Mike Huckabee

The left does not care about collateral damage to American citizens in its quest to shape the political narrative of this country and destroy its adversaries. A case is point is John Paul Mac Isaac, who came to possess Hunter Biden’s laptop after it was abandoned at his computer repair shop, lost his livelihood and reputation, and is now suing for $1 million, plus punitive damages. These, according to his attorney Brian Della Rocca, “will be the much bigger number and will be determined at trial.”

Mac Issac has also written a book coming out November 22 of this year, called “AMERICAN INJUSTICE: My Battle to Expose the Truth.” It would be nice to see this before Election Day, but that’s the breaks.

https://posthillpress.com/book/american-injustice-my-battle-to-expose-the-truth

“After fighting to reveal the truth,” Mac Isaac told the New York Post, “all I want now is for the rest of the country to know that there was a collective and orchestrated effort by social and mainstream media to block a real story with real consequences for the nation. This was collusion led by 51 former pillars in the intelligence committee and backed by the words and actions of politically motivated DOJ and FBI. I want this lawsuit to reveal that collusion and, more importantly, who gave the marching orders.”

We wish him the best in that endeavor. Especially the part about who gave the marching orders.

He has previously tried to sue Twitter for defamation but didn’t get anywhere that time, ending up on the hook for Twitter’s legal fees of roughly $175,000. But this time, he’s got the backing of a nonprofit, The America Project, founded by retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, his brother Joe Flynn, and businessman Patrick Byrne, who has also been attacked for looking into the 2020 election. Flynn, as you know, has been through an enormous legal and personal hell of his own, due to the intel community and media relentlessly lying about him.

The group said this: “’[We’re] honored to sponsor John Paul Mac Isaac in his fight against the injustice that has been done to him when the political elite coordinated with the leftist news media claiming the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation --- which was a blatant lie.”

As reported by the New York Post --- also a victim of the left’s attempt to keep the subject quiet until after the 2020 election --- Mac Isaac was forced to shutter his business near the Biden family homes in Greenville, Delaware, “after people started throwing vegetables, eggs, and dog excrement at his store.” He left the state, exiling himself in Colorado for a year. He contends that this happened because of the lies told about him by CNN, Politico and other news outlets.

Della Rocca said his client “has suffered immensely at the false statements spread about those who brought the information on Hunter Biden’s laptop to everyone’s attention. He has lost his business, friendships, and his honorable standing in the community. This lawsuit is an attempt to repair a small portion of that damage caused by the defendants in the suit...We intend to show that their actions were intentionally malicious.”

The suit names…

1) California Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Schiff, as we now know, lied his head off about this. As Mac Isaac said, “Without any intel, the head of the intel committee decided to share with CNN and its viewers a complete and utter lie --- a lie uttered in the protection of a preferred presidential candidate.”

2) CNN. Mac Isaac says they knowingly broadcast the “false and defamatory statement” that the laptop was Russian disinformation. This statement “accuses the Plaintiff of committing an infamous crime; i.e., treason, by working with Russians to commit a crime against the United States of America by attempting to undermine American democracy and the 2020 presidential election,” according to the suit.

3) The Daily Beast. Mac Isaac says that in an article called “FBI Examining Hunter Biden’s Laptop as Foreign Op, Contradicting Trump’s Intel Czar,” they lied and said the laptop had been “purloined,” which was an accusation that he stole it.

4) Politico. An article by Natasha Bertrand reported that dozens of former intel officials thought that the laptop was “Russian disinfo.” (Just a thought; maybe this is the article that convinced Nina Jankowicz, head of the new HHS 'Ministry of Truth,' that the laptop was fake. Well, no, come to think of it, she said she thought it was a product of the Trump campaign.)

https://nypost.com/2022/05/03/repairman-who-revealed-hunter-biden-laptop-sues-schiff-cnn-politico-beast/

Newsmax has details as well.

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/hunter-biden-cnn-daily-beast-politico/2022/05/04

John Nolte for Breitbart News interviewed Mac Isaac in March (shortly after the NY Times finally admitted the laptop was real), and the full transcript appears here. This is highly recommended reading for anyone who wants to know the details about how he came into possession of the laptop in April 2019 and what happened to change his life from that day forward.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/03/27/nolte-hunter-biden-laptop-whistleblower-john-paul-mac-isaac-the-breitbart-news-interview/

Mac Isaac appeared briefly on Tucker Carlson’s FOX News show Wednesday night to announce that he was going to court. (The clips in the lead-in do make one wonder why MSNBC wasn’t included in the lawsuit!) “The collusion that took place in mid-October of 2020 just astonished me when it happened,” he said.

“...It was just a unilateral decision to call this ‘Russian disinformation’ without even deciding if there was going to be any collateral damage, which, there was.”

He said that from these false reports, people just assumed he was a hacker or a thief, mainly because Twitter labeled the material as hacked and banned the story. After the now-infamous letter from 51 former intel officials and the condemnation from Adam Schiff on CNN , he was labeled “a stooge of Putin,” someone whom Putin thanked for his service.

His life was essentially ruined. “I had to get out of town before the election,” he told Tucker. “I had to close the shop and leave Delaware.”

Mike Huckabee

Over the past few years, the Democratic Party has allowed itself to be taken over by a far-left fringe that operates almost entirely on emotions. That’s why their stances on various issues have no intellectual consistency: their principles shift radically, depending on whatever it is they want at the moment. Because of this, they’ve destroyed many of their own arguments. When they bring up some well-worn justification for whatever issue they’re defending, it’s now easy to throw one of their other stances at them that completely negates it.

For instance, all of a sudden, all they care about is the right to abortion. They think this will be a winning issue with women voters, so they’re using the old trope of Republicans waging a “war on women” and wanting to take away a “woman’s right to choose!” But hold on: just last week, weren’t these same people telling us that men could get pregnant? A month ago, their Supreme Court nominee claimed not even to be able to define what a “woman” is. And in an attempt to attract “trans” money (there aren’t that many trans votes), they’ve been waging their own war on women by forcing them to compete in sports against men who “identify” as women and are twice their size.

They can’t chant, “My body, my choice!” anymore and claim to be defending body autonomy after forcing people to wear face masks and inject their bodies with a vaccine they objected to, on threat of losing their jobs and their civil rights. Barack Obama just declared that “there are limits to how much the government can encroach on our personal lives,” apparently forgetting that his Party wants to encroach on everything from our vaccine decisions to our social media posts to our free speech rights to where we’re allowed to pray.

They excoriated anyone who didn’t mouth allegiance to Black Lives Matter and put the BLM logo on their social media pages. But how can they say, “Black lives matter,” when they’re defending legalized abortion? Roe v. Wade ushered in a veritable genocide of black babies, with black victims far out of proportion to their population numbers.

The left’s favorite writer of historical fiction, “1619 Project” creator Nikole Hannah-Jones, predictably tweeted that the pro-life movement started as a pro-segregationist movement, and tried to paint abortion opponents as racist. But I didn’t show my belief that black lives matter by giving money to racially divisive hustlers to blow it on mansions. I defended black lives by opposing the actual destruction of millions of black lives, as well as babies of all other races, because I believe (more heresy!) that all lives matter.

The most laughable of all their unthinking clichés that I’m hearing everywhere now is the claim that overturning Roe v. Wade is an assault on “our democracy.” They keep using that word, but I don’t think they know what it means. The Justices in Roe took the right to decide abortion policy away from the voters. Returning that decision to the voters of the individual states would restore democracy.

If you want a quote from someone who really has no use for democracy, try this: “I’m not prepared to leave that (abortion laws) to the whims of the public at the moment.” – President Joe Biden.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2022/05/03/biden-im-not-prepared-to-leave-abortion-to-the-whims-of-the-public-n2606688

Glenn Greenwald has a great Substack primer for liberals on the history and purpose of the Supreme Court. Spoiler alert: it’s not to ensure that majorities (or people who scream the loudest) get whatever they want. On the contrary, it’s to prevent majorities from passing laws that violate the Constitution.

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-irrational-misguided-discourse?s=r

Greenwald notes that leftwing activist Waleed Shahid tweeted a quote from Lincoln, that “if the policy of the government, upon vital questions affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, [then] the people will have ceased to be their own rulers.” He cluelessly failed to realize that that’s the exact argument we on the pro-life side have been making against Roe for half a century.

He also includes a stunningly oblivious quote from Vox.com’s Ian Millhiser, claiming that if the Supreme Court overturns Roe, it will mean “five unelected aristocrats” acted “undemocratically” to decide the legality of abortion. As Greenwald asks, “Who do they think decided Roe in the first place?” The unelected black-robed aristocrats of the Court in 1973 assaulted democracy. If Roe is overturned, it will be a long-delayed victory for democracy.

Mike Huckabee

It’s always hard to choose the dumbest, most hysterical reaction from the left to any news story that doesn’t go their way, but it’s a safe bet that the best place to start is with Rep. Eric Swalwell. Although to be fair, he’s not the only one to make the jaw-droppingly stupid claim that “the Republicans won’t stop with banning abortion. They want to ban interracial marriage. Do you want to save that? Well, then you should probably vote.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/05/03/left-spreads-fear-overturning-roe-means-ending-interracial-marriage/

That’s about the most succinct example I’ve seen that the Democrats intend to demagogue the SCOTUS’ Roe ruling to the hilt in a cynical attempt to get people to vote for more of the misery that having them in power inflicts on us all. I would never insult anyone by assuming they’re dumb enough to actually swallow (or Swalowell) this tripe, but for the record:

The Alito draft decision makes it crystal clear that this decision applies solely to the uniquely incorrectly-decided Roe v. Wade ruling on abortion and not to any other ruling or right.

One of the conservative Justices concurring in the opinion is Clarence Thomas, who is in an interracial marriage. He would probably agree with the outrage expressed by a number of other black Republicans at the idea that they want to outlaw their own interracial marriages.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/black-republicans-slam-swalwell-for-saying-gop-oppose-interracial-marriage-im-in-an-interracial-marriage/ar-AAWTKHK

Also worth noting: polls show that 94% of Americans approve of interracial marriages while 71% want abortion banned or restricted. Why are the Democrats attacking our democracy?

Mike Huckabee

Between now and the May 16 start of the Michael Sussmann trial, there will no doubt be a flurry of motions and decisions, and we’ll keep you up to date.

On Wednesday, Durham won the big battle we recently outlined, in which the attorneys for Hillary For America and the DNC were trying to exclude evidence on the basis of attorney-client privilege. Their argument was ridiculous on its face, as Sussmann has been charged with lying because he told the FBI he WASN’T working as their attorney. Lawyers wanted it both ways: to say he wasn’t their attorney, but also that he was. So now that Durham’s motion to have the so-called “privileged” materials submitted to the court for an in camera review has been granted, he’s virtually assured to get them.

In the words of Bonchie at RedState, “Pretty soon, we’ll know all about who was paid what and exactly how coordinated the effort to frame Donald Trump and weaponize the FBI was.”

For once, he’s optimistic that at least “a sliver of justice” will be done.

https://redstate.com/bonchie/2022/05/04/john-durham-secures-an-big-victory-against-hillary-for-america-and-fusion-gps-n559934

Durham had started the week by alerting the presiding judge in the case, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, about fines levied by the Federal Election Commission on Hillary For America and the DNC for violating election laws when they hid the true purpose of payments to law firm Perkins Coie. As you know, they were really paying “oppo” research company Fusion GPS for the creation of the salacious (and fake) Trump-Russia “dossier.” So now the fact that they broke election law is part of the record for this case.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/durham-alerts-judge-to-federal-ruling-against-hillary-clinton-dnc

The Epoch Times report is by subscription only, but we also found details here.

https://yournews.com/2022/05/03/2338618/durham-alerts-judge-to-federal-ruling-against-hillary-clinton-dnc/

In another major victory for Durham, Judge Cooper granted his motion to compel Fusion GPS “tech maven” Laura Seago to testify. Durham had argued that she has “unique insight” into how her company, the Clinton campaign and law firm Perkins Coie orchestrated the “opposition research” into the Trump campaign that sparked the FBI’s “Russiagate” investigation. Here’s an excellent summary of both the Durham wins, from Just the News.

https://adnamerica.com/en/united-states/john-durham-scores-two-major-court-wins-ahead-clinton-lawyers-trial

Seago’s lawyer informed the court that, absent immunity from prosecution, she plans to invoke her Fifth Amendment rights. In response, the judge has ruled that “no testimony or other information compelled under this Order…may be used against Laura Seago in any criminal case, except a prosecution for perjury, giving a false statement, or otherwise failing to comply with this Order.” In effect, that’s a grant of immunity --- as long as she tells the truth. Maybe, at long last, we're going to hear some.

Mike Huckabee

Before I say anything about last night’s big bombshell story about the Supreme Court and Roe v. Wade, let me get a few caveats out of the way:

The initial draft of a majority opinion allegedly written by Justice Alito appears genuine, but that doesn’t mean it is. Also, initial drafts are just that: drafts. They can change over time as the Justices continue to debate. They can even change their votes. And this decision was not set to be released for a couple of months yet. Also, while it seems that the most likely culprit to have leaked it would be a liberal law clerk hoping to gin up public pressure on the Justices to change their votes, we don’t know for sure who leaked it. Now, on to the story:

https://www.westernjournal.com/breaking-leaked-report-shows-scotus-overturned-roe-v-wade/

Politico released what it claims is a leaked initial draft of a majority opinion of the SCOTUS, overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling legalizing abortion (and isn’t it bizarre that the media suppressed the Hunter Biden laptop story on the excuse they don’t publish hacked evidence – which that wasn’t – but they ran to get this out, when it could have been stolen by hackers.)

As you’d expect, the legal reasoning of the alleged Alito-written opinion is rock solid, and nothing new to anyone who’s paid attention over the past five decades. Roe was a ruling with zero basis in the Constitution; a political statement disguised as a judicial ruling. The draft opinion points out that there is nothing in the Constitution about a right to abortion, and the long history of laws banning abortion shows that the Founders never intended to include such a right. The Constitution also does not prohibit citizens of the states from banning or regulating abortion. This was clearly a profound moral question that the Founders left up to elected representatives in each state. It says that with the Roe v. Wade ruling, the SCOTUS arrogated that authority, which the Court now returns “to the people and their elected representatives.”

The Facts, For Those Who Care…

Not that they matter to the hopped-up radicals currently screaming all over TV and social media, but here are some facts:

If it is true that the SCOTUS has voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, it will not be unprecedented. There have been bad rulings before, and some have been overturned by the Court while others were killed by subsequent laws.

https://moneyinc.com/worst-supreme-court-decisions/

It also will not mean that abortion will be banned. As I’ve been saying for years, it would return the question to the states. We already have blue states that are passing abortion bills so radical, they’ve virtually legalized infanticide. And there are red states like my home state of Arkansas that have recognized the sanctity of life from the moment of conception and passed laws limiting abortion to before a detectible heartbeat, or other early points of development.

As legal scholar Mark Levin explained, the Founders intended the federalist system to respect the individual cultures of the states, while allowing free travel between them for those who disagreed. There would be nothing stopping someone who wanted an abortion from going to a state that allowed them. While I would hope that the pro-abortion side would change their hearts (and open their minds to rapidly evolving science on what’s happening in the womb), for the foreseeable future, there would still be states that allowed abortion. Those who argue that poor women couldn’t afford to travel could just give them money for a bus ticket instead of showering millions on Planned Parenthood.

The Secondary Bombshell

What is unprecedented is the leaking of this SCOTUS draft, which was described by law professor Jonathan Turley as “unspeakably unethical” and by the SCOTUS Blog as “the gravest, most unforgivable sin,” an “earthquake” in terms of the destruction of trust among Justices and staff. The Justices need to be able to freely debate cases without concerns about their private thoughts leaking and being politicized, and that’s exactly what happened the second Politico released this.

https://redstate.com/joesquire/2022/05/03/the-destruction-of-the-supreme-court-n559094

The “scream-at-the-sky” crazy leftwing went predictably berserk, forcing authorities to put security and barricades outside the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Roberts reportedly wants an FBI investigation to identify who leaked this. There’s some question as to whether it’s a federal offense, but Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, who clerked at the SCOTUS, said clerks are told on day one that if they ever leak any private material, they are done at the Court and their law careers will be over. She called it “a line that could never be crossed.”

I assume that if a liberal clerk did this, he/she/xe doesn’t care and assumes the perfidy will result in a fat book contract, a CNN commentator gig and the other perks that typically support loyal leftists whose lack of ethics has left them otherwise unemployable.

And The Dems Are Off To The Races (the November Races)…

Naturally, some Congressional Democrats immediately seized on the news, since they’re desperate for any emotional issue to fire up their voters before the coming elections and make them forget just how terrible they are at governing.

The very first reaction of leftists such as Sen. Bernie Sanders was to call for either trying to stack the Court or circumventing the ruling by passing a national abortion legalization bill already passed on party lines by the House – and if they don’t have enough votes, then kill the Senate filibuster to shove it down Americans’ throats with 51 votes. That’s their typical “my way or the highway,” "cheating is justified when we do it" attitude. Lots of yak-yak about “diversity,” but zero tolerance for diversity of thought. And does Bernie really think Joe Manchin would vote to go along with that?

It’s so on-brand of today’s Democrats that after spending over a year accusing Republicans of launching an assault on the sacred institutions of democracy, they turn on a dime and rush to destroy the sacred institutions of democracy to get their way. It’s also very predictable that the bill they want to pass to legalize abortion bears the wildly misleading title, the “Women’s Health Protection Act.” If they truly believed that aborting babies was morally and ethically justifiable, then why do they struggle so hard to come up with fuzzy euphemisms to hide what they’re really doing, like “women’s health” or “reproductive justice”?

Or as President Biden put it as he tried to turn it into a winning election issue, “A woman’s right to choose is fundamental.” Two questions: To choose WHAT, Joe? Also, could you please define “woman”?

Many legal experts are warning that if the intent of the leak was to gin up the mob to threaten the Justices into changing their votes, that’s likely to backfire. The Justices take very seriously their duty to rule based on the cases and the Constitution, not heated political considerations. In fact, the conservative most likely to compromise or vote with the liberals, Chief Justice Roberts, is also known for being very concerned about maintaining the integrity and image of the SCOTUS, and appearing to bow before a mob would undermine it even worse than this leak.

https://redstate.com/sister-toldjah/2022/05/03/more-scotus-leaks-on-abortion-case-reveal-which-conservative-justice-might-vote-with-liberals-n559139

Again, this is an alleged leaked draft, and the Court has NOT yet ruled on this case. Mature adults know that you wait until the decision is released and then deal with it like rational people who respect the Constitution and the diversity of opinion among the various states (look at me, having to defend diversity from angry leftists!)

But the Democrats are reacting like hyperactive children, throwing a tantrum and threatening to burn down the house if they don’t get what they want. If they really think this is going to convince people to keep them in power, I can understand why they’re dumb enough to believe that Roe v. Wade was such a solid Constitutional ruling that it could never be overturned.

I was on Newsmax last night, talking about this issue, to emphasize that the Democrats’ version of “The Big Lie” is claiming that overturning Roe v. Wade would ban abortion. Also, that this leak is the Democrats’ version of “Insurrection” in attempting to undermine, damage and even destroy the institution of the Supreme Court.

https://www.mikehuckabee.com/latest-news?id=140AB694-D852-4476-A007-E0853B78DE1E

PS: To correct a live TV slip of the tongue, I meant that 62 MILLION babies have been sacrificed on the altar of this terrible ruling since 1973.

Mike Huckabee

With so much breaking news to cover this past week, updates on the Durham investigation were held a few days. (As it was, we had so much commentary that we reached the limit for what we could post on Substack.) But Durham is building the case that this was a widely coordinated plan. Let's start with what we know about Marc Elias.

As Aaron Kliegman of JUST THE NEWS reports, Elias was “a central figure in both the Russia collusion hoax, which cast doubt on Trump’s victory in 2016, and the effort to upend the nation’s voting laws in unprecedented ways, which cast doubt on Biden’s victory in 2020.” Elias takes the prize: in his actions over two presidential elections, he appears to be the legal mastermind behind the destruction of America’s election integrity.

Elias, as you know, was a partner along with Michael Sussmann in the law firm Perkins Coie, which in 2016 represented both Hillary For America and the DNC (same thing) and hired Fusion GPS, which in turn hired Christopher Steele, who created the “dossier.” They also worked with Rodney Joffe to create the Alfa Bank hoax and shop it to the intel bureaucracy and the media. That’s the period Durham is looking at.

But for 2020, Elias filed lawsuits around the country, particularly in battleground states, to undermine basic security protocols. COVID was used as a pretext for adopting mail-in balloting on a massive scale. (Aside: look for the same strategy this fall.) He also sued to challenge laws such as voter ID requirements and absentee ballot witness requirements, which he argued disenfranchised voters. Never mind how racist it is to imply black voters can’t get an ID.

Elias focused on “four pillars”: 1) free postage for mail-in ballots, 2) ballots postmarked on or before Election Day must count, even if they arrive late, 3) signature matching should be “softened,” and 4) ballot harvesting should be legalized.

Ballot harvesting is perhaps the “pillar” most obviously associated with rampant cheating. As we recently reported, Wisconsin is currently conducting an investigation into a coordinated ballot harvesting operation in nursing homes across the state. And in Georgia, secretary of state George Raffensperger has opened a criminal investigation into illegal ballot harvesting.

Aside: Dinesh D’Souza’s new documentary, 2,000 MULES, shows how it was done in Maricopa County, Arizona. If you can’t get to a theater this week --- many showings are sold out, hooray! --- the live-stream premiere is Saturday, May 7, at 8PM Eastern Time. Here’s where to reserve tickets.

https://secure.2000mules.com/event/2000-mules-virtual-premiere

If Elias wants to talk about “pillars,” I would say one of the pillars on which our Republic stands is election integrity –- without it, we don’t have a country –- and Marc Elias has probably done more than any other individual to destroy that. (Mark Zuckerberg and George Soros are up there, though.) And yet it appears to be Elias’ life’s work. He says he’s trying to help people get their votes counted during a pandemic, but the website for his law firm, The Elias Firm, states its purpose as supporting progressive policies and getting more Democrats elected to office. Now that Democrats run everything and it’s turning out very, very badly, I’d say the only way he’s going to be able to fulfill his mission is to help them cheat like mad.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/how-top-democrat-lawyer-caused-both-left-and-right-lose-faith-us

Next, Rodney Joffe. Durham’s team says that Joffe, the man identified in legal filings as “Tech Executive – 1,” who worked with Michael Sussmann on the Alfa Bank and “YotaPhone” hoaxes, remains the subject of an ongoing investigation. It looks as though he’s being scrutinized for possibly defrauding the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), part of the Defense Department. This report from the Washington Examiner explains why we might suspect that. It would certainly explain why Joffe was denied immunity from prosecution.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/durham-team-raises-possibility-tech-exec-1-in-sussmann-case-committed-fraud

Sussmann’s attorneys appear to be quite upset at Durham’s focus on Joffe. But the trial starts in two weeks (May 16), and Durham says “evidence at trial will show” that Sussmann, Joffe and agents of the Clinton campaign were “acting in concert toward a common goal” of “assembling and disseminating the [Alfa Bank] allegations and other derogatory information about Trump and his associates to the media and the U.S. government.”

Joffe’s attorney sent a letter to Sussmann’s office on April 1, saying Joffe would invoke his Fifth Amendment rights if called to testify, “even though he very much wants to set the record straight.”

Moving to Christopher Steele, you’ll recall that Sussmann’s attorneys at Democrat-connected Latham and Watkins are trying very hard to keep evidence regarding Steele out of court. Durham has countered by saying there is a “strong intersection” between the activities of Steele and Sussmann. If you’re keeping up with details, this FOX News report has them.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/durham-christopher-steele-sussmann-trump

In fact, both sides agree that Sussmann met with Steele in July 2016, after which time Steele was tasked with investigating allegations into Alpha Bank. There’s your intersection. Prosecutors consider Steele’s efforts to be part of the “work stream” between law firm Perkins Coie and Fusion GPS, and that’s the big picture Durham intends to show.

Also recommended is this commentary from legal analyst Andrew C. McCarthy, who reports that at his trial, Sussmann will not be contending that data he provided to government agencies, supposedly showing communications between Trump Tower and the Kremlin, were accurate. Funny, when he took them to the FBI, he behaved as if he thought they were.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/sussmann-will-not-claim-trump-russia-back-channel-data-were-accurate/

Based on that concession, Judge Christopher Cooper has ruled that the prosecution can’t spend time presenting “extensive evidence” that the data were inaccurate. Too bad; that would have been fun. More importantly, sparing Sussmann from proof in court that he was peddling evidence he surely knew was false is more than he deserves. But if Durham can independently show Sussmann knew it was deceptive, then that would go to criminal intent and “open the door” to allow prosecutors to discredit all his data piece by piece.

Finally, Margot Cleveland reported something intriguing a couple of weeks ago that got lost in the shuffle. The Federalist obtained an email dated July 23, 2021, following a second subpoena for materials relating to Durham’s investigation of the Alfa Bank hoax. It included a list of documents thought to be responsive to that subpoena, including “whitepapers” prepared for DARPA (again, Department of Defense):

1. “Whitepaper on DNC attack attribution”

2. “Analysis of attacks of EOP [Executive Office of the President] networks”

3. “Whitepaper for DOJ on APT-29 related hackers, crypto coin transactions, and analysis that includes Yota-related domains”

4. “’Mueller List’ – list of domains and indicator related to APT-28”

APT-28 is another name for the Russian group of hackers known as Fancy Bear. What we see from this is that the Georgia Tech group was also working for the Mueller investigation. They and DARPA were evidently involved in investigating the so-called “Russian hack” of the DNC. (Pause to let that sink in.)

Talk about an intersection. Details at the link. If you like getting into the weeds, read about the evolving Georgia Tech defense.

https://thefederalist.com/2022/04/22/docs-spygate-researchers-did-work-for-former-special-counsel-robert-mueller/

Mike Huckabee

Mike Huckabee

I’m just going to put it out there—Elon Musk is my nominee for Man of the Year!  The world’s richest man doesn’t even own a home—he just crashes with friends in various places.  Hey, Elon, if you need a place to hang out, I’m happy to offer my place for you because I truly appreciate a billionaire who puts his money where his mouth is…or in his case he puts his money where the enemies of free speech are and he stuffs wads of cash in their nasty mouths and buys the very platform that shut out voices of conservatives, Christians, and Trump supporters while keeping Twitter open to the Ayatollah and to medical fraudsters like Tony Fauci who has spent 2 years in an ever-changing chant as to what private citizens must do to fight a virus, even if his advice changed every month.  And even if he appears to have lied in a large way about the origin of the Wuhan virus and whether he and other US Taxpayer-funded  scientists knew all along about the real origin of the Covid leak and that US dollars helped fund experiments that would have been illegal in the US.

Musk offered to flat out buy Twitter.  The left went berserk to the point that you would have thought that Elon Musk wanted to turn off the water in every American city and make us all eat Soylent Green—a reference that only baby-boomers will understand. 

Some 20 something year old wearing baggy pajamas, working from a filthy apartment littered with empty Cheetos bags will no longer be able to decide who gets to speak and who doesn’t.  Elon Musk bought the entire thing for $44 Billion dollars and will restore it to a true forum. Granted, there will be a lot of stuff on Twitter that will be outrageous, wrong, and inflammatory.  But that’s how real free speech works.  If it’s defamatory, the object of such hate can sue.  It’s tough to win, but one thing I hope Musk will do is force people to openly identify who they are when they speak.  Too many blathering cowards hide behind silly sophomoric screen names so they can shoot from the dark and run hide behind a wall of secrecy.  I hope that stops.  If you want to say something, be man enough or woman enough—if you know what those terms even mean—to say it with your real name attached.  No more wimpy word wizards who are often not even real humans but electronic bots taking pot shots at people who actually have the guts to stand by their words in their own name. 

There will likely be massive waves of voices being released from the stupid and hate-driven Twitter jail where those who dared to speak out about taboo topics like elections, Covid treatments, or Hunter Biden’s revealing laptop got exiled.  Twitter twits kept you from knowing  how Papa Joe was very much involved in Hunter’s dirty dealing with the Chinese, the Russians, and others for which the easily identified “Big Guy” got a lucrative cut of the deals.  Those stories from the NY Post got banned from Twitter, but now even the NY Times and Washington Post admits the laptop is authentic.

The loons on the left really do fear free speech.  Old time and sincere liberals always loved it, defended it, and fought for it, and they will also have their voices restored.  They deserve to be heard too. 

It’s a BRAVE NEW WORLD and Elon Musk is a brave new leader!  

Kenneth Allard

If you missed last week’s raucous congressional testimony by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, then you passed up television at its finest, the most compelling telecast since Will Smith slapped Chris Rock. Republican Congressmen shouted angrily at the witness and at each other as Democratic chairmen furiously hammered for order. While mostly ignoring it, the complicit mainstream press later explained away the frequent shouts of “Traitor!” and Resign!” by insisting that the Republican minority was grandstanding to heighten their slander of the hapless DHS secretary.

To be perfectly fair, Mr. Mayorkas conclusively demonstrated that he may be the only person in the nation who knows less about our borders than Kamala Harris, our reigning Vice President and National Embarrassment. Watching him, it was hard to understand how someone could be so consistently wrong, beginning with his assertion that DHS had “competently managed” the migratory hordes now rushing the border. Nor has he ever recanted his spurious September charges that mounted Border Patrolmen were using their reins to whip helpless migrants rather than to control their horses. Isn’t it the first responsibility of any leader, but especially a Cabinet Secretary, to back up his people while performing difficult and hazardous duties?

Since old books can often produce new ideas, my well-thumbed dictionary always comes through. There, just after the listings for “bed-pan” and “Beelzebub” was the perfect description of Alejandro Mayorkas: “Befuddled: to fuddle or confuse the mind of a person or to stupefy with liquor. Befuddlement (n.)” If that seems a little harsh, then remember that Mr. Mayorkas has apparently never grasped that the most essential function of borders is to keep foreigners out while protecting citizen’s lives and property; but instead of opposing immigration flows, he conceives the DHS function as merely managing them. Precisely that same naivete governs his responses to terrorism since he had no idea what happened to those 42 aliens on the terrorist watch list who were unlucky enough to have been apprehended since Biden took office. Well, where are they now, Mr. Secretary, in jail or released with cell phones, ankle bracelets and our best wishes? Oh wait, you’re befuddled, so please excuse me for asking.

Future historians may well debate this question underlying American destiny: Did we lose our national IQ after we elected Joe Biden? Or did we elect Joe because we had already Gone Stupid, the downstream consequence of having spurned our national values while reducing our educational system to Third World levels? Either way: soon we may hear Jen Psaki’s Farewell and Final Sophistry before joining MSNBC. “Our Republican friends seem to have missed an impressive benefit of these so-called border surges. Many of these new migrants are better educated and harder-working than their native American counter-parts!” Sad to say, Jen the Glib might even be right.

While the Biden administration and Democrats in general often ignore its provisions, the U. S. Constitution is very specific about border security. Article 4, Section 4 stipulates that, “The United State shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican (i.e., representative) Form of Government, and shall protect each of them from invasion…” If Trump-enacted COVID restrictions are lifted by May 23rd, current estimates are that the flood of illegals could reach over 18, 000 people per day, an invasion that even befuddled Secretary Mayorkas admits would strain limited DHS resources.

Texans prefer plain speaking to Washington double-speak so it was not surprising that Allen Castleberry, Sheriff of Kimble County Texas (not far from the overrun border) recently took the extraordinary step of using his Facebook account to post a stark warning:

The Kimble County Sheriff’s Office…(has) received information through several intelligence sources that a profound increase in illegal immigration entries and human smuggling activities are expected …in the coming months…There are reports that hundreds of thousands of people are staging throughout Central and South America, from Mexico to Brazil…(We) expect a very large increase in illegal immigration and human smuggling attempts that will inevitably impact Kimble County. Additionally, the international criminal gang…MS-13, has been taking full advantage of the wave of illegal immigration….

Since sheriffs are the only elected leaders in law enforcement, Sheriff Castleberry told me he wanted to make sure his Kimble County citizens knew what might lie ahead. I do too: Remember that the invasion striking us in Texas today will hit your neighborhoods tomorrow or next week. So protect yourself, your home, your families and your communities by any legal means available.

Mike Huckabee

Look for a detailed update tomorrow on John Durham’s special counsel investigation and the Michael Sussmann trial. In the meantime, here’s a piece of not entirely unexpected news: The presiding judge, Christopher Cooper, has ruled Hillary’s tweet, which says that “Donald Trump has a secret server...it was set up to communicate privately with a Putin-tied Russian bank.,” and a follow-up tweet linking to a four-paragraph missive from her campaign, are inadmissible as evidence.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/judge-wont-let-clinton-collusion-tweet-be-admitted-in-sussmann-trial

The judge excluded this as “hearsay” and said it’s “likely duplicative of other evidence” related to demonstrating the attorney-client relationship. Recall that Sussmann faces one charge of lying to the FBI about that attorney-client relationship; specifically, whether or not it was the reason for his visit.

As Jerry Dunleavy at the Washington Examiner explains, “The special counsel argued the tweet is not inadmissible hearsay “because it is not being offered for its truth ---emphasizing that the prosecutors actually believe its claims were false.” In other words, if they were actually trying to prove the Alfa Bank scheme was true, Hillary’s tweet about that would be inadmissible hearsay. But they want to use the tweet to help prove something else: the attorney-client relationship between Hillary For America and Michael Sussmann.

But the defense still claimed that the tweet “plainly is being offered for the truth” by prosecutors. As I’ve reminded my readers many times, I’m not a lawyer, but for the life of me, I can’t see how that makes sense. Durham knows the tweet is false, and do we all at this point.

Oh, and pardon our cynicism, but we laughed out loud at the transparent attempt to protect Hillary that was made by Sussmann’s team: “There is a real danger that if the tweet were admitted, the jury would believe that Hillary Clinton herself was part of the Special Counsel’s uncharged conspiracy and that she had a direct interest or involvement in Mr. Sussmann’s efforts. Drawing the candidate herself into this matter in this way would be unfair to Mr. Sussmann.”

Get my smelling salts! Lawd, lawd, we wouldn’t want anyone having the impression that HILLARY was involved. Still, the judge, an Obama appointee with a stack of rather shocking Democrat connections and conflicts of interest, bought the defense’s “hearsay” argument.

But now, for the good stuff. I’ll have more at length about it later, but for now, read the account at ZeroHedge of what has just been revealed in this case by the sight of some documents that didn’t quite remain under seal when they got attached to another legal filing of Durham’s. While much of the material pertaining to this case has been seen in heavily redacted form, this story includes links to some unredacted communications that show how extensively Fusion GPS co-founders Glenn Simpson and Peter Frietsch peddled the Trump Russia hoax. They coordinated with multiple journalists, producers and media outlets to get that story out. They were on a mission to spread what they knew to be fake anti-Trump garbage far and wide, and now we have a better idea of their phenomenal dedication.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/russia-hoax-durham-staffer-accidentally-exposes-emails-revealing-coordination-between

TechnoFog examines some of these communications and shows how they blow a hole in the defense’s attorney-client privilege argument, as they have nothing to do with obtaining legal advice. Even if they did, or if lawyers were copied (they weren’t), this little army of hoaxers lost their “privilege” when these messages went out to the media.

https://technofog.substack.com/p/durhams-latest-he-has-hundreds-of?s=w

Tomorrow we’ll have a report on Wednesday’s federal court appearance by Durham’s team and Sussmann’s defense team. The trial is scheduled to start May 16.

Mike Huckabee

The Biden “Justice” Department is asking Congress for a $2.63 billion increase in its budget, supposedly to help cities deal with the huge jump in crime and murder rates. Tuesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland tried to convince the Senate Appropriations Committee that the money was justified, but Republican Sen. John Kennedy grilled him like a cheap steak on that.

https://www.westernjournal.com/gop-sen-kennedy-destroys-ag-merrick-garland-biden-admins-response-spike-crime-rate/

Kennedy started by saying he believes this DOJ is losing on crime, drugs, immigration and Chinese espionage, and demanded to know whether they would use this money to fund procedures that we know work, like to “stop and frisk” known gang members. Of course, Garland couldn’t endorse that because it’s been demonized as racist, so he tried to wiggle out of saying what the money was actually for.

Garland said there is no federal “one solution fits all” for state and local law enforcement, and that he believes local officials know what works best, while “We provide our technical expertise.” Click the link for video of the entertaining exchange.

Just a few points: if state and local leaders in blue areas (because that’s where the crime surge is, and we all know why) know “what works best,” then why is what they’re doing obviously not working at all? In fact, the local leftist prosecutors’ policies are making crime exponentially worse. If the DOJ can’t even tell them that hogtying police while providing a revolving door to criminals is their problem, then what “technical expertise” do they have that’s worth spit, much less an extra $2.63 billion of our money?

Here, I’ll tell those localities how to solve their crime problem: “Start arresting criminals, and once you do, keep them in jail!” That’s all the “technical expertise” they need, and I just saved the taxpayers $2.63 billion. You’re welcome.

Mike Huckabee

Have you wondered what Elon Musk might have to say about social media’s censorship of the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story just ahead of the 2020 election? You know, the story that polls show might have swung the election to Donald Trump if voters had known about it?

Wonder no more.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-weighs-in-on-twitter-censoring-hunter-biden-laptop-story-during-2020-election

On Tuesday, Musk tweeted what I’d still call a bit of an understatement, but on target: “Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organization for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate.”

Twitter’s excuse to the FEC had been that U.S. intel officials had shared “rumors” that this story came from hacked material. I think we all should know by now that it’s a bad idea to automatically believe U.S. intel officials about anything. And there was never any evidence that information in the NY Post’s reporting came from a hack. That apparently didn’t matter at the time to the twits at Twitter.

Last year, though, then-CEO Jack Dorsey –- who has just come out in favor of Musk’s anti-censorship strategy –- told the House Energy and Commerce Committee that censoring the story through their “quick interpretation” had been a “mistake.” And maybe he does regret this, now that the damage has been done. Still, it’s inexcusable that social media prevented people from sharing that story, even privately. How dare they do that.

On Tuesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland was questioned before the Senate Committee on Appropriations about the federal investigation into Hunter’s finances. He said “there will not be interference” but declined to say whether or not he had been briefed on the investigation. He gave the standard answer that he wouldn’t be commenting on an ongoing investigation. Here’s the link to The Epoch Times’ “premium” story, but I’ll comment below.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/attorney-general-tight-lipped-on-hunter-biden-investigation_4428109.html/?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=TheLibertyDaily

Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagarty asked Garland how the public could be confident that there would be no interference “of any political or improper kind” in the investigation. The attorney general answered, “Because we put a Trump appointee in charge of the investigation. And because you have me as attorney general, who’s committed to the independence of the DOJ from any influence from the White House.”

I suppose time will tell on that last part. (However, we know this wasn't the case concerning parents who were targeted by the DOJ as "domestic terrorists.") It’s true that U.S. Attorney David Weiss was appointed by Trump -- even if he's still there only because he was already in charge of the investigation when Biden took office and Biden couldn't ask for his resignation, as is customary for U.S. attorneys when a new President comes in. If the U.S. attorney tasked with examining the younger Biden’s financial wrongdoings had been appointed by the elder Biden, one hopes THAT, at least, would be an unassailable reason for appointing a special counsel.

But that's not the case, and when Sen. Hagarty asked Garland about whether or not he might appoint a special counsel, Garland was noncommittal, saying, “It depends on the circumstances.” At another point in the questioning, in an answer to Indiana Senator Mike Braun, Garland said, “The question is an internal DOJ matter. I don’t want to make judgments, but I’m comfortable with the Attorney from Delaware continuing.”

“I think our internal deliberations have to stay within the Department,” he said. And that’s really all the information the committee got out of Garland.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/garland-question-hunter-biden-investigation-special-counsel

Meanwhile, the U.K. Daily Mail has done some blockbuster reporting on Hunter Biden’s finances. Their analysis of the President’s financial records show that he has $5.2 million in income that is “unexplained.” According to their report, the missing millions, combined with messages on Hunter’s laptop, suggest that Joe Biden would indeed have had a 10 percent share in Hunter’s deal with a Chinese energy company.

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

In fact, emails reveal that Joe –- who was then between gigs as Vice President and President –- agreed to pay Hunter’s hundreds of thousands of dollars in bills “in the short term.” This was to be “as Hunter transitions in his career.” The list of items to be covered included $28,382 in legal fees for the “restructuring” of Hunter’s joint venture with the CCP-controlled Bank of China. The total amount spent on “restructuring” this deal was apparently $68,933.41, beginning in September 2016.

Would Joe Biden have agreed to pay these legal bills for Hunter without even knowing what they were for? How does that square with his repeated claim that he knew nothing about his son’s foreign business dealings?

As the Daily Mail points out, no conclusive evidence has yet emerged that Joe Biden profited from any of Hunter’s business deals. The federal investigation in Delaware is sorting all that out. But what they’ve seen raises “troubling questions” about where an “unexplained” $5,180,071 came from. The rest of "dad's" income appears to have some from speaking fees and a book deal for his memoir, PROMISE ME, DAD.

A report by Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson shows that $5 million in wire transfers from Hunter’s Chinese partners was sent to a company controlled by Hunter. An additional $1 million was sent by Patrick Ho, an executive with Chinese energy company CEFC, as a retainer for Hunter to represent him in a DOJ bribery case. As The Epoch Times reports, there’s an audio recording in which Hunter refers to Ho as “the f***ing spy chief of China.”

Here’s what The Right Scoop had to say…

https://therightscoop.com/bombshell-emails-reveal-joe-biden-paid-legal-bills-for-one-of-hunters-deals-with-communist-china/

Tying all of this together is a great opinion piece from Jordan Boyd at The Federalist, condemning the media for helping Joe Biden maintain his now-obvious lie about not knowing anything about Hunter’s overseas business deals.

https://thefederalist.com/2022/04/25/biden-dodged-blame-for-lying-about-foreign-dealings-for-years-because-corporate-media-let-him/

Finally, the propagandist “encyclopedia” Wikipedia has deleted the entire entry for Rosemont Seneca Partners, Hunter Biden’s investment firm. As George Orwell would say, it was dropped right down the memory hole. Fortunately, some people who care about the truth still have long memories. (It’s hard to forget that Hunter’s business partner Eric Schwerin visited the White House 19 times, and later, as we’ve just learned, at least 8 additional times.) In the words of NY Post reporter Miranda Devine, the author of LAPTOP FROM HELL who broke the story right before the 2020 election but was shut down by the leftwing media, “This is unsustainable for the White House.”

Mike Huckabee

Mike Huckabee

Monday, Elon Musk clinched his hard-fought and brilliantly strategized plan to buy Twitter. His first tweet was very encouraging, and let’s hope he keeps to this path:

"Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated. I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential — I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”

https://www.westernjournal.com/breaking-musk-releases-first-statement-twitter-takeover-reveals-future-company/

And here’s more good news: we’ll soon be able to see just how much slanted censoring was really going on, and the outgoing leftist termites won’t be able to cover their tracks or plant digital landmines before they’re shown to the door.

https://www.westernjournal.com/wont-able-hide-twitter-source-code-locked-musk-takeover/

Surprisingly, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey seems to be a-okay with Musk buying Twitter. If this is a hint to his real feelings, maybe he secretly hated Twitter’s woke board and its Stalinist staff of leftist censors in footie pajamas just as much as everyone else did.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-twitter-ceo-jack-dorsey-issues-surprising-statement-about-elon-musk-buying-company

Musk might want to unlock Twitter, but judging from the unhinged reactions of the leftists who had been using it as a bludgeon to pummel political opponents, they’ll need to be locked into rubber rooms for a while. Rep. Lauren Boebert tweeted a great line in response to all their rage and caterwauling: “Elon Musk now literally owns the libs.”

Glenn Greenwald also had some sharp comments about all the whining from people who are suddenly alarmed that a “billionaire controls a social media platform,” unlike all the other media platforms owned by billionaires, some of which the whiners work for.

https://instapundit.com/517221/

I especially loved all the hysterical threats to pack up their snark and leave Twitter, as if it can’t survive without a handful of leftist loudmouths filling it with idiotic political ideas, threats, censorship, name-calling and childish tantrums. My response: Yes, please leave. Not that I believe they really will, but if they did, it would make it even more pleasant for all the mature adults who will be rejoining Twitter now.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/babylon-bee-others-return-twitter-after-musk-buys

(Incidentally, former President Trump said he will not be rejoining Twitter, but will stay on his own new platform, Truth Social.)

Here’s an example of some of the worst, most race-baiting hysteria, courtesy of MSNBC and Joy Reid, not surprisingly. Money quote: that Musk thinks free speech means white men can say “whatever the hell they want.” Actually, free speech means anyone can say whatever they want. (Warning, don’t read if you have high blood pressure):

https://www.foxnews.com/media/msnbc-analyst-elon-musk-free-speech-white-men

Funny that most of these bawling babies went to college, but they’re just now learning their first lesson in capitalism: a public company can be purchased. Also, its board has a fiduciary duty to make decisions in the best interests of shareholders, not the radical political views of a tiny minority of users.

If they are serious about leaving, I’d offer them the same advice they sneeringly gave to conservatives who were banned from Twitter for wrongthink: “Start your own social media platform!” There already are a number of alternatives, including Parler, Gab and Trump’s new platform, Truth Social. Unfortunately, those also allow the thing leftists hate even more than correct pronoun usage: freedom of speech. Maybe they could go back to Facebook, until Musk buys that.

Or they could do as Donald Trump did and raise the money to start their own platform, just for people like them: whining, immature, self-centered brats who think they know everything and throw temper tantrums if anyone dares to question them. I even have a suggested name for their new social media home: “Romper Room.”

Mike Huckabee

Former President Obama is taking heat over a speech for which he should’ve worn a mask and maybe nobody would’ve noticed that he was talking out of both sides of his mouth.

He began with a defense of free speech, claiming he was pretty close to a First Amendment “absolutist.” Then came the “but…” But because of social media spreading harmful “disinformation,” Big Tech needs to regulate speech more. And “content moderation” doesn’t go far enough because it doesn’t prevent the distribution of “clearly dangerous content.” Which is why the federal government needs to get involved by creating a “regulatory structure” to ensure Internet speech platforms are “following certain safety standards that we as a country – not just them – have agreed are necessary for the greater good.” Funny, I don't recall being asked if I thought the federal government regulating speech was necessary for the greater good. Were you?

https://www.theblaze.com/news/obama-promptly-gets-called-out-for-demanding-govt-intervention-over-harmful-online-content-after-promoting-free-speech

So to recap: he’s a “free speech absolutist,” except he thinks that Big Tech should monitor and censor speech and the federal government should have laws regulating speech to make sure they’re censoring it the way he thinks they should be – for our own good, of course.

Obama does have a point: people who tell gigantic lies can cause great harm. Like when you take away millions of peoples’ health insurance coverage while assuring them it will be replaced with something that allows them to keep their doctor if they like their doctor. I remember that being declared “Lie of the Year.” Yet irresponsible media companies broadcast it as if it were true.

And then there were the Trump years, which was the golden age of fake news, when trust in the government was poisoned by the media credulously repeating the Russia collusion hoax, the “very fine people” hoax, the “all Mexicans are rapists and criminals” hoax, the Nick Sandmann hoax, the Jussie Smollett hoax, etc. etc.

So maybe Obama has a point: we need federal regulation to ride herd on media outlets that fill the public square with dangerous lies.

Or we could zealously protect freedom of speech so that these unrepentant liars could be called out in the public square and everyone would simply learn not to listen to them anymore. I like that solution better, and it's already well under way.

Mike Huckabee

Friday, the Disney Corporation learned what the adage, “Get woke, go broke,” really means as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a quickly-passed bill revoking the special self-governing tax district that Disney has enjoyed near Orlando for over five decades.

https://www.westernjournal.com/desantis-seals-disneys-fate-dont-think-walt-appreciate-going-company/

The news caused Disney’s stock to take another drop on Friday. It’s down 33% from one year ago.

Some conservatives are joining liberals in attacking the move, claiming it’s punishing Disney for free speech to revoke the sweetheart deal, because CEO Bob Chapek vowed to use Disney's political clout to overturn the state law barring inappropriate sexual content and gender politics from being taught to children in kindergarten through third grade (and I could hear Walt Disney spinning in his grave as I typed that.) But all it really means is that Disney now has to follow the same rules as every other company in Florida. Up until now, liberals were the ones complaining about how Disney was abusing its power in Florida to exploit the workers, etc. Guess if you’re “woke” enough, they’ll overlook any other sins.

One worry is that dissolving Disney’s district could force local taxpayers to pick up the bill for expenses Disney had been covering, which could mean a big tax increase. But it doesn’t take effect until 2023, so those issues could be worked out before then.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/disney-stripped-special-status-florida-local-taxpayers

DeSantis gave them a well-deserved lesson in who really has the political clout in Florida. And market analysts who are brushing off the stock drop as fleeting don’t seem to understand just how badly Disney’s CEO has tarnished the company’s brand. He took the side of radical LGBTQ activists over parents (Disney's customer base), and I don’t think they’re going to forget that anytime soon.

You don’t even have to be politically partisan to realize how badly Disney has Goofied up. Here’s the former CEO of McDonald’s arguing that Chapek and other Disney executives should be fired for getting involved in politics “without thought and care” and costing their stockholders big time.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/disney-execs-fired-rensi-desantis-parental-rights-law

If they really want to get people back into the theme parks, I’d suggest firing them out of cannons as part of the nightly fireworks show.

Mike Huckabee

I’m sure I angered some Democrats recently by asking if the Party had become pro-death. I didn’t mean that lightly or as just a partisan jab. I have honestly become alarmed at how radical factions have so taken over the Party that it seems the toll of human life is secondary to imposing their policies.

Stop and ask yourself, how many people have died because of the imposition of leftist policies that have led to riots; wars; skyrocketing murder rates; incredibly dangerous illegal immigration made even worse by coyotes and gangs; deadly drugs like fentanyl pouring across the border; the botched Afghanistan pullout; famines and deaths caused by energy and food shortages created by their radical green policies (not here yet, but give it time); and new abortion laws that are erasing the line between killing babies in the womb and outright infanticide of post-birth children. Dare to say any of this and the “party of compassion” attacks you for criticizing them while ignoring the victims of its tragically misguided views.

Well, it now appears that another death has occurred at the border that will be harder for Biden & Co. to ignore. A search resumed at dawn Saturday for a Texas National Guard soldier who is believed to have drowned in the Rio Grande River near Eagle Pass.

https://www.westernjournal.com/texas-national-guard-soldier-border-officials-confirm-heroic-final-feat/

He reportedly dived in to save a migrant woman who started drowning as she attempted to cross the river from Mexico. The woman was saved, but the soldier disappeared in the deep, muddy water. Officials say the river is more dangerous than it looks, and migrants drown there as often as twice a week.

https://www.newsweek.com/search-texas-soldier-feared-drowned-during-rescue-called-off-night-1700290

That’s just one of the many ways in which migrants die, lured here by Biden’s open borders policy. How long has it been since you’ve seen anyone in the news even mention these deaths? Did you know that a couple of people drown every week just in that one spot while crossing the border illegally? If the latest victim hadn’t been a heroic Guardsman, would they have even bothered to cover it?

This is why I don’t want to hear another word about how, if you don’t support Democrat policies, you have no compassion. I think the very lowest bar for compassion is caring at all whether your policies are actually killing people.

Mike Huckabee

This week, top Pentagon official Preston Dunlap, the founding chief architect officer of the U.S. Air Force and Space Force since 2019, announced his resignation. In doing so, he released a frightening warning about the state of readiness of the US Defense Department.

https://www.westernjournal.com/chief-architect-space-force-resigns-3-years-issues-big-warning-defending-country/

He described the US government as the world's largest bureaucracy in which people were more concerned with defending their turf than defending America, and competing with each other instead of China. He said on his first day of work at creating what should be a branch of the armed forces on the cutting edge of technology, he instead found a dinosaur:

“I arrived to find no budget, no authority, no alignment of vision, no people, no computers, no networks, a leaky ceiling, even a broken curtain.” He said that as he was writing his resignation, “I received notification that the phone lines are down at the Pentagon IT help desk. Phone lines are down? It’s 2022, folks.”

And in what I assume is preaching to the choir here, he added, “By the time the Government manages to produce something, it’s too often obsolete; no business would ever survive this way, nor should it.”

I hear a lot of complaints about letting billionaires like Elon Musk take over space technology. But when you consider Washington’s recent track record, I fear that if the current government brain trust had been in charge of NASA in the ‘60s, they not only wouldn’t have made it to the moon, they’d still be arguing over whether any lifeforms we might find on Mars are diverse enough.

Mike Huckabee

What happens when an irresistible force like “Too big to fail” meets an immovable object like the ironclad law, “Get woke, go broke”? It appears that what’s happening is that some of the most powerful entertainment megacorps are cracking up due to self-inflicted wounds caused by putting leftist virtue signaling ahead of serving their core customer base. Cases in point: Netflix and Disney, two companies that got very woke, very arrogant and are having a very bad week/year.

Wednesday, Netflix suffered a 35.1% drop in its stock price, the worst since 2004, after announcing that instead of the expected first quarter subscriber increase, it lost 200,000 subscribers. Including Wednesday, Netflix’s stock is down 62% for the year.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/netflix-stock-price-plunges-premarket-after-subscriber-loss-11650449002

Netflix’s plunge dragged down other large streaming services, including Disney, which dropped by 5.6%.

Of course, there are a number of contributing factors. People are going back to work after the pandemic (Note to Washington: the pandemic is OVER!) and not streaming Netflix all day. There’s rising competition. Netflix just raised its prices at a time when Americans are cutting expenses due to high inflation. All of these things give them cover to ignore a cancer they’d rather pretend doesn’t exist, but Elon Musk, as usual, dared to voice the unspeakable truth on Twitter: “The woke mind virus is making Netflix unwatchable.”

And he’s right: Netflix used to provide fun movies to distract us from the problems of the world. Now, they concentrate more on creating “original” programming (I have to put "original" in quotation marks) that pushes woke messages and undermines traditional moral values. It was admirable that they actually refused to “cancel” Dave Chappelle for daring to tell jokes about radical LGBTQ activists, but they still knuckled under by vowing to spend millions on shows pushing their message. In fact, they’ve squandered tons of money on woke message shows that hardly anyone is watching.

And Robert Spencer at PJ Media reminds us of some of Netflix’s recent brilliant programming decisions, from a documentary narrated by Barack Obama (can you imagine them asking Trump to narrate a show?) to a cartoon series that attacked Christians in a vulgar fashion to the execrable “Cuties,” which was basically an attempt to mainstream kiddie porn.

https://pjmedia.com/culture/robert-spencer/2022/04/20/elon-musk-says-woke-mind-virus-is-making-netflix-unwatchable-and-subscribers-are-fleeing-in-droves-n1591406

And they wonder why people refuse to pay to pipe this sewage into their living rooms?

Meanwhile, Disney has its own set of self-created problems. Wednesday, Florida’s Senate voted to end the self-governing status Disney has enjoyed since Walt Disney World was built. It’s expected to pass the House, and Gov. Ron DeSantis will likely sign it, since he already called for it.

While popular with most on the right, some are protesting that it’s anti-free speech to punish Disney for taking political stands. Others, however, say the reason is unimportant; that kind of crony capitalism should’ve ended long ago anyway.

https://redstate.com/bonchie/2022/04/20/ron-desantis-latest-battle-sparks-open-civil-war-on-the-right-n552936

Personally, I think they should be viewed as two separate issues. No, Disney shouldn’t have such a sweetheart deal. And yes, both Florida political leaders and parents are justifiably outraged. Disney isn’t just “taking a political position.” They’re diving headfirst into leftist political activism. They’re also destroying their nearly century-old reputation as a creator of safe, wholesome family entertainment in favor of pushing inappropriate sexual messages and LGBTQ propaganda onto small children.

If the current CEO thinks that mollifying the loudest, most radical activists on his staff is more important than maintaining the company’s reputation and customer base, then it deserves to drop in stock value and lose business. And he deserves to be replaced. There are already whispers of that happening. Couldn’t happen fast enough, if you happen to be a Disney stockholder.

https://nypost.com/2022/04/20/as-disney-flails-hollywood-weighs-a-possible-bob-iger-comeback/

By the way, if Netflix and Disney would rather go into the grooming and indoctrination business than provide family-friendly entertainment, there are any number of other companies ready and willing to fill the void. Ben Shapiro of the Daily Wire recently announced a $100 million investment in creating children's entertainment.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/03/31/daily-wire-kids/

Here’s another new channel that “Full House” star Candace Cameron Bure is helping to launch.

https://redstate.com/alexparker/2022/04/20/amid-the-fight-over-family-entertainment-christian-candace-cameron-takes-on-a-new-job-n553512

And our pop culture guru Pat Reeder listed some others recently, which I’ll repost below. So it’s not as if we’ll run out of anything to watch if we don’t have Netflix or Disney:

From Pat: If you’re looking for Christian-oriented programming for the whole family, first stop would be TBN, where we do the “Huckabee” show. With that shameless plug out of the way, there are also lots of other great shows on TBN. They even have a 24-hour free streaming service of programs for kids ages 2-12. It’s called Smile of a Child TV, and you can sign up here:

https://smileofachildtv.org

Some other popular Christian streaming services that offer movies, family-friendly TV series and kids programming are Pureflix (https://www.pureflix.com), Minno (https://www.gominno.com), Faith Life TV (https://faithlifetv.com), Up Faith & Family (https://uptv.com) and the Dove Channel (https://www.dovechannel.com.) If you’re just looking to stream movies, there’s Christian Cinema (https://www.christiancinema.com) and Vid Angel, which offers regular movies with the objectionable material edited out, the way broadcast TV does -- or used to (https://www.vidangel.com.)

If you have an Amazon Prime membership for free shipping, it includes all sorts of other benefits, including free streaming of music and thousands of movies and TV shows. And if you have any cable service with Turner Classic Movies, you can get the TCM app for your Firebox, Roku, etc., and stream a constantly-changing assortment of classic films from the days when Hollywood made movies instead of political speeches.

YouTube is owned by Google, which I hate to support, but if you’re willing to sit through brief commercials, you can watch it for free. There are now hundreds of full-length movies on YouTube, as well as episodes of older TV shows and classic cartoons, where Bugs Bunny in a dress is the closest you'll get to gender politics messages.

Or you could just watch old sitcoms on Hulu. But you should know it’s owned by Disney.

Mike Huckabee

Today is Earth Day, and I’ll wish you a happy one, depending on how you define it. If you think of it as a day to remember the traditional meaning of “conservative,” that is to be good conservators of the planet that God has blessed us with, and to be good stewards of the land, water, air and animals so that it can be passed down to future generations, then happy Earth Day.

If you define it the way that so many people do now, as being all about climate change, global socialism and honoring the achievements of the environmental movement, then no thanks. I don’t feel like celebrating $7 gas, food shortages, massive government overreach, killing elderly people because there’s not enough reliable energy for heat or air conditioning, and empowering communists and dictators because they refuse to stop drilling for oil and commit economic suicide. Ironically, whenever I hear today’s eco-radicals talk, I can’t help thinking, “Someone must’ve put something in their water supply.”

Speaking of Earth Day, it’s pretty well established by now what a hypocrite Biden’s “climate czar” John Kerry is. He zooms all over the world in private jets and limousines to lecture the rest of us that if we don’t reduce our carbon footprint, we’ll destroy the planet. And now, here’s another example of his personal air pollution:

https://www.bostonherald.com/2022/04/21/john-kerry-feeling-the-heat-dodges-heralds-question-about-foia-request/

Kerry has been dodging a Freedom of Information Act request for data that should be public, about the names and salaries of his climate staff. He’s refusing to divulge that until October 2024, just before the next Presidential election. This week, Kerry attended a climate discussion at MIT where a Boston Herald reporter tried to ask him about his lack of transparency. The paper reports that he high-tailed it out of the room so fast, he “burned rubber.”

Doesn’t he know how bad burning rubber is for the environment?

Incidentally, I don’t remember the American people voting to give John Kerry a lot of power over our lives. But I am old enough to remember when we specifically voted NOT to do that.

Related: Kerry is hardly the only wealthy hypocrite who creates massive amounts of CO2 flying around to scold the rest of us to stop burning fuel. In honor of Earth Day, here is a rogue’s gallery of celebrity enviro-hypocrites.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/celebrities-politicians-love-lecture-america-environment-rarely-practice-preach

Mike Huckabee

Yesterday, a promo was released for an interview by Piers Morgan with former President Trump. It painted it as the “most explosive” interview of the year, and showed Trump saying, “Very deceptive” and storming off the set, barking, “Turn the cameras off!”

Yeah, about that… One thing we learned from “The Daily Show,” which won scads of Emmys by deceptively editing interviews to make Republicans look dumb, was that whenever you grant an interview to a hostile reporter, make sure you record a copy of the entire interview for yourself. Trump apparently did.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-releases-audio-appears-refute-claim-walked-interview-2020-questi-rcna25277

Trump’s communications director released an audio recording of the interview showing that it actually ended on friendly terms, with Morgan saying, “That was a great interview,” Trump agreeing, and both thanking each other. That’s when Trump said, “Turn the cameras off.” The promo was edited to make it falsely appear he said that as he was rising in anger. And the “very deceptive” quote was lifted from another part of the interview when he chided Morgan for repeatedly saying he had just one more question, then asking more.

I’m surprised they actually thought they could get away with this moldy old trick again. To give you an idea of how long we’ve been on to it, Instapundit blog master Prof. Glenn Reynolds linked to an article he wrote in the New York Post titled, “Bring Your Own Camera.” It was about a deceptively-edited ABC interview with Sarah Palin, and it ran in 2008, fourteen years ago.

https://nypost.com/2008/09/13/bring-your-own-camera/

Mike Huckabee

This might be the calm before the storm for the Hunter Biden laptop story. Discussion seems to be moving from the contents –- we’ve got the idea and need to take repeated showers with antibacterial soap –- to the significance of those contents. On Wednesday, The Hill reported that Biden has told Obama he intends to run again in 2024. But on the same day, Townhall ran a piece by Oliver North and David Goetsch entitled “Biden’s Family Scandal: Never Underestimate the Power of Blackmail.”

https://townhall.com/columnists/olivernorthanddavidgoetsch/2022/04/19/bidens-family-scandal-never-underestimate-the-power-of-blackmail-n2606021

Not long ago, we went to Andrew C. McCarthy’s book BALL OF COLLUSION to look at the corruption in Ukraine, the so-called influence peddling in which so many on both sides of the aisle engage. The context was Paul Manafort and how he ever became Trump’s campaign chairman, but this is the same environment where the “Biden family business” thrived. And just as Manafort became politically vulnerable because of his activities and connections, so did the Bidens. That can especially be said of the patriarch, Joe Biden, who had by far the most to lose. The chorus is growing that this scandal isn’t about Hunter, but about the President.

That’s precisely the point made in the Townhall piece. “All Hunter ever peddled to China, Russia and Ukraine was access to his father,” it says. “Hunter not only compromised his father but set him up for blackmail.”

Amazingly, the two enemies President Biden is having to face down in 2022, Russia and China, happen to be the very nations in which he is eminently blackmail-able.

Ah, but you might say that neither Russia nor China has released anything on him. That must mean there's nothing else.

Au contraire. Blackmail is like revenge –- best served cold. Meanwhile, the blackmailer holds on to whatever he has so he can hold the threat of using it over his victim. In the meantime, he WANTS his stooge to remain where he is. The victim knows that if his blackmailers are displeased, they’ll “release the Kraken.”

And since what we already know is so bad –- assuming that Joe was “the Big Guy” and the plan was to give him a 10 percent cut of the action –- one might imagine that “the Kraken” is exponentially worse. (Or, as Biden might say, “expodentially.”)

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2021/12/16/lol-supercut-of-biden-saying-expodentially-over-and-over-n1541988

The Chinese, especially, are masters of blackmail. Joe Biden might swear up and down that he never profited from his family’s business dealings, but the authors of this piece pose a provocative question: “How did a lifelong politician who often claimed to be ‘the poorest man in the United States Senate’ suddenly become a multimillionaire on the Vice President’s salary, which in 2017 was $230,700?”

(Aside: That question is right up there with, “How did a couple of grifters from Arkansas go from being ‘dead broke’ to flying high in the wealth stratosphere, seemingly protected from any legal consequences of their actions?” I digress.)

Also recall the email that refers to Joe wanting to talk to Hunter “about his [Joe’s] future earnings potential.” We’ll ask again: Why would he be asking his son about that?

As FBI Director Chris Wray said in 2020, “China uses a diverse range of sophisticated techniques, everything from cyber intrusions to corrupting trusted insiders” to get what it wants. He went on to say that blackmail is one of their favorite tactics.

That’s one reason why it was so shocking to learn that California Rep. Eric Swalwell had had a close relationship with a Chinese agent, “Fang Fang,” that started even when he in his first political job, on a city council. Playing the long game, she helped groom him for higher office. Finally, she realized her cover was blown and high-tailed it back to China.

Congress didn’t take that revelation seriously enough –- might some of them be compromised, too? Swalwell takes a lower profile for now, but he’s still around and, amazingly, still has his seat on the HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE, where he once investigated President Trump over bogus ties to Russia.

Moving on...As reported by Jason Chaffetz on FOX News Sunday, a group of 16 GOP legislators is calling on the “Justice” Department to brief Congress on the federal investigation into the President’s son, telling Attorney General Merrick Garland in a letter, “It is imperative that the Department of Justice brief Congress on the nature of Mr. Weiss’s investigation into Hunter Biden. Congress has a constitutional obligation to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch an a moral obligation to examine if the President of the United States or any senior official in his administration is ethically compromised or injured.”

Chaffetz asked his guest, Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, what U.S. District Attorney David Weiss, head of the Delaware investigation into Hunter’s taxes that was made public in December 2020 (note: AFTER the election), might use as an excuse not to brief Congress. “The only excuse they might have,” Biggs said, “is that they don’t want to give us the information.” Yes, it’s typical for them to say they don’t comment on ongoing investigations. But, as Biggs said, 51 former intel officials signed a now-infamous letter saying the laptop had “classic earmarks” of Russian disinformation. They didn’t seem to mind talking about THAT, even when what they were saying wasn’t true.

“That was to suppress this for the election in 2020,” Biggs said. “...If they’re not going to give us information, it does continue to look like the cover-up that we suspect it to be.” He’s concerned that not only might Joe Biden and his family be compromised, but “quite frankly, certain folks and assets within DOJ” might be as well.

What Congress needs, Chaffetz said, is “information about the flow of money.” Biggs, a member of the House Oversight Committee, said they’ll keep pushing. Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, is also committed to doing so.

California Rep. Darrell Issa, who also appeared on the show, took a take-charge stance and announced that Republicans in Congress are not waiting for the “Justice” Department to appoint a special counsel. They have a copy of the laptop’s hard drive and will just start their own investigation, thank-you-very-much. They don’t have subpoena power, though, unless (until!) they retake Congress.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/we-have-the-laptop-republican-investigator-hunter-biden-treasure-trove/ar-AAWj899

Mr. Weiss is a Trump appointee. Ironically, Biden couldn’t request his resignation, as is customary in a new administration, because Weiss already headed the ongoing investigation. (This isn’t Ukraine, after all.)

In late February, law professor Jonathan Turley commented on Weiss and the investigation going on in Delaware. Weiss apparently has called numerous witnesses to testify about Hunter’s lavish lifestyle. Turley’s biggest question is the scope of the investigation, saying the uncertainty surrounding that is the reason increasingly being cited for the need to appoint a special counsel, which Merrick Garland still refuses to do, “despite the clear basis for such an appointment.” Turley’s piece is a must-read…

https://jonathanturley.org/2022/02/23/word-to-the-weiss-why-the-delaware-u-s-attorney-still-calling-people-before-the-grand-jury-to-testify-on-hunter-biden/

Oh, and wouldn't want to forget this:

https://www.newsmax.com/politics/poll-trafalgar-biden-china/2022/04/19/id/1066292/

Mike Huckabee

Speaking of mocking the ridiculous things leftists do, sometimes the jokes write themselves.

Like this story: ProPublica, the leftist journalism nonprofit that’s underwritten by billionaires, held an event on April 12th called “The Billionaire Playbook,” about how rich people are allegedly evading taxes. Its sponsors included the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, which has been accused of tax fraud.

https://freebeacon.com/media/propublica-finds-an-awkward-partner-for-billionaire-playbook-on-taxing-the-rich/

Or try this headline: “Foundation gives Harvard $5 million to study ‘wealth inequality.’”

https://www.thecollegefix.com/foundation-gives-harvard-5-million-to-study-wealth-inequality/

Considering that Harvard is sitting on the world’s biggest endowment – over $53 billion at last check – and to them, $5 million is pocket change, you’d think they’d already know everything there is to know about wealth inequality.

From PJ Media: “Left calls for an end to gun violence then gives shopping mall mass shooter $25K bond and house arrest.”

https://pjmedia.com/columns/kevindowneyjr/2022/04/19/clownworld-left-calls-for-an-end-to-gun-violence-then-gives-shopping-mall-mass-shooter-25k-bond-and-house-arrest-n1590971

Talk about shooting your own foot off. Finally, there’s this: “World’s largest carbon removal facility designed to fight global warming suffers major setback after Arctic blast freezes machinery.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/04/worlds-largest-carbon-removal-facility-designed-fight-global-warming-suffers-major-setback-arctic-blast-freezes-machinery/

This is why I say that the left may rail against “misinformation” and “disinformation,” but that’s just to deflect from their real enemy: information.

Mike Huckabee

A discussion of special counsel John Durham’s latest court filings wouldn’t be complete without the perspectives of analysts Margot Cleveland, senior legal correspondent at The Federalist, and Jonathan Turley, professor at George Washington University Law School, and we have them both today.

First, in case you didn’t see it yesterday, here’s the link to Part 1. One huge take-away from that is that the CIA, after being approached by Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann with the fake Trump-Russia story --- including the weird tale about unusual Russian-made cell phones “following” Trump --- said it was “not technically plausible” and (the big one) “user-created.” Sussmann’s attorneys, of the Democrat-connected firm Latham and Watkins, are fighting like mad to keep this and all the CIA evidence out.

https://www.mikehuckabee.com/latest-news?id=0D445189-B1B6-4EDC-A94B-250A4AD167CC

Turley was interviewed by Laura Ingraham on Monday night, and she asked a great question: Why might Durham have thought it was necessary to get all this information into the public domain via his detailed court filings? He said this is because Sussmann and his attorneys are taking a “real scorched-earth approach” to the trial, trying to keep evidence out, trying to keep witnesses from receiving immunity for their testimony. “That has forced the hand of this special counsel,” he said. Durham has had to tell the court why this evidence is so important.

Turley didn’t say this, but I wonder if by fighting so hard to keep this evidence out of court, Sussmann's team is calling even more attention to it than there might otherwise have been. Not that most mainstream media will cover it at all –- as with every other Democrat scandal, they’re getting whiplash from looking the other way –- but it’s slowly making its way into public consciousness --- at least among those members of the public who are conscious.

Turley pointed out that the law firm Perkins Coie, representing Hillary For America and the DNC, had “two of the critical figures,” Sussmann (under indictment) and the general counsel for the campaign, Marc Elias. Sussmann was working on the phony Alfa Bank story, and Elias was working on the phony Steele “dossier.” Recall that the FEC has recently fined the Clinton campaign for illegally hiding the true use of its funds by laundering the cash through Perkins Coie to pay Fusion GPS for the “dossier.” Just as Elias hid the purpose of that money billed to “legal services,” so Sussman hid the fact that he was acting on behalf of clients.

The significance: both of these were Russian collusion hoaxes, coordinated through Perkins Coie. It seems they were on parallel tracks, timed to coincide. That’s why Durham is lumping them together and including evidence of both in his case; he’s saying one set of facts helps prove the other.

On his own website, Turley’s headline emphasizes something we reported yesterday, that “five witnesses connected to the Clinton campaign’s false Russian claims have refused to cooperate.” These are members of that George Tech cyber team who either took the Fifth, so as not to incriminate themselves, or signified to Durham their intent to do so. The one who hadn’t was “Researcher – 2," not identified in the filing but known to be David Dagon, and he has had immunity since last July 28, over a month before Sussmann’s indictment.

Because those five researchers took the Fifth, Durham “pursued Researcher – 2’s immunity in order to uncover otherwise unavailable facts underlying the opposition research project that Tech Executive – 1 [Rodney Joffe] and others carried out in advance of the Defendant’s meeting with the FBI.”

“Researcher – 2” allegedly has information on meetings with both Elias and Steele.

Durham has numerous email exchanges that show doubts within the cyber team that they could fool people with their “evidence” of Trump-Russia collusion. “According to Durham, the Alfa Bank story fell apart even before Sussmann delivered it to the FBI,” Turley says. “...Notably, there were many who expressed misgivings not only within the companies working on the secret project but also among unnamed ‘university researchers’ who repeatedly said the argument was bogus.”

Researchers were told not to look for proof but just enough to “give the base of a very useful narrative.” You’ve seen the quote from “Researcher – 1”: “Let’s assume again that they are not smart enough to refute our ‘best case scenario.’ You do realize that we will have to expose every trick we have in our bag to make even a very weak association.”

I like to contrast the previous two paragraphs with the way Sussmann characterized these same researchers in bringing his user-created “evidence” to the CIA. Why, they were so brave, coming forward with information they thought was so important to the U.S. government that they did so at great personal risk, under threat from Russian intelligence! That’s why, of course, they insisted on remaining anonymous!

https://jonathanturley.org/2022/04/17/durham-five-witnesses-connected-to-the-clinton-campaigns-false-russian-claims-have-refused-to-cooperate-under-the-fifth-amendment/comment-page-1/

Margot Cleveland has weighed in on the Friday filings as well, and she always comes up with new angles. She points out that Durham is having to address about a dozen “tedious issues” regarding what evidence he may use at trial, as the defense is trying to get whatever it can excluded.

Recall that when the story broke about Sussmann TEXTING to FBI general counsel James Baker that he was not acting on behalf of any client, we wondered, “Why is this just now coming out?” The defense had been saying it was just hearsay, a “he said—he said,” and that there was no proof of this lie. Then, suddenly, there was the stunning proof that no one had seemed to know about. Where'd it come from?

Sussmann’s attorneys are claiming the text was stored on the cloud and that Baker had suddenly realized he never retrieved those messages. It had been thought that perhaps the DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General had withheld them, but apparently no. The court will have to decide whether this was an attempt to obstruct evidence.

Also, read Cleveland’s piece to see how obvious it is now that these people were SPYING ON Trump. By claiming those “Russian-made” cellphones appeared to be “following” Trump, they had to have Trump’s physical position. Were they using GPS to track him? This is something new. I thought we couldn’t be shocked anymore, but it they did this, consider me shocked a little.

Finally, as we told you yesterday, it’s David Dagon, “Tech Researcher – 2,” who was given immunity last July. (Reportedly, an unidentified Fusion GPS employee will also have immunity as a witness.) Cleveland is intrigued, because Dagon, one of the Georgia Tech crew, worked on both the Alfa Bank hoax and the Russian cell phone hoax. This and other details suggest that Dagon “holds a wealth of knowledge” related to both hoaxes. He should know the roles various people played, and he’ll be able to relate what information he and his team told Sussmann about the weakness of their “evidence.” That might make it harder for Sussmann to profess ignorance in that regard.

No wonder the defense team wants to keep it all out. Latham and Watkins and its elite Democrat clients have a lot more at stake than just fighting this one charge of lying.

https://thefederalist.com/2022/04/18/3-blockbuster-revelations-from-the-latest-special-counsel-court-filings/

Mike Huckabee

Monday, a federal judge in Florida struck down the national mask mandate on airplanes and other mass transit, finding that while the CDC’s intentions might have been laudable, it overstepped its powers, failed to justify its decision, and did not follow proper rule-making procedures.

https://apnews.com/article/biden-health-business-travel-tampa-3408cc825582126fbda5fbedd3a49dd3

While the Biden White House urged people to keep wearing masks anyway (I get the impression Joe wears one in the shower), Uber, Amtrak, multiple airlines and airports immediately began rescinding their mask requirements and telling passengers that they could free their faces.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/covid-mask-mandate-uber-amtrak-airlines-requirements

And to quote Monty Python, “There was much rejoicing.”

https://www.toddstarnes.com/politics/liberation-day-passengers-cheer-flight-attendants-weep-for-joy/

Of course, not everyone is happy to once again breathe the safe, heavily-filtered air of freedom. Some people are screaming at the sky and demanding the ruling be appealed.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pissed-liberals-revolt-after-trump-appointed-judge-lifts-mask-mandate

They’ve become so deeply invested in COVID dogma that telling them they don’t have to wear a mask is like telling a devout Muslim to take off her burqa. The Japanese have even coined a term for this condition: “mask dependency.” They claim they’re on the side of science. But are they really?

https://redstate.com/jimthompson/2022/04/19/mask-mandate-is-history-what-will-the-flight-attendant-masknazis-do-n552273

I’ve never understood why these people demand that everybody else wear a mask. If they truly believe that masks block the virus, then isn’t the one they’re wearing protection enough? They claim they want to prevent the spread of the disease to others, but from the way they’re constantly screaming at, insulting and threatening those who disagree with them, and wishing mass death on them, I find it hard to believe they’re all that altruistic.

Here’s the bottom line on masks: as uncomfortable and inconvenient as they are, I wouldn’t mind wearing one if I thought it was actually doing any good. We followed the suggested protocols at the time and asked our TV studio audience to wear them, which I swear is the only reason you couldn’t hear them laughing uproariously at my jokes.

But we now have plenty of data showing that mask mandates have had terrible adverse effects on children while making virtually no difference in the spread of COVID. The cloth masks most people wear don’t block the transmission of an extremely microscopic airborne virus. Not to mention that most people, especially children, don’t follow the strict rules for handling masks, which ends up making them less sanitary than going maskless.

If you have any friends who are melting down at the thought of taking off their masks, you might want to share this article by John Tierney at City Journal.

https://www.city-journal.org/the-failed-covid-policy-of-mask-mandates

It contains a lot of data, including a chart comparing the COVID spread rates in states with and without mask mandates. They’re virtually identical. So were the cumulative death rates over the course of the pandemic, except that the death rate was slightly lower in states without mask mandates.

To cite specific states, the media praised Rhode Island in the summer of 2020 for reaching a 96% mask compliance rate. It quickly went on to experience one of the worst COVID surges in America. The media savaged Florida and Iowa as “reckless and delusional” and accused them of not caring if people die for refusing or ending mask mandates. Their COVID death rates turned out to be lower than the national average.

Tierney also cites a book by data analyst Ian Miller called “Unmasked: The Global Failure of COVID Mask Mandates,” which “documents how mask mandates were implemented without scientific justification, how they failed around the world, and how public officials and journalists have kept making fools of themselves by pretending otherwise.” Might be good to have a copy of that to loan to your friends. But be sure to sanitize it for their protection.

Mike Huckabee

Mike Huckabee

Mike Huckabee

Good morning! Blessings on you and your family, and from all the Huckabee staff! I hope you had a safe and joyous Easter. Sorry we have to get back to the news, but remember that the Good News of Easter lives on 365 days a year.

Today's newsletter includes:

• Durham has MORE evidence: Sussmann and CIA
• Russia-Ukraine War Update
• Two mass shootings reveal Democrats anti-life views
• And much more.

Sincerely,

Mike Huckabee

1. DAILY BIBLE VERSE

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:13

If you have a favorite Bible Verse you want to see in one of our newsletters, please email [email protected].

2. Durham has MORE evidence: Sussmann and CIA

Clinton attorney Michael Sussmann is scheduled to go to trial on May 16.

SUNDAY MORNING FUTURES host Jason Chaffetz brought this up with Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs of the House Judiciary Committee for a brief discussion of Durham’s case. “I’m not sure that the Clinton campaign folks or the Democrat Party wants to see this go trial, and air their dirty laundry even further,” Biggs said.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/durham-stripping-bare-incestuous-relationship-in-clinton-campaign-lawyer-case-chaffetz

That’s surely one reason why Sussmann’s attorneys, of the DNC-connected law firm Latham and Watkins, have been trying so hard to get evidence excluded from the trial as “immaterial” to the case. It makes their clients and friends look very, very bad.

Chaffetz ran out of time before they could discuss what the screen graphic said: “Durham: CIA concluded data from Clinton lawyer alleging Trump-Russia connection was “not technically possible.” So we’ll get to that today.

First, in case you missed our Sussmann update over the weekend, featuring the judge’s latest ruling on materiality (in favor of Durham), here’s a link to that:

https://www.mikehuckabee.com/latest-news?id=C53E24F8-12B8-40CD-8B56-00F5B14B56CF

The Epoch Times has an update on Durham’s latest filing. It’s a “premium” article, so here's the link but also a summary and comments below.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/former-clinton-campaign-lawyer-made-false-statements-to-second-government-agency-durham_

Durham had already included in his filings that Sussmann, on September 19, 2016, met with FBI general counsel James Baker and lied to him about why he was there. He was actually representing clients Hillary for America –- Durham has the billing records –- and tech executive Rodney Joffe but said he was not representing clients, instead coming forward on his own, out of his sense of duty. (Good grief; that outrageous whopper is getting harder and harder to stomach every day.) The FBI later determined his Alfa Bank story was not supported by the facts. But in a new filing on Friday, Durham says that several months later, on February 9, 2017 –- after Trump was President, I would note –- Sussmann brought another fake Trump-Russia story to the CIA and lied again.

Here's the document, a CIA memorandum from that meeting, that Durham wants admitted into evidence at trial.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21615492-cia-memorandum

From the memo, we learn that Sussmann had already “reached out” to the CIA general counsel, in mid-December, but had had no response though she’d said she’d be in touch “after some coordination with the FBI.” Not to be dissuaded –- he was a man on a mission –- he had reached out again.

“Mr. Sussmann advised that he was not representing a particular client and the information he was volunteering to us was not privileged,” the memo states. “His contacts wished to provide information to the USG [U.S. government] through Mr. Sussmann, preferring anonymity citing a potential threat from the Russian Intelligence Services.”

[Editorial aside: !!!!!!!]

“Mr. Sussmann said that he believed his contacts were acting in good faith and out of a sense of loyalty to the USG...He was up-front in disclosing that his law firm was active in supporting several democratic causes and office holders including both the DNC and then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, but that such work was unrelated to his reasons for contacting the CIA. He merely wanted to pass along information that he thought would be of interest to the USG and then let the CIA and FBI validate the information and take whatever actions they believed were necessary.”

Read on in the filing about how he presents the story itself, and it's hard not to just be angry. This was a bogus story he had facilitated, yet he’s presenting it to the CIA as a discovery by courageous people who are coming forward at “some personal risk” and “under threat by Russian Intelligence Services.” The implication is that this information is so sensitive, they’re risking their very lives. What they (including him) should be risking for what they did is a long time behind bars.

Sussmann apparently couldn't even keep his stories straight. He spoke with another CIA employee in January, who also wrote a memo: “Sussmann said that he represents a CLIENT who does not want to be known, but who had some interesting information about the presence and activity of a unique Russian-made phone around President Trump.” (Of course, that story was bogus as well.)

In a section of that memo about “the client,” it seems to be describing Rodney Joffe: “Sussmann would not provide client’s identity and was not sure if he would reveal himself...the client is an engineer with a number of patents, and is most likely a contractor [as] Sussmann claimed the client had very sensitive access to various projects.”

“Sussmann also said that the client is a Republican,” according to the memo. What an odd thing to say. Perhaps another lie? If Joffe is a Republican, he’s a Republican the way Liz Cheney is a Republican.

“...[Sussmann] claimed his client did not want to provide this to the FBI, as he knows that the FBI did not have resources to deal with these issues, or perhaps since Sussmann is openly a Democrat and openly told [redacted] that he does lots of work with DNC, did not trust the FBI.”

“Sussmann said that...if there is no interest...[his client] would most likely go to New York Times.”

Sussmann’s lawyers are trying to keep the further evidence of his lies out of court, saying their client’s statement to the CIA “cannot possibly be part of the charged offense (concerning a single, different statement), and it was not made contemporaneously with the charged crime.” As I like to remind my readers, I am not an attorney, but it seems that Sussmann has lied so much, he could just be charged with those other lies, too. Bring on all the evidence!

His lawyers also point out that what he told the CIA wasn’t to help Hillary become President, because “the election was long since over.” You bet it was over –- by then, Sussmann was trying to unseat a SITTING President.

If you care to read their filing, you’ll see how desperately they’re trying to keep this evidence of Sussmann’s additional lying out of the courtroom.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21615495-sussman-filing

The CIA later found that Sussmann’s story about the Trump-Russia connection was “not technically plausible” and...(wouldn't this be criminal?)...“user-created.” Of course, special counsel Robert Mueller never found “illegal or criminal coordination” with Russia, either.

Durham’s filing also reveals he’s seeking immunity for someone who worked at Fusion GPS, identity not given. Another witness, “Researcher – 2,” who is David Dagon of Georgia Tech, was granted immunity even before Sussmann was indicted. Durham said he’d immunized “Researcher – 2” because five others involved in the plot had invoked their Fifth Amendment rights.

Here's a helpful analysis from Nick Arama at RedState.com. Highly recommended...

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2022/04/16/latest-durham-filing-shows-the-net-is-tightening-people-are-flipping-n551196

Sussmann’s attorneys are seeking immunity for Joffe, but Durham’s filing reveals he’s a subject of the investigation and “played a critical leadership role in assembling and submitting the allegations at issue,” so, no immunity for him. The defense is also trying to keep the Steele “dossier” out, but Durham said that evidence is “highly probative” because it establishes Sussmann “represented and worked for the Clinton campaign with its broader opposition research efforts.”

"The fact that FBI headquarters received on the same date both sets of information involving the same political campaign (Clinton campaign), the same law firm [Perkins Coie], and the same investigative firm [Fusion GPS] makes Steele's involvement in these matters relevant." You bet it does.

3. Russia-Ukraine War Update

Here is today’s link to the Fox News continuous feed of Russia-Ukraine bulletins.

https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/ukraine-russia-updates-04-18-2022

Latest developments: The pointless violence drags on, with Russia firing several missiles at the city of Lviv. The missiles hit three warehouses and a car tire service center (strategic targets all), and killed seven people and injured 11 others. Ukraine’s military has liberated several towns near the city of Kharkiv. Russia surrounded Mariupol and gave Ukrainians there a deadline to surrender, they refused, and it’s since passed.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CBS’ “Face the Nation,” “The situation in Mariupol is both dire militarily and heartbreaking. The city doesn’t exist anymore. The remainder of the Ukrainian army and large group of civilians are basically encircled by the Russian forces.”

And Russia’s former foreign minister said he believes that despite his nuclear threats, Putin is “barking” with “no way to bite.” He believes Putin would use nuclear weapons only in very specific circumstances, such as if Russia faced an existential threat, like NATO troops coming to Moscow, or if he were facing an "overwhelming military defeat" in Donbas. But he said the problem in figuring out what Putin would do is that he’s not making rational decisions because he’s operating in a fictional universe, but it’s not clear just how much of the “universe of fiction” the Kremlin puts out that Putin actually believes.

https://www.foxnews.com/world/foreign-minister-putin-nuclear-weapons-existential-threat

4. Two mass shootings reveal Democrats anti-life views

By Mike Huckabee

Over the weekend, South Carolina was the site of two mass shootings, one in a mall and the other in a restaurant. A total of at least 18 people suffered gunshot wounds, although thank God, there were no reported fatalities.

https://nypost.com/2022/04/17/nine-injured-at-south-carolina-restaurant-shooting/

Incredibly, one of the suspected mall shooters was released by a judge on $25,000 bail and allowed to wear an ankle monitor so he could go to work! I can’t imagine any of his co-workers showing up today.

https://redstate.com/bobhoge/2022/04/18/judge-sets-25k-bail-for-south-carolina-mall-shooting-suspect-and-lets-him-go-back-to-work-n551746

This type of blasé attitude about violence and crime leads me to ask an uncomfortable question.

We know that there is no longer any place in the Democratic Party for someone who is pro-life. The radical abortion wing drives out anyone who dares to question the current push to allow unfettered abortions up to and even beyond birth (that used to be called “infanticide.”) Never mind that only 13% of Americans think abortion should be allowed in the third trimester. Blue state leaders seem to be competing to see who can make it easier to kill babies in the womb, or even recently out of it, with Colorado currently grabbing the lead in that grisly race.

https://www.westernjournal.com/co-gov-marks-christs-resurrection-death-giving-death-sentence-babies-across-state/

My question, however, is not whether any Party leaders are pro-life, but whether they’ve actually gone so far as to become the pro-death party? If you think that’s outrageous, ask yourself: how many people have died because Democrats came to power, and they don’t seem to care about anything other than how it might affect their polling?

On the international side, we have the soldiers who died in a terrorist attack during Biden’s botched Afghanistan pullout, and all our Afghan allies who were left behind at the mercy of the Taliban (and no, I don’t believe that would have happened if Trump were still in office.) Add in all the Ukrainians who have been killed in the devastating invasion that I don’t believe Putin would have launched if Trump were still in office (you’ll notice he waited until after Trump left and Biden signaled his weakness and fecklessness in Afghanistan.)

But those are hypotheticals. Let’s look at how many people have been killed or injured as a direct result of Democrat policies right here in the US. Like Biden’s open border that’s allowed in repeat criminals, drug gangs and huge amounts of deadly drugs like fentanyl. Not to mention terrorists.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/border-patrol-people-terrorist-database-southern-border-2021-cbp-data

Consider how many illegal aliens with violent criminal records have been let in and shielded from deportation. Look at the skyrocketing crime and murder rates that coincidentally happen to all be in blue cities with “progressive” DA’s and city leaders, who have defunded the police and refuse to keep criminals in jail.

They have no rational justification for these deliberately deadly policies, only fuzzy euphemisms to try to cover up the bloodstains. They release career criminals to prey on the public again and again and call it “bail reform,” which is like calling partial birth abortion “reproductive justice” (which they also do.)

Even some Democrats are starting to catch on to the deadly consequences of “progressive” policies. New York City Mayor Eric Adams noted that while everyone was talking about the subway shooter, they ignored over a dozen incidents of gun violence just between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

https://www.westernjournal.com/powerful-mayor-turns-blm-thought-black-lives-mattered/

Adams said, “Where are all those who stated black lives matter? Then go do an analysis of who was killed or shot last night. I was up all night speaking to my commanders in the Bronx and Brooklyn. The victims were black. Many of the shooters were black. Why are 16, 17, 18-year-olds out on our streets armed with guns at 12:00 or 1:00 a.m.? If black lives matter, then the thousands of people I saw on the street when [George] Floyd was murdered should be on the streets right now stating that the lives of these black children that are dying every night matter. We can’t be hypocrites.”

Oh but some people can be. When Adams called for fighting the violence by bringing back a plainclothes officer unit that his predecessor DeBlasio disbanded, BLM co-Founder Hawk Newsome raged that they would “take to the streets”: “There will be riots. There will be fire, and there will be bloodshed because we believe in defending our people.”

So he’s threatening riots, arson and bloodshed to protect black people from…not being shot? If that’s not a “pro-death” position, what is?

Kevin Downey Jr. at PJ Media made a related observation that the left’s tactic of dividing Americans by telling some groups that they’re helpless victims of other groups who hate and oppress them has become the driving force behind a number of horrific crimes of rage, from the subway shooting to the guy who ran over 62 people in a parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

https://pjmedia.com/columns/kevindowneyjr/2022/04/15/blinded-me-with-violence-how-the-left-fosters-hate-crime-then-plays-the-victim-n1590085

As Downey puts it, they’re creating an atmosphere that fosters hate crimes, then playing the victim when the people who listen to them commit one. That's using death to gain political advantage. And it's absolutely sickening.

5. Income Tax Deadline Day

By Mike Huckabee

Reminder: Today is Income Tax deadline day, bumped from April 15th because of a local DC holiday. I hope you got all your forms filled out in time and won’t be sweating over them today (or tonight.)

Just FYI: The American Action Forum estimates that this year, complying with all the rules and regulations involved in filing income taxes will cost businesses and individuals 6.5 billion hours and a record $210 billion. That's not the taxes, just the compliance costs!

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/washington-secrets/tax-preparation-costs-nation-6-5-billion-hours-210-billion

Once November passes, and (I hope) the voters send record numbers of Republicans to Congress, remember those numbers and quote them when you tell your new Congress members to scrap this insane, burdensome, economy-crippling, corruption-enabling tax system, and replace it with one that you can fill out on a postcard:

https://fairtax.org/

6. Absurd idea

Once again proving that George Orwell perfectly predicted today’s world, here’s another example of his observation that there are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them:

https://redstate.com/alexparker/2022/04/17/yale-psychiatrist-calls-verbal-assault-just-as-detrimental-as-physical-violence-n551754

In an article titled, “Should Will Smith’s Slap Be Condemned More Harshly Than Chris Rock’s Words?,” Yale psychologist Dr. Amanda Calhoun argues that words “can be just as detrimental as physical violence.” Claiming that words may lead to depression and even suicide, she writes, “Should a physical assault always be judged more harshly than a verbal assault, no matter the context? I don’t think so.”

This is part of a concerted effort by leftist elites to convince us that freedom of speech is dangerous, so we need “experts” to “moderate” what we say. We might say something that’s “dangerous” or worse, “wrong,” in that it challenges their opinion, which they’ve defined as objective truth. It’s funny that their arguments against free speech are actually the greatest arguments in favor of it.

As for whether words hurt as badly as physical violence, maybe we should ask Chris Rock which hurt worse: Will Smith yelling at him, or Will Smith slapping him across the face. I notice that nobody who pushes this nonsense ever says, “Wait, don’t call me an idiot! Punch me in the face instead. That would hurt less.”

7. Give up the New York Times

True to form, on Good Friday, the New York Times ran an editorial calling on people to “Give up God.” My suggestion would be to give up the New York Times. But I’ll also link you to an excellent response to this latest attack on God from the newspaper of broken record.

https://townhall.com/columnists/michaelbrown/2022/04/18/from-times-is-god-dead-in-1966-to-the-new-york-times-call-to-give-up-god-today-n2605986

Mike Huckabee

If you’re among the handful of people who were actually watching the Oscars before your friends called to say, “Turn it on, they’re slapping each other,” you heard the hosts mock what they call Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill (it actually doesn’t even mention the word “gay”) The three hosts all sang out, “Gay, gay, gay!” to show how you just can’t stop woke Hollywood movie stars from saying, “Gay.”

Unless you’re China, then you can stop them quite easily. In a staggering example of Hollywood hypocrisy, Variety reports that in the new Harry Potter offshoot movie, “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” two lines referring to a gay relationship between the characters were cut out to appease the Chinese censors.

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2022/04/13/hollywood-hypocrisy-we-say-gay-unless-china-doesnt-want-us-to-n549860

Warners released a statement reading, “As a studio, we’re committed to safeguarding the integrity of every film we release, and that extends to circumstances that necessitate making nuanced cuts in order to respond sensitively to a variety of in-market factors.”

Guy Benson of Townhall.com translated that showbiz baloney into plain English:

“Hollywood to Florida: ‘We say GAY!’

Hollywood to China: ‘We will certainly not say “gay” – thank you for your censorship notes, please give us money.’”

So they respect China's "culture" that denies gay people's existence, but not Florida's culture, where parents have the right to prevent their small children from being exposed to inappropriate sexual messages.

That’s Hollywood in 2022: they’ll boycott American states for protecting kids from porn or for not letting men into women’s bathrooms, but they’ll happily ignore Chinese genocide and censorship. Their respect for local customs and norms appears to depend entirely on the size of the profit margin.

Mike Huckabee

President Biden announced that he will extend the moratorium on paying student loans again--this time until August. That means if you have a student loan, you don’t have to make any payments until August. Payments have already been suspended for the past 2 years due to Covid, but this has to be one of the most brazen political payoffs ever attempted and it’s one that insults the intelligence of the American voters, even the ones who went out and borrowed $150,000 for an education that will land them a job that pays $40,000 a year.

Here's the head-scratcher: Biden and all his team tell us every day what a great job he’s done with the economy. We are told our economy is in great shape and has recovered swimmingly well. But it sure doesn’t feel that way to families buying gasoline or groceries, much less trying to buy a car or clothing. But if the economy is doing as great as Joe Biden says, then there is no need to extend the moratorium. Somebody is selling us a Whopper by either saying the economy is going great when it isn’t or by telling us that the economy is so bad we have to let people off the hook for the loans they took out.

But Democrats actually want to do more than suspend the payments—they want all student loans to be wiped out. That would cost you the taxpayer $1.7 TRILLION dollars, but heck, it might buy off some very gullible people who would vote for Democrats for giving them free money. I say that if you’re going to wipe out student loans, why stop there? Why not wipe out home loans, car loans, home improvement loans, and credit card debt. And for those of us who paid off our debts? Clearly we are the suckers who would now get to pay off the debts of the people who didn’t pay theirs.

This isn’t about “caring” or being “compassionate.” If the government wants to allow people to restructure the terms or interest rate, that’s just fine. But to arbitrarily erase a loan for people who aren’t paying what THEY agreed to is just plain nuts.

I feel for young people who took out huge loans for an overpriced education instead of carefully determining if the cost of that education was worth it. Maybe it would have been smarter to go to a community college. And will this apply only to college? That wouldn’t be fair for the people who paid to be trained as plumbers, electricians, welders, brick masons, or finish carpenters. Frankly we need a lot more skilled labor who can fix and build things than we need people who sit around Starbucks thinking deep thoughts and drinking 5 dollar coffee.

If you take out a loan—any kind of loan--it’s YOUR responsibility to pay it back. If you later encounter a catastrophic health issue or you serve in the military, then maybe there would be a way to help you out. But just to wipe out the debt of someone who as my mother used to say had a “Champagne appetite and a Coca-Cola pocketbook” and bought something they couldn’t afford to pay for whether it was a new truck, a big house, designer clothes, or an Ivy League education is hardly the way to teach responsibility.

And if the government decides to pay off the debts for those who failed to make payments, then will it send a check to us suckers who paid for our education as we went and worked our rear-ends off to do it?

If you honestly think erasing all the student loans in the country is a great idea, you probably are going to vote for Democrats anyway. But I’m sure you won’t mind if people who owe YOU money for something won’t be expected to actually pay you for it. Nah—if you run a business and your customers owe you, just wipe it out. Forgive their debts and obligations. And then come back and tell me how great it is to be a liberal Democrat!