Mike Huckabee

Here's an item of interest we just stumbled upon. Did you know that in France, citizens voted by mail from 1958 to 1975, but found it created conditions so conducive to fraud that they stopped it and went back to strict in-person voting? It's true.

This piece is a must-read. It describes the terrible problem the French had with mail-in voting and massive fraud. (In fact, the mail-in system was described "an indecent provocation" to election fraud.) Now they vote exactly the way we should in our country: the old-school way --- as we've been calling for --- in person, with hand-marked paper ballots (no "electronic voting systems"), a documented chain of custody, plenty of watchers (any registered voter can watch), and full transparency. Tabulators are required to count the votes and announce the winners that same night. The ballot box, which literally is transparent, never leaves the polling place.

If the French can get it right, why can't we?

Leftists in our country would scream, "Voter suppression!" But polls have shown that most people of all races want elections to be secure, and they're fine with safeguards such as voter I.D., so I'll bet they would be open to these other provisions to ensure their vote was counted.

Again, be sure and read this entire piece, including the "Official rationale for the 1975 bill." This is exactly the way we in America should be talking about election reform now. I mean, RIGHT NOW, before we have to suffer through one more mess like the last one. Since states run their own elections, this is something that state legislators need to start taking up, immediately.

And if Marc Elias shows up, kick him out of the room.

https://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/57152/why-isnt-mail-in-voting-allowed-in-france

Pat Reeder, Staff writer

By By "Huckabee" pop culture guru Pat Reeder (http://www.hollywoodhifi.com)

I’m sad to have to report the death of George Frayne IV, a.k.a. Commander Cody of Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, of cancer at 77.

https://variety.com/2021/music/news/commander-cody-george-frayne-dead-roots-country-rock-lost-planet-airmen-1235075409/

As a born- and lifelong Texan, I’ve always been a big fan. They were one of the seminal groups in the 1970s Texas “outlaw country” movement, a fixture at joints like Austin’s Armadillo World Headquarters. Their name came from the same 1940s Republic sci-fi serial that inspired George Lucas. They were best known for their one hit, a 1971 remake of “Hot Rod Lincoln,” first cut by its writer Charlie Ryan in 1955 and by Johnny Bond in 1960. It’s from “Lost in the Ozone,” one of several of their LPs that made it into Billboard’s top 100. After the original band broke up in 1976, Frayne continued performing for decades under the name Commander Cody.

In his obit, Frayne is quoted as saying they stopped playing country music after being booed off stage at the 1973 CMA convention, and that “The people from Texas found out that I wasn’t from Texas, and they thought that I was stealing their music and they didn’t get it.” I find that odd, since I loved that band and assumed all real Texans did, too. Although I do remember seeing them open once for War in Waco, and while I thought they were fantastic, the crowd just sat on their hands. They only wanted War. (FYI: that's one of only three concerts I’ve ever walked out of. I can’t take 20 minute versions of “Low Rider” or “Slippin’ Into Darkness.” War is hell, at least live.)

They had a uniquely loose yet technically proficient, hippie-meets-cowboy mixture of country, western swing, R&B, rockabilly and early jazz that was irresistibly fun. AllMusic.com compares how they helped blow away the overproduced countrypolitan Nashville sound to how British pub rock bands helped force overblown ‘70s rockers back to the basics.

I always thought they were at their best live, which is why their live albums are better than the studio albums. My favorite is one of the great Lone Star classics, “Live from Deep In The Heart of Texas,” cut at Armadillo World Headquarters and with a crowd of cartoon armadillos on the cover. It’s a party in a sleeve, with such jump-up-and-dance tracks as “Good Rockin’ Tonight,” “Git It,” “Little Sally Walker” and “Too Much Fun” (no such thing.)

RIP, Commander! I hope to see you again in the ozone someday!

Mike Huckabee

Thanks very much to reader Shelley H. of Arizona for pointing out another major reason for keeping fraud out of elections: namely, the potential for changing outcomes in down-ballot races.

We'd like to point out, however, that we HAVE paid quite a bit of attention to this issue, stressing that leftist organizations such as Justice Democrats, funded in large part by George Soros, focus like a laser beam on under-the-radar, down-ballot local races, particularly for local law enforcement, such as sheriff; city council; and the judicial bench. Failure to address this in your city is how you end up waking up one morning to a defunded police department and greatly curtailed law enforcement, homeless encampments on your front sidewalk, "sanctuaries" for thousands of illegal immigrants, or schools indoctrinating your kids on critical race theory, anti-capitalism and gender transition.

That said, here’s her excellent letter, which explains how voter fraud impacts those very important elections that hit you where you live...

Dear Gov. Huckabee:

You are ALL leaving out one really important aspect of this –- down balloting! Everyone is focused on the presidential election only, but this affects all federal, state and local elections.

Maricopa County has the largest population, as it is the Phoenix metro area. So if a voter moved out of Maricopa County and into a rural area, that area is more likely to be heavily Republican-leaning. If 2/3 of these problem votes were Democrats, did Democrats vote in Maricopa County in order to influence other elections? Did House members get "elected" by illegal votes? What about state senators and house reps? How about the Maricopa Country Recorder, Sheriff and other county positions? What about the school boards? What about the ballot initiatives?

Many of those are county or city specific. Think about the impact these irregular ballots had on all of those elections. It's far worse than people are looking at, especially those not in the state. But [state GOP chairwoman] Kelli Ward is aware of these issues and [that] is why she continues to push for voter integrity in the state.

There is so much that could be asked about what the county claims to have done with these ballots, but I have many more questions about how they handled them. It doesn't make sense with what I know, and as a poll worker in the past, this brings up even more questions. I am an Arizona voter!

From the Gov:

Thanks so much for writing, Shelley. It’s critical to be aware of the down-ballot races and how they can be affected by fraud in the ways you mentioned.

Speaking of Kelli Ward, there’s some unfortunate news today concerning her chairmanship of the Arizona GOP. Since the audit she had pushed so hard for did determine that Biden won the recount (even with a few more votes), some are calling on her to step down. Of course, we’re looking from the outside in, but this seems to us to make no sense at all. The audit has been extremely valuable to those not just looking for a political narrative, having turned up huge anomalies, some of which we have discussed here in the past couple of days. As you say, there are many questions that still need answers. And mail-in balloting has been shown to be far too unreliable and downright inaccurate for elections as nail-bitingly close as the one we had in Arizona in 2020.

The recount doesn’t really mean much, as it was just a matter of counting the same at-issue ballots over again. (It’s like what they say about computers or the House Budget Office: “garbage in, garbage out.”) The mainstream media, however, used Biden’s “win” as the big take-away, ignoring the serious questions and problems brought to light by the audit. It’s a sorry shame if Arizona Republicans choose, weirdly, to dance to CNN’s tune and blame Ward for an outcome they see as lacking. So very disappointing. We wish her luck with the powers that be in Arizona.

Former President Trump understands the significance of this audit. As reported in the WASHINGTON TIMES, “Mr. Trump, who has touted Mrs. Ward as a fighter for months, billed the audit results as a victory for himself, despite the report confirming his loss. ‘The audit has uncovered significant and undeniable evidence of fraud. I have heard it is far different from that being reported by the fake news media,’ he said.” He’s right (as usual); it certainly is.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/sep/25/maricopa-republicans-urge-state-gop-chairwoman-res/

Of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, Ward tweeted, “These men will go down in history as the fools who certified an uncertifiable election in Maricopa County, Arizona. The historic, first ever #FullForensicAudit proved unequivocally that we have no idea who got the most legal votes in 2020. #Decertify.”

Ward is correct in saying that there really is no way to verify the outcome in Arizona, given the razor-thin margin and the number of questionable ballots found by the audit. (Incidentally, we’re still wondering who edited the words to that effect out of the draft of the audit report, the version that Patrick Byrne posted on his website. I assume the decision to leave that part out was made by the same Board of Supervisors.) Sadly, it seems there are some Republicans in positions of leadership in Arizona who, for some reason, don’t want to tackle the problems that led to an unverifiable election in 2020.

As our reader so astutely pointed out, those same problems will likely affect not only future presidential elections but also down-ballot contests for everything from the U.S. House to police chief to...well, the very officials who oversee elections county-by-county.

Mike Huckabee

With so much panic building over COVID-19, variants and vaccines, it’s amazing to me how many people think they’re well-informed because they listen to the most hysterical and biased sources in the media and how they assume that anyone who isn’t panicking must be a “right-wing science denier.” But who’s really refusing to look at the actual science?

Rasmussen Reports recently did a survey that found that for all the incessant media coverage of COVID, many Americans are clueless about some of the most important aspects of the pandemic, and the most clueless of all are those who get their news from liberal media outlets.

https://www.westernjournal.com/poll-finds-viewers-conservative-media-accurately-estimate-covid-19-death-rate/

For instance, the Johns Hopkins website says that the death rate for those diagnosed with COVID in the US is 1.6% (note: since many people get it, are asymptomatic and go undiagnosed, the actual death rate is likely much lower, but that’s the rate for those who are diagnosed.) 40% of Newsmax viewers and 34% of Fox News viewers estimated that correctly, compared to only 22% of CNN viewers and 24% of MSNBC viewers. Also, 38% of those who don’t watch cable news at all got it right.

Among the rest, 20% thought the death rate was 2-5%, 17% thought the death rate was 5-10%, and 19% thought your odds of dying were over 10%. Likewise, 28% of Democrats and only 14% of Republicans erroneously thought the death rate was over 10%.

Overall, 37% of Americans believe public officials are lying about the safety of vaccines, and that’s heavily skewed by conservative media viewers. However, I have a feeling that, pandemic or not, viewers of liberal media would be less likely to believe that the government lies to us. That’s sort of a given in their target demographic.

Mike Huckabee

On Monday, Dan Bongino provided an overview of the numbers that came out of the Maricopa County election audit and presented some of his “major concerns.” Keep in mind that in the entire state of Arizona, the so-called margin of victory between Biden and Trump was just over 10,000 votes. It’s impossible to overstate how important accuracy was in this unbelievably close election, especially in a huge metropolitan area such as Maricopa County.

Bongino introduced his discussion by explaining the difference between RELIABILITY and VALIDITY. If a scale is calibrated to measure 10 pounds over what the real weight is, that is a reliable measure, even if it’s wrong. You know it’s always going to be 10 pounds heavier than what the scale says. “Something can be reliable but reliably wrong,” he said. So the result it's giving you is not VALID. It’s inaccurate, and you’d have to take that into account.

Likewise, even if you know that elections are reliably off by one or two percentage points because of fraud, that doesn’t mean the results are valid. In a case where the “winner” is shown to be ahead by less than the reliable margin of error, there is NO valid measure of the outcome. I would add that in an election as close as Arizona’s, that would seem to be the case.

Let’s look at a few of these numbers. At first glance, they are staggering. Just in Maricopa County, roughly 23,300 mail-in ballots came from people who were not residing at the address from which they voted.

Also, there were 17,300 duplicate ballots, as well as 2,300 voters who cast a vote in Maricopa County but had moved out of that county.

But voting officials say they can explain at least some of this. For example, of the 23,000 mail-in voters who didn’t reside at the address the ballots had been mailed from, it appears that about 15,000 had simply moved within the county and put the old address on the envelope. So those 15,000 weren’t necessarily from people who voted twice, and they do count. Even so, and very importantly, that still leaves 8,000 ballots.

Officials also say that about 1,700 of those 23,000 had moved out of Maricopa County entirely and were living elsewhere in Arizona, so they were still entitled to vote for President. They weren’t necessarily committing fraud (unless they voted again in their new county; we don’t know).

Officials also determined, he said, that about 33 percent of those mail-in ballots with different addresses were from Republican voters. The rest, presumably, came from Democrats. (I could make a joke here about Democrats being twice as likely not to even know their own addresses, but I will refrain.)

There were also 3,432 “excess” votes. That means they were part of the count but didn’t show up as actual votes. County election officials have offered an explanation: that those votes might have been cast might by victims of domestic abuse who were under protective orders and whose records were not publicly available for the audit. That does seem like a great many people, county-wide, to be under protective orders; I’m sure that figure will be looked at more closely in coming days. Could officials not make available the redacted records, just to show there really were that many?

Of the more than 17,000 duplicate ballots, officials say that about 9,000 were “cured.” In other words, about 9,000 people submitted one ballot but were called back because of some problem with it. Then they submitted a new, corrected ballot, and presumably, that was the only one counted. I don’t know how auditors check that; maybe there’s a way. But even if those are explained, that still leaves about 8,000 cases of duplicate balloting that are NOT explained. Combine that with the roughly 8,000 ballots that had unexplained incorrect addresses and you’ve got 16,000 potential tabulation errors in Maricopa County alone. Again, the margin for the ENTIRE STATE was just over 10,000.

“Arizona’s got some explaining to do,” Bongino said, wondering what it is about facts and data that seem to bother people so much when you bring them up. “If there was fraud, wouldn’t you want to know that?” he asked.

Well, I'd say that if you’re a Democrat --- or an anti-Trump Republican --- and the discovery of the fraud might mean the Democrat didn’t really win, the answer to that question is a hearty NO. You would not want to find that out. It’s quite simple, really.

And in battleground states such as Arizona, state officials are fighting tooth-and-nail to avoid election audits. What does this tell us? Even if the fraud isn’t to the level that would prove Trump actually won, Bongino said, “the Democrats still don’t want you to see the extent to which our elections are a mess without really good, strong voter I.D. where it’s easy to vote and hard to cheat.”

Of course, this audit didn’t even get into the accuracy of the voting machines. Not that the auditors hadn't hoped to, but neither government officials nor Dominion Voting Systems cooperated. Apparently there’s one master administrative password that Dominion won’t relinquish. They’ve tried to have it both ways by withholding supposedly exculpatory evidence AND suing their critics.

So far, they’ve sued or threatened to sue a host of entities, including NEWSMAX, OAN, OAN CEO Robert Herring and his son, OAN president Charles Herring, FOX NEWS, Lou Dobbs, Judge Jeanine Pirro, Rudy Giuliani, Patrick Byrne (who was working with the Arizona audit), Mike Lindell and others. They say they’re considering suing Donald Trump. They’ve sent out over 150 cease-and-desist letters. Smartmatic, another electronic voting systems company, is suing Lou Dobbs, Judge Pirro and Maria Bartiromo.

Dominion made a splash suing Sidney Powell, hoping that would silence her, and the litigation did dramatically lessen her media presence. But now Powell is countersuing Dominion, saying that company has adopted litigation as a public relations strategy. As part of its “lawfare” campaign, she says, Dominion has “filed billion-dollar-plus lawsuits against separate defendants at critical and strategically planned times.” She claims that this behavior is an abuse of process and demands $10 million in damages, plus punitive damages. She also warns that “continued scrutiny of the vulnerabilities of the Dominion voting systems would likely open its executives to criminal and civil liability.” Despite executives’ sworn statements and assurances, she says, “the Dominion patents and manuals expressly provide for remote access to real-time election results, to adjudicate or flip votes, to delete audit logs and votes and other vulnerabilities.”

Powell hits them with no less than 25 different affirmative defenses. Details here.

https://presscalifornia.com/2021/09/27/kitty-sidney-powell-countersues-dominion-for-bad-pr-and-fraud/

Please note that unlike the linked-to opinion piece detailing Powell’s defense, we are not calling the Dominion executives “illegal fraudsters.” Certainly not. But there is still no valid reason we have seen to discount the possibility that they are. Perhaps if they gave auditors the password and allowed a transparent analysis of their system, that would give us a reason. In the meantime, they do seem to be using offensive tactics as their defense, which strongly suggests that they HAVE no real defense besides "lawfare" and withholding evidence that auditors need.

Mike Huckabee

There were big news stories this week. The total collapse of our southern border and the incompetent management of the crisis by the Biden administration is just one of them. It’s a mess by Biden’s own making. He can’t blame this on Trump. When Trump left office, the border was under control, our “stay in Mexico policy” was working, the wall was being built, and the Border Patrol was being backed up and given the resources to determine if those wishing to cross over were criminals, drug dealers, human traffickers or if they met the criteria to come legally. Instead of keeping in place policies that were working, Biden reversed everything and the result is absolute chaos and an estimated 1.5 million people being illegally released into our communities. To be fair, many will end up being hard-working, good-living and God-fearing residents and some will likely work hard to be legal citizens. And while Joe Biden continues to pretend that he cares about protecting us from Covid, he reveals his dishonesty about that by insisting that YOU have the vaccine, but allows hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to cross the border and settle into your hometown without being forced to get a shot, get a Covid test or wear a mask. Your kids have to wear masks in school, but I guess if you just told the school your kids were illegal immigrants, they wouldn’t have to. Some of the young girls being brought across the border will be sold into sex slavery and treated like property and yet others will bring with them illicit drugs that will find their way into your town and may kill someone you know and love. And Joe Biden owns this. He supposedly put Kamala Harris in charge, but she’s been harder to find than Brian Laundrie, the young man wanted in connection with the tragic disappearance and subsequent confirmation of the murder of Gabbi Petito. Which brings us to another story of the week—the gut-wrenching story of that young lady, whose case captured the imagination of the American people. Maybe she reminded all of us with daughters and granddaughters that the young lady could have been our family member and it was hard to imagine the pain and anxiety of her family.

President Biden also made a mind-numbing speech at the UN, where he tried to say the greatest threat to our world was climate change. He never mentioned the real threat to our world, the Communist Chinese Party or the virus they unleashed upon us. He didn’t mention Afghanistan and our leaving behind $85 billion worth of military hardware to terrorists who are already viciously slaughtering people left behind.

But the biggest story of all was one the press pretty much ignored. It’s the indictment of Democrat operative and attorney Michael Sussman, who is charged with working for the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democrat National Committee back in 2016 and lying to the FBI that then candidate Donald Trump was colluding with the Russians. That outright lie was used by the FBI to smear Donald Trump as both a candidate and as President. It destroyed the lives and reputations of several people connected to him, and became the basis for a politically motivated impeachment process that was based on the outright lies of Sussman. But there were numerous others including some of the highest officials at the FBI, Dept of Justice and the US Congress involved in the scheme. I say this is the biggest story because it reveals a level of corruption that is far worse than the entirety of Watergate and exposes the wickedness of the deep state that protects bad actors in government but will callously crush you or other citizens with the full force of the federal government if you become a political threat to their power. While there a lot of important stories going on, the one deserving the most coverage is the one that hasn’t had much attention and it’s whether our political process was hi-jacked by people sitting in the highest perches of our taxpayer funded government. While supposedly working to protect our Constitution and country, they instead lied to us, defrauded us, and did far more to overthrow the government than a bunch of overheated chuckleheads did on January 6 when they vandalized the Capitol. But don’t expect the press to tell you that either. But remember I just did.

There’s something odd about the Maricopa County, Arizona, Final Audit Report. We’re making no accusations at this point but would like some answers.

It has been reported that part of the Executive Summary has undergone some editing. A draft that was released by Patrick Byrne before the final presentation on Friday contained this passage:

“In the 2020 presidential election, the margin of victory was only 10,457 votes, a small fraction of the 57,734 ballots with known issues. Again, this is almost 6 times the margin of victory in the presidential race and is multiples of the margin of victory in other races. Based on these factual findings, the election should not be certified, and the reported results are not reliable.”

That last statement about certification was apparently edited out of the final report. If that’s the case, we would just like to know who was responsible for this change and why they did it, given the accuracy of the statements that preceded it. Do the reported results sound reliable to you? Really?

Again, no accusations, just a call for answers. It would also be nice to know what else might have been altered. THEN we might have some accusations…

Arizona Audit Final Report Was Watered Down: Reports from Cyber Ninjas Were Edited, Most Damning Statements Removed - What Else Was Removed?

THE EPOCH TIMES has an updated report on what was presented Friday during the Arizona Senate hearing. It has details regarding the anomalies that were found. Highly recommended reading...

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_breakingnews/arizona-senate-president-releases-audit-results_4015286.html?utm_source=newsnoe&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=breaking-2021-09-26-3&mktids=1303fcab08678bc0f60020ce8ecaafdb&est=uTMlpTQj7EU3jFRqIkZENMSz6mJO0h4J9W3q4b4zf3wMvD2jAEX4ZFkvrulMAQiXORf72w%3D%3D

Senate President Karen Fann sent a letter Friday to Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, calling for further investigation and outlining her concerns about the following:

--- signature verification for mail-in ballots

--- voter roll accuracy

--- security of election systems

--- record-keeping of evidence after elections

Brnovich’s office issued a statement that said they had no comment on specific allegations at this time and that they would “thoroughly review the Senate’s information and evidence.” We’ll see.

The recount that was done as one part of the audit found little difference in the vote tallies, but that was just recounting the same ballots over again. Nevertheless, mainstream media reports picked up on that as if it were the only finding, because that’s the story they wanted to tell. Sen. Fann said evidence was found of numerous problems that affected tens of thousands of ballots, including laws being broken and chain of custody not being maintained.

Arizona Democrats responded by (what else?) attacking Cyber Ninjas, one of the teams working on the audit. Democrats obviously have no interest in identifying problems and reforming the system, no matter how much of a mess it is shown to be, as long as that system benefits them.

Mike Huckabee

Here’s more commentary on President Biden’s speech this week to the UN, pointing out how removed from reality it was, and how antithetical to the interests of the United States.

https://www.westernjournal.com/watch-83-second-video-absolutely-devastating-joe-bidens-presidency/

I’m linking to this because it makes the point that Biden’s speech was built around his belief in solving all problems through “international diplomacy.” Indeed, he took it even further, declaring, “We’re opening a new era of relentless diplomacy.” Can you imagine anything that would irritate other nations more than a relentless diplomat?

Even since I started this political commentary racket, I’ve looked for inspiration to a great American, Will Rogers. His commentaries were read by both the powerful and regular working people, because he had a way of using humor, common sense and plain talk to cut through all the baloney and tell the truth. Recently, TCM aired “The Story of Will Rogers,” and I was again amazed at how many things he said in the early 20th century seem to apply just as well in the 21st. For instance: “Diplomats have this thing called ‘diplomatic language.’ It means they have a hundred ways to say nothing, but no way to say something.”

One reason the leftists hated Trump so much was that they accused him of being undiplomatic. But after seeing the results of a century of diplomacy, I think I prefer blunt truth. Judging from this Administration, I can only assume “relentless diplomacy” means having a thousand ways to say nothing instead of a hundred ways.

Mike Huckabee

We recently reported on the fact that Jake Sullivan, one of the players in the anti-Trump “Russia Hoax” being investigated by John Durham, is now a member of the current administration, working as Biden’s national security adviser. In a new piece for REAL CLEAR INVESTIGATIONS, investigative reporter Paul Sperry looks deeper into Sullivan’s role in the hoax. Sperry’s sources tell him that this has grown into a full-blown conspiracy case.

Consider Sperry’s report your weekend reading assignment, one that focuses on Sullivan’s involvement in a “confidential project” within Hillary’s campaign to link Trump to the Kremlin “through dubious email-server records” provided to intel agencies. These so-called records must relate to those phony communication “pings” between Trump Tower and Alfa Bank.

Sullivan isn’t identified by name in Durham’s 27-page indictment of Sullivan, but his campaign position is provided, so we know it’s him.

There’s also more detail on what we reported concerning the use of university researchers to collect data for the Clinton campaign. They were working from a five-page document dubbed the “Trump Associates List” to compile a “digital dossier” on several Trump officials, including Gen. Mike Flynn, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos and Carter Page. According to Sperry, “This effort exploited highly sensitive, nonpublic Internet data related to their personal email communications and web-browsing...” Are you getting sick yet?

Look, I know politics gets dirty. I’ve always said that no one should run for office who can’t stand the sight of his own blood. But this crosses the line into outright surveillance. Still, it's hard to say if this is a new low for Hillary, because she operates down there all the time and always has. The Clinton machine soils everything it touches. And even if Hillary slips away from the law, we will all know what she did, and what she is.

According to Sperry’s sources, Sullivan is in legal trouble over this because he lied about it to investigators. Apparently, Durham has emails between Sullivan and Perkins Coie attorney Marc Elias about the Alfa Bank scheme. Sullivan denied in congressional testimony that he knew anything about Fusion GPS and their involvement in the Alfa Bank opposition research. He said he didn’t know what the nature of their work was or who was funding it.

Sperry’s report is quite detailed. You’ll see how the Alfa Bank story was exploited long after the FBI had determined there was nothing to it. Sullivan and another anti-Trump hoaxer named Daniel Jones formed a nonprofit group called --- get ready --- the Democracy Integrity Project. I am not kidding. It raised $7 million or so, mostly from Silicon Valley Tech executives, and used it to hire computer researchers, as well as more "oppo" researchers and Christopher Steele (again) to try to “prove” the rumors in the Steele “dossier.” Then they would feed information to the media, leading Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and the FBI.

I think we’ll be hearing a lot more about Daniel Jones in the near future. For now, just read Sperry’s piece when you have some time, and see how disgusting politics can be when it’s in the service of Hillary Clinton.

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2021/09/23/biden_security_adviser_sullivan_tied_to_16_clinton_plan_to_co-opt_cia_and_fbi_to_tar_trump_795498.html

Mike Huckabee

Blessings on you and your family, and from all the Huckabee staff! 

Today's newsletter includes:

• Bible Verse of the Day - Philippians 4:7
• Russia hoaxers said one thing under oath, another under TV lights
• Sources name names in Durham's conspiracy case
• He's running
• God help us
• New podcast episode
• Reader testimonials
• Hymnal

Sincerely,

Mike Huckabee

DAILY BIBLE VERSE

7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:7

Russia hoaxers said one thing under oath, another under TV lights

By Mike Huckabee

Yesterday’s installment on the significance of Special Counsel John Durham’s 27-page indictment of Hillary attorney Michael Sussmann included insights from Kash Patel, lead investigator for Rep. Devin Nunes’ investigation into the “Russia Hoax.” As it happens, Thursday’s edition of the NEW YORK POST had a story relating to those very House Intelligence Committee transcripts Patel was assembling. It shows how different the hoaxers’ sworn testimony was from what they were saying publicly.

https://nypost.com/2020/05/11/obamas-top-brass-contradict-statements-about-collusion-under-oath/

For example, let’s take James Clapper, former Director of National Intelligence. (The DNI’s job is to coordinate the huge and sticky web of government intel agencies.) We already knew that Clapper’s vow to tell the truth doesn’t mean much, as he has told some enormous whoppers, notably that the National Security Agency didn’t intercept Americans’ phone messages “wittingly.”

But as Emily Jacobs points out in her report for the NYP, Clapper stepped carefully during his testimony in July 2017 before the House Intel Committee, informing the committee that he “never saw any direct empirical evidence that the Trump campaign or someone in it was plotting [or] conspiring with the Russians to meddle with the election.”

What the hey?? As DNI, Clapper would have been privy to everything that was being gathered about Trump “colluding” with Russia. And he was saying hadn’t seen any direct evidence at all? Amazingly, yes, though he went on to try to make it sound as if there were SOME reason to suspect it.

“That’s not to say that there weren’t concerns about the evidence we were seeing...anecdotal evidence...[redacted],” he said. “But I do not recall any instance when I had direct evidence of the content of these meetings. It’s just the frequency and prevalence of them was of concern.”

Contrast this careful, noncommittal statement with what he had said a couple of months before to Chuck Todd on NBC’s MEET THE PRESS. On NBC, when he wasn’t under oath, he sensationalized quite a bit, using the cloak of “classification” to keep from having to be at all specific about any conversations but saying his “dashboard light was clearly on.”

A month after that, speaking with reporters on a trip to Australia, Clapper said the Russia investigation had far surpassed Watergate. “I think if you compare the two that Watergate pales, really, in my view, compared to what we’re confronting now,” he told them.

In light of what is said today in Durham’s indictment, we find Clapper’s comparison of Trump/Russia “collusion” to Watergate quite hilarious. If anything is reminiscent of Watergate, it’s the coordinated antics of these deep-state clowns working overtime to frame then-candidate Trump with fake “Russia” stories in fictional “dossiers” and surveillance warrants.

As Jacobs reports, Clapper was beating this dead horse as recently as February 2019, saying on CNN that “it was a possibility” that President Trump was a “Russian asset,” “whether witting or unwitting.”

Clapper’s not the only one who tread lightly in sworn testimony while stomping like Riverdance for the TV news cameras. Former deputy director of the CIA Andrew McCabe told Nunes’ committee that investigators had not been able to verify the claims in the Steele dossier. When asked to confirm that he didn’t know if the dossier was true, Steele testified, “That’s correct.”

But he spoke differently in his role as CNN contributor (!) and in other TV appearances. In February 2019, in an interview on 60 MINUTES, McCabe dramatically described Trump as “the man who had just run for the presidency, and won the election for the presidency, and who might have done so with the aid of the government of Russia, our most formidable adversary on the world stage.” As he had already told the Intel Committee in December 2017 that he had no verification of any claims, he had to know that what he was saying to the TV audience was a huge fragrant pile of bull droppings, yet he told the TV audience it “troubled” him “greatly.”

The same kind of discrepancy is evident in the word-craft of Ben Rhodes, officially Obama’s deputy national security adviser but in practice his personal narrative writer. When asked under oath by the Intel Committee if he had any evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, he said no. But in 2019, after then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller testified before Congress (remember that train wreck?), Rhodes tweeted, “Russia attacked our democracy. Trump campaign sought its help, had many contacts with Russians, lied about it and obstructed the investigation into it. Several Trump associates were convicted of crimes. Trump would’ve been indicted if he wasn’t the President. Not complicated.”

If anything isn’t complicated, it’s that Rhodes is good at using what little he has to work with to craft a story that really is based on nothing. No Trump associates were convicted of crimes that had anything to do with Russian collusion. “Contacts with Russians” is meaningless. Rhodes had seen no evidence of any of this, as he himself had testified under oath.

(By the way, if I hear the phrase “our democracy” one more time from some sanctimonious leftist, please forgive me in advance for the way I might respond. Leftists are perfectly willing to upend “our democracy” with strategies designed to fracture the election system, facilitate fraud and shut down transparency. They quite obviously think of it as THEIR democracy –- to be manipulated at will to keep THEM in control –- and they consistently show themselves to be unclear on the concept of a democratic republic. I digress.)

Jacobs also mentions former U.N. ambassador Samantha Power. When Power was asked under oath by the Intel Committee if she’d seen evidence of Russian interference, she said, “I am not in possession of anything –- I am not in possession and didn’t read or absorb information that came from out of the intelligence community.” But that didn’t stop her from tweeting in November of last year: “Every day Donald Trump finds new ways to compensate Vladimir Putin for his election interference. And every day, Putin gains additional incentive to interfere again on Trump’s behalf in 2020.”

She failed to provide examples, but that’s because this was totally made up, and it’s a lot easier and safer to generalize than offer specifics. (One could easily make the case that Trump was HARD on Russia.) Again, Power had testified that she didn’t read or even “absorb” information about this.

Finally, there’s Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice, whom we already knew can lie with ease, as she did repeatedly to cover for the State Department after the Benghazi attack. In 2017, Rice told House investigators that she’d seen no evidence Trump colluded with Russia to win in 2016. But in July 2018 on ABC’s THIS WEEK, she said it was “legitimate” to question whether Trump had been compromised by Russia because his decisions were in the service of Vladimir Putin. Good grief.

So you see how Trump’s adversaries could take essentially NOTHING –- no evidence whatsoever, as they testified under oath –- and whip it into a tale as tall as Trump Tower. But it was just full of froth. If only Durham could indict them all for lying on TV.

LEAVE ME A COMMENT, I READ THEM!!!

Sources name names in Durham's conspiracy case

By Mike Huckabee

We recently reported on the fact that Jake Sullivan, one of the players in the anti-Trump “Russia Hoax” being investigated by John Durham, is now a member of the current administration, working as Biden’s national security adviser. In a new piece for REAL CLEAR INVESTIGATIONS, investigative reporter Paul Sperry looks deeper into Sullivan’s role in the hoax. Sperry’s sources tell him that this has grown into a full-blown conspiracy case.

Consider Sperry’s report your weekend reading assignment, one that focuses on Sullivan’s involvement in a “confidential project” within Hillary’s campaign to link Trump to the Kremlin “through dubious email-server records” provided to intel agencies. These so-called records must relate to those phony communication “pings” between Trump Tower and Alfa Bank.

Sullivan isn’t identified by name in Durham’s 27-page indictment of Sullivan, but his campaign position is provided, so we know it’s him.

There’s also more detail on what we reported concerning the use of university researchers to collect data for the Clinton campaign. They were working from a five-page document dubbed the “Trump Associates List” to compile a “digital dossier” on several Trump officials, including Gen. Mike Flynn, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos and Carter Page. According to Sperry, “This effort exploited highly sensitive, nonpublic Internet data related to their personal email communications and web-browsing...” Are you getting sick yet?

Look, I know politics gets dirty. I’ve always said that no one should run for office who can’t stand the sight of his own blood. But this crosses the line into outright surveillance. Still, it's hard to say if this is a new low for Hillary, because she operates down there all the time and always has. The Clinton machine soils everything it touches. And even if Hillary slips away from the law, we will all know what she did, and what she is.

According to Sperry’s sources, Sullivan is in legal trouble over this because he lied about it to investigators. Apparently, Durham has emails between Sullivan and Perkins Coie attorney Marc Elias about the Alfa Bank scheme. Sullivan denied in congressional testimony that he knew anything about Fusion GPS and their involvement in the Alfa Bank opposition research. He said he didn’t know what the nature of their work was or who was funding it.

Sperry’s report is quite detailed. You’ll see how the Alfa Bank story was exploited long after the FBI had determined there was nothing to it. Sullivan and another anti-Trump hoaxer named Daniel Jones formed a nonprofit group called --- get ready --- the Democracy Integrity Project. I am not kidding. It raised $7 million or so, mostly from Silicon Valley Tech executives, and used it to hire computer researchers, as well as more "oppo" researchers and Christopher Steele (again) to try to “prove” the rumors in the Steele “dossier.” Then they would feed information to the media, leading Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and the FBI.

I think we’ll be hearing a lot more about Daniel Jones in the near future. For now, just read Sperry’s piece when you have some time, and see how disgusting politics can be when it’s in the service of Hillary Clinton.

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2021/09/23/biden_security_adviser_sullivan_tied_to_16_clinton_plan_to_co-opt_cia_and_fbi_to_tar_trump_795498.html

Related reading

Over the past week, morning newsletter subscribers have been treated to a detailed look at the Durham investigation. 

9/23: Durham's detailed indictment tells us much more

9/22: Why is Durham taking so long? HERE'S THE ANSWER

9/21: Durham's probe suggests biggest political hoax in history

9/17: Grand Jury indicts Michael Sussman for providing false information to the FBI

9/16: Durham seeks indictment of Perkins Coie lawyer

He's running

By Mike Huckabee

At 4 a.m. on Friday morning, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley tweeted the news that he has decided to run for reelection. Democrats were hoping that the 88-year-old Grassley would retire and create an open seat, but his tweet pointed out that he’s in great shape because he’s up at 4 a.m. and literally running six days a week, so he’s running for reelection. He said, “This election is about stopping socialism and saving freedom.” I couldn’t agree more.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/sen-chuck-grassley-iowa-republican-to-seek-8th-term

"Voting With Their Feet"

By Mike Huckabee

God help us

By Mike Huckabee

People ask me almost daily if I think America will survive the divisive, leftist-driven assault on traditional American virtues of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and free enterprise that once made our nation the envy of the world. I still have hope, but must admit that I’m believing more and more that the only hope is an intervention of God Himself in the form of a deep to the bone spiritual awakening. Just this week, we’ve seen multiple signs of a nation that has gone astray from its ideals and principles.

Reports that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley colluded with the Communist Chinese Military in the closing days of the Trump Presidency to assure them he would give them a head’s up should President Trump prepare to start a war and that he instructed his subordinates to ignore orders from the President unless they had been cleared by him are shocking, if true. I say “if true” because they come from a new book from Bob Woodward, who is known to fudge the truth and sometimes just flat-out make it up in order to push his book sales. But Milley has already proven to be an incompetent politically driven General by his failed leadership in the Afghanistan withdrawal and his bizarre testimony to Congress that the biggest threat to America is white rage, whatever that is even supposed to mean. Does he honestly believe that a minuscule number of guys waving Confederate battle flags and armed with deer rifles have a shot at defeating Milley’s military that has F-35’s, F-22’s, tanks, aircraft carriers, Blackhawk helicopters, fully-automatic weapons and even nuclear weapons? If Milley believes his forces are that weak, he really should resign. But if he went around the elected President and the civilian Commander in Chief to place himself above his chain of command, he shouldn’t be allowed to simply resign. He should be court-martialed for treason.

We also witnessed the heart-breaking and gut-wrenching testimony of female US Olympic gymnasts before the Senate who graphically testified as to the humiliating sexual assault by pedophile team doctor, Larry Nassar, who violated the girls trust as well as their bodies for years. We learned that their desperate attempts to get the US Olympic officials to intervene fell to deaf ears, but that even worse, the FBI was fully informed of the criminal acts of Nassar toward these minors and not only covered up the misdeeds, but lied to the girls and did absolutely nothing to stop the sadistic and deviant sexual behavior of the team doctor. As of now, one person at the FBI got fired, but no one has been yet to be charged with having lied about the case or failing to report the assaults to the local authorities. Basically, just as it was with FBI agents lying about President Trump colluding with Russia and using the power of the government to try and bring him down even after he was elected by the people to be President, the FBI and Dept of Justice seemed more concerned about protecting themselves than these young women. It’s beyond disgusting knowing that if you or I break the law, we might have a swarm of FBI agents all over our home at 5 in the morning, breaking in our door and pointing automatic weapons at us and frog-marching us to jail, but if the agents break the law, their higher-ups cover for them and at most let them retire with a pension and become analysts on CNN.

And this week, Nancy Pelosi ordered that we put up another fence around the US Capitol. You know—the same Nancy Pelosi who lives behind a wall but who says walls on the Southern border don’t work—that Nancy Pelosi put up a wall around the nation’s Capitol. Makes me wonder if it’s to keep bad people out like us out or to keep even WORSE people like her IN so they can’t hurt the country any more than they already have! Will our country survive? Only if God helps us…so I say, “God help us!”

LEAVE ME A COMMENT HERE, I READ THEM>>>

New podcast episode

This week on The People’s Podcast, Governor Huckabee sits down with Nancy Grace, host of Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on Fox Nation, to discuss the latest in the disappearance of Gabby Petito.

LISTEN AND SUBSCRIBE HERE>>>

Reader testimonials

From Ron: Just wanted to say thank you so much for what you are doing. I love watching your video -- you sure have a good sense of humor. I get your emails everyday and look forward to reading them; puts a smile on my face for the day. Also love the scriptures; sure wish a lot of more people would read the Bible. Anyway, Mike, thank you and God bless you.

From Margaret: THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR DILIGENCE IN KEEPING US INFORMED ABOUT ALL THE STUFF GOING ON IN D.C. !!! <3 YOUR SYNOPSIS & THOROUGH DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION PROVIDES US WITH CLEAR POINTS OF EACH TOPIC... GOD BLESS YOU FOR YOUR PERSISTENCE IN GETTING THE TRUTH !!! <3 LOVE YOUR SHOW ON THE WEEKENDS & ALL THE INTERVIEWS, COMEDY & MUSIC !!! <3

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Hymnal

A reader suggested we highlight favorite hymns.  Today's edition:

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow

By Thomas Ken

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;

Praise Him, all creatures here below;

Praise Him above, ye heav’nly host;

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!

Praise God the Father who’s the source;

Praise God the Son who is the course;

Praise God the Spirit who’s the flow;

Praise God, our portion here below!

Mike Huckabee

Someone who might have been in the best position to know how the Russia Hoax was created --- aside from those who actually faked it themselves --- was Kash Patel, chief investigator for California Rep. Devin Nunes, then-chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Patel, a former DOJ national security prosecutor, headed Nunes’ small group they informally dubbed “Objective Medusa” to uncover the plot against Trump. It was Objective Medusa that discovered in October 2017 that the Steele “dossier” had been funded by the Clinton campaign.

As Patel explained to Dana Perino on FOX NEWS, he was also the staffer who took the deposition that is cited in Special Counsel John Durham’s indictment of Perkins Coie partner and attorney Michael Sussmann. Sussmann, he said, is the key figure who ties Hillary Clinton and her campaign to Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele “and the false information they fed to the FBI and the DOJ to spy on a presidential campaign.”

https://bongino.com/kash-patel-durham-probe-into-clinton-campaign-developing-into-a-very-well-laid-out-conspiracy-charge

Patel sees this as a very-well laid out conspiracy charge that will expand to include other figures.

If you’ve read Lee Smith’s “THE PLOT AGAINST THE PRESIDENT: The True Story of How Congressman Devin Nunes Uncovered the Biggest Political Scandal in U.S. History,” which has served as major reference material for us since it came out in 2019, you’re not surprised to hear Patel say this. Check out Chapter 9, “The Press Breaks,” in which Smith details the carefully set-up media explosion surrounding the phony “dossier.” The Alfa Bank story was key.

As Smith explains, on October 31, 2016 –- days before the election –- Franklin Foer, after receiving a manufactured story from Fusion GPS, wrote in SLATE that Russia-connected Alfa Bank’s computer servers were in contact with those of the Trump Organization. That article, along with what Steele had put in his “dossier,” tied Trump to Putin by way of Alfa Bank. And what did Hillary do, after her Fusion GPS operatives had planted this story? Why, put out a press release about it and retweet this lie: “Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank.” The only thing “computer scientists” might have had to do with this story was to figure out how to fake those mysterious “pings.”

The Alfa Bank story was shown to be false in no time, but, as Smith details in his book, it didn’t really go away. It just became part of the lore, along with all the other fake stories that were never verified or had been debunked outright. Thank goodness Alfa Bank sued Steele (among others) for libel, because that forced Steele to go on record about his dicey sources and lack of any real verification.

We highly recommend the book, as it’s especially timely now. And it reads like a thriller. But as Patel says at the end, this effort still isn’t finished. “There’s no actual accountability yet,” he admits. “When we have that, then I’ll be satisfied.” Smith concludes by saying Hillary, with her fears of losing and of being exposed as the dirty politician she is, was the “center of gravity” for this phony operation, adding that if she had won in 2016, we never would have known about any of it.

But as Victoria Taft writes for PJ MEDIA, it’s all coming out, and we’ve just heard the clunk of another shoe dropping. (How many shoes will this centipede end up having?) The part of the Sussmann indictment that especially caught her attention was on Page 10. We haven’t discussed Page 10 yet, but that’s where Durham alleges that “Tech Executive 1,” who hoped to work in cybersecurity for the Clinton White House, used proprietary information to conjure up phony links between Trump and Alfa Bank. He got this information from his own companies, Unbelievably, he also used contracts with an American university to use their researchers to “search and analyze their holdings of public and non-public internet data for derogatory information on Trump” to “support an ‘inference’ and ‘narrative’ regarding Trump that would please certain VIPs.” VIP, I would point out, rhymes with “HRC.” And the narrative they were tasked with supporting was “Russia Russia Russia!”

This is just shocking shocking shocking.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/victoria-taft/2021/09/22/latest-durham-indictment-may-make-russiagate-the-most-corrupt-scandal-in-u-s-history-n1480603

As Taft explains, “The indictment illustrates how Tech Executive 1 used government connections, his companies, contracts with a U.S. university, Perkins Coie, Sussmann, and other political players to Get Trump.”

The indictment even mentions that the major players in this scheme discussed how to fake the computer links to show to the media and the FBI. (See, I was only half-kidding when I quipped about what the computer scientists were really for!)

Taft says that internet sleuths have already pretty much figured out who these major players were, including Tech Executive 1 and the university. We think we might be able to guess some of these as well but sure wouldn't want to be wrong. So we’ll wait for a few more shoes to drop from the centipede.

In the meantime, here’s something else to ponder about Sussmann. We’ve mentioned before that he was representing the DNC when they were supposedly “hacked by the Russians.” (NOTE: We don’t know for sure that it was a hack, as opposed to an internal leak, and there’s no proof that it was done by the Russians.) According to Technofog, writing on SUBSTACK, as soon as Sussmann was told by the DNC of the so-called hack, he contacted an old friend at CrowdStrike, Shawn Henry, who was also the former head of the FBI’s cyber division. CrowdStrike is the company that kept the servers when the DNC refused to turn them over to the FBI. Conveniently, Perkins Coie and CrowdStrike happened to be protected by attorney-client privilege.

According to the indictment, “Within the day, the CrowdStrike team concluded that the intruders were Russian government operatives.” Whew, that was fast. That is some efficiency right there. And I guess they stuck with that, even though Julian Assange insisted that the source for the DNC data he published in Wikileaks had not come from anyone working on behalf of any government, including Russia’s.

What really happened with the DNC servers is an enduring question that Sussmann likely could answer.

https://cdn.substack.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F84cab5f0-c880-4586-8f1d-8c5f3521e493_624x445.png

Sussmann was incredibly well-connected and seemed to know all the players. We’ll leave you with an excellent article from REAL CLEAR INVESTIGATIONS that explains how these scams are accomplished in DC: through a network of friends.

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2021/09/22/how_russiagate_became_a_story_of_old_friends_indeed_795476.html

LEAVE ME A COMMENT BELOW, I READ THEM!!!

RELATED READING

Over the past week, morning newsletter subscribers have been treated to a detailed look at the Durham investigation. Below, are the links to each story for my evening newsletter subscribers:

9/22: Why is Durham taking so long? HERE'S THE ANSWER

9/21: Durham's probe suggests biggest political hoax in history

9/17: Grand Jury indicts Michael Sussman for providing false information to the FBI

9/16: Durham seeks indictment of Perkins Coie lawyer

Mike Huckabee

The tragic mess on the Texas border and the huge influx of Haitians (FYI: who aren’t fleeing Haiti; they left Haiti quite a while ago for Latin America) has created a dangerous and unhygienic situation that has been compared to the Third World. Events are moving so fast, it’s impossible for us to track them all in a daily newsletter, but here are some of the most recent reports from Fox News’ Bill Melugin.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/ari-j-kaufman/2021/09/22/watch-fox-news-reporter-rips-white-house-for-lies-and-misinformation-about-border-n1480668

Melugin is doing a great job of covering this story that the White House is outright lying about while much of the mainstream media studiously ignores it.

https://www.westernjournal.com/officials-blow-lid-biden-admins-lie-reveal-haitians-released-us-large-scale/

One of the more striking revelations is that despite the White House’s toothless claims that the border is closed and every illegal crosser will be sent home, Melugin reports that they’re actually being given “requests” (not orders) to appear at an ICE office within the next 60 days. I’m sure they’ll all comply with those requests.

When called out in the Senate for his disastrous handling of the border, DHS Director Alejandro Majorkas got snippy and instead of answering the question, snapped that he works 18 hours a day (imagine how bad it would be if he worked 24/7 at it!) His latest move that suggests a sleep-deprived mind is to take the mounted Border Patrol agents off their already impossible duty and put them on desk jobs, despite the woeful lack of personnel we’re already suffering and the fact that the wild accusation against them is both bogus and idiotic.

https://redstate.com/jenniferoo/2021/09/22/mayorkas-puts-calvary-border-agents-who-used-reins-to-control-haitian-illegals-on-desk-duty-pending-investigation-n446723

The left needs a constant stream of fake news to make their opponents look racist because otherwise, Americans might focus on real news and realize these people should never be trusted with any public office above the rank of assistant dog catcher. The latest example is the continuing brouhaha over photos that they claim showed the Border Patrol whipping Haitian illegal immigrants, when those were actually their leather reins flying. They don’t carry whips and they didn’t strike anyone with their reins, which they spin to keep people back for their own safety, and to prevent anyone from grabbing the reins and taking control of their horses. This is standard procedure for cops on horseback.

But never mind that: leftists who know even less about cowboy skills than they do about math skills are continuing their outrage fest even after the “whipping migrants” narrative was debunked all the way to the bunkhouse.

Leave it to Rep. Maxine Waters to have the craziest take on the story, not only accusing the agents of using (nonexistent) whips on migrants, but “What we witnessed was worse than what we witnessed in slavery.”

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2021/09/22/maxine-waters-has-the-craziest-remark-you-may-find-on-the-cbp-and-haitians-n446714

That’s as offensive as downplaying the Holocaust by claiming your political opponent is “literally Hitler,” which is also something the left does regularly. But supposedly more responsible officials were almost as bad. Even the President and Vice President, desperate for any distraction from their cascade of tragic disasters, pointed fingers at the Border Patrol cavalry, with Biden calling the (false) accusation disturbing, Jen Psaki declaring it “obviously horrific,” and Kamala Harris saying it’s “horrible” and demanding a “thorough investigation.”

https://www.westernjournal.com/bidens-border-crisis-explodes-haitian-migrants-take-control-ice-transport-bus/

Uh, Vice President Harris? If you really want a thorough investigation of what’s happening on the border, might I suggest that you start by actually going there?

Mike Huckabee

I’m not surprised at all to discover that yet another liberal media narrative about President Trump has proven to be false. Because of his support among Evangelicals, it was predicted that people would flee from that religious designation and Trump would “hollow out” Evangelical Christianity. But according to a new Pew Research Survey, that’s not what’s happened.

https://www.foxnews.com/faith-values/more-americans-identify-evangelical-after-trump-years

There are a lot of stats at the link, but this one will give you an idea of the general direction. When Trump was elected in 2016, 25% of White Americans self-identified as Born Again or Evangelical Protestants. By 2020, the figure was up to 29%. Not exactly an Exodus.

The Rev. Franklin Graham told Fox News that many Presidents paid lip service to Evangelicals but Trump was the first in decades who welcomed people of faith around him and was willing to fight for their side. But Graham also reminds us that the Bible says we should pray for those in authority, so he prays for President Biden. I also pray for him to have good health and wisdom, but not for success in imposing his agenda. Preventing that is covered by the other prayer I pray: “God, save America.”

Mike Huckabee

The fact that Special Counsel John Durham would release 27 pages of detailed narrative to indict one measly person on one count of making a false statement to the FBI got us wondering immediately what his purpose might have been. We’re not attorneys, but over the next couple of days, some of our favorite legal minds noticed the same thing.

Over the years, you and I have learned not to expect much in the way of justice from the “Justice” Department --- especially now, with an obvious political hack like Merrick Garland running it --- but the indictment of this Clinton attorney might be the harbinger of bigger things to come. It is likely that Hillary will escape jail once again, as she did even after using a private server to circumvent FOIA requests and destroying evidence with BleachBit and hammers, but remember: even though Nixon escaped legal accountability in the Watergate scandal, the whole story did come out. What we’re looking at is probably another situation like that.

For now, many thanks to Dan Bongino for pointing us to a superb analysis of Sussmann’s indictment on SUBSTACK by Shipwreckedcrew’s Port-O-Call. This is long but important to read.

https://shipwreckedcrew.substack.com/p/the-sussmann-indictment-reads-like

“The Sussmann indictment reads like overt acts in furtherance of a conspiracy,” he writes, “because that’s what it is.”

He explains that the indictment on that one charge is contained in just one paragraph, Paragraph 46, which reads, “On or about September 19, 2016, within the District of Columbia, MICHAEL A. SUSSMANN, the defendant, did willingly and knowingly make a materially false, fictitious and false statement or representation in a matter before the jurisdiction of the executive branch of the Government of the United States, to wit, on or about September 19, 2016, the defendant stated to the General Counsel of the FBI that he was not acting on behalf of any client in conveying particular allegations concerning a Presidential candidate, when in truth, and in fact, and as the defendant well knew, he was acting on behalf of specific clients, namely – Tech Executive 1 and the Clinton campaign.”

That’s it. That’s what he stands accused of. What are all those other pages for? A “false statement” charge doesn’t require all that narrative. What Durham filed is called a “speaking indictment,” which “discloses information in a public document that would not otherwise be known if the indictment set forth only facts needed to meet the requirements of due process.”

“Shipwrecked” says, “In over 30 years of practice as both a federal prosecutor and a defense attorney specializing in federal cases, I’ve never before seen anything remotely resembling the Sussmann indictment in a single ‘false statement’ case.”

He writes that the facts Durham has alleged probably have at least a dozen “strings” hanging off them. Some of these are legal and others are “more in the ‘court of public opinion.’” (See Nixon, above.)

Those who are understandably cynical about the process as it typically applies to Hillary & Co. and dismayed at the length of time Durham has taken to come up with this one indictment should definitely read this analysis. “Shipwrecked” explains why it has taken as long as it has, notably regarding Durham’s search for source materials. Some materials he needed to look at could only be sought by grand jury subpoena if they were over six months old. Anything more recent needed “probable cause.”

So, what materials was Durham waiting on? At least some of them must have been billing records for Perkins Coie, some of which showed Sussmann billing Hillary’s campaign for his work relating to the phony Alfa Bank story. These were absolutely key to the indictment on the false statement. One might imagine that even after being hit with the grand jury subpoena, Perkins Coie put up a huge fight over turning over that information, as it involves attorney-client communications and attorney work product information, both of which would typically be shielded from disclosure to a grand jury.

Perhaps Durham made it clear to Perkins Coie that they themselves could be held criminally liable for their attorney’s misconduct, and that they’d better darn well cooperate.

But even if they did, attorney-client privilege applies to clients as well, which in this case include the DNC, the Clinton campaign and “Tech Executive 1.” They would have had to waive THEIR privilege for some reason. What might that reason be? This situation suggests to me that they might face some pretty fierce legal jeopardy themselves --- that they knew it could be even worse for them if they didn’t cooperate. This is one area that I hope legal experts like "Shipwrecked" will explore in detail.

He does note something called “the crime-fraud exception,” which applies when the normally privileged communications relate to a fraud that is currently occurring or might be contemplated by THE CLIENT (as opposed to the law firm) in the future. That would make sense to me, since clients like the DNC and Hillary can’t go one day without contemplating more fraud. Perhaps it had something to do with their ongoing anti-Trump activities after he was in office.

But, anyway, if you’ve been wondering, “Why is Durham taking SO LONG?,” this legal fight is one reason why.

Something else of interest: we recently reported that Marc Elias had left Perkins Coie to open his own separate firm dedicated to the Dark Art of getting more Democrats elected to office and furthering the progressive agenda. Sussmann was gone, too, on leave until resigning the day of his indictment. As “Shipwrecked” explains, catapulting these two partners might have been one way that Perkins Coie showed its willingness to cooperate with investigators to save its own sorry hide.

The reason we haven’t known about this legal fight is that Durham apparently didn’t take it before a DC grand jury. He could keep it quiet by going to any district where he had a grand jury convened. As “Shipwrecked” points out, disputes over the production of documents to a federal grand jury typically take place behind closed doors –- or, in the age of COVID, on a private Zoom call; no travel required –- and are not part of the public docket. All references to the dispute would be sealed,

I highly recommend this article, as it’s very clearly written for the non-lawyer and brings up a number of considerations we haven’t seen anywhere else. This apparently is the first installment of a series; we’re grateful for the insight and eagerly anticipate the next one. The writer mentions as a tease that another “scene of the crime” (that’s my phraseology) mentioned in the indictment as being outside the District of Columbia, is likely the CIA (“Agency -2”), headquartered in Langley, Virginia. So this gets more interesting all the time.

Mike Huckabee

In a move that infuriated both Republicans and moderate Democrats, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi caved in to the anti-Semitic socialists of “The Squad” and cut $1 billion in funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system from a short-term government funding bill. Pelosi can lose only a few votes or the bill won’t pass, since Republicans unanimously oppose the bill because they’re fighting over raising the federal debt limit.

https://nypost.com/2021/09/21/aoc-squad-force-dems-to-cut-1b-for-iron-dome-from-spending-bill/

I can understand why someone might oppose the entire bill on general principle, but why would anyone publicly hold it hostage over just one provision: not funding Israel’s defense from terrorist missiles? Note that this wasn’t new or increased spending. It was standard support for our closest ally for a purely defensive weapons system that stops missiles fired by Hamas terrorists (4400 just last spring) from killing innocent Israeli men, women and children. Why would US Congress members choose to take a hard stand on the side of terrorists who are trying to kill Jews? Well, read some of their previous comments, and I think you’ll figure it out.

Other Democrats say the funding will be added to a larger defense bill or introduced as a stand-alone measure, and it should pass with bipartisan support. But the Squad’s opposition to that one issue tells us a lot about what we’re dealing with from them. Michigan Democrat Rep. Elissa Slotkin said the removal of the funding was “devoid of substance and irresponsible.” That’s a pretty good description of the entire Squad.

Mike Huckabee

As the illegal immigration crisis on the Texas border grows worse with each day while the Biden Administration that caused it tries to ignore it or change the subject, many people are asking how such a thing could keep going on and on if the Administration didn’t want it going on and on? In other words, is this by incompetence or intention?

One person in a position to know believes it’s the latter. Rodney S. Scott is a 29-year law enforcement veteran and the recently-retired head of the US Border Patrol. He wrote a letter to Senate leaders of both parties that was obtained by JustTheNews.com, and it makes some stunning allegations. Scott writes:

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2021/09/21/ex-biden-border-chief-makes-bombshell-accusations-against-administration-n1480382

“Common sense border security recommendations from experienced career professionals are being ignored and stymied by inexperienced political appointees. The Biden administration’s team at DHS is laser-focused on expediting the flow of migrants into the U.S. and downplaying the significant vulnerability this creates for terrorists, narcotics smugglers, human traffickers, and even hostile nations to gain access to our homeland.”

Scott also asserts that every option for reducing illegal entries and restoring order that has been offered to the White House has been “summarily rejected.” Meanwhile, he says that the DHS Secretary “and other political appointees within DHS have provided factually incorrect information to Congressional Representatives and to the American public. Furthermore, they have directed USBP personnel to allow otherwise ineligible aliens to remain in the U.S. inconsistent with the…established legal processes and law.”

That’s a serious charge by someone in a position to know, of aiding in the violation of federal law and lying to Congress about it. But what are the odds that we’ll see a Congressional investigation before the 2022 midterm elections? Let’s hope we see one immediately afterward.

In the meantime, I was on “Hannity” last night on Fox News and was asked why Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who’s doing all he can to protect his citizens from the dangers of the Biden-created border disaster (disease, crime, drugs, etc. etc. etc.), didn’t call out the State Guard to secure the border.

As a former Governor myself, I knew the answer: because as soon as he does, the President (or whoever’s really giving the orders) would nationalize the Guard and override him. Abbott already has enough on his hands dealing with the horrific repercussions of Biden’s deliberate border fiasco. He has to rely on the tools he can use without handing even more power to the White House to wield against Texas, and by extension, all Americans who care about stopping this unfettered invasion.

Kenneth Allard

Well maybe but no one in authority ever seems to have asked Bob Woodward about that or to question the ethics of transforming national secrets into highly profitable book sales. Looking over his 50-year track record, Washington insiders know that it pays to stay on Woodward’s good side. If you give him the juicy gossip and inside-the-Beltway psycho-babble he craves, you can be assured of favorable treatment, either in his books or maybe in the pages of the Washington Post (possibly one and the same). An essential part of the gamesmanship includes the pre-publication leaking of lurid headlines. Specifically:

• Shortly before the 2020 election, GEN Milley called his Chinese counter-part to re-assure him that the US would not attack China. “If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise,” Milley reportedly said.
• Similar reassurances were repeated shortly after the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill; “We are 100 percent steady. Everything’s fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes.” (Lolita C. Baldor, AP, “Milley: Calls were perfectly within scope of the job,” Sept. 17)
• Also according to the AP, “Milley believed the president suffered a mental decline after the November election, agreeing with a view shared by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a phone call they had on Jan. 8, according to officials. Milley also asked senior officers to swear an “oath” that Milley had to be involved if Trump gave an order to launch nuclear weapons, according to the book.” (Mary C. Jalonick, AP, “Jan 6 Committee seeking records on Milley’s China calls,” Sep 17)

As you would expect, outraged Republicans called for General Milley to be fired while Democrats from President Biden to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin expressed continued confidence in his judgment.  Since Milley and Austin will testify before the House Armed Services Committee on September 28, the controversy will likely simmer for at least another week: Exactly as Bob Woodward and his media colleagues would have anticipated. Not only is this kind of publicity essential in fueling sales, but it also helps to move the Afghanistan and Southern Border fiascos off the front pages. 

As it happens, my Harvard dissertation and first book was a history of the American command and control system. Shortly thereafter, I had the privilege of working for Congressman Bill Nichols as Congress reformed that system in 1986, including the powers exercised by every subsequent JCS Chairman, including General Milley. If he was indeed free-lancing with his Chinese counter-part, those particulars will certainly become known in our immediate future.

But in that last AP story refenced above, there is a question most observers have missed. Did General Milley actually require senior officers to swear an oath promising to short-circuit the nuclear command and control exercised by President Trump? And if so, what was his authority for making such an extraordinary (and possibly illegal) demand? You see, in their sweeping 1986 reforms, Congress firmly chose to place the JCS Chairman outside the chain of command extending from the National Command Authorities (i.e. the President and SECDEF) directly to the Commanders of our combatant forces in the field.  The principle: Civilians make the decision to go to war while commanders on the ground employ forces and direct missions. The JCS Chairman is expected to give military advice while administering our global command and control systems.

But he is only a Washington staffer, like so many others. That is a distinction General Milley should know well: Bob Woodward not so much!

 LEAVE KEN A COMMENT BELOW, WE KNOW HE WILL APPRECIATE IT!

NOTE: Colonel Allard is the author of Command, Control and the Common Defense, winner of the 1991 National Security Book Award. After leaving active duty, he became an on-air military analyst for the networks of NBC News.

Mike Huckabee

At first glance, the indictment of a single participant in Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the FBI’s bogus “Crossfire Hurricane” might not seem like a big deal. In fact, many of you cynics out there, sensing that little more will come of this, have already written me to express dismay, predicting this one person, Perkins Coie attorney and partner Michael Sussmann, will take the fall for all the scammers who collaborated to create what is likely the biggest political hoax of all time. But, believe me, even though this story is currently overshadowed in the news cycle by multiple Biden-caused disasters –- the border catastrophe, the Afghanistan debacle, the vaccine hysteria, to name just three –- it is picking up steam as we find out more.

For example, we know that some of the players in the Russia Hoax happen to be members of President Biden’s current group of White House insiders. One of particular note is Biden foreign policy adviser Jake Sullivan.

FOX NEWS’ “Special Report” had a segment on this Monday night, with Mike Emanuel reporting that the Sussmann indictment “might only be scratching the surface.” He said, “One expert [Jonathan Turley, in an opinion piece for THE HILL] says this indictment exposes a type of Nixonian dirty tricks operation run by, or at least billed to, the 2016 Clinton campaign.” The goal was to spread stories in the media and at the FBI that would trigger an investigation of Trump’s Russia connections. The stories were not true, and they knew they were not true.

This is so crooked, it’s almost beyond belief. It really does make the Watergate scandal look like a mere warm-up. Here is Turley’s MUST-READ piece, the most damning account yet.

https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/572861-clinton-lawyers-indictment-reveals-bag-of-tricks

On October 31, 2016, Hillary retweeted this whopper from Jake Sullivan: “This could be the most direct link yet between Donald Trump and Moscow. Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank.” That bank was Alfa Bank, which later responded to this and similar lies by suing Christopher Steele for libel over what he’d said about them in his now-discredited “dossier.” Fortunately for us, that lawsuit brought Steele out of the woodwork and motivated him to testify in his own defense, revealing much about “Crossfire Hurricane.”

Speaking of Jake Sullivan, Turley said on FOX NEWS, “It’s unnerving that he’s now in charge of looking at intelligence reports and telling President Biden what seems to be good intelligence. This was the ultimate of conspiracy theories, I mean, this was a real tinfoil-hat type of conspiracy theory.”

Sussmann is the Clinton attorney who spread the Alfa Bank story to the FBI, telling them he was there as a concerned private citizen doing his duty (oh, brother), NOT representing anyone else’s legal interests. Perkins Coie billing records show differently, so if that’s what he said to the FBI, it was indeed a lie. Sussmann has pleaded not guilty, and in a court of law he will and should be presumed innocent, but we are not in court and certainly won’t be selected for his jury, so forgive us for failing to find any extenuating circumstances in his case.

As Emanuel reported, “The top Republican on House Judiciary [Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan] says, “This indictment is a sign Durham is getting to the root of the matter.” The Alfa Bank story, Jordan made clear, was one of “the” lies in the very beginning “that launched this whole crazy investigation that we know was all based on just political operatives making things up.”

Emanuel ends his report by implying the Biden “Justice” Department might choose not to make Durham’s final report public. Legally, he gets to make that decision, no matter how unethical it might be. Knowing how Attorney General Merrick Garland operates, I wouldn’t be surprised if he tried to deep-six the report, or else redact the heck out of it. Either action will not be acceptable.

J. D. Gordon, the Pentagon spokesperson under George W. Bush, has written a piece for the DAILY CALLER that summarizes well what Durham has established so far and clarifies some of the connections between actors in this drama.

https://dailycaller.com/2021/09/20/gordon-durham-indictment-in-russiagate-leads-to-jake-sullivan/

For example, Gordon reminds us that Sussmann is the attorney who represented the DNC when it claimed to have been hacked by Russia. Recall that they never turned over their servers to the FBI, and there was never any evidence that Russia did it, even though that’s a story the media like to maintain. We’re thinking Sussmann is a man with a lot of secrets pertaining to this.

As for Jake Sullivan, Gordon tells us he admitted during congressional testimony in 2017 that he had met with producers for CNN, FOX NEWS, ABC, CBS and NBC about his “suspicions,” which, as Gordon puts it, “were later exposed as conspiracy theories without evidence.” There is no doubt, these people were on a mission to spread lies about Trump. Sullivan was candidate Hillary’s senior policy adviser; now he advises Biden on foreign policy. (I wouldn’t admit that in public if I were him. Sorry; I digress.) In other words, the same man whom we know was busy spreading lies on Hillary’s behalf is now giving press conferences on Biden’s behalf.

Gordon also prods our memories about James Baker, the FBI general counsel who himself was under investigation for leaking stories to Michael Isikoff and David Corn, “Russiagate’s first two journalist instigators.”

And he dips a toe in the issue of accountability as well, not just for Sussmann but for a list of others who are alluded to in Durham’s indictment.

There’s something else of interest about Baker that we rediscovered in BALL OF COLLUSION, by Andrew McCarthy: Baker happens to have been the one who signed off on FISA warrants issued for “Crossfire Hurricane” to spy on Trump’s campaign associates.

BALL OF COLLUSION, written in 2019, has an account of Sussmann's actions on September 19, 2016, the day he brought the Alfa Bank story to Baker at the FBI, that puts it into context well. It’s in Chapter 15, “FISA Warrants: Targeting Trump, Not Page,” under the subhead “Final FISA Warrant Preparations.” We recommend this book highly if you’d like to be well-versed in what we call THE GREATEST POLITICAL HOAX OF ALL TIME.

I do believe that by the time Durham is finished, it will be revealed as just that.

Mike Huckabee

People who deserve to be held accountable but won’t be.

Here’s a story about the top World Health Organization official who botched the pandemic response and helped cover for China (among other serious accusations), and now appears almost certain to retain his job.

https://www.westernjournal.com/dr-tedros-appears-set-keep-top-job-despite-handling-pandemic-problems-home-country/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=huckabee

As one critic put it in a comment that’s also becoming a recurring theme, “It’s a glaring failure of the Biden administration not to have prepared an alternative.” Just as he apparently has no alternative ready for Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley or his Secretary of State or any number of other people who should be held accountable for the disastrous handling of Afghanistan (and the latest development: the drone strike on an innocent family), but won’t be. Biden seems determined to continue the Obama policy of standing by and even promoting the biggest screw-ups in his Administration.

That’s why the indictment by John Durham was so shocking to the DC ecosystem: it looks as if someone in their high-powered orbit might actually be held to the same laws the rest of us have to follow! That’s one down and…thousands to go.

Kurt Schichter has also noticed this recurring theme of the elites never holding each other accountable for their massive failures, lies and malfeasances. He has some comments on that, in his inimitable style.

https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2021/09/20/heads-wont-roll-n2596077

Mike Huckabee

Fearmonger-in-Chief Nancy Pelosi had the security fence put back up around the Capitol (because walls only provide security when they’re protecting Democrats) in anticipation of the sure-to-be-violent “Justice For J6” rally this weekend. It was a protest of the political over-prosecution of non-violent protesters who entered the Capitol on January 6th. Liberal media outlets attacked conservative outlets for “downplaying” the threat, but as usual, the liberal outlets were hysterically wrong.

https://redstate.com/joesquire/2021/09/20/the-big-scary-january-6-solidarity-protest-was-entirely-media-concocted-n445336

President Trump warned supporters to stay away from the rally because it was “a trap,” and that leftist agitators would try to stir up trouble so that they could be blamed and arrested for it. And he wasn’t the only one who smelled a trap. The handful of nonviolent rally attendees were likely outnumbered by all the security people (some of whom were laughably trying to “blend in” with the right-wingers and about as convincing as when Bob Hope used to dress up as a hippie for comedy sketches.) It reached the height of absurdity when the undercover feds reportedly arrested someone for carrying a weapon, and it turned out he was also an undercover cop. Let’s hope this helps pound the last nail into the coffin of the idiotic idea that the biggest threats to America are white supremacists and the weather.

Just as I expected, the rally was a non-story, but it did give conservative wags an opening to create some hilarious memes from the photo of the overzealous feds in their “4Chan Follower” Halloween costumes.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2021/09/19/the-one-photo-that-sums-up-the-spooky-far-right-rally-in-dc-everyone-was-worried-about-n2596122

Congratulations on some exciting news for our contributor Laura Ainsworth, who in addition to being a top notch writer/news researcher is also an award-winning retro jazz singer in the Julie London/Rosemary Clooney tradition.

Her three CDs and best-of LP were recently picked up for distribution in Japan and proved so popular that an expanded CD best of, “Top Shelf,” has just been released there. It includes 16 tracks (one a previously-unreleased Irving Berlin classic), all remastered by Jessica Thompson, who was Grammy-nominated for her work on Erroll Garner’s “The Complete Concert by the Sea.” It includes a 16-page color booklet on Laura’s music and her unique upbringing as the daughter of musician Billy Ainsworth, who played with Tommy Dorsey, Freddy Martin and other legendary big band leaders.

The new Japanese CD just debuted and is available in the US, along with all her other music, through her website, www.lauraainsworth.com.

If you love great American music, here’s your chance to pick up some terrific CDs for yourself or Christmas gifts, and support one of the “Huckabee” family. You can also follow her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/lauraainsworthsings and on Twitter at @lauraainsworth1.

Just to give you a taste, here she is singing a great old Mills Brothers tune on “Huckabee”:

https://youtu.be/AGorRNgp4t4

Larry Gatlin

PROLOGUE

On a cold January day in 1842, a half-starved soldier – slumping across the neck of a dying horse - appeared at the gates of Jalalabad, Afghanistan. The horse and rider had survived a 10 day, 90-mile “retreat” over and through the Spin Ghar Range that sprawls between Kabul through Jalalabad to the Khyber Pass. Behind them lay the frozen, mangled bodies of General Sir William Elphinstone and more than 4,500 soldiers of The British and East India Expeditionary Force. The General had been promised a safe withdrawal to India by Muhammad Akbar Khan, the leader of the Afghan tribesmen who had revolted against British rule; but after evacuating Kabul, the British force was attacked by Khan’s tribesman army at Gandamak, where the British Force made a valiant but futile last stand. When Dr. William Brydon, the lone survivor of that first Battle of Kabul was asked where the rest of the army was, he simply answered, “I am the army.”  In 1879, Dr. Brydon and his horse were immortalized on canvas by Elizabeth Thompson, Lady Butler. Her painting, “Remnants of an Army,” ranks with Picasso’s “Guernica,” Goya’s “The Third of May,” Emanuel Leutze’s “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” William Bass’ “The Battle of Bosworth Field,” Paul Phillipoteaux’s “The Battle of Gettysburg” and God knows too many more paintings depicting the horrors of war.

CHAPTER ONE

On a hot August day in 2021, I was reminded of Lady Butler’s painting as I watched another “remnant of an army,” General Chris Donahue, retreat from this most recent Battle of Kabul, a retreat which I’m guessing was against the General’s will and better military judgment. General Donahue, Commander of the vaunted 82nd Airborne, was “captured on film” by a night vision camera as he solemnly trudged up the gangway of a C-17 to leave Afghanistan and GOD only knows how many American citizens behind.

Over the last “fortnight” as the Brits would say, I have searched my heart, soul and mind, trying to get my brain wrapped around the events of the last two weeks. President Biden’s shameful, cowardly, militarily indefensible, politically-motivated decision to surrender the most powerful military force on the planet to a rabble of 7th century Neanderthals - murderers, terrorists, and rapists - the Taliban. I confess that I am so damned mad at the “Surrenderor-in-Chief that any clear-eyed assessment of the situation on my part is difficult if not impossible. What I really want to say cannot be printed “in these pages” and if it could be printed, would probably prompt a visit to my house by “employees” of one or more security agencies of the United States government. At the very least, I would be cancelled from Facebook and Twitter (I don’t “do” either one, BTW.)

CHAPTER TWO

In order to try to accomplish that probably impossible task, I decided to try to get some historical perspective regarding wars - the victories, defeats, surrenders and retreats - the cowards and the heroes from the past. I went back and re-read some of the classical writers on warfare: Herodotus, Thucydides, Gibbon and more recent writers, Stephen Crane, Eric Maria Remarque, and finally my contemporary literary hero, Ernest Hemingway, because I remembered what he had said when asked how he started a new novel, “I just sit down at my typewriter and bleed.” So this morning over coffee, I re-read for the umpteenth time, parts of Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” on the chance that it might help me understand this latest chapter (THE BIDEN BLUNDER) of what Captain Arthur Conolly and Rudyard Kipling long ago dubbed “The Great Game,” the fight for Afghanistan and Central Asia.

Since I don’t own a typewriter, and since my iPad is a cold, black piece of metal and composite poly something or other and has no soul, I sat down at my writing table, the surface of which are my two priceless 1798 Imperial Editions of Charles Knightly’s “The Plays of William Shakespeare;” took my Palomino Blackwing 602 Pencil in hand; and let it “bleed” onto a piece of unlined white paper.

It bled:

1)      I am not a warrior. 

2)      I have never REALLY been shot at. (Once in Somalia...a few rounds fired over my head...different story for another time)

3)      I have never shot at anything that didn’t have 4 legs or 2 wings.

4)      I have never been in that “hell” that General Sheridan called war.

5)      I’ve never seen another human being blown apart in front of my eyes.

6)      I’ve never heard the dogs of war howling all around me, or felt the earth shake from exploding ordinance on a killing field where life seemed to be so cheap and so costly at the same time, so how can I possibly write anything that matters?

The answer is, maybe I can’t; but this morning I watched and listened as a “30-something preppy-looking buttoned-down Ivy League-looking” robot was trotted out by the Pentagon to try to convince me and my fellow Americans that we need not worry about the $90,000,000,000 worth of state-of-the-art military equipment that was left behind in this latest retreat from Afghanistan and that it poses no threat to us. I respectfully offer that those who believe that are either heartlessly indifferent, woefully naive, ignorant of history, just plain stupid or all of the above; and I will state emphatically that there is a danger looming in those remote mountains that has been, for almost 300 years, and still is one of the most strategically important places in the world - the Khyber Pass between Afghanistan and Pakistan and our “friends and “allies” to whom we have given almost $80,000,000 since 1948. And our “friends” have nukes…a lot of nukes…and they have friends called the Taliban...and the Taliban has poppy fields…a lot of poppy fields…which means money...a lot of money…which means weapons...a lot of weapons...which means dead bodies...a lot of dead bodies...because the Khyber Pass is still right there where it has been since the beginning of time - at the crossroads between England, through Europe, through the Straits of Bosporus to Central Asia, India, Arabia and Russia to Africa, intersecting the Silk Road from China to Africa and the Mediterranean. And whoever controls it, to a large extent, controls half of the world.

[SEE: Tom Clancy’s “Sum of All Fears,” wherein the bad guys obtain fissile material from an unexplored Israeli nuke and make a “ dirty bomb” that they explode at The Super Bowl in D.C.] The scariest thing of all is that Joe Biden and “all the usual suspects,” his lemmings/handlers/sycophants, are still in charge of keeping America safe and protecting America’s interests, including the above-mentioned Khyber Pass....and…

THEY JUST DONT GET IT...HELP US!! So Clueless Joe Biden surrendered...again, GOD HELP US!!

Dr. Brydon and his fellow British soldiers were fighting to keep the Khyber Pass open because it was the gateway for trade, for “goods and services” back and forth between England and India, the Jewel of The British Empire. The passing of “goods and services” is no longer the reason to secure “THE KHYBER,” unless by “goods and services” you mean nukes or fissile material, and I’m afraid that there will be nothing “good” passing through The Khyber any time soon.

EPILOGUE

George Santayana wrote, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” I would offer that Clueless Joe can’t remember what he had for breakfast, and he is repeating the same old mistakes.

And finally, Plato wrote that “Argument based on knowledge implies instruction, and there are some one cannot instruct.” Clueless Joe has proven that being knowledgeable is not one of his strong suits, and that he cannot be instructed unless by “instructed” you mean, “I was instructed to call on Kelly O’Donnell,” etc. etc.”

I would offer that there are some whom one cannot even shame, which is, in fact, a shame.

Charlie Wilson said, “Three things happened. They were glorious. They changed the world. Then we f’d up the end game.”

I would offer that because we “f’d up” the end game back in ‘88, we had to go back to Afghanistan, and that’s what precipitated this latest tragic episode - Clueless Joe Biden’s disastrous surrender of Afghanistan to the Taliban.

GOD HELP US...Dr. William Brydon must be rolling over in his grave.

Mike Huckabee

Are the media barricades against admitting the efficacy of natural immunity from COVID finally starting to crumble? There are some positive indications, like the growing coverage of the recent large-scale Israeli study, and now this shocking twist: the “fact-checking” site Politifact actually admitted that a politician’s statement that people who have recovered from COVID-19 have “very strong immunity” to the virus is “Mostly true.”

And what’s even more shocking: it was Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis whom they admitted was right!

PJ Media has the full story, but it’s behind a paywall.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/stacey-lennox/2021/09/16/politifact-abruptly-breaks-with-the-preferred-covid-19-narrative-on-recovered-immunity-n1479353

If you’re not a subscriber, here’s why they said it was only “mostly true.” Politifact says the Israeli study did find that natural immunity gives longer-lasting and stronger protection than the Pfizer vaccine. However, “the same study said natural immunity plus a single vaccine dose gave the best protection.” But, fact-checking the “fact-checkers,” PJ Media’s Stacey Lennon adds the “missing context” that the difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated recovered patients was so small, it was ruled “statistically insignificant.”

Still, as far as earth-shattering news goes, Politifact admitting that Gov. DeSantis was correct is right up there with “Man Bites Dog, and Gives It COVID.”

Mike Huckabee

The Biden White House’s plan to start rolling out COVID-19 booster shots as soon as Monday hit a wall on Friday when an FDA advisory panel overwhelmingly voted against it.

https://www.westernjournal.com/fda-panel-stages-revolt-biden-admin-pfizer-gives-good-news-vaccine-skeptical-parents/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=huckabee

In a 16-2 vote, the committee rejected the idea of giving a third booster vaccine shot to 16-to-64-year-old Americans who are not at high risk for a severe case of the disease. The panel voted unanimously to give emergency authorization for booster shots for seniors and those at high risk, but most members believe the average vaccinated person doesn’t need them. There’s also concern about the rare but real possibility of side effects, particularly heart inflammation in young males, when the disease itself poses such a small risk to that group.

This came after two top FDA officials quit and co-authored a paper in the British medical journal The Lancet denouncing the push for universal booster shots.

The FDA doesn’t have to take the panel’s recommendation, but if it doesn’t, it will be interesting to hear their justification, especially considering that 16-2 margin. Journalist Jordan Schachtel tweeted that this was a clear and “legit revolt” by the FDA bureaucracy against the Biden plan to roll out booster shots for everyone, and “The White House is not happy.”

I’m fascinated to see what they’ll do next. They keep telling us to “follow the science” and treating any questions or objections as if they’re coming from knuckle-dragging cave persons. Now, experts from their own FDA have voted 16-2 against their booster plan. Will they try to tell us those people don’t know science as well as Joe Biden? Or will they just get their friends in the news and social media worlds to silence them?

Mike Huckabee

I haven’t spent much time talking about the fallout from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wearing a designer “Tax The Rich” gown to the ultra-swank Met Gala ($30,000 a ticket/$200,000 a table) because it seemed like one of those “good for a laugh for one day” stories. But it just keeps hanging on because it’s such a perfect illustration of the stunning hypocrisy of the limousine socialist crowd. Some of the latest developments:

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/aoc-a-closet-capitalist

The Met claims the ticket was comped. Conservative watchdogs are demanding that the cost of her ticket be declared as taxable income or a campaign contribution. Even Bill Maher felt compelled to school AOC on the fact that most taxes are already paid by the rich.

https://www.bizpacreview.com/2021/09/18/bill-maher-slams-aoc-and-her-met-dress-you-wear-tax-the-rich-on-your-ass-lets-not-lie-1136121/

Many people seem to have overlooked that AOC was also carrying a “Tax the Rich” handbag by the same designer. AOC defended her as a “black woman immigrant” who started in flea markets. She now sells those handbags for $995 each and is dating billionaire Seagrams heir Benjamin Bronfman.

Meanwhile, socialist fashionista AOC is now selling her own “Tax the Rich” T-shirts for $27 and hoodies for $56. Priced for the proletariat, relatively speaking.

That’s why I had to revisit this story. Because it shows what can only happen in America: two minority females, one a struggling immigrant. One is now a fabulously successful designer dating a billionaire, and the other is a Congress member making six figures, attending $30,000 celebrity galas, wearing designer gowns and selling tons of swag on her website.

Both are a shining example of the greatness and wide open opportunities of the American capitalist system!

Too bad they’ll have to give up so much of the fruits of their labor when they get their enormous tax bills.

Mike Huckabee

Isn’t it great to have competent, adult leadership in the White House that will make other nations respect us again? Yet for some reason, all our allies are furious with us. And in a stunning move on Friday, our oldest ally, France (which helped the Colonies win the Revolutionary War) recalled its ambassador from Washington, DC. French leaders are furious at the Biden White House for blocking them out of a national security pact with the UK and Australia and agreeing to provide nuclear submarines to Australia (France also recalled its ambassador to Australia.) It will cost France billions because Australia canceled a contract to buy subs from France. This follows hot on the heels of Biden pulling disastrously out of Afghanistan without informing our allies such as France.

https://www.westernjournal.com/nation-recalls-us-ambassador-biden-carelessly-humiliates-americas-oldest-ally/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=huckabee

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian railed, “This brutal, unilateral and unpredictable decision reminds me a lot of what Mr. Trump used to do. I am angry and bitter. This isn’t done between allies.”

I should point out that Le Drain, a former Socialist Party member, probably felt he had to include that kneejerk slap at Trump. But guess how many times France recalled its ambassador while Trump was President.

Mike Huckabee

The security fence has been put back up around the Capitol Building in advance of a rally Saturday in support of January 6th arrestees who are not accused of committing violence, yet some are being held indefinitely without charges and allegedly under appalling conditions such as solitary confinement. The rally is called “Justice for J6.”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/thats-a-setup-capitol-fence-comes-back-up-trump-weighs-in-on-rally

The organizer said they’ve already held two events, at the prison and the DOJ, and there have been no incidents. He urged anyone who might commit violence to stay away.

However, many Republicans, including President Trump, say they’re staying away from the rally and urge others to as well. Trump told the Federalist that it’s “a set-up”: “If people don’t show up they’ll say, ‘Oh, it’s a lack of spirit.’ And if people do show up they’ll be harassed.”

There’s also the potential that leftist agitators from groups like Antifa will show up dressed as Trump supporters and start violence. Not that that would EVER happen, of course. But if they wanted to, they probably could, since most of them who were ever arrested for rioting or attacking federal buildings were immediately released.

I think it’s also worth noting that Democrats like Nancy Pelosi insist that it’s crazy to think a border wall would provide any security, but the minute they feel even slightly threatened, what happens? They put up a security wall.

Laura Ainsworth, Staff writer

Several days ago, I related a story about my personal experience with someone who exhibited blind, irrational fear of a non-vaccinated person (me), even though the non-vaccinated person had already had COVID-19 and as a result possessed natural immunity that studies increasingly suggest surpasses the protection provided by vaccines.

The reason for telling this story in the first place was to show that we really are living in a time of mass hysteria --- a time when facts don’t much matter because everyone believes he HAS the facts and “the science is settled” –- and that in many cases our fears are being exploited to achieve desired behavior. How does the government get everyone to do what it wants them to do? By scaring them half to death.

We received numerous reader comments, a few of which we highlighted. One we did not include but that I’d like to address now came from a reader named Chris who identifies himself/herself as a “pediatric technician.” Chris is about to become famous as “Exhibit A” in my case that logic flies right out the door when fear climbs in the window. Here’s the letter, with slight editing...

………………………

You and the Christian Broadcasting Network are totally immoral and irresponsible. You all claim to be "Pro-Life" and you are all miserable hypocrites in the eyes of the world. You don't follow scripture or read your own revised Bible.

Kids are dying daily by the thousands in America and the Pediatric wards are packed with kids who have COVID. YOU ARE KID - KILLERS AND THAT IS HOW YOU WILL BE REMEMBERED. Infants are dying. Toddlers are dying. Small children are dying. You are not pro-life. You are anti-science and anti-fact. You are ignorant and stupid! You can't fix stupid. Too much inbreeding in your own family.

COVID is preventable by a simple vaccine but because you want money from the Trump base, you keep quiet while many children are being killed by their parents and their miserable stupidity. Pure GREED. This is not your finest moment. Maybe your grandchildren will be waiting on a ventilator soon....possible, because of the stupidity that runs in your family.

By remaining quiet you are executing children......you are kid - murderers and kid - killers. No different than serial killers and rapists but you all claim to speak the "truth" and follow Jesus. What a joke.

You are weak and cowardly and you will be judged on this by the big guy in the sky. BURN IN HELL.

You can take that banjo and Bible of yours and shove it up your a--.

…………………………...

Okay, where to start? Do you sense the terror that has transported this person to Crazy Town? First of all, in his (her?) rage, Chris directed this abuse at “all” of us “miserable hypocrites,” including Gov. Huckabee, when I’m the person who wrote the piece. I guess if anyone is going to be judged by “the big guy in the sky” and “burn in hell,” it is me. Though I’m tempted to say this person is not guilty by reason of insanity, I think he or she or xi owes the Gov. an apology. The individual who wrote this also owes the “Christian Broadcasting Network” --- does he mean Trinity Broadcasting Network? --- an apology. Gov. Huckabee, CBN/TBN, the pro-life movement, Christian believers in general, and the version of the Bible the Gov. prefers to read (I have no idea) have absolutely nothing to do with the commentary on vaccines and virus-fear, which I wrote, would write again, and proudly put my name on.

So, Chris, let’s talk about what has inflamed you so and how much truth there is to it. As you are an irrational person, this analysis will not change your mind at all --- probably just anger you more, if that’s possible --- but there are other, sane readers who might benefit from the discussion. Let’s look at a few things you claimed in your letter:

1. “Children are dying daily by the thousands in America and the pediatric wards are packed with children who have COVID.” This is wildly incorrect. Can you even imagine what it would be like in our country if this were actually happening to our children? The total number of children who have died of COVID-19 in the U.S. since the pandemic began is just over 400. Of course, that’s a terrible tragedy, but it’s not thousands of deaths a day. A Johns Hopkins research team looked at records from 48,000 cases in young people under 18 from April to August of 2020. At that time, they found zero deaths that didn’t involve a serious comorbidity such as leukemia. More here…

https://www.wsj.com/articles/cdc-covid-19-coronavirus-vaccine-side-effects-hospitalization-kids-11626706868

So, who fed you that lie about thousands of children dying every day? Someone has an interest in making you believe this. And if you’re really a “pediatric technician,” it stands to reason that you would know it’s false. You certainly haven’t witnessed it on your job, because it isn’t happening.

2. “You are not pro-life. You are anti-science and anti-fact.” Chris, you are stating opinions that are not based in any fact at all. To say Gov. Huckabee is not pro-life is like saying Dr. Kevorkian was not pro-death. And nothing makes a real scientist cringe like the phrase “follow the science.” That is a talking point; you do not understand how science works. Instead of discussing the research, you stoop to crass personal insults.

3. “COVID is preventable by a simple vaccine but because you want money from the Trump base, you keep quiet while many children are being killed...” Chris, the vaccine can provide a lot of protection and lessen the severity of symptoms but it does not PREVENT infection. Gov. Huckabee has said numerous times that he personally has been vaccinated, and he advises everyone to seek their doctor's advice. He would never tell someone not to get vaccinated, and neither would I.

Again, though every death from this virus is tragic, it’s not true that “many children are being killed.” This is true though vaccines weren’t even approved for children until very recently, and then only for kids 12 and older.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/covid-19-vaccines-for-kids/art-20513332

Ah, and we see from your reference to “the Trump base” that it really does come down to politics. Chris, this has nothing whatsoever to do with Trump or his base. You are off-base. But I would say the current administration has worked hard to make you believe it does, so that you'll associate your fear with Trump, and they have succeeded.

4. “Maybe your grandchildren will be waiting on a ventilator soon.” Chris, I can tell from this remark that you are one of those compassionate liberals I’ve heard so much about.

Finally, what was that banjo remark? The Gov. plays bass. Facts matter!

Chris, your letter is so out-there that at first I thought it might even be an attempt at satire. Satire is very challenging to do well –- and even to recognize in this age when real stories can be as crazy as made-up ones. If you were just impersonating a crazy person, you succeeded. Be well.

Mike Huckabee

Senators Marsha Blackburn and Richard Blumenthal are launching a bipartisan investigation of Facebook, following a blockbuster investigative piece by the Wall Street Journal. It found that Facebook was keeping secret from the public internal research that shows that Facebook’s photo social media platform Instagram was harmful to the mental health of users, particularly teenage girls. The research showed that teens blamed Instagram for increases in anxiety, depression and poor body image. This is especially worrisome since Facebook is planning a version of Instagram for children 13 and under.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_morningbrief/facebook-faces-senate-probe-after-report-reveals-instagrams-harmful-effects-on-teenage-girls_3999329.html

The Senators said in a statement, “It is clear that Facebook is incapable of holding itself accountable. The Wall Street Journal’s reporting reveals Facebook’s leadership to be focused on a growth-at-all-costs mindset that valued profits over the health and lives of children and teens.”

While it’s a welcome development that someone is finally paying attention, I don’t know which is less of a surprise: that social media is harmful to the minds and bodies of young people (it isn’t doing many favors for the minds of some adults, either) or that the people running Facebook don’t really give a hoot. Senate hearings might drag some of this out into the light of day, but if they’re like most Senate hearings, nothing will come of them except providing a few days’ worth of TV footage of Facebook executives feigning shock that anyone would think they’re not acting with the purest of motives, and then it’s right back to being evil.

While I’d like to see a miracle, like the government reining in Big Tech or Big Tech oligarchs magically developing consciences, short of that, the only solutions are much harder: Self-control (breaking yourself of the social media habit) and parenting (not letting your kids fall into that rabbit hole.) Remember, like any parasite, social media platforms live off of what they suck out of you (in their case, personal data.) If you don’t want the parasite to make you sick, then shake it off and avoid it.

Mike Huckabee

The report that special prosecutor John Durham was, at long last, going to indict someone in the Russiagate investigation was confirmed Thursday when a grand jury indicted attorney Michael Sussman of the powerful Democratic-linked law firm Perkins Coie. The charge is providing false information to the FBI to smear Donald Trump and then lying by denying that he represented the Hillary Clinton campaign.

The New York Times now admits that Sussman was the source of their fake story about the Trump Organization having a secret web server to communicate privately with Alfa Bank, a Russian bank connected to Vladimir Putin. That story was trumpeted by Hillary Clinton, and naturally, picked up and flogged like crazy by other liberal news outlets that demanded an FBI investigation.

The Conservative Treehouse has a good untangling of this web of lies…

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/09/16/clinton-lawyer-michael-sussmann-indicted-for-lying-to-fbi-while-spreading-the-false-alfa-bank-trump-russia-collusion-conspiracy-on-behalf-of-clinton-campaign/

For an even more succinct recap, read Glenn Greenwald’s blunt Twitter thread:

https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2021/09/16/russiagate-in-a-nutshell-glenn-greenwald-sums-up-the-latest-on-john-durhams-investigation-pulls-hillary-clintons-old-tweet-about-trumps-covert-server/

Greenwald calls this “Russiagate in a nutshell”:

“A DNC-linked lawyer, partners with Clinton lawyer Marc Elias, fabricated a Trump/Russia leak, fed it to DNC operatives masquerading as journalists, had Hillary trumpet it, then lied to (the) FBI about who he worked for.” He adds, “Along with the FBI lawyer who previously pled guilty for lying to the FISA court to spy on ex-Trump campaign official Carter Page, it's clear that much of the criminality of Russiagate was not from any Trump/Russia collusion but by those who fabricated this conspiracy theory."

I’ll have more about this story as it develops, but for now, let me just make one observation: for four years, a duly-elected President was relentlessly slandered as a Russian agent by the media until millions of Americans believed it, undermining trust in their own government and in the electoral process. His agenda was hamstrung; innocent people who worked for him were hounded, harassed and bankrupted; and qualified people who might have made great contributions to America were frightened away from public service for fear of being targeted by the FBI.

And all over a story that was a complete lie. A fabrication designed purely for the purposes of ensuring that Hillary Clinton achieved her lifelong dream that she had a divine right to be President, whether the voters agreed or not.

How much expense, damage, division, turmoil, and distrust in government has been inflicted on this nation by one woman’s insatiable ambition and the utter lack of scruples of those around her in achieving her goal? And who do the Democrats blame for “lowering the tone of political discourse” and undermining faith in the electoral system? Why, Trump, of course.

Mike Huckabee

Sen. Ted Cruz went to Del Rio, Texas, to highlight the massive surge of illegal immigration. Fox News reported that the number of people trying to cross the border doubled from 4,000 to 8,000 in one day. Cruz said when he arrived, there were an estimated 10,503 illegal immigrants gathered under the Del Rio International Bridge.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/hannity-questions-faa-grounded-drones-southern-border-cover-up-bidens-failures

But don’t worry, the Biden Administration is doing something about this. Fox News reported that “for special security reasons,” the FAA declared a two-week temporary flight restriction over the bridge, so Fox can’t fly its drone cameras overhead and show viewers pictures of the massive crowd of illegal entrants.

And that should stop the coverage, since liberal outlets certainly aren't covering the border crisis.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/media-coverage-of-border-mayhem-drops-94-under-biden

Problem solved! Well, Biden’s problem. Not America’s.

Mike Huckabee

The Pentagon seemed to confirm Bob Woodward’s claim that Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley attempted to usurp President Trump’s powers by calling his Chinese counterpart and assuring him he would give China advance warning if Trump launched an attack.

https://www.westernjournal.com/pentagon-appears-confirm-bombshell-gen-milley-report/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=huckabee

I’m not going to quote their statement verbatim (you can read it at the link), since it went on at length in the kind of gaseous government-speak that’s meant to make outrageous acts sound not merely defensible and reasonable but downright laudable. Indeed, a lot of liberal news outlets (those that aren’t ignoring this story entirely) are trying to present it that way and hail Milley as a heroic figure for protecting America from the “unhinged” duly-elected Commander-in-Chief that they hated. Biden spokeswoman Jen Psaki called Milley a “patriot.” So chalk up “insurrection” and “undermining our democracy” as yet another area in which the Democrats’ sacred principles are highly situational.

Even Biden himself reportedly said he has “great confidence” in Milley.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-great-confidence-in-milley-china-calls

Really? So Joe Biden wants to keep a guy around him who has a history of trying to overthrow Presidents whom he thinks are showing mental decline? REALLY?!

If Milley thought it was his duty to step in and take control away from a cognitively-challenged President who was about to commit a dangerous foreign policy blunder, then why didn’t he do that two months ago?

Finally, the line of the day is about this story, and it’s courtesy of former Rep. Trey Gowdy, who said you know who would have appreciated an advance call to warn him of an attack? The Afghan aid worker who was blown up by a drone while loading water cans into his car.

Pat Reeder, Staff writer

As the person who covers the entertainment world, it falls to me to write show biz obituaries. While it’s always a sad duty, this one hits especially hard for me and my wife/co-writer, Laura Ainsworth. Comedian Norm MacDonald has died at 61 of cancer, which he had reportedly been fighting for nine years. His producing partner Lori Jo Hoekstra said he kept it a secret because comedy came first and he never wanted that to color how people saw him.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/norm-macdonald-snl-comedian-dies-age-61/

For a comic who never became a major star, Norm’s death was met with a massive outpouring of grief and accolades from fellow comedians and hardcore fans like us. Seth Meyers called him the “gold standard” of comedy and admitted the hardest part of doing “Saturday Night Live’s” Weekend Update was not reading jokes the way Norm would say them.

He had a distinctive voice and delivery, a unique and unpredictable perspective, and most importantly of all in this cancel culture age, he was utterly fearless. If he thought a joke was funny (and to those of us who “got” his sense of humor, he was gutbustingly funny), no matter how bizarre the premise, he would pursue and expand on it, even if the audience greeted it with silence (you could usually hear a few fellow comedians in the back, howling with laughter.) One of the funniest things you’ll ever see on TV is Norm on Conan O’Brien’s show, using up his entire segment to tell an ancient, rambling, deadpan shaggy dog story with a groaner of a punchline that somehow was hilarious all the way through.

When Laura and I used to write our syndicated topical radio service, the Comedy Wire, nothing made me prouder than to write a joke that I could describe as “a Norm MacDonald line.”

These days, what passes for a “joke” on “SNL” is a smug two-minute political lecture. Norm could pack more laughs into two short sentences (“College radio reports that the #1 band this summer was Better Than Ezra. At #2: Ezra!”) He defied orders to stop doing O.J. Simpson jokes even when it got him fired. He didn’t care if he bombed, got fired, the audience didn’t get it or Twitter mobs cried about being offended: if he thought it was funny, he went with it. And to me, he was always right. He ruthlessly mocked leftist icons like Bill and Hillary Clinton at a time when other comics were giving them a free ride. He even dared to joke about COVID (“None of us know how we’re going to die… Well, we know NOW.”)

He was also surprisingly intelligent, once taking home $500,000 on a charity celebrity edition of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” (he also knew the answer to the million dollar question, but Regis talked him out of trying for it.) I still remember him lecturing a comic on a talent show for performing a lazy Christian-bashing bit that the other judges loved.

Norm was a “comedian’s comedian,” but to his cult fan base like us, he was one of the funniest men of all time. You never knew what might come out of his mouth, but you knew it would be hilarious and like nothing that anyone else would think of. And if someone didn’t like it and took offense, he couldn’t care less. Let’s hope more comedians take inspiration from him and reclaim comedy from the humorless woke mobs.

Here are a few of Norm’s more mainstream funny moments, courtesy of Fox News. You’ll find many, many more on YouTube.

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/norm-macdonald-snl-late-night-funniest-moments

Mike Huckabee

In breaking news Wednesday night, THE NEW YORK TIMES reports that Special Counsel John Durham has informed the Department of Justice that he will seek a grand jury indictment against Michael Sussmann of the law firm Perkins Coie for making a false statement to the FBI.

John Durham, remember him? Even President Trump has wondered from time to time what happened to him. Apparently, he’s just had his head down working, ever since he was assigned to the case by Bill Barr...in 2019. His status was raised to Special Counsel in December of 2020.

The NYT is subscription-only, but Rebecca Downs at TOWNHALL has details.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/rebeccadowns/2021/09/15/durham-indictment-n2595973?utm_campaign=rightrailsticky1

No discussion of the “Russia Russia Russia!” hoax would complete without bringing in the huge role played by Perkins Coie, the Clinton-affiliated law firm that in 2016 paid opposition research company Fusion GPS to hire former MI-6 spy Christopher Steele to dig up dirt and provide a report on then-candidate Donald Trump. That scheme produced the infamous “dossier” that contained outrageously fake stories like the one we all know involving Trump and some prostitutes in a Moscow hotel. We’ve covered the story of the phony “dossier” from the start and had always hoped the story of how it came to be would be completely exposed. Now, perhaps this is the first shoe dropping.

Incidentally, Perkins Coie was involved in shady activities in 2020 as well. For the year preceding the Trump/Biden race, it was Marc Elias, a partner at Perkins Coie, who coordinated the state-by-state effort to change election laws and procedures in ways that made it much easier to cheat almost undetectably. And never mind that these changes were supposed to be made by the state legislators, not judges and bureaucrats. All those millions of ballots being mailed out to every name on out-of-date voter rolls and stuffed into unmanned dropboxes? For destroying all trust in our election system, we have Marc Elias of Perkins Coie largely to thank.

Sussmann, a former federal prosecutor, is a partner at the firm as well. As reported by the NYT, he represented the Democratic National Committee “on issues related to Russia’s 2016 hacking of its servers.” As you can see, I’m quoting the TIMES there, as we do not actually have evidence that this “hacking” of the DNC servers was carried out by Russia. It’s part of their narrative that the mainstream media take as a given and keep repeating. We don’t.

But the fact that Sussmann was representing the DNC on this matter should tell you he is the Mother Lode of information on what really happened with that and where all the bodies are buried, so to speak. Not that we can pry it all out of him. There’s this little inconvenience called “attorney-client privilege” that limits what investigators can ask.

Anyway, the Special Counsel has been investigating Sussmann’s activities conveying “certain suspicions” about Trump and Russia –- related to what we have come to know as “the Russia Hoax” –- to James Baker at the FBI in September of 2016. Specifically, investigators want to know who his client was at the time. Investigators have been looking into whether he was secretly working for Hillary’s campaign. He denies that.

Sussmann’s reason for meeting with Baker was to further a long-since-debunked story about covert communication through suspicious “pings” between computer servers associated with the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, a Russian financial institution linked to the Kremlin. That story has been so thoroughly discredited that Special Counsel Robert Mueller didn’t even mention it in his final report. But there was Sussmann, apparently trying to hand the FBI a fake story. I would add that this was the James Comey FBI, which was eager to run with all the anti-Trump stories it could find.

Baker, now out of the FBI, reportedly told investigators he recalled Sussmann saying he was not meeting him on behalf of any client. Likewise, according to Sussmann’s lawyers, Sussmann simply wanted to give the FBI a “heads-up” because he thought the NEW YORK TIMES was about to publish a story about the Alfa Bank allegations. Wasn’t that nice of him? (The NYT didn’t mention Alfa Bank at all until six weeks later.)

One problem, though: in a 2017 deposition before Congress, Sussmann testified that he had sought the meeting on behalf of an unnamed client, a cybersecurity expert whom he said had helped analyze the Alfa Bank data.

Second, even bigger problem: Durham has obtained billing records from Perkins Coie that show some of Sussmann’s time working on the Alfa Bank matter was billed to...(drum roll, please)...the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign.

By the way, just a month ago, Marc Elias left Perkins Coie to form a separate law firm, Elias Law Group LLP. The press release says this new spinoff firm “will represent candidates, party committees, political committees, nonprofit organizations, entities and voters. Elias Law Group will be mission-driven, focusing on electing Democrats, supporting voting rights, and helping progressives make change.” More details here.

https://www.perkinscoie.com/en/news-insights/perkins-coie-and-its-political-law-group-announce-the-formation-of-the-independent-firm-elias-law-group-llp.html

This new separation “will provide Elias Law Group with the independence to broaden its advocacy and types of matters on which it works, including by engaging more directly in the political and electoral process.”

As if Elias and Perkins Coie haven’t been engaged enough in that already. Elias will have offices in both DC and Seattle, where they’ll be “focused on helping Democrats win, citizens vote, and progressives make change.” And anyone who thought Perkins Coie was some little boutique law firm should think again: Perkins Coie is a huge international operation with 1,200 lawyers in offices “across the United States and Asia.” Watch out –- they’ve made this move as part of their gearing-up for the 2022 elections and are looking ahead to 2024, and judging from their past behavior, I don’t think they’ll waste much time debating the ethics of what they’re doing.

For now, though, Michael Sussmann is a major player who finally appears to have been caught in Durham’s net. Colton Salaz at JUST THE NEWS also has a write-up, and we look forward to investigative reporter John Solomon’s take as well, as he’s been all over this story for years.

https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/special-counsel-seeks-indictment-against-lawyer-center-steel-dossier

“Mr. Sussmann has committed no crime,” his attorneys told the NYT. “Any prosecution here would be baseless, unprecedented and an unwarranted deviation from the apolitical and principled way in which the Department of Justice is supposed to do its work.”

Are these really Sussmann’s attorneys or a comedy writing team? Because that line about the DOJ is pretty darn funny.

Laura Ainsworth, Staff writer

Thanks to all who responded to my story about the government’s latest very successful fear campaign --- the one against the unvaccinated.

By the way, since then it’s become obvious that the same motivation was just used in California to help a failing governor survive a recall election. To keep his office when California is a disaster on so many fronts, Gov. Newsom needed people to be AFRAID of the alternative, Republican opponent Larry Elder. And how was that going to happen, given that Elder is a genial, self-made black man who wants to fix problems and make life better for everybody in California? That’s easy: liken him to the biggest object of fear to the left, former President Trump.

An aggressive fear campaign had already been waged against Trump for years, and so progressives are TERRIFIED of him. To them, he’s the COVID-19 of political leaders. If you know the George Orwell novel “1984,” Trump is Emmanuel Goldstein in the daily government-mandated “Two Minutes Hate.” I’m talking abject, screaming-at-the-sky fear and loathing, as satirized in this masterpiece must-see video that I wish I could take credit for...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6fNtODWUwY

You understand, of course, that these people aren’t terrified of the actual Trump, about whom they typically know little, but of the imaginary Trump that has been created out of the thin air in their heads. You know, the evil white supremacist who thinks the KKK are “fine people” and collaborated with Putin to become President. THAT Donald Trump. I’d be scared of him, too, if he existed. The real Trump, I like.

But the Democrats’ anti-Trump fear campaign wasn’t aimed at me.

And it laid the foundation for Newsom’s recall election. This time, it was pounded into California voters’ heads that Elder was, in effect, Trump. Newsom then ran against Trump. He'd say, “A vote for Elder is a vote for Trump.” Or even, “Larry Elder is a clone of Donald Trump.” (They wanted voters to forget Elder is black.)

So, in the end, Newsom beat Trump---I mean, Elder.

But back to my story. I received some great comments on my real-life tale of being leper-ized by someone out of his mind with irrational fear...

From Tyna:

My daughter works FROM HOME and is an HR generalist. She sees NO patients or co-workers. She was given an ultimatum to get vaccinated or she will be terminated. She already has had Covid, and she has a health condition that was supposed to kill her by age 14. She wants to see her kids and grands grow up and get married. What happened to FREEDOM?

From Laura:

Someone who works from home can’t transmit anything to patients or co-workers but a computer virus! This makes no sense. And your daughter likely has better immunity than someone who hasn’t had COVID but took the vaccine. The decision should be hers, with advice from her doctor. Good luck to her with her employer. Time is on her side if she can stall; I think personal choice in this matter will win in the courts.

From Kathleen:

I was helping a neighbor with her yard sale a few weeks ago. A young man drove up in a Tesla; I had never been close to one and asked if I could sit in it. He had a “VACCINATED” button on his shirt, and I said, “By the way, I am not vaccinated.” Upon hearing that, he said I could not sit in the car. Then he went on a ten-minute rant on why everyone should get vaccinated. All the friends at the sale were friends and were not vaccinated, and we all felt sorry for the fool.”

From Laura:

I can picture this guy finishing his rant; hearing the rest of you weren’t vaccinated, either; speeding off in a panic and driving his Tesla smack into a tree.

If he’s vaccinated, he must not have much confidence that it will protect him. Why would your vaccination keep him safe if his own is that iffy? Again, none of this is rational.

From Prudence (excerpt):

Hello, Laura -- Thank you for your spot-on article. You are not alone. I experienced a similar incident two weeks ago. My regular doctor is out with cancer and so I had to see her colleague to get a prescription refilled...This doctor's visit was almost surreal! He wanted to know why I wasn't vaccinated, and I explained that I've had adverse reactions to vaccines in the past, including the flu shot. He began to berate me, telling me I believed all the rot on the internet and bought into all the foolishness, continuing to give me his "expert" advice on why he felt I needed to just take the vaccine. I'd never seen this idiot doctor before and will never seen him again.

My doctor knows my circumstances and respects my wishes on why I won't take the shot. Unfortunately, not only are people divided on the vaccines, so is the medical community! I didn't mention to him about my conversations with my doctor for fear of her receiving retribution from her colleague if and when she returns.

From Laura:

Your concern for your own doctor was well-founded. Doctors are also running into problems within their profession for prescribing treatments such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. I hope your independent-minded regular doctor is soon able to return to her practice.

From Mike:

Very disappointed you have decided not to be vaccinated, I had Covid in February 2020 when doctors didn’t really know what it was. I was diagnosed with severe bronchitis. Haven’t smoked in 36 years, [am] a jogger, and I developed COPD and my antibodies were gone in 60 days. Please rethink you position.

From Laura:

I’m grateful for your concern, Mike, but am hesitant because of some vascular issues in my family that might be hereditary. If I hadn’t had the virus, I definitely would have gone ahead and been vaccinated, but my personal risk analysis is telling me to stick with natural immunity. Also, my understanding is that the antibody test after one is recovered is not necessarily an accurate measure of one’s immune response once the virus is re-introduced. Thanks and be well!

Finally, a reader with a wicked sense of fun left me this gem…

From Doug:

I was just reading your latest article, "The Latest Government Fear Campaign," when I got to the part where you said that YOU HAVEN'T BEEN VACCINATED!!! Needless to say, I IMMEDIATELY stopped reading your unvaccinated words, erased the article from my tablet, wiped down the tablet with an anti-bacterial wipe, then bleach, then ran an antivirus program on said tablet. Fortunately, it came up clean, so I am hopeful that I avoided exposure to the Delta Variant that you are most assuredly carrying and exposing everyone to, YOU HEARTLESS, SELFISH, EVIL, TRUMP-LOVING, PLAGUE-CARRYING RADICAL RIGHT FASCIST!!!!

By the way, I went to the public library to write this comment to you because I didn't want to expose my device to your plague. Pretty smart, huh?

From Laura:

You can’t be too careful! Uh-oh, you’re reading my unvaccinated words again.

Mike Huckabee

Is the biggest story in the nation Tuesday a bombshell revelation of treasonous behavior by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs? Or just one of the biggest examples yet of fake news? As the Magic 8-Ball tells us, “Unclear, ask again later.” Here’s the story:

https://www.westernjournal.com/book-milley-took-top-secret-action-cut-trump-off-nuclear-weapons/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=huckabee

According to an upcoming book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa of the Washington Post, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley was so concerned that then-President Trump, who was daring to call out China over its coronavirus cover-up, would launch a military attack on China that he took action to subvert Trump’s command of the military.

The book claims that Milley met with senior military officers to tell them that Trump could not launch nuclear weapons unless Milley was involved to okay it…that he called his counterpart in the Chinese military to assure him that he would warn China in advance if the US was going to attack…and that he met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on January 8th (who, of course, agreed with him that Trump was mentally “unhinged” – the term leftists use for anyone who disagrees with their disastrous policies) to discuss ways to block him from using his Presidential powers.

The Pentagon claims this was just standard operating procedure, nothing to see here. And liberal media outlets are trying to paint Milley as a hero protecting our democracy from…democracy, apparently. Incidentally, there’s no need for Milley’s “heroic” usurpation of power because there’s already a constitutional way to deal with a President who is mentally incompetent for real. It’s called the 25th Amendment. Democrats might want to bone up on it.

https://redstate.com/bonchie/2021/09/14/the-gaslighting-begins-after-mark-milleys-treasonous-actions-are-revealed-n443122

Conservative commentators, however, say that if true, this is a stunning incident of out-and-out treason: an unelected official staging a clandestine coup to usurp the powers of the duly-elected Commander-in-Chief and conspiring with our enemies against the US President. It’s the most shocking example yet (and we’ve seen a mountain of them recently) of entrenched deep state elites completely disregarding the elected representatives of the people and acting as if they have a divine right to rule.

Here’s a hint as to how bad this is: even Alexander Vindman, who thought he should decide policy instead of Trump, says that if true, Milley “usurped civilian authority, broke Chain of Command, and violated the sacrosanct principle of civilian control over the military” and he “must resign.” He called this a “dangerous precedent” that we can’t simply walk away from.

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2021/09/14/hilarious-mark-milley-has-even-lost-alexander-vindman-now-n443064

All this hinges, of course, on two key words: “If true.” Bob Woodward has a track record of making incendiary claims for which he offers no supporting evidence. Trump agrees that if it’s true, it would be treason, but he also doubts the story. He called Woodward a writer of fiction, but he still called on Milley to resign because he believes Milley made up the story to deflect attention from this Administration’s catastrophe in Afghanistan. Trump also made the excellent point that it’s ridiculous to think he would attack China, which never even occurred to him, noting that he’s the only President in decades who didn’t start a new war.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-doubts-report-of-milley-calling-chinese-general-but-says-treason-if-true

So where do we go from here? Obviously, we need a full investigation to determine whether this incredibly serious charge against the Joint Chiefs Chairman is credible. If he met with senior officers and Pelosi, then there should be plenty of witnesses and/or co-conspirators to call.

I suggest that Congress immediately convene a 9-11 style commission to investigate this allegation of what could be the most serious attempt at insurrection and the worst assault on our democracy since the Civil War! Since Nancy Pelosi has been accused of being a secret conspirator with Milley to overthrow the duly-elected President, she should probably be jailed (perhaps in solitary confinement) until such time as authorities decide whether to charge her with anything or not.

I know this sounds a tad harsh, but hey: Speaker Pelosi did establish the precedent.