Posts on Wednesday, April 17, 2024
On Monday, New York’s Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul celebrated her victory of getting mostly everything she wanted in her $237 billion budget fight, including an additional $2.4 billion in spending for migrants.
Hochul boasted that she beat politics as usual, saying, “I heard way too often for my tastes: That’s always how it’s been done. That’s never worked for me, it never will. We had some very tough conversations for how we can change the entrenched status quo,” Politico reported.Indeed, the budget plan includes $4 billion more than she asked for in January.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had kind words for far-left CNN host Jake Tapper Wednesday after the cameras appeared to turn dark.
“You’re always fair,” a mic’d up Johnson said during an exchange heard by Breitbart News moments after Johnson’s long appearance on CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper. Johnson joined Tapper remotely from outside the House floor in the Capitol as a handful of reporters looked on. He remarked during the interview that he had known Tapper, a proven leftwing partisan known for broadcasting false claims, for a long time.
WASHINGTON—After a string of retirements and an expulsion, House Republicans will soon hold the slimmest majority in modern history.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is leading a Republican conference that can spare only one defection in a party that has already dethroned its own speaker over internal divisions.
Such a thin advantage gives Republicans little in the way of leverage in a government that’s otherwise completely controlled by Democrats—particularly as infighting and the threat of a new motion to vacate against Mr. Johnson hangs over all that he does.
China's leaders give tax breaks to companies that produce fentanyl chemicals and cause some 80,000 US overdose deaths each year, a damning House report warns.
Beijing is fueling America's fentanyl crisis by subsidizing the manufacture of materials used by traffickers to make pills outside the country, say papers from a committee on China.
Researchers accessed a government website that revealed tax rebates for the production of specific fentanyl precursors and other synthetics — as long as those companies sell them outside of China.
Migrants and a local advocacy group in Denver protested the city's new Asylum Seekers Program that provides some short-term alleviation, saying it doesn't go far enough. Last week, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston announced what was described as "the first step" in a long-term, sustainable response to what has been dubbed a crisis that has caused city officials to examine negative impact to city services. The city is welcoming roughly 1,000 people into the city's newcomer shelter system, all of whom are potential asylum seekers who must wait at least 180 days after applying for asylum to receive work authorization. They
The Brussels gangster state
replies
On Monday, I journeyed from Israel to Brussels for the two-day National Conservatism conference where I was due to speak this morning. I travelled from one war zone. I hadn’t expected to be entering another.
National Conservatism, a movement underpinned by the thinking of the Israeli-American philosopher Yoram Hazony, promotes the nation state and the defence of its historic values against the nihilism of the post-moral, anti-western and anti-human ideologies that pass for much progressive thinking.
This mainstream position is denounced as “far right” by left-wingers who use this smear to denounce anyone who dares oppose their agenda of destroying the western nation and its historic culture and values.
Joe Biden is out in Pennsylvania saying that Trump got rich the old-fashioned way: he inherited it. At least that is an honest way to get rich. Trump inherited money, and he took a massive amount of risk and created a huge number of jobs.
Biden, on the other hand, got rich the same way a lot of politicians get rich. He used his powerful position in government and took his son around the world on government-paid transportation, collecting kickbacks from a number of adversaries, including Russia, Ukraine, and China. The only thing the Biden family had to sell was access to Joe.
A woman who accused former MLB pitcher Trevor Bauer of sexual assault has been indicted by an Arizona grand jury on charges related to extortion and fraud.
According to the indictment, which was filed Monday in Maricopa County Superior Court and quoted by ESPN, Darcy Adanna Esemonu “knowingly did obtain a benefit from … Trevor Anthony Bauer by means of fraudulent pretenses, representation, promises, or material omissions.” Esemonu was also charged regarding matters in which she “knowingly did obtain or sought to obtain property or services” via extortive methods from a separate individual unaffiliated with Bauer.
The Senate moved Wednesday to put a premature end to the impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, which would make him the second Cabinet official in history to evade a conviction and removal from office — but the first to be acquitted without evidence being presented of his alleged “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) convened the upper chamber in the early afternoon to swear in the 51 Democrats or independents who caucus with them and 49 Republicans as jurors, before offering a motion to dismiss the first of the charges without a trial.
The unprecedented move set off a series of objections from Republicans,
Both articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas were deemed unconstitutional by the Senate on Wednesday in a party-line vote. The first of two articles of impeachment alleged Mayorkas engaged in the "willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law" regarding the southern border in his capacity as DHS secretary. The second claimed Mayorkas had breached public trust. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., proposed a point of order declaring the article unconstitutional, to which the majority of senators agreed following several failed motions by Republicans.
New York City has issued a health alert over the rise of rat-borne disease.
Cases of leptospirosis among people soared to its highest level in 2023, which is spread through contact with rat urine or feces.
In 2023 there were 24 cases reported in the city, which is eight times higher than total cases in the previous two decades.So far in 2024, there have been six cases.
'Not only are rodents unsightly and can traumatize your day, but they're a real health-related crises,' said Mayor Eric Adams.
Housing prices are out of control. As any economist will tell you, there are two ways to bring the price of a good down: increase the supply or reduce the demand.
Building houses—increasing the supply—is a complex and relatively difficult business. It requires time, labor, materials, and expertise. It is also environmentally taxing. Building lots of houses in quick succession can easily lead to urban sprawl, congestion, and unaesthetic cookie-cutter suburbs stretched out to the horizon. Residents of Dallas-Fort Worth know exactly what I’m talking about.
But there is, of course, another way to reduce the cost of housing in America—we could reduce demand.
ABC’s Good Morning America and its chief White House correspondent/chief Biden apple polisher Mary Bruce were emanating warm fuzzies and weak knees on Wednesday over their allies in the New York legal system interfering in the 2024 presidential election, preventing former President Trump from campaigning five days a week and allowing their candidate — President Joe Biden — to have the country to himself.
Co-host Michael Strahan had a tease giving Team Biden what they want by boasting of Trump on day two of jury selection “test[ing] the patience of the judge while President Biden hits the campaign trails in a battleground state.”
Prosecutor Josh Steinglass asked each of the 18 prospective jurors in front of him to look across at Donald Trump and then take a long look inside themselves and decide whether they were up to the job of deciding guilt or innocence.
'You have to be able to come back from your deliberations and look the defendant in the eye and say "guilty.'
The defendant knew exactly where to look. He wrenched his body around to the right facing them, and delivered a penetrating glare as each in turn answered 'yes.'
It made for a dramatic moment on day two of Trump's hush money trial. The former president went eye-to-eye with some
Iran Insanity
replies
Two friends of mine comment on the Obama/Biden administration’s bizarre partiality toward Iran. In the New York Post, Glenn Reynolds writes:
Post-[Iran’s] attack [on Israel]— going further yet beyond parody — the Biden administration’s chief effort has been aimed at demanding Israel not retaliate.
That’s right. Israel has had more than a thousand of its citizens raped, tortured, murdered and kidnapped, it’s been subjected to a massive missile attack, and it’s being told to exercise “restraint.”
What other country in the world faces this sort of attack and is then told to exercise restraint?
The Biden administration even organized G7 leaders to demand that Israel not respond.
Is this ineptitude, or is it corruption?
Former attorney to Donald Trump, John Eastman, alleged that both Bank of America and USAA have debanked him, closing his accounts in the aftermath of his involvement in advising Trump around the 2020 election.
According to an exclusive report by the Daily Caller, in September 2023, Bank of America sent a letter to Eastman informing him of the closure of his bank accounts. Following this, USAA, two months later, notified Eastman of the closure of his accounts with the company. USAA cited its Depository Agreement as the basis for its decision, citing its right to ”no longer do banking business” with customers.
The NBA Wednesday banned Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter for violating league gambling rules. The NBA said in a statement on X, "The league's investigation found that prior to the Raptor's March 20 game, Porter disclosed confidential information about his own health status to an individual he knew to be an NBA bettor. Another individual with whom Porter associated and knew to be an NBA bettor subsequently placed an $80,000 parlay proposition bet with an online sports book, to win $1.1 million, wagering that Porter would underperform in the March 20 game."
Over a dozen Republican attorneys general are warning a major U.S. bank against alleged practices of "de-banking" certain customers because of their religious or political views.
In a letter obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, along with 14 of his Republican colleagues told Bank of America CEO Brian T. Moynihan that the company "appears to be conditioning access to its services on customers having the bank’s preferred religious or political views." (snip) The AGs claim that Bank of America has previously denied services to gun manufacturers, distributors, and sellers, fossil-fuel producers, contractors for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and private prisons and related services.
When I asked the U.S. official what President Joe Biden’s Iran strategy is, I was immediately met with laughter. Then, the official said, “You know, a lot of people inside the administration ask that same question. Sometimes they ask it on the first day. Sometimes they ask it six months later. ”
I have an answer for them: There is no Biden strategy for Iran.
If he wants to end the growing chaos in the Middle East, he might want to come up with one.
The Islamist regime in Tehran is, by many measures, at the root of much of the destabilization across the Middle East and more of a threat
By golly, I think we've discovered the qualifications that got Katherine Maher hired to run Government Radio.
Christopher Rufo has done extensive digging into Maher's track record, none of which had anything to do with journalism until NPR made her its new CEO in January. Maher did work at Wikipedia as its CEO during the pandemic and the 2020 election, where she took an active role in content control. And by content control, Maher made clear in a remote address to the Atlantic Council in 2021, she means imposing censorship on any information or discussion to which the government objected on both topics (transcript via RealClearPolitics):
Donald Trump may not have been joined by his wife longtime Melania Trump when he headed to his criminal trial in Manhattan this week, but he had no shortage of glamorous women by his side.
The former President, 77, was joined at the courtroom by his stunning assistant Natalie Harp and his deputy communications chief Margo Martin, who shares a striking resemblance to his wife Melania, 53.
Trump has slowly built up a team of extremely loyal and very alluring young women - including Natalie, 32, and Margo, 28 - who are often spotted cheering him on at events or hanging out at his Mar-a-Lago golf club.
It's not news that the Biden administration's handling of its self-inflicted border crisis is an abject failure, but new information about the illegal alien charged with the abduction and murder of Georgia student Laken Riley illustrates how out of control things have gotten and how unconcerned the president and his cabinet are about following the law.Reading from Department of Homeland Security files on Jose Antonio Ibarra, an illegal alien from Venezuela, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) revealed confirmation from DHS that Ibarra had been paroled illegally in September 2022 before he allegedly killed Riley on February 22.
As Graham explained Tuesday, Ibarra's file states that the illegal alien
The first seven jurors in President Trump’s NYC lawfare case in liberal Judge Juan Merchan’s court.
Judge Juan Merchan on Tuesday accused Trump of intimidating a juror who admitted she posted a pro-Biden video to her Facebook page.
Jury selection was still underway on Tuesday in the Stormy Daniels ‘hush money’ trial after more than 50 prospective jurors were dismissed from the jury pool on Monday.
One potential juror was brought in for questioning after Trump’s lawyers discovered she posted a pro-Biden celebratory video in 2020.
Joe Biden on Wednesday stopped to chat with reporters on the tarmac as he was departing Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Biden told a dubious story about how his grandfather (or uncle?) Ambrose Finnegan (Jr.?) was hot down in an area where there were a lot of cannibals.
“Ambrose Finnegan, we called him Uncle Bosey – he was shot down, he was Army Air Corps before there was an Air Force. He flew a single-engine plane, reconnaissance flights over New Guinea and he volunteered when someone couldn’t make it and he got shot down in an area where there were a lot of cannibals…” Biden said.
A man has been charged in federal court in Illinois in the transport of millions of dollars' worth of Masters merchandise and memorabilia stolen from Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia.
A document filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois accuses Richard Globensky of transporting the items across state lines to Tampa, Florida, "knowing the same had been stolen, converted and taken by fraud."
The items were taken from the famous golf club and other locations beginning in 2009 through 2022, according to the government.
If a belligerent state launched 186 explosive drones, 36 cruise missiles, and 110 surface-to-surface missiles from three fronts against civilian targets within the United States, would Joe Biden call it a “win”?
Would the president tell us that the best thing we can do now is show “restraint”? What if that same terror state’s proxy armies had recently helped murder, rape, and kidnap more than 1,000 American men, women, and children? What if this terror state were trying to obtain nuclear weapons so it could continue to agitate without any consequences? This is what Joe Biden and the Barack Obama acolytes, Iranian dupes, and Israel antagonists he’s surrounded himself with demand
Columbia University president Minouche Shafik told the House Education and Workforce Committee in a Wednesday hearing on campus antisemitism that a professor who glorified Hamas’s October 7 attack as “awesome” no longer runs a university committee.
Representative Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.), after a quick Google search, found that professor Joseph Massad of the university’s Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African studies department is still listed as the chair of Columbia’s Arts and Sciences Academic Review Committee.
Only one day after Hamas attacked Israel, Massad wrote an article on the Electronic Intifada website describing the massacres as “stunning,” “awesome,” remarkable,” and said the violence resulted in “jubilation and awe.”
Nearly every studio and outlet now has DEI requirements which translate into discriminating against qualified talent over diversity quotas. They’ve led to occasional lawsuits and government legislation to end this practice of illegal discrimination, but this is a unique lawsuit filed by a white producer against Al Roker, for not discriminating against white writers. A white liberal attacking a prominent black personality for not being DEI enough is a good snapshot of an insane racist industry where discrimination is driven more by white ideologues than minority talent.
There’s the Right Stuff and the Woke Stuff. NASA no longer has the right stuff, so all it’s got is the DEI stuff. Remember this?
In July 2010, NASA chief Charles Bolden, an Obama appointee, told Al Jazeera that his boss had given him three priorities… “to reach out to the Muslim world… to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.” [SNIP] Now the four-person crew for the “virtual” mission to Mars has been unveiled and they carefully screened out the white people.
Veteran Editor Resigns from NPR, Says
New CEO’s ‘Divisive’ Left-Wing Views
Confirm Bombshell Exposé replies
New CEO’s ‘Divisive’ Left-Wing Views
Confirm Bombshell Exposé replies
Veteran editor Uri Berliner has resigned from NPR, days after the outlet suspended him without pay for writing an essay exposing pervasive left-wing groupthink at the public radio network where he worked for more than two decades.
“I am resigning from NPR, a great American institution where I have worked for 25 years. I don’t support calls to defund NPR. I respect the integrity of my colleagues and wish for NPR to thrive and do important journalism,” he said on X. “But I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged by a new CEO whose divisive views confirm
A North Carolina high school student was charged after he allegedly slapped his teacher multiple times during a viral profanity-laced classroom rant earlier this week.
The rage-filled youngster, identified only as a minor, confronted the educator inside Parkland High School in Winston-Salem, where he violently attacked her, according to video posted to social media.
After the initial impact, the teacher seemed unfazed by the slap as the student continued to run his mouth.
Do you think that affected me anyway,” the unidentified teacher said, sitting back in her chair, legs crossed.
“Want me to hit you again,” the juvenile asked as he menacingly approached the teacher.
At a certain point after following politics closely, you move away from reacting to events and begin to focus on proactively predicting events. (snip)Let there be absolutely no doubt, removing Johnson right now is giving the speaker gavel to Democrats. This Machiavellian way to remove Donald Trump has always appeared to be the Deep State insurance policy.(snip)If the Democrats take control of the House, disqualifying Donald Trump from federal office will be the purpose of their first legislative act. They already hold the Senate. They will do this. Thomas Massie knows this.
So, ask yourself, who exactly is controlling the action of Thomas Massie;
NPR’s queen of the Karens
replies
Sometimes, a person enters the public spotlight and is such an embodiment of an established stereotype that it seems impossible for him or her to be a real person. If Tom Wolfe wanted to capture the essence of arrogant, alienated progressivism, he would reject NPR’s new CEO, Katherine Maher, as too unbelievably on point.
The daughter of wealthy parents whose wedding was announced in the New York Times, Maher grew up in a wealthy white suburb of New York City (snip) It would be impossible to create a resume of a person more disconnected from Americans and more intertwined with the wealthy, urban, globalist elite
The Kill Switch
replies
Soon the government might shut down your car.
President Joe Biden's new infrastructure gives bureaucrats that power.
You probably didn't hear about that because when media covered it, few mentioned the requirement that by 2026, every American car must "monitor" the driver, determine if he is impaired and, if so, "limit vehicle operation."
Rep. Thomas Massie objected, complaining that the law makes government "judge, jury and executioner on such a fundamental right!"
Congress approved the law anyway.
A USA Today "fact check" told readers, don't worry, "There's no kill switch in Biden's bill."
(Snip) The clause is buried under Section 24220 of the law.
On Tuesday, oral arguments commenced in the case of Fischer vs. United States, scrutinizing the legitimacy of felony charges of obstructing an official proceeding against individuals involved in the January 6 United States Capitol riot. The court's ruling will carry significant weight, as it could potentially influence the fate of hundreds of defendants from the January 6 riot and potentially undermine certain federal charges against Donald Trump. Currently, the conservative wing of the court has expressed doubt regarding the government's case, which U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar is making.
In early April, it emerged that a Marxist, pro-Hamas, anti-American guest speaker gave a two-hour-long lecture at the UCLA Geffen School that included an invocation to kneel in prayer to momma earth and stand up and scream for Hamas. This proves that Marxist ideological argot, the canons of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), intersectionality, and critical race theory have infiltrated American medicine.
The Supreme Court has established that DEI (i.e., reverse discrimination) violates the Constitution when it comes to admissions:
What a day this has been. I never imagined that I would witness the banning of a peaceful political meeting in a supposedly free and democratic country. But that’s what nearly happened today in Belgium — in Brussels, the capital of the European Union.
I say “nearly,” because despite the attempts by the municipal government, aided by the police and urged on by Antifa, the National Conservatism conference went on, though in a much constrained fashion. After having two venues cancel on us at the last minute, under pressure by both the mayor of Brussels, and two district mayors, police entered the Claridge event space with the intention of shutting
The first criminal trial against former and potentially future President Donald is moving forward, with Tuesday bringing us more of jury selection. As Matt covered on Monday, the trial thus far has been incredibly unfair to Trump, and not merely because it's such a weak case. Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan, who has been criticized as "a Democratic operative in a robe," won't even let Trump attend his son's high school graduation. Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg is no better, though, as he's looking to punish Trump for violating the unconstitutional gag order thrust upon him.
It's hard to blame Donald Trump (aka Dozy Don) for apparently nodding off during the first day of his 'hush money' trial in New York on Monday.
Yes, it's the first ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president and he's also the only leading presidential candidate ever to face criminal proceedings. Add to that the chance he could go to jail if he's found guilty and you might expect Trump to be paying close attention.
But the early stages of the trial have been dominated by arcane legal arguments about procedural points and the interminable process of choosing a jury, now an unavoidable feature of American justice.
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday heard oral arguments in Fischer v. United States and at issue is statute 18 USC §1512(c)(2):
Whoever corruptly—
(1) alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding; or
(2) otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.
Protesters interrupted New York City Mayor Eric Adams by storming the stage as he was giving a speech on Tuesday morning, accusing him of taking money “from the rich” and serving the interests of lobbyists.
While Adams was giving a speech about the accomplishments the city has made under his administration at an event held by the Association for a Better New York, a group of protesters stormed the stage. The protesters were seen in video footage getting escorted off the stage and out of the room as they could be heard yelling, “How much money do you take from the rich?” and, “What do we need? A new mayor!”
Has there ever been a more hypocritically thin-skinned occupation than journalism?
Day after day these relatively uneducated writers piously dish out opprobrium on those they don’t like and then respond like whiny spoiled brats when anyone dares to criticize them.
The latest example of this involves Uri Berliner, a senior editor at National Public Radio who we learned on Tuesday was suspended without pay for having the temerity to complain that this taxpayer-supported enterprise had become hopelessly agenda-driven.
Berliner has worked at NPR for a quarter century and describes himself
Should former President Donald Trump win the 2024 election, one of his plans is to seriously reduce the federal government's regulation of banks and financial markets. This could include the outright elimination of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, among other actions.
In the wake of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, Congress dramatically expanded the U.S. government's oversight of the financial industry to prevent a repeat of the 2008 global banking meltdown.
Donald Trump would likely renew his efforts to scale back those reforms, if elected, as well as pare protections for small-scale investors and borrowers, and allow companies to raise money
Former President Donald Trump visited a bodega in New York City where a worker was attacked, robbed, and wrongfully prosecuted for murder by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Prior to his visit, Trump issued a press release revealing that he would be “visiting” the bodega where Jose Alba, who had been working as a bodega clerk, was “robbed, attacked, and, ultimately, wrongfully accused of murder” after he had defended himself.
“President Trump’s visit to one of New York City’s bodegas comes at a time when retail theft is skyrocketing and the New York City police force is on track to fall to its lowest numbers since the 1990s by 2025,”
Left-wing billionaire Jeff Skoll’s woke film studio Participant is reportedly shutting down operations and eliminating most of its staff — the latest victim of Hollywood’s sharp downturn that has seen a bloodbath of layoffs and budget cuts.
Participant, founded in 2004, often financed projects with social justice and globalist themes, including former Vice President Al Gore’s climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth and its sequel. Other titles include the Obama’s Netflix documentary American Factory and the Ruth Bader Ginsburg doc RBG.
The studio also helped bankroll two best-picture Oscar winners — Green Book and Spotlight.
A federal appeals court on Tuesday overturned a West Virginia law that prohibits male athletes from competing in women’s sports in the state, arguing that it violates Title IX, the federal law barring sex-based discrimination in schools.
In a 2-1 ruling, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed transgender-identifying males to participate on women’s sports teams in the state.
This was one of several pending lawsuits addressing the issue of male participation in women’s sports, with both sides laying claim to Title IX to support their cases. In the West Virginia case, Becky Pepper-Jackson — an eleven-year-old boy interested in trying out for his middle-school girls’ cross-country team
1 in 3 Muslims living in the UK want Islam to be declared the national religion and for everyone to live under the brutal system of Sharia law which calls for beheadings and amputations.
Less than 1 in 4 Muslims opposed the move while the majority were unwilling to commit.
Among younger Muslims 18-24, 1 in 5 believed that making Islam “our national religion” was “very desirable”, and a total of 43% supported redefining the UK as an Islamic state.
Only 16% opposed it.
This younger group who are the future of Muslims in the UK was also the one most likely to sympathize with Islamic terrorists.
Of course it is George Soros who is funding the Pro-Hamas protests that shut down major highways yesterday.
It's almost as if the guy enjoys being considered a supervillain even more than he wants to destroy Western culture. I have never understood Soros' hatred for the West. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he was all about "Open Societies," and early on I assumed he would be a good guy despite his rather nasty way of making his money.
Boy, was I wrong. Admittedly, I caught onto his shtick pretty quickly, but I am still ashamed that I never thought nice things about him.
These days,
The alarming scene that unfolded recently in Dearborn, Mich., with Muslim protesters chanting “Death to America,” has resulted in some fallout for the city’s mayor, Abdullah Hammoud. While Old Joe Biden and his henchmen are happily taking a wrecking ball to the former Land of the Free and Home of the Brave, they don’t go around telegraphing their intentions.
Their friends in Dearborn were a bit too forthright about what the ultimate goal of the policies that the left and their Islamic allies really are, so reassuring words had to be uttered and the public put back to sleep.