Washington Post defense of Covington student’s $250 mil. lawsuit:
He has no defamation protection! He’s a public figure!
“Why is a Kentucky high school kid a public figure?”
We made him famous when we publicly defamed him!
--------------------------------------
Here’s even more video proof of why the abortion industry is so desperate to keep anyone from launching undercover investigations to show the public what abortion really is. Live Action has released a new hidden camera video of a New York abortion clinic worker offering a would-be client tips on how to kill her baby if it’s born alive during an abortion procedure. Warning: the language is graphic and sickening and absolutely realistic. This is the ugly truth about infanticide that’s hidden behind squishy terms like “reproductive justice.”
Reminder: the Governor of New York apparently endorses this, as does the man who is still the Governor of Virginia, for unexplainable reasons.
-------------------------------------
As dangerous as it is to link to a CNN story involving the Mueller investigation, this one is actually fairly objective; and if they’ve got solid sources, it could be major news. According to this, after two long years at great taxpayer expense, the Mueller investigation of “Russian collusion” in the 2016 election is finally winding down (to quote Gerald Ford, “Our long national nightmare is over!”) Our new Attorney General Bill Barr could announce as early as next week that Mueller’s confidential report is complete and he would likely submit a summary to Congress shortly after. That timeline might change so that it wouldn’t interfere with President Trump’s negotiations with North Korea, but in general, the end may at last be in sight.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/20/politics/special-counsel-conclusion-announcement/index.html
Trump has called this entire investigation a witch hunt based on a partisan false accusation, and it’s hamstrung his attempts to enact his agenda for two years. Meanwhile, many Democrats have pinned all their hopes on Mueller delivering some devastating case for impeachment, but they had better brace for disappointment or else they might be crying harder than they were on Election night, 2016. If Mueller’s found any “Russian collusion” (other than between Russia and Hillary Clinton, but I guess we don’t talk about that), none of it has shown up in any of the indictments he’s made so far. Trump haters point to all those indictments as proof of corruption/collusion/whatever, but so far, they’ve involved tax and other paperwork infractions dating to well before 2016 and crimes that wouldn’t have even existed if there hadn’t been an investigation, like “lying to investigators.”
In a country where we have so many laws that we all violate a dozen before breakfast without even knowing it, this is why we generally do not give a prosecutor unlimited time and resources and no specific charges and unleash him to go try to find some violations. To quote Pollyanna, if you go looking for the bad in people, you will surely find it.
I can’t help wondering how many of the liberals who point with glee at the legal woes of a Paul Manafort or Roger Stone could survive the same level of scrutiny? For instance, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has barely been in office for a month and already, she’s facing ethics rules questions about whether her boyfriend is on her staff or accepted money from a PAC that her campaign paid for consulting. She has denied some of the allegations, and maybe they are completely false. But if an investigator decided her honestly-intended denial was wrong, could she then face charges of “lying to an investigator”? Remember, Martha Stewart went to prison for denying something she was never charged with (insider trading.)
This is why it’s almost always better not to appoint special counsels who end up going off on tangents for years, inventing charges, distracting from the people’s business and hounding people into prison on process crimes. Each party curses these legal abuses when they’re aimed at their side. Then, they immediately forget about all that the minute they have a chance to aim a special counsel at the other side.
---------------------------
Spectacular Narrative Fail Dept.: Early this morning, “Empire” star Jussie Smollett turned himself in for arrest to Chicago police on a felony charge of “disorderly conduct/filing a false police report.” While Smollett still maintains his innocence, the bizarre and unlikely details of his story of being the victim of a violent assault by two Trump supporters raised police suspicions immediately. An investigation identified the two men allegedly involved, and it’s now believed they conspired with Smollett in planning a hoax attack.
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/jussie-smollett-is-under-arrest-in-custody-of-chicago-police
It’s been interesting to watch the reactions to this unraveling tale from the media, liberal celebrities and even Chicago authorities. Hollywood and media figures rushed to condemn Trump and his voters as violent, racist, homophobic thugs, but they’ve gone awfully quiet since then (no apologies, I suppose? Didn’t think so.) Some reporters admitted that the far-fetched and too-perfect-to-be-true (from a leftist standpoint) story merited skepticism from the get-go. But as Kmele Foster explained on CNN’s "Reliable Sources," they "were afraid to raise the questions because of the intersectional nature of this particular accusation." In other words, these so-called guardians of the truth were too cowed even to ask questions for fear of being called politically incorrect.
Fox, the network that airs “Empire,” is making no comment, which I guess means they are still standing behind Smollett, although I wouldn’t be surprised if he were being quietly written out of future scripts. Funny, when Trump supporter Roseanne Barr sent one offensive tweet criticizing a former Obama aide that she immediately apologized for, ABC gave her the ax. Smollett allegedly slandered 63 million Americans as racist, homophobic thugs, and Fox still stands behind him. I’m glad to see that due process and the presumption of innocence have made such a sudden, roaring comeback.
Meanwhile, Chicago authorities are treating Smollett with kid gloves as thick as catcher’s mitts. They issued a statement practically begging him to come in at his convenience so that this whole kerfluffle could be sorted out, and gently assured him it was “only a fourth degree felony,” as if to prepare both him and the public for him receiving a slap on the wrist with a peacock feather. Roger Stone could only wish that his arrest had been handled that way.
Here’s my question: Why isn’t this a “hate crime”? Judging from Smollet’s past profane tweets, he’s obviously been consumed with hate for Trump for years. In an era when unhinged leftists violently assault even children for wearing MAGA caps, this is the kind of hoax that aggravated racial divisions and could have led to race riots, retaliatory assaults, injuries and even deaths. It was (allegedly!) designed to smear millions of innocent people, just for the way they voted. It certainly merits more than a tap on the wrist and a fat book deal. And by the way, it turns out this is not the first time Smollett has (allegedly!) lied to police.
There may be another shoe yet to drop. If federal authorities connect Smollett to the threatening letter dusted with crushed Tylenol that he received before the attack, and that’s determined to be a hoax, too, then he could be facing federal charges. If so, he may be leaving “Empire” for longer than “Roseanne” will be away from “The Conners.”
At least someone in comedy has the guts to spoof the Smollett story. Comedian Dale Cover created his own YouTube reenactment of the alleged attack, which makes him either the foolhardiest or the bravest man in comedy today – certainly more so than all the “brave” late night talk show hosts who haven’t said a word about this story. Funny, they tell us Trump is a Hitler-like authoritarian, but they aren't afraid to mercilessly lampoon him. Yet the thought of a critical Twitter mob scares them into dead silence on Jussie Smollett.
https://www.westernjournal.com/ct/comedians-spoof-video-smollett-really-night/
-----------------------------
Today’s Must-Read: Jayme Metzgar in the Federalist has a terrific essay analyzing the Jussie Smollett hate crime (alleged) hoax and the many other recent, similar hoaxes in light of the idea of Progressivism as a new religion in which sainthood is determined by your level of victimization.
https://thefederalist.com/2019/02/20/hate-hoaxes-happen-religion-identity-politics/
She does an excellent job of tracing the rise of this self-centered secular religion from the hedonism of the ‘70s-‘90s to the new Puritanism of the Social Justice Warriors who seek to impose a rigid standard of morality, but only one in which there must always be an “oppressor” to shame, bully and attack, whether the person targeted deserves it or not. Another fatal flaw in this toxic religious philosophy is that it requires identity groups to compete to be the most oppressed, which means that any group that makes societal advances (women, gay males) loses power and prestige, so that nobody can ever do better and society forever remains a collection of divided, warring, "oppressed" tribes.
I’ve talked about this idea for years of how leftists, having banished God from the public square, feel a need for something bigger than themselves to worship, so they fill it with worship of government or charismatic politicians whom they imbue with godlike powers (from JFK to Bill Clinton’s “power crackling from his jeans” to Obama lowering the sea level with a wave of his hand to “Beto” O’Rouke knocking down the wall of El Paso like Joshua brought down the walls of Jericho, only “Beto” will do it with a microphone and a skateboard instead of a trumpet.)
I especially appreciate Ms Metzgar’s call for the return of real religion and for America to come back to its roots as a nation based on Judeo-Christian morality. That’s been under heavy attack in recent years by those who try to claim that anytime America fell short of moral perfection in the past, it meant our nation was hypocritical or fatally flawed instead of simply a collection of humans who make mistakes, but who learn from them, repent and strive to do better, which is the essence of Christian forgiveness. And I’m glad she mentions the need to look back at the sermons of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., whose dream of a society where Americans worked and worshiped together and were judged not by the color of their skin but the content of their character is anathema to the very people who try to usurp his image and legacy today.
As a student of theology, I studied Dr. King’s sermons, and as great as his famous speeches are, I found his sermons to be even more brilliant and inspiring. After you finish this must-read Federalist article, I strongly suggest you read a few of those, too.
------------------------------
The national debt recently topped $22 trillion, which this story from the liberal-biased Yahoo News headlines with “Republicans Mum.”
https://news.yahoo.com/us-debt-hits-record-under-trump-republicans-mum-020620122.html
Wrong again, Yahoo News. I’ve been warning of the dangers of the rising national debt for years, through Administrations of both parties. I won’t denounce the recent tax cut, because I think it was necessary to get GDP growth and job creation rolling again, and it’s already paying off in rising federal revenues thanks to that growth, which at this point is the only way we’ll ever get out of this hole.
The reason we have a massive deficit/debt isn’t because we don’t tax enough but because Congress spends too much. The “tippy-top” earners, as they are now known, couldn’t pay off this debt if Washington confiscated every penny they have. And the same people who want to target them with 70-90% tax rates also want to add trillions and trillions of dollars more in spending.
Both Republicans and Democrats have repeatedly failed to level with the American people and tell them, to quote President Trump’s closing theme, “You can’t always get what you want.” Until leaders of both parties accept the reality that every American family does – that you can’t start paying down your debt until you start spending less than you bring in – the debt will continue to rise and become a bigger threat to our grandchildren’s futures with each passing year.
As a Republican, I’ll keep speaking up about that. And if you think the Democrats are going to be any better, then you should know that one of the first proposals they introduced after taking over the House was to bring back “earmarks” – that is, adding pork barrel spending to bills to bribe members to vote for them. You probably haven’t heard about that because “liberal media mum” on it.
-------------------------------------
Kudos to the Netflix show, “Tidying Up.” The series that helps people declutter their homes is being credited with a big spike in donations to local Goodwill stores. That’s also good news for those of us who like to go to Goodwill and buy a lot of fun stuff to clutter our homes with.
--------------------------------------
LEAVE ME A COMMENT BY CLICKING HERE. I READ THEM!
Permalink: https://www.mikehuckabee.com/2019/2/evening-edition-february-21
Leave a Comment
Note: Fields marked with an * are required.