By Mike Huckabee
May 4, 2023
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BY MIKE HUCKABEE
Blessings on you and your family from all the Huckabee staff!
Thank you for subscribing and I hope you enjoy today’s newsletter.
With gratitude,
Mike
DAILY BIBLE VERSE
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Psalm 23:5
Mike Huckabee: I don't know what's going on
I had a wide-ranging conversation yesterday with Eric Bolling on Newsmax TV. We touched on everything from Tucker Carlson and Fox News to Trump’s decision to do a CNN townhall to the Republican presidential debates. You can catch it all here:
Watch My Appearance Here
Remember When
Remember when we had to replace Trump with Biden so that other nations would respect America’s President again? Well, Iran just seized an oil tanker for the second time in a week.
https://www.
I don’t know about you, but I think I preferred when hostile nations were just scared of our President.
Nothing to see here
Yesterday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reassured Americans that the banking system is sound. He said, “There were three large banks really from the very beginning that were at heart of the stress we saw in early March” (SVB, Signature, First Republic) and “Those have all now been resolved.” But shortly afterward, Beverly Hills-based PacWest Bancorp announced that it was “weighing strategic options” and its shares plunged by over 46%.
https://www.breitbart.com/
As of this writing early Thursday morning, fears about banks had driven the Dow down over 250 points. In an attempt to calm markets and prevent a bank run, PacWest insisted that, “Our cash and available liquidity remains solid and exceeded our uninsured deposits.”
The market plunge wasn’t helped by news from Powell that the Fed was raising interest rates another 25 basis points to fight inflation. That’s the 10th consecutive interest rate hike, and the first time the key rate has been over 5% in 16 years.
I wish I had some better news or some good financial advice for you, but right now, it’s all I can do to resist posting that clip of Leslie Nielsen from “The Naked Gun” standing in front of an exploding fireworks factory and saying, “Move along! Nothing to see here!”
If you live in Colorado and send your children to public schools, sorry...
As if you needed another reason to take your kids out of public schools, the Colorado teachers union has passed a resolution condemning capitalism. It reads,
"CEA believes that capitalism requires exploitation of children, public schools, land, labor, and/or resources. Capitalism is in opposition to fully addressing systemic racism (the school to prison pipeline), climate change, patriarchy, (gender and LGBTQ disparities), education inequality, and income inequality."
An earlier draft of the resolution included a demand to replace capitalism with a “new equitable economic system."
So these teachers are no longer even trying to hide the fact that they’re turning public schools into socialist brainwashing camps for children. By the way, they had planned to keep this resolution secret “out of process and privacy concerns” – sure! – but one CES member was disgusted and leaked it. A big salute to that teacher.
As you can see at the link, this is hardly isolated to Colorado, and the national teachers union, the NEA, has taken a similar far-left stance.
For the record, capitalism is an economic system that has lifted more people out of poverty around the world than any other system in history. Socialism is an unfair, tyrannical system that’s been responsible for over 100 million deaths by famine, war and genocide during the 20th century alone. Tell that to your kids if they’re in public school or they might not ever learn it.
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Kangaroo hearing
Senate Democrats are holding a kangaroo hearing to try to hound Justice Clarence Thomas out of the Supreme Court on a bogus ethics charge, one so bogus that all nine Justices, including the liberals, signed a letter condemning the smear.
All it’s done is open the liberal Justices up to similar ethics complaints. The Daily Wire reports that between 2010 and 2012, Justice Sonya Sotomayor got $3 million in book advances from the publisher Knopf Doubleday Group, plus another $500,000 in book royalties starting in 2017. Yet she twice failed to recuse herself in decisions involving the publisher’s parent company Random House (in one case, fellow author Justice Stephen Breyer did.)
In her latest column, Ann Coulter points out that the attempt to claim Thomas got millions of dollars’ worth of trips because he and his wife vacationed with a friend who was a billionaire GOP donor on his yacht was ridiculous because the friend was taking the vacations anyway, so the only cost was food for his guests. But liberal Justices like Ruth Bader Ginsberg get billions of dollars’ worth of free fawning publicity, book deals and other perks.
As for Justice Sotomayor, do I think this story proves she’s corrupt? No. We don’t even know how she voted in these cases, only that she should have recused herself and didn’t. I’d like to think that all our Supreme Court Justices have enough integrity not to let personal or business relationships influence their court decisions, but I don’t know if this actually violated any ethics laws or was just a mistake. Maybe it justifies an investigation, but if so, a real and impartial one, not a kangaroo hearing/public show trial.
But let’s hope this will serve as a lesson to DC’s hyper-partisan Democrats that for them to accuse Supreme Court Justices of having questionable ethics is throwing bowling balls in a glass house.
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Horrifying story
If you don’t believe that parents who allow, and even encourage, their young children to have irreversible “gender-affirming” surgery (a complete misnomer because it’s actually an attempt to artificially change their true genders) are committing child abuse and might have mental issues themselves, then read this story. It couldn’t possibly make it any clearer or more horrifying.
By the way, the group that turned a spotlight on this extremely disturbing story was Gays Against Groomers.
Post-Apocalyptic San Francisco
I told you that Target stores that remain in San Francisco have started locking up their entire inventories in bulletproof glass cabinets due to constant theft that the “authorities” do nothing about. Now, add Whole Foods and Nordstrom to the growing list of businesses that have announced they’re closing up and getting out. They no longer make a profit selling products to consumers, they’ve just become direct suppliers to brazen shoplifting rings.
Elon Musk is still in San Francisco because Twitter HQ is there, but I imagine he must be thinking of moving it to Texas, the way he has his other businesses. Musk tweeted that so many stores are shuttered in downtown San Francisco, it feels “post-apocalyptic.”
https://www.foxbusiness.com/
Of course, this is not a problem just in San Francisco. Wherever there’s a city controlled 100% by far-left Democrats who think enforcing laws is racist, there is rampant crime driving out businesses and law-abiding citizens. Their policies are like a political neutron bomb. But it’s a particular shame for San Francisco, once one of America’s most beautiful and successful cities, but now plagued by crime, homelessness, drugs and filth for no reason at all other than its residents’ addiction to pulling the “D” lever at the polls.
Greg Gutfeld focused on this on his Fox News show this week:
Guest Kayleigh McEnany pointed out that maybe voters are finally starting to figure out the problem (or they’re literally getting some sense knocked into their heads) because in a city with 86% Democrat registration, they voted to recall criminal-coddling DA Chesa Boudin by 60% (she noted that recall elections normally have a 0.3% chance of succeeding.) There have also been some encouraging signs in recent school board elections.
But it’s going to take more than just throwing out one crazy, destructive leftist. In San Francisco, that’s like thinking that getting rid of one bed bug will solve your infestation problem. I worry that it will never improve because at the rate people are fleeing, the only voters left will be diehard Democrats and criminals.
The epidemic of loneliness
The office of President Biden’s Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, issued a report on the latest deadly epidemic: loneliness.
This isn’t entirely because of the endless pandemic lockdowns that closed churches, schools and community centers and forced people to stay in, away from family and friends. Americans have unfortunately been drifting away from church and community organizations for years, but the ironfisted pandemic policies supercharged that. Between 2000 and 2020, the amount of in-person time Americans spent with friends each day has dropped from 60 to 20 minutes.
It’s been especially hard on young people with those aged 15 to 24 reporting a 70% drop in the amount of in-person time spent with friends compared to 2000. I imagine that much of that can also be blamed on the rise of social media, which is not real socializing and the people who type back and forth on it are not your actual “friends.” For one thing, distance and anonymity encourage them to say things they would never say to someone’s face for fear of getting punched in the nose.
The report said that because of these feelings of loneliness and disconnection, millions are “struggling in the shadows” and during and since the pandemic, “deaths of despair” – drugs, alcohol, suicide – have been rising, especially among young people. One study of ER visits found that suicidal feelings among girls 12-17 rose over 50% from 2019 to 2020.
Fortunately, there is a cure for this, if people will just find the will to do it. It’s as simple as turning off your smartphone and going to church or to a community service organization meeting or even a meeting of hobbyists whose interests you share. Meet new people, talk to them face to face, not through text messages, and make some actual friends.
I’ll even help get you started. Of course, my first recommendation is to go to church, where making some real friends is only one of many benefits that will take away your depression and suicidal thoughts. But here’s another suggestion: June 14th is Flag Day. All over America, VFW chapters hold Flag Day commemorations that are open to the public. I’m well aware of this because my writer Laura Ainsworth usually sings the National Anthem at the Fort Worth VFW ceremony.
Sadly, attendance has been dropping over the years. But it’s long past time for a reawakening of patriotism. Check with your local VFW to see if they’re holding a Flag Day event. You can show your gratitude to our veterans, learn about the history of the Stars and Stripes and all the other flags that have flown over America – and coincidentally, have fun meeting some great new friends in the process.
Trans cyclist wins
The UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale), the world governing body for sports cycling, reacted to widespread outrage over a “trans” biological male winning the Tour of the Gila in New Mexico by doubling down on their woman-betraying policy. Here’s a quote:
"The UCI acknowledges that transgender athletes may wish to compete in accordance with their gender identity. The UCI rules are based on the latest scientific knowledge and have been applied in a consistent manner. The UCI continues to follow the evolution of scientific findings and may change its rules in the future as scientific knowledge evolves."
First of all, when you have to repeat the word “scientific” three times in one short paragraph, it’s a pretty sure sign that you’re blustering and know you don’t really have science on your side. There's nothing "scientific" about the theory that "wishing will make it so." Secondly, there has been no great “evolution” in biological science in the past five or so years. Everyone is still either an XX or an XY. There is no “XYZ.” You might think you are, but it’s all in your head, and that has no effect on the muscles required for sports.
This is further proof that female athletes will NOT be protected from unfair competition by woke sports organizations, so they need to refuse en masse to compete until the rules are changed, or else form their own organizations for women only.
Most men will definitely support them, but they have to show that they will stand up for themselves. It doesn’t help when some female athletes try to virtue signal their wokeness, like pot fan and WNBA star Brittney Griner. She defended letting “Lia” Thomas mow down female swimmers by declaring, “Everyone deserves the right to play. Everyone deserves the right to come here, sit in these seats, and feel safe. I think it’s a crime to separate someone for any reason. So, I will definitely be speaking up against that legislation and those laws that are trying to be passed.”
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/
Swimmer Riley Gaines, who has bravely taken on the battle of defending women's sports (which has gotten her slandered and assaulted by loving and tolerant trans activists) had a perfect response: “Which NBA team would have (Brittney Griner) since apparently the overwhelming, obvious differences between men and women should simply be overlooked? Heartbreaking to see athletically successful women take this demeaning stance. And if we’re going to talk about crimes, Brittney…”
Gaines makes a great point. Could there possibly be a better A-B comparison of the stark differences between the physical abilities of male and female athletes than the NBA and the WNBA? Griner is the biggest star in the WNBA, but could she make even the worst NBA team? Conversely, if the worst player in the NBA put on a wig and claimed to identify as a woman, is there any WNBA team he (sorry, “she”) couldn’t make?
Wait, NBA players in wigs?...Say, that gives me an idea that might finally make the WNBA profitable!
Not feeling it
More reaction is coming in to the Navy asking a drag queen to help boost recruitment, this time from a Navy SEAL who was part of the team that killed Osama bin Laden. Spoiler alert: his reaction was not positive.
Prayers and condolences
Our prayers and condolences to one of our favorite columnists and guests on my TBN show, Kurt Schichter. His mother, Judge Paula Schlichter, has died of liver cancer. At the link is his new column which is not only a moving tribute and account of the influence she had on her children, but also a fascinating story of an extraordinary life of public service.
https://townhall.com/
More attacks on Tucker
I haven’t been covering all the stories about Tucker Carlson because most of them are still nothing but speculation. However, a couple recently have involved sneaky attempts to attack Carlson by leaking private communications, and they’ve backfired spectacularly, so I think they are solid enough to share.
First, the New York Times published a leaked text message from Carlson that I guess was supposed to be negative, but that actually showed he didn’t want to get swept up in partisan hatred and was trying to remember that even his worst political opponents were fellow human beings who didn’t deserve to be assaulted. I can see why the editors of the New York Times might think that message was shocking.
https://www.westernjournal.
Some unknown person has also been trying to undermine Carlson by releasing off-air video of him on the set of his show, making candid and sometimes profane comments about his critics and attackers. I don’t think they realized their dirty trick would backfire and would make him more popular, even turning people who never watched him before into fans.
That’s yet another downside to living in a bubble where you only talk to people who agree with you and censor all criticism. When you find out what people actually think of you, you not only believe it’s some kind of heresy that will offend everyone else as much as it does you, but you’re also shocked – shocked! – to discover just how many people agree with it.
Try again
Pete Buttigieg was asked if he would serve another term as “Transportation Secretary.” His reply showed an unfortunate lack of understanding of the uncensored sense of humor of Internet commenters.
Maybe he was just thrown because the question was phrased incorrectly. It should have been, “Are you ever going to start serving your first term as Transportation Secretary?”
Rock stars make more sense than our political leaders
We’ve come to a pretty pass when rock stars are making more sense than our political leaders. First, Paul Stanley of KISS inflamed the "trans" bullies by opposing giving hormones and unnecessary, irreversible surgery to minors. Now, USA Today has an interview with Roger Daltrey of the iconic rock band, The Who. He talks about their music, his health, the risky economics of big rock tours in the COVID era, and why he doubts that he and Pete Townshend will ever tour America again. But of special interest to my readers will be his comments on cancel culture and Internet rage mobs.
Townshend wrote a song, "Won't Get Fooled Again," that’s been adopted by Libertarians thanks to its cynical view of political leaders (“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”) He also recently said that a musician’s job is to play music and leave the activism to activists. Daltrey agrees and adds more:
“What worries me more than anything in the world is the shutting down of open debate, mainly through bullying on the internet. It’s aggressive bullying. All of the big issues society has to face, like climate change, they’ve shut down one side of that debate and science is not about shutting things down, it’s about opening them up. I am amazed at the size of our ego, the human race, the tiny whatever we are on this planet, but we’re going to control the temperature? Whose leg are you pulling? But you’re not allowed to talk about it or you’ll be a right-wing fascist or you’re a left-wing fanatic and that’s incredibly dangerous. All the Internet has done is make us appreciate things a lot less. As far as social media goes, some of it is like the seeds of the end of civilization.”
It's too bad they’re not planning any more American tours. I suddenly feel like buying a ticket to see The Who.
Another Hunter Biden story that is not really about Hunter...
I’m sure some of my readers are sick of hearing about Hunter Biden (I’m certainly sick of him), but this story is only partially about him.
It’s an update on the court case in Arkansas, where not to my surprise, Independence County Circuit Judge Holly Meyer is doing the tough and impartial job of holding Hunter to account that our federal agencies seem incapable of doing. She’s ordered him to turn over financial records and is losing patience with his lawyers’ feeble excuses for trying to redact information that wouldn’t even be in court if Hunter hadn’t tried to lower his child support payments.
But I’m not writing about this to report another Hunter Biden scandal. It’s to report my relief that some other media figures are finally starting to speak up about an issue I’ve raised several times: the reprehensible treatment of Hunter’s innocent four-year-old daughter, Navy Joan, by the entire Biden family.
I sincerely hope that her mother has been able to shield this little girl from the news and the horrible comments from her father about her mom and their “relationship.” I won’t repeat them; you can read them at the link if you don’t know; it’s just the worst sort of attempt to use his own rotten behavior to evade responsibility and to slander her mother because of her job. And at least Hunter has the excuse of being a drug-addicted lout. What possible excuse could there be for the President and First Lady to pretend that their own granddaughter doesn’t even exist?
If I have to read another puff piece about Joe Biden’s love of family (a media bootlicker won an award for writing one of those at last weekend’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner), I will lose my lunch. I’m disgusted by the arrogance, cruelty and elitism of this family ignoring their own flesh and blood, exposing an innocent child to such humiliating treatment just because of the circumstances of her conception (which was the fault of the kid YOU raised, Joe) and her mother’s one-time occupation (which is frankly more honorable than Hunter’s.) Greg Gutfeld regular Tyrus hit the nail on the head when he said this is about “character,” and these people have none.
The sins of the father are not the child’s, and if Joe and Jill had any decency, they would say that none of the issues between the parents matters: Navy Joan is their grandchild and she has their love, acceptance and full support. Until I see that – and a Christmas stocking with her name on it at the White House -- any “prize-winning” newspaper stories I see about Biden’s deep love of family will be sent to my writers who have pet parrots and always need bird cage liner.
Whistleblower: FBI has document implicating President Biden in bribery scheme
The “Biden Inc.” family scandal appears ready to burst wide open.
Let’s see --- where to start? As we reported yesterday, the decision by the House Ways and Means Committee to allow whistleblower attorneys to see Hunter Biden’s tax information came through, expediting matters considerably. And now, the WASHINGTON POST reports that prosecutors, after meeting with Hunter’s attorneys last week, are nearing a decision on whether or not to charge him with violations of tax and gun laws. The federal indictment of Hunter appears “imminent” and might happen as early as Thursday.
But it had already seemed likely that this would happen, as a way to minimally charge Hunter and dispense with the case before it got too sticky for President Biden and the whole Biden clan. Actually, the latest turn of events is much more serious and could end up being as sticky as, well, tar and feathers used to be.
In breaking news Wednesday evening, the still-unidentified IRS whistleblower, described as a supervisory agent with a stellar record, is alleging that President Biden is directly implicated in a bribery scheme with a foreign national from his days as Vice President that ties payments to specific foreign policy decisions. Not only that --- this person says the FBI and DOJ have a document proving this was going on. The link below will take you to more details from FOX NEWS, including an amusingly lame response from Ian Sams, the White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations.
Knowing what we already know about the FBI and DOJ, especially after release of the “Twitter Files,” it would almost be more surprising if this allegation DIDN’T turn out to be true.
According to House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer and ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee Chuck Grassley --- a longtime whistleblower advocate --- it’s very straightforward: the document, called a Form FD-1023, “includes a precise description of how the alleged criminal scheme was employed as well as its purpose.” Grassley says the document is “unclassified” (as in, refreshingly redaction-free) and that its allegations concerning the President are “very serious.”
On Wednesday, Comer and Grassley notified FBI Director Chris Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland by letter of the “legally protected and highly credible unclassified whistleblower disclosures.” They said that based on “the alleged specificity within the document, it would appear that the DOJ and FBI have enough information to determine the truth and accuracy of the information contained within it.” They also questioned the apparent lack of attention given to this by those agencies, citing growing concern about the political bias that might be underlying that.
Here’s that letter…
https://justthenews.com/sites/
Since the GOP-led House Oversight Committee has subpoena power, Chairman Comer issued a congressional subpoena to Wray on Wednesday demanding that the FBI produce the form in question, along with all FD-1023’s that contain the word “Biden” and all accompanying attachments and documents.
The NEW YORK POST has a good write-up as well, providing a concise review of the various business dealings of the Biden family when Joe was VP.
Investigative reporter John Solomon appeared on Wednesday’s HANNITY and explained that this new allegation must involve a confidential human source (CHS) since that’s what 1023 forms are used for at the FBI. When an authorized CHS talks with an agent, the agent fills out one of these. We know from the subpoena filed by Comer that the particular form they’re looking for was filled out in June 2020.
Here’s the cover letter and subpoena. The reference to June 2020 is on the page titled “Schedule to Subpoena”...
https://justthenews.com/sites/
Solomon told Hannity he has it on good authority that this document still exists. “It hasn’t been destroyed,” he said. “There are witnesses that know what’s in the document. There are agents that handled it. I think Congress has a good chance of getting this, and then the question is...Given all the body of evidence we now have about pay-to-play, was this checked out? And if not, why? Because it comes in in the summer of 2020, right in the middle of a presidential election.”
I think he answered his own question. He also broke more news: “I am reporting,” he said, “from multiple sources tonight...that the allegation of pay-to-play involves the country of Ukraine...We don’t know more than that…”
He reminded viewers that the FBI had had the laptop since December 2019, and on it is an email from April 2014 relating to a speech given by then-VP Biden in Ukraine “touting natural gas in the same week that his son is getting put on the board of Burisma.” Hunter later writes business partner and fellow Burisma board member Devon Archer to say they should tell Burisma about this; “it shows we’re adding value.”
Solomon thinks Comer and Grassley must be wondering why the FBI/DOJ didn’t dig into this very serious issue.
Here are Solomon’s most recent reports…
https://justthenews.com/sites/
Judge Jeanine Pirro also appeared on Hannity’s show for a discussion about the high-powered legal counsel retained by Hunter Biden. Abbe Lowell is the same attorney who represented John Edwards (acquitted) and Sen. Bob Menendez (acquitted). But even that might take Hunter only so far.
“What else do you need?” Judge Pirro asked. “I don’t care if God comes down to represent you” if you committed perjury on a statement to buy a gun; you are guilty of lying. She agreed that there really is a two-tiered ‘justice’ system, citing former FBI Director Comey’s “no reasonable prosecutor” speech about Hillary in 2016 and the current AG --- again --- calling concerned parents “domestic terrorists.” She pointed out Hunter’s obvious crimes: the gun paperwork, the lobbying without registering under FARA, the tax evasion. She also noted that some people go to jail for that even AFTER they’ve finally paid their taxes.
Were those people related to, and sharing a bank account with, the (Democrat) President of the United States? Didn’t think so.
https://www.foxnews.com/video/
About Hunter’s claims of “poverty” to get his child support payments lowered, it appears he’s found a way to look less wealthy on paper AND divested-but-not-really from his Chinese business interests. His so-called “sugar brother,” wealthy Hollywood entertainment lawyer Kevin Morris --- the one who paid Hunter’s tax bill and also shelled out for his $20,000-a-month Malibu rent plus car payment --- has taken control of Hunter’s stake in the Chinese private equity firm BHR. BHR Partners is co-owned by the Beijing-controlled Bank of China. Good grief. This is a must-read…
One last point: the fact that even mainstream news outlets such as WAPO are actually reporting this latest whistleblower development makes us wonder if this isn’t part of the plan to get Biden off the ticket for ‘24. There’s got to be someone from On High sending the memos, pulling the strings, moving the chess pieces around the board. Use whatever metaphor you like, but one way or another, an 82-year-old Biden (going on 102) will not be the candidate next year. Somebody else will.
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