-takes-commanding-10-point-lead-over-biden/

The Washington Post/ABC News poll (so not a rightwing outfit) shows that despite years of constant media attacks and all those unprecedented indictments, Donald Trump now has a 10-point lead over Biden. Trump leads 52-42%, and by 13 points among Independents. Other polls show the race much closer, so this is an outlier, but for a party that seems to care about nothing but retaining power (see John Fetterman), it must be setting off alarms at DNC headquarters.

Beyond the Trump lead, which some might be skeptical of, the poll also shows Biden’s approval/disapproval number at 37/56% and his ratings for handling the economy and immigration at all-time lows. Over 70% say the economy is poor or not-so-good, 87% say the same about gas and energy prices, and 91% say the same about food prices. Asked to assess how Trump did the job of President, 48% approved. That sounds low, but it’s 10 points higher than when he left office, and higher than at any point during his presidency, when the media relentlessly bashed everything he said and did while pushing fake anti-Trump news like Russian collusion.

It all goes to prove what I always say: Nothing makes Republicans look good like just a few years of Democrats being in charge.

But while Biden may be in the dog house, neither party is free of that wet dog smell as far as voters are concerned. Another new poll by the Pew Research Center found that Americans are fed up with both parties and like their government about as much as they’d like a sleazy used car salesman selling them a Yugo filled with cockroaches that are carrying COVID.

https://www.axios.com/2023/09/19/poll-us-political-system-crisis-trust-unfavorable-pew

Just 16% trust the government “at least most of the time,” which is near a 70-year low. The top two words they think of to describe politics are “divisive” and “corrupt.” Four times as many Americans have unfavorable views of both parties as in 2002, an all-time high, and that includes 37% of 18- to 29-year-olds. 87% of Republicans and 85% of Democrats believe both parties are more focused on fighting each other than on solving problems. 87% support term limits and 79% want age limits on politicians. And when asked to describe the biggest problem with politics, 37% said “politicians.” I’m surprised it was that low.

This may be the first poll where “Pew!” is both the name of the poll taker and the reaction of most of the respondents. 

As a further reminder not to take these polls too seriously, here’s a piece by Jon Gabriel of Richochet.com, reminding us that political conditions can change in a day, the race might not be between Trump and Biden at all, and the vast majority of Americans don’t even start thinking about politics until after Labor Day of the election year, if they can possibly help it.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2023/09/23/2024-election-lineup-trump-biden-not-set-voters/70920052007/

Backing away

It’s interesting to see how quickly Democrat politicians in New York City and State are backing away from being “sanctuaries” and passing “right to shelter” laws, once the illegal immigrants Biden is letting in by the millions actually started showing up and expecting shelter.

https://headlineusa.com/nyc-mayor-begins-kicking-illegals-out-after-short-lived-right-to-shelter/

Seems they forgot to explain this before, but the “right to shelter” is only a temporary right, good for 60 days at most. I thought rights were God-given, but apparently, with this right, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.

Fact-Check Fails 

Memo to Ukrainian President Zelinskyy and Canada’s Parliament and Prime Minister: If you don’t want people thinking you’re anti-Semites, do a background check to make sure you’re not giving a standing ovation to a former Nazi soldier.

https://www.westernjournal.com/trudeau-zelenskyy-lead-parliament-standing-ovation-waffen-ss-soldier/

Also, memo to CNN: Before you accuse Rep. Matt Gaetz of twice voting against a defense appropriations bill during a live TV interview, you might want to check twice...or even once..to make sure that’s true. It isn’t.

https://www.westernjournal.com/matt-gaetz-humiliates-cnn-anchor-fact-checking-live-tv/

Joe Biden gaffe of the day (but the day is young yet)… 

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2023/09/25/joe-biden-cant-seem-to-stop-using-this-racist-word-n1729644

Nothing but the facts for Rev. Al

In calling for more gun bans, Al Sharpton declared on MSNBC that he’s shocked by people who won’t give up their AR-15 rifles, saying, “People cannot do mass killings unless they have mass instruments.”

https://www.breitbart.com/2nd-amendment/2023/09/24/fact-check-al-sharpton-says-no-mass-killings-without-mass-instruments/

Breitbart.com fact-checked that claim and ruled it false. In fact, mass killers are almost twice as likely to use handguns as long guns of any kind, a category that includes shotguns and all rifles. They also noted that mass killers don’t even require a gun of any kind, like Darryl Brooks Jr., who ran down multiple people and killed six with a car during a parade in Milwaukee; the terrorist in France who killed 86 people with a truck; and the September 11^th terrorists, who killed nearly 3,000 people with airplanes.

To be fair, people who watch MSNBC might not be aware of those stories since they’ve been 24/7 anti-Trump news since 2015.

Life In A Blue City:

In Houston, Texas, prosecutors released a man accused of drugging, raping and impregnating a 16-year-old girl on $1 bail because they missed the deadline for indicting him by two days.

https://www.westernjournal.com/bail-set-1-man-accused-raping-impregnating-teen-enjoys-charitable-release-due-prosecution-flub/

A tentative deal is reached

After a 146-day strike, the longest since 1988, the Hollywood writers’ union WGA reached a tentative deal with producers for a three-year contract extension. The bad news: writers will soon be back to ruining entertainment with wokeism, leftist political pandering, anti-Americanism, and racial and LGBTQ+++ propaganda. The good news: The actors are still on strike, so at least nobody will be producing it for a while. Also, there are still plenty of great old TV shows and movies to stream from the era when Hollywood hired writers who knew how to write and actors who only played politicians when the script called for it.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2023/09/25/wga-and-studios-reach-exceptional-tentative-deal-to-end-writers-strike/?sh=5a313ab01eb5

Inside the mind of AOC...scary place

Take a scary peek inside the mind of AOC, where Marco Rubio is responsible for all the illegal immigrants from Venezuela and COVID is the reason she’s still driving that Tesla she swore she’d get rid of when Elon Musk bought Twitter.

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2023/09/24/aoc-amusing-answers-on-venezuela-and-her-tesla-show-just-how-clueless-she-is-n2164240

Idea

Wayne Allyn Root suggests a “giveaway” program that Trump could promise that would win the election for him and the GOP in a landslide. The best part is that it’s not really a giveaway program at all. It’s a reversal of an unconscionable policy that never should have been passed in the first place and that members of both parties should be opposing. It punishes some of the most vulnerable Americans by taxing away their money that’s already been taxed.

https://www.wnd.com/2023/09/trump-can-win-back-white-house-just-1-promise/

Fake News Alert:

No, Sen. Rand Paul didn’t come to work in his bathrobe. That was just a joke meme created with AI. But under the new John Fetterman Senate dress code, he could have. 

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2023/09/24/laugh-of-the-day-rand-paul-response-to-the-pic-of-him-being-in-bathrobe-on-senate-steps-over-dress-code-n2164245

One by one, Shapley’s team come forward to allege DOJ roadblocks

First, there was Gary Shapley, the lead IRS investigator in the Hunter Biden tax/finance case, who testified in April before the House Ways and Means Committee about political interference in the Hunter Biden case.  He was followed by someone who at first chose to remain anonymous but was later identified as Joseph Ziegler, his top assistant (with absolutely no question about his non-partisanship).  Next, there was IRS Director of Field Operations Michael Batdorf, who told the House Ways and Means Committee this month that the DOJ’s Tax Division opposed charging Hunter Biden.  And now, Darrell Waldon, the former IRS agent in charge of the agency’s Washington Field Office (above Shapley in command), has gone before the committee in a closed-door interview to confirm that both the DC and Central California federal prosecutors blocked David Weiss from charging Hunter in their jurisdictions.  He was a more recent addition to the team, on it for two years.

How many agents have to blow the whistle on the handling of this case before the noise finally wakes some people up?  Maybe we’ll end up seeing the entire team of investigators who were removed from the case coming forward to confirm what we already should acknowledge: that our corrupt ‘Justice’ Department is hiding the financial misconduct of the corrupt Biden family.  Would that be enough?

(Aside: Someone blow some steam whistles in the direction of South Carolina Democrat Rep. James Clyburn, who claimed on “Meet the Press” Sunday that Republicans want to impeach Joe Biden for “being a father to his son.”)

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2023/09/24/clyburn-gop-wants-to-impeach-biden-for-being-a-father-to-his-son/

“Mr. Weiss went to the U.S. Attorney’s Office --- I can’t recall the dates --- and they did not agree to prosecute the case in DC,” Waldon told the committee.  “I’m aware that it was presented to the District of Columbia and, at some point, the Central District of California, I believe.”

So, instead of filing charges in DC or California, Weiss and Hunter’s defense team came to that “sweetheart” plea deal that, thanks to sharp-eyed Judge Maryellen Noreika, ended up being discarded, though Hunter’s attorneys ridiculously continue to claim it’s still in force.

Recall that in his testimony last Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland played word games in speaking of this, saying that the district prosecutors couldn’t block Weiss from charging Hunter.  No, no, they weren’t “turning him down.”  Rather, they were “refusing to partner with him.”  Garland tried to insist that these were “not the same under a well-known Justice Department practice,” when the result, in actual practice, is EXACTLY the same.

And certainly, Shapley saw no such distinction.  In an email to Waldon, Shapley said, “Weiss stated he is not the deciding person of whether charges are filed.  I believe this is a huge problem --- inconsistent with DOJ public position and Merrick Garland testimony.”

Waldon attended that same October meeting in which Shapley said a “red line” was crossed, although his recollection was somewhat different.  He didn’t remember Weiss talking about requesting to be made special counsel.  Also, he didn’t agree that the meeting was “contentious,” as Shapley had said.  Waldon just saw it as the airing of differing points of view.

He testified that Shapley had come to him with his concerns --- steps in the investigation that the ‘Justice’ Department or certain prosecutors had prevented him from taking, such as asking witnesses about other members of the Biden family (there’s that cover-up) and executing at least one search warrant.

Shapley had wanted to blame these roadblocks on political bias.  Waldon had told him that allegation was “unsubstantiated.”  Considering he has since come forward, I wonder what he says about that now.

But Waldon did believe at that time in the strength of the case that would’ve gone to the Central District of California.  “Generally, speaking, if at that time, the case went [there], I would’ve agreed with it.”

These other U.S. attorneys putting up roadblocks, Michael Graves in DC and E. Martin Estrada in California, were both appointed by President Biden himself.

Ironically, Waldon was actually the one who suggested that Shapley be dropped from the investigative team.  Shapley and Weiss were at odds, and, Waldon testified, “the U.S. Attorney’s Office was no longer working or talking with Mr. Shapley.”  In the interest of the investigation, to keep it moving forward, he thought it best.  The third whistleblower, Batdorf, who was Waldon’s supervisor, agreed at the time.

Yet both Batdorf and Ziegler testified glowingly of Shapley, saying he was a “top-performing” investigator and a “fantastic agent.”

https://dailycaller.com/2023/09/22/gary-shapley-irs-agent-whistleblower-performance

According to the WASHINGTON EXAMINER, “Both said Weiss’s tensions with Shapley reached a boiling point after [Weiss’s office] demanded all of the emails and records written by the IRS investigative team that could be relevant in court.”  As Shapley told Congress, he thought this was a fishing expedition to uncover complaints about the case that he had been documenting.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house/fourth-irs-official-confirms-declined-hunter-biden-case

Last week, a reader asked about the tax implications for Hunter of “sugar brother”/friend Kevin Morris’s generosity in paying off his huge tax bill.  Wouldn’t Hunter owe taxes on the gift from this politically-connected lawyer?  Well, John Solomon reports that the IRS and FBI were looking into that very issue, not just about taxes on the gift but about possible “campaign finance criminal violations,” considering this clean-up was happening while Joe Biden was running for President.  Agents wanted to investigate this but were, they said, blocked by federal prosecutors from further action.

The evidence includes a memo written by Shapley about interference by Lesley Wolf, top prosecutor in David Weiss’s office.  This must have been one of the complaints Shapley was documenting, as reported in the EXAMINER article above.

“This investigation has been hampered and slowed by claims of potential election meddling,” Shapley wrote in the memo and read to the House Ways and Means Committee in his testimony.  “Through interviews and review of evidence obtained, it appears there may be campaign finance criminal violations.”  Whistleblower Ziegler testified a similar concern to the Ways and Means Committee, adding that anything related to the campaign was “off limits.”

House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan of Ohio told Solomon last week that the campaign finance inquiry is “a newer matter under investigation.”  So we’ll be hearing more about this.  “We’re just getting into this issue and the concerns,” he said.  “But it wouldn’t surprise me if they were told to stand down because, remember, this investigation over a five-year time frame was slow-walked.”

https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/fbi-irs-probed-possible-criminal-violations-involving-joe-bidens

In an update, Solomon reported that Jason Smith of Missouri, who chairs House Ways and Means, plans to make public new testimony that corroborates the first two IRS whistleblowers’ testimony.  He presumably was referring to the testimony of Batdorf and Waldon.   

A committee panel has to vote on the release of these materials; that vote could come as early as Wednesday, which would allow the evidence to be made public before House Republicans hold their first hearing in the Biden impeachment inquiry.  Chairman Smith sees that first hearing primarily as a “primer” on what is now known of the Biden family’s foreign business dealings and the alleged cover-up.

“I don’t think any reasonable person, when they look at these facts, they don’t see that there’s a huge issue,” he said.  “...And just based on the testimony of Devon Archer, it shows that Joe Biden was the critical player, that critical person considered to be the brand.”

He also said he won’t let Hunter’s attorneys, who have sued the IRS for releasing his private records, intimidate the IRS whistleblowers, saying their evidence was made public by a vote of his committee, in compliance with the law.

https://justthenews.com/accountability/whistleblowers/fri-key-house-republican-teases-document-release-back-irs

We wouldn’t want this additional reporting from John Solomon to get lost amidst all the rest.  Remember those 51 signatories of that bogus letter claiming Hunter’s laptop was “Russian disinformation”?  Solomon has found that some of them got “plum jobs” after doing that, including with the federal government.  (We reported on two of these last week:  John Brennan and James Clapper, who got appointed to that special new “Experts Board.”  A third who is also on the board is former CIA Operations Officer Paul Kolbe.)

More details here…

https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/signers-hunter-biden-laptop-letter-land-plum-jobs

The DAILY CALLER has more on Michael Batdorf’s testimony before Ways and Means.  He told them that Hunter Biden’s defense team met with DOJ Tax Division attorneys an “unusually high” number of times.  Shapley and Ziegler have testified that they were kept out of those meetings.

https://dailycaller.com/2023/09/21/hunter-biden-legal-team-meetings-doj-attorneys-batdorf

Maria Bartiromo on SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES has an update on the case with investigators Miranda Devine and Peter Schweizer…

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6337328083112

RELATED READING:  Here’s a curious tie-in between Hunter’s firm and just-indicted Congressman Bob Menendez.  We’re not sure of the significance at this point, but it does make interesting reading, just to see the sort of “work” (?) Hunter did.  (It appears to be mostly Eric Schwerin who worked.)

https://dailycaller.com/2023/09/22/hunter-biden-suggest-lobby-bob-menendez-emails-bribery

Also related: Some Republican lawmakers are predicting that the “Biden family business” might have taken in over $50 million, or $30 million more is show by bank records uncovered thus far.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/09/23/gop-predicts-biden-organized-crime-ring-received-50m-30m-more-than-shown/

 I JUST WANTED TO SAY: 

Thank you for reading my newsletter. 

For more news, visit my website.

My Father's house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there prepare a place for you?

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back to take you with me that you also may be where I am.

John 14:2-3

No newsletter in October?

Government and Big Tech working together to censor conservative views, is a big reason why we changed things up and moved my newsletter to Substack.

A Democrat DA sues a Democrat-led city government

I never thought I’d be rooting for lawsuits, but now, I’m cheering on two in one day. Maybe because the courts seem to be the only government spaces left where citizens can still get any protection of their rights (if they draw the right judges and courts, at least.)

In another case that I hope is the harbinger of a trend, Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho, who is a Democrat, is suing the Democrat-led city government for allowing, creating and enabling a homelessness public safety crisis that has created “Third World” conditions and put the community at a “breaking point.” Ho says that over the last seven years, the homeless population has increased by 250%, worse than in San Francisco, while the government has refused to enforce laws against unlawful camping, sidewalk obstruction and storage. Well, except at City Hall: they don’t allow camping there during the daytime. Ho said, “I ask the city to extend the same protection they give to themselves to the rest of us." Ha! Good luck with that!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/sacramento-county-da-files-lawsuit-against-city-of-sacramento-alleging-inaction-on-homelessness/ar-AA1gXplO

Naturally, expecting Democrat city leaders to put up with the same horrors they force on the citizenry isn’t going over too keenly with them. They called Ho’s lawsuit “frivolous” and “a distraction,” and said he should be working with them (although, obviously, working with them hasn’t worked out too well.) And naturally, homeless advocates are accusing him of attacking the homeless for wanting the laws enforced.

Again, I wish him well with the lawsuit. I’d love to see a huge wave of lawsuits for dereliction of duty filed by citizens against blue city leaders across America who have turned our once-great cities into crime-ridden sewers. Although ideally, it would be cheaper, easier and more effective if they’d just stop reelecting them.

Roger Whittaker RIP

By “Huckabee” pop culture guru Pat Reeder (http://www.hollywoodhifi.com)

I’m sad to have to report that internationally-known folk singer Roger Whittaker has died at 81. A statement appeared on his website saying that on September 13^th, “he left us in peace in the presence of his family.” They requested privacy while they grieve and wrote that “Roger was an iconic artist, a wonderful husband and father. He touched so many hearts with his music during his lifetime and will always live on in our memories.”

Whittaker’s deep, smooth croon, comparable to Don Williams or Jim Reeves, and (unusual for an artist past the pre-swing era) expert whistling ability led to a long, successful recording career and so many albums that he released 25 in German alone (when he first started, he couldn’t speak German and had to sing them phonetically.) He landed six albums on the Billboard US Top 200. His best-known singles included “Durham Town (The Leaving),” “New World in the Morning” and “I Don’t Believe in If Anymore.” His biggest hit, “The Last Farewell” topped the A/C charts, reached #19 on the Hot 100 and sold 11 million copies worldwide.

Many Americans first became aware of him when his music appeared on one of those compilation albums that was advertised constantly on late night TV, a sales tactic that also boosted the careers of such unlikely stars as Slim Whitman, whose singing voice sometimes sounded as if he were whistling. Whittaker’s music was successful all over the world (he even had a hit in Finland called “The Finnish Whistler”), but I assume most Americans must’ve thought he was British or Canadian. He was actually born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya. He retired to France with his wife in 2012. RIP.

Ophelia warning

As of this writing early on Friday morning, a tropical storm is about 300 miles off the coast of the Carolinas and could bring high winds, heavy rain and life-threatening storm surges to the East Coast. If you are in its path, please prepare, keep yourself and your animals safe, and watch the weather news closely.

https://www.westernjournal.com/potential-deadly-storm-ophelia-warning-expected-make-landfall-us-less-24-hours/

Senator Bob Menendez is indicted

New Jersey Democrat Senator and Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez and his wife Nadine were indicted Friday morning on federal bribery charges in the Southern District of New York. And unlike a lot of indictments against political figures we've heard lately, this one involves actual crimes.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/sen-bob-menendez-indicted-federal-charges-rcna111447

The indictment alleges that they took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for Menendez using his influence to enrich several New Jersey businessmen and help the Egyptian government. The bribes allegedly came in the form of cash, jewelry, pay for a no-show job, use of a luxury apartment and a Mercedes-Benz, and the part I bet you’ll find most intriguing, up to $400,000 worth of gold bars. I can’t think of a better illustration of a corrupt Senator than someone literally weighed down by having his pockets full of bars of gold.

Some commentators don’t know how seriously to take this. Menendez is famous for being able to wriggle out of scandals, and this is his second indictment since he took office in 2006. Some critics say it’s just AG Merrick Garland trying to reduce the heat over his agency’s partisan prosecutions by indicting a low-hanging-fruit Democrat. Then again, the grand jury has supposedly been investigating these allegations for over a year. I look forward to learning more when the details are released. I wonder if they have receipts that show he paid for lunch in the Senate cafeteria with gold bars?

Incidentally, for those who think the indictments against Trump mean he’ll be convicted and never be elected again, this write-up of the Menendez story from Breitbart.com ends with a recounting of 13 Senators who were indicted, many of whom got acquitted or had hung juries, or had their convictions overturned and ended up serving out their full terms and even getting reelected. Menendez is one of those.

https://www.breitbart.com/news/new-jersey-sen-menendez-and-his-wife-are-indicted-on-bribery-charges/

When Borders Fall

By Colonel Ken Allard

Comrades, you have asked me to tell you how America lost control of its own borders, ushering in possibilities only dreamed of by previous generations of revolutionaries. In his masterwork Rules for Radicals, Saul Alinsky and his leading disciples – Cesar Chavez, Tom Hayden and Barack Obama – demonstrated that community organization could transform cultural Marxism from airy-fairy theory into hard-edged reality. Of course, none of that would have been possible without the willing cooperation of the American media and their academic accomplices – fed, fattened and nurtured by tenure and non-white privilege! How wonderfully ironic that these national megaphones grew louder and ever more powerful once freed from traditional opiates like “spiritual values” or “academic objectivity.” Neither parents nor state legislatures complained about increased tuition as newly hired legions of academic administrators created campus reserves of political correctness.

Career advancement in either profession simply became a matter of racial or ethnic credentialing - combined of course with the aggressive use of opportunities. For example, when poor George Floyd met his untimely end, radicals from coast to coast instantly seized upon the priceless openings gifted them by a corrupt and racist system. So great was popular outrage that target lists exceeded even the wildest expectations. It was easy enough to persuade former Southern capitals to remove statues of Confederate generals that had long fueled resentment: But American youth had been taught such paltry amounts of actual history that their outrage came to include Union heroes like General Ulysses Grant! It was thus a small step to conclude that the real underlying culprit was American history itself: So why not include the Founding Fathers and even racist explorers/exploiters like Christopher Coumbus? On July 4^th 2020, hard by Baltimore’s Little Italy, a revered statue of the Great Navigator was reduced to fragments, which were promptly thrown into the filthy waters of the Inner Harbor! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Christopher_Columbus)

So what, you might ask? How could a little overdue civic redecoration possibly affect the larger revolutionary agenda?  Forgive my bluntness, comrades, if I suggest that maybe you aren’t up-to-date in your readings of Saul Alinsky! Or possibly you have never even realized that cultural Marxism is still Marxism! Haven’t you noticed that a country which turns against its own history and destroys once-cherished statues will also ignore its own borders? While occasionally commemorating border-driven events like the 911 attacks, these sentimental outcroppings were far less significant than the studied indifference with which most Americans typically regard their own security. As card-carrying historical illiterates, hardly anyone remembers that Rome fell primarily because young Romans were no longer dispatched to defend their borders against foreign incursion.

But so much the better for us because our disciples quickly seized opportunities that patient preparation has a way of providing. The evidence: Barack Obama is finally receiving his long overdue recognition as “America’s Lenin,” setting up Joe Biden as his overt “successor” while he quietly continued to rule from the shadows. On his first day in office, Comrade Joe suspended virtually all the border policies of the imperious Donald Trump – to nearly universal applause. The news media featured photographs of immigrants sporting signs pleading for Biden-Harris to let them enter the country. When they did, the Border Patrol and ICE were instantly transformed into travel agencies, a neon welcome sign the entire Third World understood.

This initial conditioning period lasted for the first two years of the alleged Biden administration while the new immigrants infiltrated virtually every American community with astoundingly small opposition. Who cared if Texans complained or made empty gestures instantly dismissed by the media elites as “political stunts?” Our side now knew everything: the borders were irretrievably open; and Americans had lost their will to fight. When we knew beyond any doubt that the few remaining thousands of American border agents were mere speed bumps to the millions we had ready and waiting, orders were quickly given. As the immigrant trains headed north, any conductors or Federales unwise enough to slow down were instantly dealt with.

We saw only the immigrant armies of the proletariat heading inevitably toward the new manifest destiny Marx, Alinsky and their latter-day apostles foresaw long ago. You see, gringo, that ancient history from the Old West to the Book of Joshua feels entirely different when someone else applies it to you. So why are you complaining: Don’t you like it when the little guy turns the tables and wins one for a change? Si, nosotros tambien! (Yeah, us too!)

Colonel (Ret.) Ken Allard is a former West Point professor, Dean of the National War College and NBC News on-air military analyst. He still treasures his Cold War roots.

“Elvis...has...left the building!”

I speak of Elvis Chan, the FBI agent who was scheduled to speak before the House Judiciary Committee on September 15.  Actually, we don’t know if he even got to the building.  That interview reportedly “fell through.”

(NOTE:  News writers tend to use vague expressions such as “fell through” when they can’t or don’t want to give the pertinent details.  Phrases like this are easy for other news outlets to pick up and run with.  Another example:  Hunter Biden’s “sweetheart” plea deal “fell apart.”  That deal didn’t just “fall apart” on its own.  The same goes for Elvis Chan’s interview “falling through.”  We’ll get to the details of what happened.)

You might remember Chan from the “Twitter Files” stories as the assistant special agent in charge at the San Francisco field office who was particularly involved in social media censorship ahead of the 2020 election.  The Judiciary Committee wanted to depose him about his role on the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), which pressured social media companies to censor online speech.  Even without his testimony, though, we can still understand a lot about the role he played from his emails and texts.

The September 15 interview was derailed because of a dispute between Judiciary Committee investigators and the DOJ.  So here’s the quick explanation of why the interview “fell apart,” according to the DAILY CALLER:  The DOJ had informed Chan that he had the option of being represented by either his personal counsel or an attorney for the DOJ.  But the DOJ brought a staff attorney for him, and that’s when the interview “fell apart.”

The DOJ, it may be presumed, did NOT want Chan testifying before the committee, because that’s the way they’ve behaved in stonewalling the committee’s requests.  The committee says now, on X, that “No amount of lies and excuses will stop the Committee from deposing FBI Agent Elvis Chan.  The American people deserve to know the full truth about the Biden censorship regime.  And they will.”

Chan has testified before, in November 2022 in the censorship lawsuit brought by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana, Missouri v. Biden.  That important lawsuit has been equal to the “Twitter Files” in unearthing deep state misconduct regarding the censorship of private companies.  We’ve learned that the FBI had weekly meetings with social media companies, demanded takedowns of specific accounts, and facilitated the suppression of stories they wanted out of the public conversation.

As described in AMERICAN GREATNESS, “Chan testified that the platforms became far more aggressive in removing alleged ‘misinformation’ during the 2020 election cycle than in previous election cycles, and they have remained so.”  With an election coming up in next year, the need to free-up the flow of information is urgent and under massive threat.

But Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan of Ohio said that Chan appeared to have lied, as internal Facebook documents show that he’d had more meetings with Facebook than he’d let on.  Jordan had the Facebook messages to prove that.  And apparently, when he was asked whether or not the Hunter Biden laptop was real, he told them “No comment,” when the FBI has known good and well that the laptop is real since at least early 2020, probably late 2019.

https://dailycaller.com/2023/09/21/jim-jordan-second-subpoena-elvis-chan-fbi 

When Chan failed to appear for his scheduled hearing on September 15, the House Judiciary Committee immediately fired off a subpoena compelling him to testify before the committee next month.  Jordan went public with some of what the committee already knew, such as the fact that Chan and Laura Dehmlow, section chief of the Foreign Influence Task Force, met with Facebook reps on October 14, 2020, which happened to be the SAME DAY Miranda Devine’s Hunter Biden laptop story appeared in the NEW YORK POST.  (What are the odds?)  Dehmlow and other FBI agents also spoke with Twitter executives by phone.

Dehmlow has been deposed, and she testified that when someone at Twitter asked if the laptop was authentic, one of the FBI agents on the call confirmed that it was, but another agent jumped in to cut him off and say, “no further comment.”  And from then on, the FBI’s standard answer was “no comment,” even though they’d known for about a year that it was real.

In his Missouri v. Biden testimony, Chan answered “no” when asked if he knew about any other communications between Facebook and the FBI regarding the laptop story.  But this contradicts an internal Facebook document that shows Chan took part in a follow-up phone call the very next day.  “COMPLETELY FALSE,” Jordan wrote on Twitter of his testimony.

The Judiciary Committee has been trying to interview Chan and other agents since this Congress convened in January 2021, when they sent a letter to the FBI instructing them to make these individuals available for interviews.  They got no response.  They wrote another letter in November 2022 and got no response, and another in January 2023 and got no response.  The FBI claims they didn’t know about their request until March of 2023.  In case there’s anyone left who still believes anything the FBI says, the committee has copies of the letters they sent.

https://amgreatness.com/2023/09/21/house-judiciary-committee-subpoenas-fbi-agent-elvis-chan-to-appear-for-deposition-after-months-of-fbi-stonewalling

The AMERICAN GREATNESS story explains in more detail how the meeting with Chan “fell apart.”  Witnesses who don’t already have personal counsel are allowed to appear before the Judiciary Committee with agency counsel to avoid the financial burden of hiring a lawyer.  But according to agency protocol, the witness may appear with either personal counsel OR agency counsel --- not both.

Chan had his own personal counsel to be inside the hearing room with him.  The FBI knew about the protocol for two weeks before Chan’s hearing but said nothing.  Then, “65 hours before the scheduled deposition,” the FBI demanded that an exception be made so Chan could appear with both personal and agency attorneys in the room.  (Obviously, they wanted their own attorneys in the room and Chan wasn’t going to give up his.)  They were back and forth on this for two days, and less than 90 minutes before the deposition was to begin, the FBI and DOJ tried to force the Committee’s hand and enter the hearing room with their own attorneys but the Committee would not allow it.  As for Chan, he did not show up.

So, with his deposition coming up next month, where is Elvis Chan now?

“Elvis...has...left the country!”

https://dailycaller.com/2023/09/21/jim-jordan-second-subpoena-elvis-chan-fbi/

RELATED READING:  And now, a third IRS official says the ‘Justice’ Department blocked U.S. Attorney David Weiss’s authority to charge Hunter Biden in his tax/finance case.  This new whistleblower has come forward by name:  IRS Director of Field Operations Michael Batdorf.  He went to the House Ways and Means Committee on September 12.

Details and a link to the transcript of his interview are here…

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/irs-official-doj-hunter-biden/2023/09/21/id/1135432

105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

Psalm 119:105 KJV

No newsletter in October?

Government and Big Tech working together to censor conservative views, is a big reason why we changed things up and moved my newsletter to Substack.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Psalms, 23:1

Because you are a free subscriber to my newsletter, I would like you to consider subscribing to the paid version on Substack.

A Substack subscription-based newsletter allows my team and I to focus on what matters: the writing and the research we do to back up the writing, instead of worrying about censorship, or what Google is saying about me, how they are handling advertising on our website or whether or not my work shows up when you search for it.

To keep the newsletter going, we have setup a monthly goal of identifying 600 new paying subscribers for the month of September and we have 75 to go.

If you can afford to do so, please subscribe here:

Subscribe now >>>

To become a paid subscriber of my politics newsletter it is $5 monthly or $36 annually. I email daily and my politics newsletters usually take 10-15 minutes to read. I cover the news of the day and the liberal media. I write about the upcoming elections and dive deep on the Biden scandals. I will also share my opinion of the Trump indictment. I don’t think you will regret reading my newsletter regularly, so please consider subscribing today.

Sincerely,

Mike Huckabee

Protection please

Saturday in Los Angeles, a man carrying loaded pistols and ammunition and impersonating a US Marshal was arrested at a public event for Democratic Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/armed-man-impersonating-law-enforcment-arrested-rfk-jr-campaign-event-los-angeles

You’d think that would convince the Biden Administration to stop denying RFK Jr. Secret Service protection, considering that both his father and uncle were assassinated and now, they’ve arrested someone for trying to approach him with a loaded gun. Kennedy said he’s still “entertaining a hope” that he will be granted protection, after being the first Presidential candidate in history for whom the White House denied a request for protection. The White House's excuse was that protection is never provided until much later in the campaign year, but that’s not true: Obama got it much earlier.

On the other hand, considering that a new Rasmussen poll found that a third of voters would be open to supporting a third-party candidate in 2024 rather than reelect Biden, RFK Jr. should be grateful Biden hasn’t given him 24/7 armed security by indicting and jailing him. Yet.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/washington-secrets/stunning-38-would-vote-third-party-in-trump-biden-election

Everything is peaches and cream…

California Gov. Gavin Newsom went on CNN Monday to test-drive the Democrats’ 2024 Biden reelection narrative: Joe’s actually doing a fantastic job, it’s just that Americans have been so “traumatized” over the past five or six years that we’re in Debby Downer mode and simply can’t see how peachy everything is.

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2023/09/18/newsom-biden-is-doing-well-but-weve-been-polarized-and-traumatized-over-last-five-six-years/

I wonder how the Democrats’ anti-fossil fuel wing is going to react to them trying to gaslight half the country. I also wonder if they really think Americans are dumb enough to believe that just because they're working three jobs to pay for groceries, rent and gas, they should congratulate Joe Biden for creating full employment.

Reality

The big problem with all liberal plans is that sooner or later, they have to leave the fantasy worlds of the liberal media or the Ivy League faculty lounge and be tested in the harsh lab of reality, and that’s when they melt down like a cake left in the rain. For instance, we were all going to be driving electric cars – until enough people bought them and described their experiences, and now they’re gathering dust on car lots. Well, here are a couple more examples, courtesy of (naturally) California:

California legislators passed State Bill 2098, or the “Medical Misinformation Law,” that barred doctors from spreading “misinformation” or “disinformation” about COVID-19. What it did in reality was attempt to repeal both the First Amendment and the scientific method by punishing doctors for questioning official government narratives, as if having medical bureaucrats declare something true made it both objectively correct and legally unquestionable. It went into effect on January 1^st, was blocked by a federal judge one month later in response to a lawsuit, and has just been quietly repealed by the Assembly before the Courts could toss it out as the unconstitutional garbage that it clearly is.

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/california-repeals-medical-misinformation-law-punish-doctors/

Also last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law repealing the ban on state employees traveling to states that “discriminate” against the LGBTQ+ community. Since they passed it in 2017, they'd added more than half of US states to the list, as those evil, intolerant haters passed such unconscionable and un-California-like laws as banning men from going into women’s bathrooms. As you might imagine, this virtue-signaling became rather inconvenient, particularly with Newsom himself making so many politically-motivated visits to red states.

Newsom said he hopes the repeal "helps California’s message of acceptance, equality and hope reach the places where it is most needed."  Which begs the question, if LGBTQ people are treated so badly in red states and so well in California, why aren’t they all moving there? So few people are doing that these days that you’d think the rest of America had a travel ban on going to California.  

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/california-gov-gavin-newsom-signs-bill-ending-travel-ban-red-states

…And a new California gun control bill banning ads for firearms that “reasonably appear to be attractive to minors” was struck down by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for being so broadly written that it infringes on both the First and Second Amendments. The court’s ruling is a must-read, particularly for reality-denying leftist legislators:

“California cannot straitjacket the First Amendment by, on the one hand, allowing minors to possess and use firearms and then, on the other hand, banning truthful advertisements about that lawful use of firearms. There is no evidence in the record that a minor in California has ever unlawfully bought a gun, let alone because of an ad. Nor has the state produced any evidence that truthful ads about lawful uses of guns—like an ad about hunting rifles in Junior Sports Magazines’ Junior Shooters—encourage illegal or violent gun use among minors. Simply put, California cannot lean on gossamers of speculation to weave an evidence-free narrative that its law curbing the First Amendment ‘significantly’ decreases unlawful gun use among minors. The First Amendment demands more than good intentions and wishful thinking to warrant the government’s muzzling of speech.”

https://bearingarms.com/camedwards/2023/09/13/ninth-circuit-grants-injunction-against-california-law-targeting-gun-marketing-n74805

But has California learned anything from having to backtrack from so many fuzzy-headed, unconstitutional laws passed to appease a small minority at the expense of the rights of the majority? I’ll let you read this and decide that…

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/09/10/californias-coming-inquisition-targeting-anti-trans-parents/

Related: San Francisco also banned travel to red states. But the city has become such a crime-ridden basket case under leftist rule that they’re now desperate to find people who are willing to join the city’s beleaguered police department. And guess where they’re looking for recruits: in Texas! Good luck with that!

https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2023/09/18/the-bay-area-is-still-struggling-to-recover-from-defund-the-police-now-theyre-hoping-texas-can-help-n578984

Message to Illinois Democrats: Give yourselves a hand!

Illinois Democrats decided that it wasn’t fair that violent criminals were running amok in Chicago. So they just became the first state to do away with cash bail, so that violent criminals can now run amok statewide.

https://www.breitbart.com/crime/2023/09/18/criminals-will-run-wild-illinois-becomes-first-state-to-abolish-cash-bail-as-fears-mount/

Accusations

I’ve noticed that suddenly, we’re hearing accusations of sexual misconduct against a number of prominent conservatives and even moderates who are known for standing up against the radical left. Some are attacks on personal behavior or alleged private conduct which would not only be ignored but defended and even celebrated if the target were on the left (if you don’t believe me, look at the full-throated defense of the Virginia Democratic Congressional candidate who sold porn videos of herself and her husband on the Internet.) And some stories, sadly, involve accusations of possibly criminal misconduct.

Comedian/podcaster Russell Brand was suddenly struck with multiple accusations of sexual assault, including rape, from a decade or so ago, which he denies. He admitted going through a period of addiction and promiscuity, but insists all his sexual conduct was consensual. Nevertheless, he was immediately dumped by his agent and publisher, his comedy tour was canceled and YouTube demonetized his popular channel. All this based on anonymous allegations with no charges even being filed (at least not yet), much less a conviction. Some of his fans believe this may be motivated by his recent prominence as a critic of government narratives on COVID and other hot button issues. Whether it is or not, there’s no question that it’s a prime example of our modern culture of “guilty until proven innocent.”

https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2023/09/19/canceled-youtube-stops-russell-brand-from-monetizing-videos/

And speaking of oddly coincidental accusations, Tim Ballard, the inspiration for “Sound of Freedom,” the movie about fighting child sex trafficking that Hollywood and the media couldn’t kill, has suddenly been accused of sexual misconduct involving seven women. Ballard, who was considering a Senate run in Utah, said, “It’s not true, nothing you hear is true.” The report came from Vice, a leftwing site with a reputation for bad biased reporting, and cites “an anonymous letter” that repeats the allegations.

https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2023/09/18/sound-of-freedom-inspiration-tim-ballard-accused-of-sexual-misconduct-in-vice-news-report/

While I hope these accusations are all false, I don’t know, but I do find the sudden flurry of them and their anonymous origins to be awfully coincidental. I can’t make a defense of these accused people because I have no idea what really happened. But I will once again make the same lonely, unpopular stand that I made when both Brett Kavanaugh on the right and Andrew Cuomo on the left were accused of sexual misconduct. That is to defend their right to due process and to remind everyone that in America – in fact, anywhere where people believe in justice and fairness – everyone is entitled to the presumption of innocence until they are proven guilty, and not the other way around.

As for some of the other stories that don’t involve criminality but are just ugly whispering campaigns, I’d remind everyone that people who spread nasty gossip about others are really telling you more about themselves than about those they gossip about.

Related: Lauren Boebert’s estranged husband issued a statement strongly defending her and taking responsibility for the collapse of their marriage and for putting her under the tremendous strain of a devastating divorce.

https://nypost.com/2023/09/19/rep-lauren-boeberts-estranged-husband-blames-himself-for-divorce/

How can we take AOC and her friends seriously?!?

When AOC and other Democrats were booed and shouted down by fellow New Yorkers furious over their city being inundated with illegal aliens thanks to Biden’s open border, she dismissed that as just “conservatives” pretending to be angry New Yorkers. But when thousands of reality-denying protesters jammed New York streets with a “March to End Fossil Fuels” for “New York Climate Week,” well, those people we should take seriously.

https://www.westernjournal.com/radical-ignore-aoc-sends-aggressive-demand-biden-climate-march/

Warning that Biden is not acting fast enough to ban oil and gas, AOC urged the crowd to make their protests ““too big and too radical to ignore.” She shouted, “We need urgency on this issue right now, right now.  And the way we create urgency on the issue of climate is that we have people all across the world in the streets…demanding a cessation of what is killing us. We demand change! It will happen now!” She was accompanied by a number of leftist Hollywood celebrities, including Ethan Hawke, Edward Norton and Kevin Bacon.

Question: How did all those people get into New York City and home again? We know the celebrities came from Hollywood, and that’s an awfully long walk or bike ride. I don’t believe they drove all across the country in electric cars because that would be nuts. Even if they did, EVs don’t reduce pollution; they create even more environmental destruction in their production than regular cars, and charging them just outsources the burning of fossil fuels to power plants that are out of sight, so I guess they don’t count.

Unsurprisingly, the DC Communist Party (speaking of things that really have killed a lot of people) hailed the protest to end fossil fuels, boasting that the crowd was over 75,000 people. Unless all of them walked, biked or skated there and back, they can go pound sand.

Big Business

This story not only reports that Colombia’s leftist president plans to send another 1 million migrants to the US in 2024 from Colombia alone, but it also has a good description of how Joe Biden and his DHS head Alejandro Majorkas are facilitating the cartels’ incredibly lucrative new industry of smuggling migrants to the border so they can enter the US illegally.

https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2023/09/19/new-york-times-south-american-cartel-send-1-million-global-migrants-2024/

And how big a business has the transport of illegal entrants to the US become? The buses couldn’t hold enough of them, so now they’re coming by the trainload.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2023/05/06/150-migrants-found-on-one-texas-freight-train-near-border/

Senate update

Chuck Schumer’s decision not to enforce the unofficial Senate dress code (unspoken: most likely because John Fetterman refuses to dress like an adult and keeps showing up in hoodies and basketball shorts) is not going over well with colleagues. Maine Sen. Susan Collins slammed it, saying it “debases the institution,” and joked that she might come to work in a bikini. She quickly made it clear that she wouldn’t, but said that under the new rules, she could. Let’s pray this doesn’t spread to the House, at least while Nancy Pelosi is still in office.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/susan-collins-jokes-she-will-wear-a-bikini-to-the-senate-while-slamming-dress-code-changes/ar-AA1gUwRW

Meanwhile, Fetterman continues to prove that he is unfit for the Senate, both sartorially and cognitively.

https://redstate.com/bonchie/2023/09/19/john-fetterman-accuses-greene-of-running-on-dingaling-in-embarrassing-msnbc-interview-n2163985

I don’t hold it against Fetterman that he isn’t showing the proper respect for the Senate, since I don’t know if he’s capable of that. I do hold it against Schumer for enabling it. And I hold it against the entire Democratic Party apparatus of Pennsylvania who didn’t care about Fetterman’s health or even his life after he suffered a debilitating stroke. They just kept pushing him because nothing was more important than keeping that seat, even if the stress killed him, or best-case scenario that I can see, he was mentally unable to be a functioning representative for the people of Pennsylvania. All that mattered to them was keeping someone with a D by his name in a seat of power.

So if Fetterman is simply unable to show respect for the United States Senate, then he is at least representing the attitude of his Party perfectly.

Ominous Warning Sign:

In a special election for a state House seat in New Hampshire Tuesday, the Democrat won a landslide victory in a district that the Republican Governor won by 22 points. Bonchie at Redstate.com warns that the GOP needs to make changes and pick better candidates or it may be heading for another drubbing in 2024. See if you agree with his assessment, and if not, how would you explain this lopsided loss in a heavily-Republican district?

https://redstate.com/bonchie/2023/09/20/republicans-got-blasted-in-new-hampshires-special-election-because-zero-lesson-have-been-learned-n2164042

FBI shot down yet another informant who had too much on “Biden Bucks”

Yesterday, we told you that yet another FBI informant with information about the Biden family business had been “shut down” by the FBI, in October 2020, just prior to the election.  “Follow-the-money” author Peter Schweizer had determined that this information came from retired FBI Special Agent Tim Thibault, in testimony before the House Oversight Committee last week.

(Just a thought:  Schweizer wrote the bestseller CLINTON CASH, and we wonder if he might want to call his next one BIDEN BUCKS.  You’re welcome!)

According to Schweizer, Thibault told the committee that his main contribution to the Hunter probe was “to shut down the use of a confidential source whom he discovered was actually a right-wing author whose information he feared would taint the legitimacy of the investigation.”

Recall that Thibault resigned from the FBI in the wake of allegations that he helped shield Hunter Biden from criminal investigations.  Here’s that story from July of last year.  Kind of fun to look back at it now, in light of what we’ve since learned.  Read the letter it includes from Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley to AG Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray.  In it, Grassley says Thibault “allegedly ordered the matter [the Hunter investigation] closed without providing a valid reason as required by FBI guidelines…it’s alleged that FBI officials, including ASAC Thibault, subsequently attempted to improperly mark the matter in FBI systems so that it could not be opened in the future.”

Somebody wanted it “disappeared.”

https://nypost.com/2022/07/26/fbi-doj-accused-of-downplaying-hunter-biden-dirt/

As it turns out, the FBI’s additional confidential human source, the one Thibault got “shut down,” apparently was...(drum roll)...Peter Schweizer (cymbal crash)!  He didn’t name Schweizer in last week’s testimony but did to THE NEW YORK TIMES back in May.

It all started when the the Public Corruption Unit of the FBI contacted Schweizer’s organization, a non-profit called the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) for information the GAI had gathered on Hunter Biden’s business dealings for Schweizer’s books SECRET EMPIRES and PROFILES IN CORRUPTION.  The GAI had pieced together the story of Hunter’s involvement in the Ukrainian energy company Burisma and the CCP-connected firm CEFC.  All the information they had was already in the public record, nothing from sketchy sources.

Schweizer isn’t buying that the reason Thibault shut him down as a source was because he was “concerned about the integrity” of the FBI investigation.  “Nobody has ever challenged any of the facts that we discovered and wrote about,” he said.

Schweizer is co-host of the podcast DRILL DOWN, and we’ve included a link to his latest episode, in which he discusses this, starting at about 10:45.  You’ll see that Thibault, in his fiery opening statement, testified that the allegations of political interference were “baseless,” but in the next breath told them his main job in the investigation was to shut down a confidential human source because the fact that he was a right-wing author might taint the investigation!  (The FBI has done enough to taint this investigation, all by themselves.)

Schweizer calls this Thibault’s “shoot the messenger” tactic, reminding us that Thibault is the FBI agent who originally interviewed former Hunter business partner Tony Bobulinski in the fall of 2020, but DID NOT SHARE THAT INTERVIEW WITH ANYONE, such as the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware.  And Bobulinski was no “far-right” anything --- he was not a political figure at all.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/09/19/peter-schweizer-schools-ex-fbi-agent-who-shielded-bidens/

Also, there are more fishy numbers that tie Joe himself with the Biden businesses.  The U.K. DAILY MAIL reported last year that there was a discrepancy between income Joe Biden reported to the IRS in 2017 and 2018 and what he declared on the financial disclosure form he had to complete when he entered the 2020 presidential race.  Tax returns showed $12.6 million; the financial disclosure form showed $7.4 million.

How to explain this $5.2 million discrepancy?  (Coincidentally, $5 million is the amount of the bribe Burisma founder Mykolo Zlochevsky is said to have claimed to have paid to each of two Bidens.)  Schweizer theorizes that by 2019, Biden was getting a lot of scrutiny over Hunter’s foreign deals, “and he just wanted some of that money to disappear.”

Here’s a little trip down memory lane.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10728521/Financial-records-reveal-Joe-Biden-5-2million-unexplained-income.html

Isn’t it amazing how this news has been out there for a year, sometimes two or three years, and you and I know it but most of America still has no clue?  At least that’s finally starting to change.  Now that the mainstream media have dutifully played their assigned role in hiding it, they’re dutifully playing their assigned role in slowly letting it out.

In impeachment inquiry news --- and remember, it’s an impeachment INQUIRY into allegations of corruption by the President, not an actual impeachment --- the House will hold its first impeachment inquiry hearing next Thursday.  This is the evidence-gathering stage.  The House Oversight Committee, chaired by Kentucky Rep. James Comer, will likely subpoena bank records for Hunter and James Biden, the President’s brother, to continue in their quest to “follow the money.”  That’s what he told Sean Hannity last night.

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6337457342112

Comer also will seek additional transcribed interviews with Hunter business partners, particularly Eric Schwerin and Rob Walker.  But this first day of hearings isn’t likely to tread new ground, according to sources for FOX NEWS.  It will review the existing evidence --- there’s a lot, and those who say differently are deliberately lying or in deep denial --- and “explain the status of the inquiry.”

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-hold-first-biden-impeachment-inquiry-hearing-thursday

RELATED:  Finally, here’s a story worthy of the BABYLON BEE.  Did you know Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has put together a team of experts, called the Homeland Intelligence Experts Group, to provide “unique perspectives on the federal government’s intelligence enterprise” to DHS’s [Intelligence and Analysis] and the Office of the Counterterrorism Coordinator?  The group will meet periodically to analyze threats posed by both “foreign nation-state adversaries” and “domestic violent extremists.”  Like those violent, racist “MAGA Republicans” I’ve heard so much about?

This is so important to our national security that he’s put former CIA Director John Brennan and former National Director of Intelligence James Clapper on it.  Myorkas has succeeded in one thing:  insulting OUR intelligence.

So, aren’t you glad they’re on the job?  Although, as BREITBART reports, “It is unclear how Brennan will advise the Department of Homeland Security, given that President Trump revoked his security clearance in 2018, in reaction to Brennan’s increasingly unhinged political attacks on the President.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/09/19/mayorkas-names-russia-hoaxers-laptop-deniers-brennan-clapper-to-intelligence-experts-panel/

These are the same intelligence “experts” who falsely tried to discredit the NEW YORK POST’s Hunter Biden laptop story, so the POST has plenty to say about their appointment...

https://nypost.com/2023/09/19/mayorkas-taps-spies-who-lied-for-new-intelligence-experts-group/

FURTHER READING:  Tristan Leavitt, head of the Empower Whistleblower Center, has expressed fresh concerns that the Biden White House is applying pressure to the ‘Justice’ Department to prosecute IRS special-agents-turned-whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler.  As you know, the White House sent a memo to news media imploring them to attack efforts to investigate the Bidens.  But there’s much more; here’s John Solomon’s take...

https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/tuewhite-house-actions-raise-alarm-about-possible-political

Pro tip

We’ll have more on this tomorrow, but as we were “going to press,” the House questioning of alleged Attorney General Merrick Garland was just starting. You can watch the video feed at the link, or wait until tomorrow and we’ll tell you what he said without you having to inflict his inevitable denials and evasions on yourself.

https://redstate.com/smoosieq/2023/09/20/watch-live-garland-testifies-at-house-judiciary-hearing-on-oversight-of-the-us-department-of-justice-n2164046

A disturbing video

Last weekend, a disturbing video hit the news, taken by two Las Vegas teenagers in a stolen Hyundai Elantra laughing as they deliberately struck and killed a bicyclist just for fun. The victim was 64-year-old retired police chief Andreas Probst. Police thought it was a hit-and-run accident until they saw the video, which was obtained by a high school resource officer.  Both teenagers have been arrested and will be charged with murder.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/second-las-vegas-juvenile-suspect-arrested-hit-run-death-retired-police-chief-police

And as this article explains, in Nevada, any teenager charged with murder is automatically tried as an adult.

https://www.westernjournal.com/age-wont-save-teen-captured-driving-stolen-car-laughing-hit-cyclist/

The video was so horrifying that it sparked debate about the teenagers’ motivations and how they could have become so amoral and depraved as to think of running over a stranger with a car as a joke. Probst’s daughter said her father was robbed of his life by “two individuals who did not believe lives of others matter," and said she doesn’t believe racism or her father’s police background played a role. She attributed his killing to social media and "decayed family values," and urged people to “please do not politicize his death or use it for culture wars.” 

While I certainly respect her opinion and offer her my deepest condolences and prayers, I don’t see how it’s possible to separate this heinous act from the culture wars. It used to be so rare for someone to reach that age with zero respect for the the sanctity of human life that we had a clinical term for it: sociopath. While social media has definitely amplified the problem by allowing the worst impulses of human behavior to be reinforced by others and protected by distance and anonymity, there are many other negative factors at work as well, from movies and video games that depict gory violence as repercussion-free entertainment to banning God and Christian morality from schools to a political culture that regards killing children in the womb as the only “right” worth protecting.

When we see stories like this now, they’re still shocking but sadly, no longer surprising. If we were setting out to deliberately raise a generation of sociopaths, I don’t know what we’d be doing any differently.

 I JUST WANTED TO SAY: 

Thank you for reading my newsletter. 

For more news, visit my website.

Because you are a free subscriber to my newsletter, I would like you to consider subscribing to the paid version on Substack.

A Substack subscription-based newsletter allows my team and I to focus on what matters: the writing and the research we do to back up the writing, instead of worrying about censorship, or what Google is saying about me, how they are handling advertising on our website or whether or not my work shows up when you search for it.

To keep the newsletter going, we have setup a monthly goal of identifying 600 new paying subscribers for the month of September and we have 101 to go.

If you can afford to do so, please subscribe here:

Subscribe now >>>

To become a paid subscriber of my politics newsletter it is $5 monthly or $36 annually. I email daily and my politics newsletters usually take 10-15 minutes to read. I cover the news of the day and the liberal media. I write about the upcoming elections and dive deep on the Biden scandals. I will also share my opinion of the Trump indictment. I don’t think you will regret reading my newsletter regularly, so please consider subscribing today.

Sincerely,

Mike Huckabee

A gag order on Donald Trump?!?

Dick Morris believes this is all about the left’s desperate attempts to find a way to jail Trump. Law Professor Jonathan Turley goes into more legal detail, but also makes the great point that Smith’s insincere nine-word description of what he wants as “a narrowly tailored order that imposes modest, permissible restrictions” should be added to Ronald Reagan’s nine most terrifying words in the English language: “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”

https://jonathanturley.org/2023/09/17/gagging-donald-trump-why-smiths-narrowly-tailored-motion-is-a-neither-narrow-nor-wise/

Brutally hilarious

Here’s the article I’m sure many of you have been waiting for (and shame on you): Kurt Schlichter’s farewell tribute to retiring Senator Mitt Romney. Brutally hilarious.

https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2023/09/18/that-miserable-bag-of-goo-mitt-romney-slinks-away-humiliated-n2628520

No surprise

Watch VP Kamala Harris tell a university crowd that the government should enforce “equal outcomes,” not equal opportunity. Why am I not surprised that Kamala Harris doesn’t believe in advancement based on merit?

https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/watch-kamala-harris-says-government-must-enforce-equal-outcomes/

Pray with me for Rep. Wexton and her family

Virginia Democratic Rep. Jennifer Wexton announced that she will not be running for reelection after being diagnosed with a rare and incurable neurological disease known as Progressive Supra-nuclear Palsy. She described it as being like “Parkinson’s on steroids.” Wexton said she’s always believed in honesty, so she has to concede that “there’s no getting better,” and “I’m going to die, which isn’t fair.” But after struggling for a long time, “I’ll be able to relax and enjoy the time I have left and the time I have left in Congress.” I hope you will join me in sending prayers and good wishes to her and her family.

https://www.westernjournal.com/going-die-dem-congresswoman-announces-retirement-diagnosed-rare-disorder/

Bye-bye Senate dress code

Chuck Schumer has decided to no longer enforce the Senate dress code. No reason was given for this, but everyone knows what it is: Sen. John Fetterman (D-Slobsylvania) seems incapable of dressing himself like a professional adult.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2023/09/18/why-the-senates-dress-code-rules-are-changing-n2628540

GOP strategist Andrew Clark put it well, tweeting, “I’m all for more casual dress codes in general but to not enforce **any dress code** on the floor of the **United States Senate** because one guy wants to hear a hoodie and basketball shorts is just crass.”

A thought I had…

I’m thinking of sending President Biden a T-shirt that reads, “I gave Iran $6 billion and all I got was a broken promise to spend it on humanitarian stuff and a refusal to let the UN inspect Iranian nuclear sites.” Or if that’s too long to fit, I’ll just send Jill Biden an “I’m with stupid” T-shirt.

https://redstate.com/bobhoge/2023/09/17/iran-thanks-us-for-6-billion-gift-by-blocking-un-inspectors-from-nuclear-sites-n2163936

A ridiculous nuisance lawsuit

Despite all the talk about electric cars, here’s the surest sign that oil companies still have plenty of money. California’s leftist politicians have launched a ridiculous nuisance lawsuit against them, blaming them for the “climate emergency” and demanding billions to fund their pet eco projects. It’s like an alcoholic suing a brewery for making him a drunk.

https://www.westernjournal.com/california-files-major-lawsuit-top-oil-companies/

Since all these alleged problems (including wildfires caused by decades of leftist government mismanagement of forests and waterways) are entirely the fault of oil companies for unconscionably selling gasoline to Californians, the solution is obvious: the oil companies should show repentance by immediately cutting off all sales of oil and gas inside California. Let the politicians explain to stranded Californians why this is really for their own good because they’re saving the planet.

Biden team moves to protect the incompetent

The Biden White House must be really afraid that Donald Trump will become President again because Biden is already moving to institute a new rule to make it harder to get rid of entrenched, incompetent and biased federal bureaucrats. He wants our border gates welded open and the drain on the swamp welded shut.

https://www.westernjournal.com/biden-hatches-plan-keep-swamp-place-thwart-potential-trump-re-election-purgebiden-hatches-plan-keep-swamp-place-thwart-potential-trump-re-election-purge/

I confess, I nearly spit my coffee on my keyboard laughing at the Biden official who claimed they have to defend this system of being unable to remove Deep State termites and incompetents because it’s a “system that has been in place for 140 years to ensure we have a dedicated nonpartisan civil service.”

And anyone who dares suggest that they might not be nonpartisan had better brace for being silenced on social media and having the FBI raid their homes at dawn.

“Grade-grubbing”

Here’s a new term to add to your vocabulary: “grade-grubbing.” Turns out it’s the shockingly common practice by today’s high school and college students of begging or threatening their instructors to give them higher grades than they earned.

https://redstate.com/alexparker/2023/09/18/participation-trophy-students-demand-good-grades-n2163938

Here’s the most frightening sentence in the story: “…In a study of undergraduate students preparing for careers in medicine, ‘over a quarter of the respondents self-reported engaging in grade-focused interactions.'" I don’t know about you, but I don’t want doctors who only passed biology by begging not to be flunked or by threatening to reveal that they slept with the professor.

Nothing To See Here!!

In Bridgeport, Connecticut, where the incumbent mayor eked out a narrow, come-from-behind victory of 251 votes over a Democratic primary challenger, surveillance video has surfaced of a local Democratic official and supporter of the mayor apparently stuffing stacks of absentee ballots into a drop box. If so, that's illegal: only the voter or an immediate relative of an absentee voter can cast those ballots, which usually means only one ballot. The challenger calls this an “undeniable act of voter suppression and a huge civil rights violation” and is demanding an investigation.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/09/connecticut-democrat-primary-election-scandal-police-launch-investigation/

Meanwhile, the Bridgeport police say they are investigating the actions in the video, but also investigating how the video was obtained and released to the public, and if there was a breach in the security video management system. Yes, that’s obviously the biggest concern here: the public wasn’t authorized to see the proof of election chicanery. Better track down the person who exposed it. There’s your real criminal!

Hunter’s attorneys suing the IRS: legal strategy or tantrum?

“This case seems to be almost like a tantrum that Abbe Lowell’s having...”

That’s the observation of former federal prosecutor Jonathan Fahey, in an interview Monday night with FOX NEWS’ Trace Gallagher, speaking of Hunter Biden’s lead attorney suing the IRS and the former agents who came forward with their concerns about his case. The whistleblowers “did everything under the law in revealing this information,” Fahey said. The suit, he said, is apparently not about their testimony but what they’ve said since going to the House Ways and Means Committee.

(As you know, they went to Ways and Means in the first place because they were dealing with someone’s personal tax records, and this committee, behind closed doors, was the only place they could legally divulge that. The committee then had the authority to allow a public hearing before the Oversight Committee.)

“...I don’t really see the merits of this lawsuit,” he said, “and I’m not really seeing the point of the lawsuit, either, as far as the big picture for his client, how it benefits him.”

In his original plea deal, which was scrapped --- no matter what Abbe Lowell says --- Hunter was originally charged with misdemeanors for crimes that normally would be considered felonies. According to Fahey, the judge in California could come back and charge him with felony tax offenses, if he is so inclined (I wouldn’t hold my breath), along with felony gun crimes. “So, really, things are going in a bad direction for Hunter…this current legal strategy doesn’t seem to be helping him that much, from what I’m seeing.”

That’s in line with a report from the WASHINGTON POST that David Weiss may soon file a new indictment against Hunter on tax charges in a California federal court. ABC NEWS got specific about this --- WAPO, ABC...see, the memo really has gone out! --- saying Hunter will likely face charges of failure to pay taxes after allegations made by IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler about money from Burisma channeled through a Chinese firm run by the Biden family business.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/09/18/report-david-weiss-may-soon-charge-hunter-biden-california-tax-crimes/

Fahey predicted Hunter won’t go to trial on the gun charges, and that his attorneys would try to work out a deal and “keep the option open” of appealing on a constitutional issue with those. He also predicted no jail time, surprise!

Mark Lytle, the attorney for former IRS lead investigator Gary Shapley, had weighed in earlier in the day, saying, “Congress wrote the law so that whistleblowers could come forward in a protected manner and shine the light on government misconduct. And that’s what happened here. And as a result, the ‘sweetheart’ plea deal was revealed...and the judge rejected it. And they’re mad about that, and they’re coming after the whistleblowers.”

Oh, they’re mad, of course, but going on the offensive in a blind fury is also their legal strategy. Very deliberate.

The lawsuit itself is extremely tenuous. It alleges that Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler sought to “publicly smear” Hunter Biden by releasing information about his taxes to congressional investigators. This, his attorneys say, adds up to a violation of his “privacy rights.”

(Aside: I thought that with the release of President Trump’s tax returns under the Biden administration, the idea of financial privacy was a thing of the past! Why, it must be back again.)

In suing the IRS, Hunter is, in effect, suing his father’s administration, claiming that IRS agents “targeted and sought to embarrass” him. His attorneys also allege that the whistleblowers released information that Congress had not yet released. That includes allegations of his failure to pay $2.2 million in taxes --- hey, we already knew about that; it’s the bill his “sugar brother” Kevin Morris paid --- and possible tax fraud over claiming expenses for prostitutes and sex clubs on his returns.

They told about the prostitutes and sex clubs?? Why, Hunter’s squeaky-clean reputation is RUINED!!

Attorney Lytle released a statement: “Neither IRS SSA Gary Shapley nor his attorneys have ever released any confidential tax information except through whistleblower disclosures authorized by statute. Once Congress released that testimony, like every American citizen, he has a right to discuss that information.” He called the lawsuit “just another frivolous smear by Biden family attorneys trying to turn people’s attention away from Hunter Biden’s own legal problems and intimidate any current and future whistleblowers.” I don’t think the IRS is losing any sleep over it.

https://redstate.com/bonchie/2023/09/18/whistleblower-lawyer-slams-hunter-bidens-lawsuit-charging-invasion-of-privacy-n2163980

By the way, did you know that there was another FBI informant in the Biden case who was “shut down” before the 2020 election? Retired Special Agent Timothy Thibault, a 25-year employee who was second in command at the Washington field office, testified before the House Judiciary Committee last week, and said he’d been told by the lead agent in the Hunter tax case to shut down their confidential human source (CHS).

Thibault wasn’t identified in the transcript, but investigative reporter Peter Schweizer believes he has identified him based on previous comments he’s made and other clues. More on this will undoubtedly be coming out soon; in the meantime, here’s what we know…

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2023/09/18/another-fbi-informant-in-biden-case-was-shut-down-before-2020-election-n1727870

House Oversight Committee Chair Jim Jordan no doubt has many questions for Special Counsel David Weiss on his handling of the Hunter case, and Weiss is now scheduled to testify before the committee on October 11. Jordan is also calling for documents relating to whistleblowers Shapley and Ziegler. His full list of demands is here...

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/rebeccadowns/2023/09/18/jim-jordan-continues-to-crack-down-on-investigation-into-hunter-biden-n2628600

Allen West has a great editorial on the “Hunter Biden Hustle,” going through the reasons why it’s just not gonna play with the American people and pointing out the ironies of “Mr. Gun Control” having a son who’s guilty of three felony gun charges. You’ll enjoy this… 

https://townhall.com/columnists/allenwest/2023/09/18/the-hypocrisy-of-the-hunter-biden-hustle-n2628558

Well, let’s move on to see how this scandal is currently affecting the Big Guy. The mainstream media are pretending he’s doing great --- that, cognitively, he’s superior to Trump (I am not kidding). “Which begs the question,” David Strom said, “if they [Democrats] know the MSM will lie on something so obvious, why do they believe these shills on anything else?”

https://hotair.com/david-strom/2023/09/18/ayfkm-joe-biden-much-more-coherent-than-trump-n578829

Poll-wise, Biden is cratering. According to a new survey from Harvard-CAPS-Harris, Biden is trailing Trump. But even worse, he’s also trailing Nikki Haley and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. You might say he’s got three strikes against him.

https://redstate.com/jeffc/2023/09/18/new-poll-reveals-devastating-news-for-president-biden-great-news-for-republican-candidates-n2163967

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has a theory for how the election is going to go, and we think he must have been reading the Huckabee newsletter. He predicts the Democrats will push Biden aside, and who else will parachute in at the last minute to “save” the party and take the nomination but...Michelle Obama. She’ll be portrayed as “the adult in the room.” (One of my writers has only been saying this for the past three years, only she used the term “healer.”) Cruz talks about the various scenarios that might replace Biden with Michelle --- as we did years ago --- in this podcast…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6wWH4vh24Q

Bonchie at REDSTATE doesn’t think it would be all that easy for the Democrats to accomplish this, though, because of other candidates, such as Kamala, who won’t cooperate and will cause a floor fight. Perhaps he’s underestimating the power of the Obamas. He’s always heard Michelle hated being in the White House. Perhaps he’s underestimating the amount of time she could spend “vacationing.” He thinks Biden will still be the candidate, that Democrats “will have to ride or die with Joe Biden.”

Perhaps he’s forgotten: They’re Democrats. They don’t intend to lose. But here’s what he says...

https://redstate.com/bonchie/2023/09/18/ted-cruz-has-a-very-interesting-theory-on-who-will-replace-joe-biden-in-2024-n2163966

Duke, also at REDSTATE, doesn’t see Biden getting to the finish line. He talks about Cruz’s prediction as well, and relates a story about Biden’s biographer Franklin Foer saying it “wouldn’t be a total shock” to him if Biden gave up running again, “much earlier than August of next year.”

https://redstate.com/tladuke/2023/09/18/someone-who-knows-biden-well-says-it-would-not-be-a-total-shock-if-he-dropped-out-of-2024-race-n2163981

AG Merrick Garland to appear before House Judiciary Committee Wednesday

Does anyone think Attorney General Merrick Garland will give straight answers when he testifies before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday? He’ll be there to answer questions about disputed aspects of the Hunter Biden investigation. James Lynch at the DAILY CALLER has even provided a helpful list of questions for him to dodge. As your grandma might have said, “Askin’ ain’t gettin’.”

Excellent questions, though! And he goes into detail about what they involve. When you have some time, check them out…

https://dailycaller.com/2023/09/18/questions-congress-doj-merrick-garland-hunter-biden-case

Ken Paxton's impeachment

I held off commenting on the impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton because he’s a friend and I didn’t want to be accused of personal bias. But now, I think it’s safe to say, without fear of contradiction, that this is the end of a long-running, politically-motivated smear job and an attempt to “attack our democracy” by having a handful of Senators overturn the will of over four million Texas voters.

For years, the liberal media in Texas have accused Ken Paxton of bribery, corruption and other abuses. He’s also been the target of federal SEC prosecutions that were thrown out of court. Unlike the case of Joe Biden, where powerful forces conspired to keep negative news hidden from voters, Texas voters in the last election heard endlessly about these claims and rejected them. He beat George P. Bush in the GOP primary by 2-1 and won the general election with over 53% of the vote.

But that didn’t silence his political opponents, whom I suspect were more upset by Paxton’s vigorous defense of conservative values and willingness to challenge the feds in court than any alleged corruption. There’s also bad blood between him and the House Speaker because Paxton called for his resignation after allegations of him appearing on the dais apparently drunk.

The House passed 16 impeachment counts in a process that Paxton’s attorney claims is illegal because the managers failed to take witness testimony under oath (a mistake that would come back to bite them in his Senate trial) and they rushed through the vote without fully informing members of the case’s flaws or giving them time to question it (to quote Nancy Pelosi, they were pressured to pass it now and find out what was in it later.)

https://dallasexpress.com/state/was-paxton-impeachment-illegal/

It seemed Paxton couldn’t possibly survive, but then a funny thing happened: he finally got a chance to defend himself. His excellent attorneys made mincemeat of the charges, proving over and over that the so-called “witnesses” had no real evidence and hadn’t actually seen or heard anything incriminating first hand. When the final vote came, not only did none of the counts reach a two-thirds majority, they didn’t even reach a simple majority. He was overwhelmingly acquitted on all counts. It makes one ponder how the January 6^th Kangaroo Kommittee might have gone had Republicans or Trump lawyers actually been allowed to cross-examine the “witnesses” or introduce their own witnesses and evidence.  

https://www.westernjournal.com/texas-ag-declares-war-impeachment-fails-buckle/

In a statement, Paxton said, “Today, the truth prevailed. The truth could not be buried by mudslinging politicians or their powerful benefactors… The weaponization of the impeachment process to settle political differences is not only wrong, it is immoral and corrupt… Now that this shameful process is over, my work to defend our constitutional rights will resume.” He was reinstated as Attorney General, and he warned that he will come after the Biden Administration for its many illegal and unconstitutional actions that are harming the state of Texas.

I know this is more of a state-level news item, but I wanted to cover it because it carries national implications, and not just because it sets up future legal battles against our open borders President. There’s a larger lesson that can be taken from it. I see polls showing that many Americans believe Donald Trump must’ve committed some crimes because he’s facing so many indictments. Well, as they say, you can indict a ham sandwich. It’s easy when you have a partisan DA with no professional ethics and a grand jury that isn’t allowed to hear the target’s defense, question the witnesses or see any exculpatory evidence.

But when the trial starts, it’s a different matter. That’s when the accusers actually have to prove their claims, and if they’ve got nothin’, it soon becomes pretty obvious. Many Texans were convinced Paxton must be guilty and couldn’t possibly survive: after all, he was facing SIXTEEN counts of impeachment!  But what happens if every last one of them is bogus? Well, now we know: he’s Attorney General again.

 Possibly Related: Could somebody at ABC News be reading the writing on the wall about Georgia DA Fani Willis’ nutso RICO case against Trump and his associates? They seem to be trying to prepare their regular viewers so they won’t be too shocked when it implodes by actually admitting that it’s a bad case and she’s just “throwing things against the wall.”

https://revolver.news/2023/09/somethings-happening-abc-news-just-flattened-fani-willis-and-her-desperatetrump-vendetta/

 I JUST WANTED TO SAY: 

Thank you for reading my newsletter. 

For more news, visit my website.