Posts on Sunday, December 18, 2022

Oscar Leeser, the Democratic mayor of El Paso, has bent over backward not to “embarrass” the head of his party, President Joe Biden. As migrants poured across the border, unmetered and unvetted, he quietly grappled with the strain on the city’s resources. He provided the shelter and food the federal government wouldn’t. He struck private deals with Mayor Eric Adams to alleviate the crush, busing some people to New York. Even as the City Council begged him to point out what was happening, he refused. He insisted he’d been told by the Biden administration that if he was patient, they would help. This went on for months. On Saturday, Leeser’s patience

Washington - The House Jan. 6 committee met Sunday to finalize its plans to issue at least three criminal referrals for former President Donald Trump, NBC News has learned exclusively. The committee, gathering publicly Monday, is expected to vote on referrals asking the Justice Department to pursue at least three criminal charges against Trump related to the Capitol riot: obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the government and inciting or assisting an insurrection. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said in part during the meeting overheard by NBC News that he believed referrals were “warranted.” A source familiar with the committee’s plans told NBC News about the meeting and its location

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex revealed their side of why they left the royal family in a six-part documentary series released through Netflix. Now with their grievances aired, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are reportedly seeking a "royal summit" with family members to address concerns voiced in the docuseries. In addition, Meghan and Harry want an "apology" from his family. During the six-hour, episodic documentary, Harry and Meghan both detailed instances where Markle, who is bi-racial, felt unsupported by the Palace while being racially targeted by the British press.

One day we get a poll that shows Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) beating former President Trump in a potential 2024 GOP primary by 23 points or 14 points, or five points. The next day we get a poll that shows Trump beating DeSantis by 18 points. Some of the individual states look good for Trump. Some look good for DeSantis. What does this tell us? Nothing. The campaign has not begun. Trump just announced his intent to run for reelection in 2024. DeSantis just won a jaw-dropping reelection campaign in what used to be a vital swing state. But DeSantis has not yet announced his decision on a presidential bid. Until

If I had one wish to be fulfilled this Christmas it would not even be Lily James and Keira Knightley abducting me for a 24-hour love session, but for every U.S. Marine guarding our nation’s embassies to put down their guns and declare a 48-hour strike against the rotten regime in D.C. that chose a black lesbian drug smuggler over an American ex-Marine rotting in a Russian jail since 2018. The black lesbian basketball player who was chosen over the Marine used to remain seated during the playing of the national anthem, or if she happened to be standing up, she would turn her back and make sure everyone noticed

The most recent edition of the 'Twitter Files' reveals that FBI officials demanded execs for the social media giant to give them information about how they were enforcing safety online. Journalist Matt Taibbi, who released the first batch of internal files about the Hunter saga earlier in December, posted emails showing the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force wanted info about state-run media's use of the site. Taibbi dubbed this release 'Twitter Files Supplemental' and seemed to wonder why the agency was unsatisfied with the idea that it 'had not observed much recent activity from official propaganda actors.'

Elon Musk is asking Twitter’s users to decide if he should stay in charge of the social media platform after acknowledging he made a mistake Sunday in launching new speech restrictions that banned mentions of rival social media websites. In yet another drastic policy change, Twitter had announced that users will no longer be able to link to Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon and other platforms the company described as “prohibited.” But the move generated so much immediate criticism, including from past defenders of Twitter’s new billionaire owner, that Musk promised not to make any more major policy changes without an online survey of users.

Representative Mike Turner (R-OH) said on this week’s broadcast of FNC’s “Sunday Morning Futures,” House Republicans plan to use oversight to investigate possible coordination between the FBI and social media companies. Turner said, “While we pursue intelligence community to try to hold them accountable, while we’re doing that, Elon Musk is showing what’s happening on the other side with the willing partners, the mainstream media, social media and really exposing coordination that was occurring between the FBI and them. Now, it is my understanding from our contacts that we have at the FBI that there are secret files that the FBI has of these contacts they were having with social media and with mainstream media.

Before his surprise Monday night arrest, Sam Bankman-Fried had apologized for everything he could think of, to everyone who would listen. In a leaked draft of his aborted House testimony, he wrote that he was truly, for his entire adult life, "sad." He "f----- up," he tweeted, and wrote, and said. He told Bahamas regulators he was "deeply sorry for ending up in this position." But when Bankman-Fried was escorted out of his penthouse apartment in Nassau in handcuffs, it still wasn't clear what he was apologizing for, having stridently denied committing fraud to CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin, ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, and across Twitter for weeks.

Former Disney chief executive Bob Chapek was reportedly ousted following actions by the company's chief financial officer, who believed he was "incompetent." In a new report, The Wall Street Journal said that, after a boardroom clash with Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy, a fight with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the loss of billions of dollars in Disney's streaming division, the leader lost the support of fans, executives and the company's board alike. According to the publication, former Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger "undermined his successor," and it was "well established" that he was "unhappy with Chapek," the report said, adding that he told confidantes

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was spotted volunteering at Arlington National Cemetery Saturday, honoring the nation’s veterans. Thomas was laying wreaths at the cemetery alongside Wreaths Across America, a nonprofit organization that organizes a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington each year. He was seen in a photo with D.C.-based journalist Emily Miller, which she later shared on Twitter. (Tweet) Miller added that Thomas was also spending time supporting Gold Star families at Arlington. This is not the first time Thomas has been spotted honoring America’s veterans at Arlington National Cemetery, as he was seen in a photograph helping clean up the cemetery in 2013.

Lionel Messi went to the crowd. He waved to the supporters in blue and white, smiling like a child before the Argentine staff and his teammates came over to hug him, tears in their eyes. It was never going to be easy. But it’s hard to imagine a more epic fashion for Messi to win his first World Cup. Gonzalo Montiel had the ultimate piece of redemption, hitting the winning penalty into the bottom left corner after giving away a penalty at the end of extra time to allow France to tie the game. Immediately, Montiel covered his eyes with his shirt, in tears.

One thing I dislike immensely about republican punditry, specifically as it relates to internal dynamics, is their tribal narrative engineering. The example from Breitbart about President Trump’s discussion of the next speaker of the House is a case study. Take out Matthey Boyle’s woven narrative; and remind yourself that Boyle is writing from a position of DeSantis advocacy; read just the direct quotes from President Trump about the risk of House Speaker if the party doesn’t align to support Kevin McCarthy, and the position is pragmatic. Essentially, if not Kevin McCarthy, and the House vote is dependent on Democrat support, the result will likely be worse.

Newly indicted FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is slated to appear in court in the Bahamas again on Monday, where he reportedly will change course and agree to no longer fight extradition to the U.S. Reuters first reported news of the reversal on Saturday. An unnamed official who interacts with Bankman-Fried on a daily basis at the Bahamian prison known as Fox Hill told The Washington Post that the disgraced FTX founder remarked Friday that he would agree to be extradited back to the US to "face the music" if his lawyers could not persuade a judge to grant him bail. Their first attempt at bail failed after telling the judge Bankman-Fried

A Chicago-area high school “literacy coach” recently recorded a video of herself in which she admits to indoctrinating the students in her charge. Fox News reports Crete-Monee High’s Heather Marie Godbout (pictured), a member of the school’s Equity Team, also rips “right-wing conspiracy theorist nut jobs” in her video and notes she is opposed to traditional grading policies — because grades get “conflated with other things that aren’t actually learning, like effort or ‘work ethic,’ whatever that means.”(Snip)Godbout says believes conservatives “are legitimately trying to bring down our democracy,” create “a Christian nationalist theocracy” and “literally un-alive people.” Thus, they aren’t worthy of respect.

A recent report from the New York Post claims that Twitter’s top ranks are filled with ex-FBI agents and executives. Many of these employees were swept away by Elon Musk’s massive layoffs, but some feds are likely still on the payroll. The New York Post reports that many of Twitter’s top executive roles were staffed with ex-FBI agents, connecting the company even closer to the federal agency which is being criticized for allegedly leaning on Twitter before the 2020 elections. Over a dozen former federal officials reportedly joined the company in the years before Elon Musk purchased the website in October.

The Democratic mayor of El Paso, Texas, declared a state of emergency Saturday as the Covid-19-era pandemic policy, Title 42, is set to end Wednesday. Title 42 had allowed the administration to enforce border-control measures as a means to prevent the spread of communicable diseases. “We know that the influx on Wednesday will be incredible . . . we felt it was a proper time today to call a state of emergency,” Mayor Oscar Leeser stated during a press conference Saturday. Title 42 was first used by the Trump administration as a means to curtail illegal immigration during the pandemic.

To fight pornography in the schools, a Texas housewife recently appeared at a school board meeting. She lectured the officials: "I do not want my children to learn about anal sex in middle school. ... I want you to start focusing on education, not public health." Education, as we'll see, is the first refuge of scoundrels. Do you imagine that this school board is hip and cutting-edge? In fact, liberals have had few new ideas in more than a century. During World War 1, the communist government of Hungary "imposed a system of pornographic sex education on Hungarian school pupils." Ever since, ...

Any opportunity to bash the unvaxxed, no matter how absurd the justification, is like catnip to the corporate media. They can’t resist. A study titled “COVID Vaccine Hesitancy and Risk of a Traffic Crash,” published in the American Journal of Medicine, found a 72% higher rate of car accidents in the unvaccinated compared to the vaccinated: "A total of 11,270,763 individuals were included, of whom 16% had not received a COVID vaccine and 84% had received a COVID vaccine. The cohort accounted for 6682 traffic crashes during follow-up. Unvaccinated individuals accounted for 1682 traffic crashes (25%), equal to a 72% increased relative risk compared with those vaccinated… These data suggest

A legal group staffed by former members of the Trump administration says that if President Biden blocks the release of documents that may contain information on Hunter Biden's relationship with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, "he will have only proven just how much he has to hide."  America First Legal is one of several groups who have filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking Obama-era documents that reference "Burisma." The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is set to release nearly 300 emails that match the request, but the White House may stop the release of these records by invoking executive privilege. 

Mike Gabler, the winner of Survivor 43, announced during the season’s aftershow Wednesday night that he will donate his $1 million prize to veterans in need. When Gabler, 53, a heart valve specialist from Kingswood, Texas, was asked by host Jeff Probst what it felt like to win the million-dollar prize, he remarked that he made history by being the second player over the age of 50 to win the CBS reality television series. But Gabler switched gears, stating he would make history in another way.

I wonder if it’s because so many of us lost faith in the federal government after its absurd overreactions, bad public health policies, and demonstrable lies respecting COVID, or is it just the passage of time and changes at the top making it harder to keep secrets, but this week both the FBI and CIA are in the line of fire. The CIA Sixty years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the National Archives and Records Administration has finally released over 13,000 records in its possession relevant to that tragic event. Some 3% of the records are still being hidden from us. Why?

San Bernardino County residents voted for officials to study the possibility of seceding from California as more grow increasingly tired of the state’s far-left policies. The county approved the advisory ballot proposal, which was voted upon in November, earlier this week, the Associated Press (AP) reported. San Bernardino’s Board of Supervisors’ next step is likely to form a committee that will study if state and federal public funds were fairly distributed with local governments within the county.

Sam Bankman-Fried was shuffled off to his new digs in the Bahamas, where it seems likely that he will be spending a great deal of time. That his “mortal coil” might be shuffled off as well is an open question in the era of Jeffrey Epstein. Who are the bigger fraudsters, though? A spoiled kid who bilked his investors for billions or a bureaucracy that prints and spends public money with reckless abandon? It would take an eternity for SBF to graduate to the level of these government and quasi-government scammers. At the time of his bankruptcy filing, FTX’s liabilities were in the neighborhood of ten to fifty billion dollars.

“Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.” –Sen. Charles Schumer, January 2017 Chuck Schumer said the above quote shortly after President-elect Donald Trump criticized and mocked his “intelligence” briefers for being unprepared and for delaying a scheduled briefing on Russia for several days. Given the FBI and CIA social media shenanigans that have recently come to light through the Twitter files that new owner Elon Musk has allowed to be released, it appears that Trump’s instincts regarding the “intelligence community” were correct.

To the shock and horror of the left, The New York Young Republican Club gathered last week to celebrate its joyous solidarity in the face of overwhelming evil. Gorgeously clad attendees of the 110th Annual Gala strode past mobs of protesters braying the usual insults (“Nazi!” “Fascist!” “White Supremacist!”) from behind police barricades. “One party in the country wants to put the other party in a gulag, and the media carries their water,” Donald Trump Jr. told the crowd, delivering somber analysis with perfect comic timing. “We have a political party pushing pedophilia, as the schools attack mothers…

Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s bid to become Speaker of the House of Representatives is increasingly imperiled by a small but growing clutch of hard-line Republicans. GOP Insiders and operatives say the California lawmaker’s longtime deputy, incoming House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), could serve as an emergency compromise candidate if the caucus’s paper-thin majority fails to rally around McCarthy during their Jan 3. leadership vote. “Our relationship is on the ascent,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a member of the ultraconservative House GOP Freedom Caucus, told The Post of Scalise.

An activist warned California’s reparations task force of “a serious backlash” if it does not honor his demands for a six-figure payout for eligible black residents. Speaking at a meeting of the Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans at Oakland City Hall on Wednesday, Deon Jenkins argued that every black Californian should receive a payment of around $800,000 to reflect average home prices in the state, KRCR reported. “Either they’re going to comply or it’s going to be a serious backlash,” Jenkins said in an interview following the hearing. A self-proclaimed “hip-hop organizer,” Jenkins ran for president in 2016 and 2020,

A new poll shows former President Donald Trump at the top of the 2024 GOP nomination for president. According to the latest Harvard CAPS-Harris poll, taken between December 13 – 15, Trump leads potential Republican primary opponents by 23 points. In a poll of 1,851 registered voters, the 45th president secured 48% of support, Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) earned 25%, and former Vice President Mike Pence received six percent of the vote. No other possible challengers scored more than four percent of the vote.

CNN Newsroom host Jim Acosta returned to his old form on Saturday of hyperbolically warning about threats to press freedom as he compared the Twitter suspension of several journalists to the Trump White House revoking his press credentials. He also managed to compare tracking Elon Musk’s jet to reporting when senators arrive on the Senate floor or athletes who arrive at a stadium. Acosta was not pleased with Musk’s trolling of hypocritical journalists, “Mike, Elon Musk initially mocked his critics over this ban, tweeting ‘so inspiring to see this newfound love of freedom of speech by the press.’”

Miami, Florida — Former President Donald Trump declined to endorse either incumbent Republican National Committee (RNC) chairwoman Ronna McDaniel or her challenger, RNC national committeewoman from California Harmeet Dhillon in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News here on Friday. “Harmeet is a lawyer for me you know,” Trump said when asked about the two candidates. “Harmeet is my lawyer.” When asked whether that means he favors her or McDaniel—the current chair whom Trump selected after his 2016 White House victory and backed again in her subsequent reelection as chair—he declined to pick a specific candidate.

Haunting new video from the night of the horrific University of Idaho murders in November shows two of the victims walking alongside a mystery man hours before they were slain. Kayla Goncalves and Maddie Mogen were recorded on a surveillance video in downtown Moscow after they were recorded a food truck. The man walking beside them matches the image of man pictured standing near them at the truck. Police believe that this person is not a suspect in the brutal slayings of Mogen, 21, Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend, Ethan Chapain, 20.  In the audio, a woman can be heard asking Goncalves and Maddie Mogen:

Decades of writing about politicians has taught me that the successful ones generally do not make big decisions on the fly. If you watch and listen, you can usually spot a deliberative process and defensible reasoning behind their positions. But now comes a major exception: the decision by the Biden administration to throw open our southern border.  Two years into this national disaster, I don’t have a clue about why the president and his team are still doing this. What started as a foolish bid to undo everything Donald Trump did has become a permanent policy that undercuts national security and defies decency. The White House has never explained itself,

King Charles will invite Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to his coronation in spite of the couple’s new Netflix docuseries containing fresh attacks on the royal family. Buckingham Palace insiders told the DailMail that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex can expect invitations for the historic event at Westminster Abbey set for May 6. “Harry is his son and His Majesty will always love him. While things are difficult at the moment, the door will always be left ajar,” one insider told the outlet. Another said it would be “unlikely” for the invitation to be rescinded in the coming months, even with the release of Harry’s upcoming memoir, “Spare.”