Mike Huckabee

The Daily Caller reports that the Army, Navy and Air Force missed their recruiting objectives by historically large margins in fiscal 2023, and it was almost entirely because of a steep decline in white recruits.

https://dailycaller.com/2024/02/13/exclusive-a-huge-blow-decline-in-white-recruits-fueling-the-militarys-worst-ever-recruiting-crisis-data-shows

While the numbers varied among branches and the effect was less marked among Marines, an analysis of recruiting numbers showed increases in black and Hispanic recruits were more than offset by declines in white recruits. Spokespeople for each of the services listed various reasons for this, including a drop in physical fitness among youth, growing distrust of institutions, the stress of military life, more attractive civilian job options and fewer young people with family military traditions. An Army official told Military.com, “There is no widely accepted cause.”

Well, then, mind if I suggest one more to throw onto the pile? How about the fact that under Obama and now Biden, the so-called “leaders” of our military have tried to convert the world’s greatest fighting force and meritocracy into a social justice laboratory? Maybe white potential recruits from military families have noticed that it’s been infected with racist DEI propaganda to the point that its leaders seem to think that white Republicans are a bigger threat to America than Iranian-backed terrorist groups. Maybe people don’t like joining organizations that tell them right up front that they’re evil because of their skin color.

Try getting rid of that garbage and going back to the colorblind meritocracy that used to exist, and let’s see if that doesn’t cure the white recruitment problem pretty darn quickly.

Last night, Tucker Carlson posted his two-hour interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Twitter (X.) With so much other big news to cover, we haven’t had time to watch it all yet, but here are some recaps of some of the main points. The first one includes a link to the entire interview, but it's queued up to near the end, where Carlson presses Putin to release Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovitz, who’s been held in a Russian prison for nearly a year.

https://www.westernjournal.com/took-lot-guts-putin-grows-agitated-tucker-carlson-repeatedly-presses-jailed-us-journalist/

https://redstate.com/wardclark/2024/02/08/tucker-carlson-the-putin-interview-the-history-of-russia-and-ukraine-n2169850

I noticed that USA Today once again tried without evidence to tie Trump to Putin, headlining a story about the interview with the claim that Trump’s plan for ending the Ukraine war “echoes Putin.” But in the article, they took another gratuitous slap at Trump for saying he would end the Russian-Ukraine war within days but without saying how. My question: If he didn’t say what his plan was, then how could it “echo Putin”?

Frankly, if Putin sounded like any Western politician, it was during his ludicrous defense of China as a peaceful, non-aggressive trading partner, which echoed Joe Biden.

https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2024/02/09/putin-to-tucker-carlson-u-s-is-hurting-itself-by-not-expanding-trade-with-china/

Finally, show of hands: How many who watched the interview believed everything Putin said and were swayed to rally to his side? Nobody? Good, then free speech is working just as it's supposed to, and we don't need any government or media censors telling us what we're not allowed to hear.

Mike Huckabee

The federal government used the pandemic as an excuse to load up cannons with borrowed money and blast it in all directions (particularly to Democrat cronies and voting blocs), but here’s one place where a big bundle of it landed that you might not know about:

$340 million was taken out of the federally-funded Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund and distributed in the form of $1,000 checks to illegal immigrants. They were supposedly ineligible to receive federal COVID aid, but wherever there’s Democratic leadership, there’s a way to get around the rules that everyone else is expected to follow. Just take the federal funds, put them in a state fund, and distribute it to illegal aliens out of that.

https://www.westernjournal.com/new-report-shows-340-million-federal-covid-relief-turned-cash-transfers-subsidizing-illegal-immigration/

Yes, they did get the Biden Administration to approve the transfer, which the Economic Policy Innovation Center says means that “the Biden Administration directly subsidized ‘undocumented’ immigration under the guise of COVID-19 pandemic relief.” Another shocking but unsurprising story.

Mike Huckabee

Imagine how thinly Trump’s attorneys must be stretched this week.  As we reported yesterday, they just found out on Tuesday that they have only till next Monday, February 12, to file their request with the Supreme Court for an appeal in Jack Smith’s “election interference” case based on presidential immunity.  Otherwise, the stay would no longer be in force and the case would go right back to court in DC, where pre-trial steps would continue as Jack Smith rushed frantically to try and convict Trump before the election.

And today, the High Court is hearing the Colorado 14^th Amendment case.  As Victoria Taft says for PJ MEDIA, this is “Democrats’ latest effort to weaponize the law to make Donald Trump unelectable --- and broke --- in the 2024 election cycle.”  On Thursday, she says, “the Supreme Court now becomes the center ring in their Get Trump circus.”

Many legal experts have looked at this case and said it could --- and should --- be a unanimous decision by the Court that the 14^th Amendment cannot be used in this situation.  To start with the obvious, Trump is NOT an insurrectionist.  (Recall what Scott Adams said about this:  that if at this point you think January 6 was actually an insurrection, you are too dumb to hold public office and should resign immediately.)  And it’s not up to a state court to simply declare him one.  He’s never been charged, let alone found guilty, of insurrection.  (Pelosi’s House impeached him in a blatantly political process, if you want to count that as being “charged,” but the Senate did not convict.)  Even Trump-hating special counsel Jack Smith, whom you KNOW would’ve charged Trump with insurrection if he’d thought he could, didn’t do that.

But the Supreme Court might not even need to get into those issues (although one might wish they would).  Legal experts have said that the President isn’t even covered by the language of Section 3 of the 14^th Amendment, which specifically applies to an “officer” of the United States.  In U.S. v. Mouot (1888), the Supreme Court ruled that “unless a person in the service of the government...holds his place by virtue of an appointment...he is not, strictly speaking, an officer of the United States.”

Constitutional scholar Steven Calabrisi has explained why the writers of the Amendment would have meant it this way.  The wording of Article II, Section 2, shows that the President and “officers” are spoken of separately.  “Officers” are people who have been commissioned by the President, not the President himself, as he doesn’t commission himself!  Plus, there’s a really big clue that they didn’t mean to include the President:

“The words ‘President or Vice President’ were deliberately edited out of the final version of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. This, together with the disqualification of presidential electors and vice-presidential elector(s) who have engaged in ‘insurrection or rebellion’ makes it clear that the Framers of Section 3 did not intend for it to apply to presidents or vice presidents who engaged in insurrection.” 

There you are.  If it can be shown that the framers of Section 3 DELIBERATELY EDITED OUT the words “President or Vice President,” then clearly, they did not want that section to apply to those positions.  We don’t see how their intention could have been clearer.

As Pavlich also reported, Vivek Ramaswamy filed an amicus (friend-of-the-court) brief arguing that same point, that the President is not an “officer.”  He also said that the Democrats “have resorted to antidemocratic methods because they doubt that they can beat him in a fair election.”  He also expresses concern that such a precedent would “warp incentives for state decision-makers and voters alike.”  As if these weren’t getting warped enough as it is.  See Colorado and Maine.

So this might be a good time to pray for Trump, his legal team and the Justices, that wisdom might prevail and we have no further warping of the electoral system.

https://pjmedia.com/victoria-taft/2024/02/07/the-supreme-court-tees-up-n4926204

Finally, here’s some good news for all of us who desire transparency on the part of sneaky Special Counsel Jack Smith, who won’t even divulge the names of his legal team.  District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, who’s presiding over the “classified documents” case in Florida, has ruled that some discovery material Smith wanted to keep under seal will have to be disclosed.

Smith had tried to argue “witness safety and intimidation concerns,” but the judge seems not to have been impressed.  She found his response “sparse and undifferentiated” and said it “fails to provide the Court with the necessary factual basis to justify sealing.”  So, “there shall be no filing under seal of any unclassified material in this case,” she said, unless the Court has given permission to do so, which would be only in “clear and supported cases of risk to personal safety or national security.”  As it should be.  Thank you, Judge Cannon.

https://dailycaller.com/2024/02/07/federal-judge-damper-jack-smiths-victory/

Mike Huckabee

Evidence keeps mounting that the title of the 1980s Dire Straits song “Money For Nothing” could just as easily describe the Biden family business.

It seems the only “work” they did for anyone was to provide access to the Biden name and big promises of what it could do.  According to newly released testimony from the House Impeachment Inquiry, that’s the way it “worked.”

And in the case of their arrangement with Americore Health LLC, when James got paid, brother Joe got paid.

The closed-door interview with Carol Fox, trustee of bankruptcy proceedings for Americore, was held in December 2023, but the transcript wasn’t made public until Wednesday of this week.  “What he [James] actually did, I don’t know,” she testified to members of the Oversight and Judiciary Committees, later adding that she “did not think he provided services to the debtors.”

She couldn’t find any records of any work being performed, but she did find the notation on a payment to James that it was a “loan.”  Still, there was nothing in the paperwork about any collateral for any loans.  (I guess they had James’ word as a Biden, and that was good enough!)

And these “loans” were quite large.  Ms. Fox sued James in 2022, accusing him of failure to repay them, which apparently had been made on the promise that “his last name, ‘Biden,’ could ‘open doors’ and that he could obtain a large investment from the Middle East based on his political connections.”  According to the settlement agreement James signed, he had received $600,000 in wire payments from Americore in 2018.  His firm, Lion Hall, had received several additional payments.  In the settlement, James admitted no liability but agreed to pay back $350,000.  He said he’d provided “financial and consulting services to Americore and that Americore received reasonably equivalent value for the work and services provided by Biden/Lion Hall.”

Again, WHAT work?  Court documents show that not only did James NOT “open doors” to Middle Eastern investors as he’d said he would but that he instead helped them obtain “an ill-advised bridge loan from a hedge fund” that they said pushed them over the edge to bankruptcy (apparently, bad judgement and destroying everything they touch runs in the family.)

On March 1, 2018, the same day that Americore wired $200,000 to James, he turned around and wrote a $200,000 check to Joe.  James and the White House have said this money was a….(drum roll, please!)….loan repayment.  Seems these family members were always “loaning” money to each other with no records of what the loans were for or any other details at all.  Similarly, wealthy benefactor/“sugar brother” Kevin Morris “loaned” Hunter millions, apparently with no expectation of being paid back.  In Biden World, there appears to be no difference between a loan and a gift.

The money ended up in Joe’s pocket after his time as Vice President was over and before he was President.  But according to testimony from former Biden business partner Rob Walker, Hunter started working for Chinese company CEFC in 2015 and payments didn’t come until after Joe Biden left the vice presidency in January 2017.  To use a word sometimes employed by the FBI, the money was “earmarked” for him.

So, what did these guys actually DO for all that money?  Some testimony coming up soon might be revealing, though we probably won’t see the transcripts right away.  Hunter Biden is still negotiating the timing of his closed-door deposition before Congress, having perhaps thought the better of continuing his strange combination of subpoena-dodging and political performance art.  Most likely, James will be going first; he’s scheduled to appear on February 21.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/president-joe-bidens-brother-didnt-provide-services-to-company-that-paid-him-impeachment-witness-5582623?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=TheLibertyDaily

Mike Huckabee

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz is introducing a resolution to get members of Congress on record saying that Trump did NOT commit “insurrection or rebellion against the United States.”

As reported by the WASHINGTON EXAMINER: 

“Gaetz introduced a resolution on Tuesday that would ‘clarify the stance of the House of Representatives’ to declare Trump ‘did not participate in actions that would bar him from again holding public office.’ The resolution would expressly assert that Trump did not ‘engage in insurrection or rebellion against the United States.’”

“‘We believe Congress has a unique role in making that declaration,’ Gaetz said. ‘It’s not the job of the states, and especially not the job of some Democrats in Colorado, to make this assessment and interfere with the rights of voters to cast their vote for the candidate of their choice.’”

Gaetz is right --- it’s NOT the job of the states to impose the 14^th Amendment; this is one of the arguments against the action taken against Trump by the Colorado Supreme Court. Ohio Sen. J. D. Vance is set to introduce a similar resolution in the Senate.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house/2839679/gaetz-introduces-resolution-exonerate-trump-jan-6/

On the Tuesday podcast of “Coffee With Scott Adams,” Adams praised this idea.  “I just love it,” he said.  Initially, it seems like a kind of Trump loyalty test, he said, but he looks at it differently…

It’s an IQ test.

“If you think that January 6 was an insurrection, today --- TODAY --- you’re a (bleeping) idiot,” he said.  “That’s the end of the story.  And I would love to get a list of all the idiots.  This is really useful...If you can get everybody to sign up whether they’re so...dumb that today they actually think that was an insurrection or rebellion, I do want to know them.  I want to know their names.  Don’t you want to know the name of somebody who would be this dumb?  ‘Cause that’s too dumb to be an elected official. 

“...If you believe it at this point, that should be the end of your career.”

Later in the same podcast, Adams brought up Monday’s Judiciary Committee hearing in which Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie questioned J6 Committee Chair Bennie Thompson about the Secret Service texts from January 5 and 6 that were deleted in violation of records retention laws.

“How many times have Democrats destroyed records and gotten away with it?” Adams mused.  “Is anybody keeping a record?”  He cited perhaps the prime example, Hillary, but went on to say, “Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t there several stories like that?  And they’re all Democrats...people who were caught red-handed, and they’d deleted the only thing that would get them into trouble?”  (We would cite the “disappeared” deposition transcripts from Thompson’s own committee.)

“I don’t know, it’s sort of telling me that as a legal strategy, you should destroy any records no matter how legally they’ve been requested,” he said.  “I feel like destroying records is just a smart play at this point, because it keeps working.”

Scott forgot to mention one thing:  this will work for you only if you’re a Democrat.  If that’s you, grab a hammer and knock yourself out.

If you’re like us, every time you see Rep. Massie’s name in a headline these days, you think, “Oh, yeah --- this is gonna be GOOD!”  And in Monday’s hearing, Massie did not disappoint.

You’d think Massie had studied law, with his masterful questioning of Thompson. He asked Thompson whether his committee’s investigation had been “hindered in part” by the deletion of Secret Service text messages from January 6, and Thompson responded, “We could have had a better and more thorough report had we access to all those records.”

Massie then showed that Thompson and committee member Liz Cheney had said in a statement from July 2022 that it would be a violation of the Congressional Records Act to delete cellphone records after they’d been requested by Congress.  It read in part, “Four House committees [note:  this was at the time they were all chaired by Democrats] had already sought these critical records from the Department of Homeland Security before the records were apparently lost.  Additionally, the procedure for preserving content prior to this purge appears to have been contrary to Federal Records Retention requirements and may represent a possible violation of the Federal Records Act.  The Committee is seeking additional Secret Service records as well...”

He then got Thompson to agree that deleting the records was indeed a violation.  Thompson said the records were deleted “when President Trump was in office.”  But Massie established through a statement from the Secret Service that the Office of Inspector General had requested the records on February 26, 2021, and found out the process for “migrating” (switching) phones was “still underway.”  Mayorkas had been confirmed on February 2, almost a month before.  (Note:  Trump had also left office on January 20.)

Massie said this looked like obstruction of Congress and should still be looked into, “regardless of who found out about it, and frankly, regardless of who was the President is.”  It seemed to him that “Mayorkas hasn’t done anything about this.”

After establishing with Thompson that the Secret Service was ultimately responsible for Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ safety on January 6, he asked Thompson where Harris was that day.

“I don’t know,” he said.

When asked if he knew about the two pipe bombs, Thompson said he did.  So Massie pressed, “So you’re in charge of the entire investigation of what happened on January 6 and what led up to January 6, and you don’t know that the...incoming Vice President was in the DNC when that pipe bomb was sitting there?”

Thompson’s interest in this was curiously underwhelming.  “I don’t, you know, we did not --- our investigation was looking at the facts and circumstances.  We knew that there were pipe bombs.  We just --- I’m sure the evidence will say she was wherever she is.  But, you know, I’m trying to get to your point.”

Massie had to explain to him that if the bomb had gone off, it could have been “the worst assassination since JFK.”

When asked if his committee did or did not investigate the pipe bomb, Thompson said they were “not a criminal investigation.”  They weren’t there to determine “who laid the bomb or anything like that.”  To that, Massie pointed out that “a lot of criminal indictments” came out of their investigation.  

Massie then walked Thompson through the recently revealed pipe bomb video that showed problems with the government’s narrative.  The government has maintained these were viable bombs that had been planted the night before, he said, but they had kitchen timers that could only be set for an hour.  Also, even though it has since been established that VP-elect Harris was at DNC headquarters, the discovery of the bomb by a plainclothes Capitol Hill police officer seems to have spurred no quick reaction; in fact, it took them “about four minutes” to start responding.  And we know now that it took ten minutes to evacuate Harris.

(Later in the conversation, Thompson said he hadn’t seen this video, claiming that “a lot of what you’ve said today, I have not been privy to.”  This is THE CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE.)

The odd nature of the Secret Service response, Massie told Thompson, was why he’s interested in the deletion of those Secret Service text messages.  “And I would’ve thought,” he said, “the January 6 Committee would have been interested in the two most threatening weapons that were present on January 6 that day.”  He couldn’t help but wonder if Thompson was interested in whether Secretary Mayorkas was concerned about the deletion of those texts.  Four committees, including theirs, had specifically requested these electronic communications, yet the Secret Service continued deleting them.

“I’m not as concerned about that day [January 6] as I am now about the information we can’t get and the information that he [Mayorkas] hasn’t tried to get, as far as I can tell,” Massie said, calling the pipe bomb story “the most serious but least investigated event of January 6.”  “...Apparently, it’s still the word of the Secret Service that this stuff is deleted and it ain’t never comin’ back.  Because they didn’t just delete the electronics; they destroyed phones.”

“...I am concerned,” Massie said, “that Secretary Mayorkas is, either through acts of commission or omission, involved in this obstruction of Congress.”  It seems to Massie like “a clear-cut case.”

The video of this full exchange is not to be missed.

https://massie.house.gov

REDSTATE includes some reactions online to this fascinating conversation.

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2024/02/06/watch-massies-fascinating-questioning-of-bennie-thompson-on-deleted-jan-6-texts-and-pipe-bombs-n2169710

If you’d like to know more about Rep. Massie, here’s his website bio.  He might not be a lawyer, but he sure can question like one.  His degrees are in science and engineering, so he actually cares about getting facts straight. He’s one smart guy and a real conservative.

https://massie.house.gov/about/

 

Pat Reeder, Staff writer

We are shocked and saddened to have to report that country superstar Toby Keith has died at 62 after a battle with stomach cancer. A brief statement was posted early this morning on his website and social media accounts, reading, "Toby Keith passed away peacefully last night on February 5th, surrounded by his family. He fought his fight with grace and courage. Please respect the privacy of his family at this time." 

https://www.westernjournal.com/country-music-icon-toby-keith-dies-age-62/

The Oklahoma native burst onto the scene with his debut album, “Toby Keith,” in 1993. His first single, “Should’ve Been A Cowboy,” hit #1 and became the most-played country song of the ‘90s. He released 19 studio albums, two Christmas albums and five compilations that together have sold over 40 million copies. He released 61 Billboard charting singles, including 42 top ten hits, 20 of which reached #1. “As Good As I Once Was” and “Beer For My Horses” (with Willie Nelson) both remained in the #1 spot for six weeks.

Keith’s outspoken patriotism often ticked off leftists, but he did not care. His response to the 9/11 attacks was the song "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)," with its famous declaration that “We’ll put a boot in your a**, it’s the American way.” He also showed his support for the troops with the 2003 hit “American Soldier” and 11 USO tours. And he raised millions in charity, including a home in Oklahoma for kids with cancer and their families.   

Gov. Huckabee has many cherished memories of guests on his Fox and TBN shows, but one of his favorites of all time was interviewing and playing bass with Toby Keith. Fortunately, that clip is available on YouTube. You can relive it at this link:

https://youtu.be/sTaD7l7jUEc?si=O3R1kGD2y1i2xdME

Our prayers and condolences go out to Toby Keith’s family and all his fans, who include all of us here.

 

The federal government used the pandemic as an excuse to load up cannons with borrowed money and blast it in all directions (particularly to Democrat cronies and voting blocs), but here’s one place where a big bundle of it landed that you might not know about:

$340 million was taken out of the federally-funded Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund and distributed in the form of $1,000 checks to illegal immigrants. They were supposedly ineligible to receive federal COVID aid, but wherever there’s Democratic leadership, there’s a way to get around the rules that everyone else is expected to follow. Just take the federal funds, put them in a state fund, and distribute it to illegal aliens out of that. 

Yes, they did get the Biden Administration to approve the transfer, which the Economic Policy Innovation Center says means that “the Biden Administration directly subsidized ‘undocumented’ immigration under the guise of COVID-19 pandemic relief.” Another shocking but unsurprising story.

Read this: 

https://www.westernjournal.com/new-report-shows-340-million-federal-covid-relief-turned-cash-transfers-subsidizing-illegal-immigration/

 

Mike Huckabee

While SCINO (“Special Counsel in Name Only”) Jack Smith is attempting to railroad former President Trump into federal prison for possessing his own Administration’s classified documents that he had the power to declassify in a safe space under armed guard, the Biden DOJ has already decided not to prosecute Joe Biden for having classified documents in his unsecured garage that as a Senator and Vice President, he had no right to declassify or possess.

But at least, before the left can completely repeal the First Amendment, we still have the right to point this out. And the Biden White House is so panicked about his reelection chances, they’re actually sweating over that.

https://www.axios.com/2024/02/04/biden-special-counsel-classified-docs-trump

The special counsel’s report of the investigation into Biden’s careless handling of classified documents is coming out soon, and Biden’s people are reportedly worried about it being politically damaging. Gee, ya think? That maybe when Americans actually see that Biden did something far worse than what Trump’s facing multiple felony charges for and was allowed to skate away clean, they might have even less respect for our federal legal authorities than they already do, if such a thing is possible? That they’ll see those boxes of sensitive government documents in Joe's garage and wonder, “Did Hunter read those, or use any of them to roll joints?”   

I sincerely hope they do! The release of this report absolutely should make Americans think there’s a two-tiered justice system and this Administration has weaponized it to target their political opponent because that’s as true and obvious as the sun rising in the east.

By the way, despite Axios being an annoyingly biased leftwing site, I’m linking to their story about this for two reasons: It has some good bullet point info, and it’s enlightening to see how they try to slant the story to sound as if what Trump did was very serious and so much worse than Biden and that this is just a matter of public perceptions. I’ve seen Olympic figure skaters who couldn’t spin that fast without falling over.  

 

Mike Huckabee

This morning, the US Federal Appeals Court in DC ruled that former President Trump does not have immunity from prosecution for actions taken in office regarding the 2020 election case. This will be treated by the media as a big anti-Trump bombshell, but it’s completely expected from the DC court. The real decision will come from the Supreme Court on appeal.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-not-immune-prosecution-2020-election-case-federal-appeals-court-rules

For those who wonder why all the trials and convictions for Trump and his supporters seem to fall in deep blue areas like New York City or DC, this should give you a clue:

https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/exclusive-survey-reveals-extreme-bias-toward-jan-6-defendants-among-potential-dc-jurors-5567954

The Epoch Times reports that a survey by Triton Research of “jury eligible residents” of DC uncovered extreme bias against Trump and his supporters. 75% “strongly” agree and 14.4% “somewhat” agree that Trump is to blame for the January 6^th riot, and 76.6% agree that Trump’s supporters are racists. 27.5% describe Jan. 6 protestors as “insurrectionists,” 13% call them “criminals,”14.9 say they’re “domestic terrorists” and 11.5% call them “traitors.”

Asked if 47.5% “strongly agree” and 21.1% “somewhat agree” that “Donald Trump and his supporters should be stopped at all costs.” 68.6% say Jan. 6 protesters should be “punished to the fullest extent of the law to prevent anything like this from happening again” and 40.1% agree that “America is a safer place with them in prison” (I could say the same about the entire Biden Cabinet, but they probably wouldn't put me on their juries.) 

51.4% “strongly agree” and 17.4% “somewhat agree” that “anyone who participated in the events at the Capitol on January 6 should serve prison time,” “regardless of what they did” (Walk through an open door of a public building and take a selfie: go to prison. Burn down a police station, no charges.)  And 26.9% “strongly agree” and 21.1% “somewhat agree” that life in prison or the DEATH PENALTY would “be a fair punishment for anyone who participated in any of the events of January 6.”

There’s more along these lines, but you get the idea. Finally, over 80% said they would serve as a juror if called, with nearly 40% saying that they “want to be on that jury to make sure the defendant is found guilty and held accountable for the events of that day.” I get the feeling a lot of these people have already served on Jan. 6 DC juries.

Just remember this the next time any Republican is found guilty by a DC jury after the judge refused to allow a change of venue due to jury pool bias.

 

Mike Huckabee

Friday afternoon, the Biden Administration launched attacks on 85 targets at three facilities in Iraq and four in Syria that are associated with the Iran-backed militants believed to be responsible for the drone attack that killed three American service members and injured dozens more.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/02/02/u-s-military-begins-retaliatory-strikes-for-three-u-s-troops-killed-in-jordan/

But a White House spokesman insisted that “We do not seek a conflict with Iran.” Iran is issuing its usual blustering threats (and let’s hope they haven’t sent a few thousand terrorists into the US along with the millions of illegal aliens Biden has let in.) Biden is being slammed by Republicans and some military experts for telegraphing the targets in advance, giving our enemies plenty of time to evacuate their people and equipment.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/02/02/exclusive-rep-waltz-biden-deliberately-sabotaging-surprise-element-in-response-to-iran-backed-attack-on-u-s-troops/

It’s tragic and infuriating that we find ourselves in this position, having to rely on the Biden White House to have the intelligence to thread the needle and apply just enough force to annihilate the attackers while not starting World War III. But that’s the situation we find ourselves in because the projection of weakness from this White House encouraged our enemies to step up and test us.

When Trump was in office, the left was constantly attacking him: he was a “loose cannon,” a “bully,” and other nations didn’t like him. Good. I don’t care if our enemies “love” our President. I’m more terrified if they do. I want them to be afraid of what he’ll do if they dare to attack us. This is the law of nature in the jungle: The mice might hate the lion, but they never attack the lion.

There’s an aphorism attributed to communist leader Vladimir Lenin: Probe with your bayonet. If you encounter mush, proceed; if you encounter steel, withdraw. Our enemies assume that Biden is a heaping bowl of mush. They’re watching this latest military escalation very closely to see if he’s finally developed some steel in his spine, or if this is just a lump in the mush.

Mike Huckabee

Here’s a brain teaser for you. See if you can connect the dots between these two stories. If you can, then you are too intelligent to be a member of the California legislature…

1. Wednesday, California legislators introduced 14 different “reparations” bills. They are expected to pass easily and be signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. They would take billions of dollars away from people who never owned slaves and were not descended from slave owners in a state that never allowed slavery, and give it to people who never were slaves and may or may not be descendants of slaves.

https://amgreatness.com/2024/02/01/california-legislature-introduces-slavery-reparations-bills/

These bills would also provide “reparations” on a variety of other fronts, such as allegedly race-based takings of property under eminent domain. All this would likely face expensive legal challenges, since that’s clearly racially discriminatory: people of all races have lost property to eminent domain, but only people of certain races would be paid for it.

Now, see if you spot a connection from that story to this story…

2. The Mieses Institute warns that we may be facing an unprecedented wave of states (all blue states, like New York, New Jersey and Illinois) that will be forced to declare bankruptcy to get out from under their huge debt load, amassed from runaway spending combined with driving out productive, taxpaying citizens. The leading state in terms of bankruptcy risk: California, which went virtually overnight from allegedly having a $98 billion surplus to having a $68 billion deficit.

https://thelibertydaily.com/commiefornia-new-york-more-may-be-first-coming/

It’s not clear what would happen economically if entire states defaulted on their bond debt. But with Democrats and too many complicit big government Republicans in charge in Washington, the federal government may be in even worse shape. As that article notes, there are twelve states, mostly those with constitutions that require them to balance their budgets, that have higher credit ratings than the USA.

Extremely Related: I often see anti-Trump commenters online claiming that the only reason Trump is doing well in polls is because Biden is so terrible, but if he drops out and is replaced by someone like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, then Trump would lose in a landslide. While I do think Biden makes almost anyone else look better in comparison, do Americans really want their entire nation to be run like California? (Biden is already giving that a try, right down to trying to impose new rules to kill contractor and gig work.)

Here's an example of how Newsom is running California, and why he’s shocked that anyone might blame him for the rampant crime that’s turned every store into a soon-to-close provider of free goods to brazen shoplifters.

https://pjmedia.com/victoria-taft/2024/02/01/newsom-target-story-n4926021

Someone should check his hair gel to see if it causes brain damage. Maybe he had to buy an off-brand because it was the only thing left on the shelves at Walgreens.

Mike Huckabee

11 years ago on Feb 2, true American hero Chris Kyle was murdered by a troubled vet Chris was trying to help. Chris's widow Taya and son Colton keep the legacy alive. I'm proud to wear t-shirt honoring Chris Kyle.

https://americansniper.com

Mike Huckabee

Blessings on you and your family from all the Huckabee team! Today, if you have a moment, leave me a comment about something you read. Comments help me fine tune what I am writing, and they show that we have an active community of readers.

Sincerely,

Mike Huckabee

---

Daily Bible Verse

Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me.”

Matthew 19:21

Newsletter Notes

9 stories

3,584 words

Reading time: About 17 minutes

Rewarding terrorism?

Yesterday, I linked to a report that the UK government was considering rewarding terrorism by recognizing Palestine as a sovereign state. It disgusts me to have to report that the Biden State Department is reportedly considering the same betrayal of Israel.

https://www.westernjournal.com/biden-administration-considering-ultimate-betrayal-israel-report/

If Biden’s crew recognizes a Palestinian state or lifts its veto to allow the UN Security Council to admit Palestine as a “full UN member state,” then as one astute commenter on Twitter (X) put it, Hamas and Iran will have gotten everything they wanted out of the October 7^th terrorist attack on Israel.

I’m used to Biden folding like a cheap card table before our enemies, but this would be like a cheap card table with all the screws loose. Let us pray that they don’t make this dangerously stupid move, and that by the next election, liberal Jewish voters will have realized that “mean tweets” are preferable to empowering anti-Semites who want to commit genocide.

Here’s how bad the Democrats’ internal polls for Joe Biden must be:

A full year after the train derailment and toxic chemical spill that devastated East Palestine, Ohio, it was announced that Biden will finally visit the town. For reference, Trump wasn’t even President anymore, and he visited there two weeks after it happened and donated a truckload of bottled water (Fun fact: leftists on social media attacked him for visiting, blamed the train derailment on him, and falsely claimed that the water was 13 years old. Imagine what they would have said about him if he didn't show up at all, then only came because it was an election year.)

https://www.westernjournal.com/trump-sees-right-bidens-ploy-east-palestine-visit-finally-announced-year-train-disaster/

After a solid year of the White House ignoring pleas for help from the people of East Palestine (Biden seems more concerned about the people of Middle Eastern Palestine), this sudden about-face isn’t going over too well with locals who are blasting Biden’s cynical, Johnny-come-lately visit online.

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2024/01/31/biden-east-finally-going-to-east-palestine-n2169444

The mayor cordially welcomed the visit, but pointedly said that the best time for Biden to visit (other than right after the catastrophe actually happened) would be in 2025, “when he's on his book tour.”

https://rumble.com/v4aomvc-east-palestine-mayor-says-the-best-time-for-biden-to-visit-would-be-2025-wh.html

When asked if Biden will drink the water in East Palestine (the safety of that was a major concern), White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dodged the question, declaring, "This is about this President being a president for everyone and showing up for this community. I'm not going to get into some political stunts about drinking water."

Besides, if he’s thirsty, they can hand him a bottle of that Trump-branded water. That would be a great photo-op. And incidentally, as someone who was Governor of Arkansas for 10 years and who had to deal with my share of calamities, like tornadoes, I can confirm that “showing up for the community” is an important part of the job. But when it takes you a year, is that really “showing up?”

Absolutely astonishing:

Georgia state Senator Colton Moore captured video of groups of illegal aliens from all over the world who were dropped off from ICE detention at the Atlanta Airport. Moore said they were being kept in a packed room at the airport with the door guarded by an Army soldier who told Moore he wasn’t allowed to video it and tried to take away his phone.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/saraharnold/2024/01/31/a-ga-state-senator-appears-to-show-groups-of-illegal-immigrants-in-a-room-at-atl-airport-n2634457

Moore said, “It was a scrimmage between he and I in order to get the phone back. And then he proceeded to tell me to get out of there and just made a real big scene out of it.”

Well, it’s gratifying to hear that there’s still one person in the government who’s trying to enforce security rules at airports. Too bad it’s the rule against Senators making cell phone videos and not the rule about not letting a lot of unvetted, illegal foreign nationals into our airports.

UPDATE:

Michael Roman, the Trump co-defendant in the ridiculous Georgia RICO prosecution who exposed the alleged improper romantic and financial relationship between Fulton County DA Fani Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade, just took it up a notch. His attorneys have slapped Willis and Wade with subpoenas ordering them to testify in an evidentiary hearing into their alleged corruption that could determine whether they’ll be disqualified from prosecuting the case.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/miacathell/2024/02/01/fani-willis-subpoenaed-feb-15-hearing-n2634437

Well, I’ve got to give this to Ms. Willis. She claimed that this case would expose shocking corruption among government officials, and it has.

Self-Deterring & Underwhelming

By Kenneth Allard

Even if you’re a blue-dog Democrat who considers Joe Biden a national security guru, do you really think our adversaries are deterred whenever they hear him, his Vice President or his secretaries of state and defense collectively mouthing the word: “Don’t”? No, I don’t think so either and not just because the Persian ancestors of today’s Iranian mullahs are often credited with inventing chess. You see, chess is a game of great subtlety where outcomes depend on discerning an opponent’s strategy, sensing when he is constructing a trap, planning a daring gambit – or simply bluffing because the game is already well past his depth. Nor would a chess master have to be particularly astute to discern the especially uneven track record that Messrs. Biden, Blinken and Austin have blundered into - from Afghanistan and Ukraine to the Chinese spy balloon and now the Israeli-Hamas war. In fact, you can make a far better counter-argument that our global adversaries have profited by consistently acting against whatever transient interest happened to be the American policy du jour. 

The odds against us are so dire that today you have to wonder if our president has any remaining “street-creds” with either our allies or our enemies. You might remember a similar situation depicted in the 1987 movie, “The Untouchables,” a fictionalized account of how Al Capone’s empire was crushed during the Prohibition era. In one of its most memorable scenes, Sean Connery plays a tough-as-nails street-cop who instructs District Attorney Elliot Ness on how deterrence is measured in Chicago’s gangland.  Their no-nonsense dialogue went something like this: “He comes at you with a knife, you answer with a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send two of his to the morgue. So what are you prepared to do, Mr. Ness?”

So what are you really prepared to do now, Mr. Biden? Can you please begin by not trembling every time you mumble that the US wants no wider war with Iran! The only message those repeated aversions produce in Teheran is the certainty that they are on a winning path, that their strategy of fighting to the last Houthi is succeeding brilliantly. Being chess masters, the Iranians understand indirection, the art of moving pawns across the board in a way that sews confusion and distress in the Nirvana of official Washington. From Foggy Bottom to the Pentagon’s five-sided puzzle palace, they endlessly plan on having plans and success is even more relative than with their Kissin’ Cousins in West Virginia. Can you possibly understand that our adversaries around the world have watched gleefully over the last three years as every quasi-threat issued by your administration has proven hollow? Sadly, that is true even here in Texas, which never needed a foreign policy until you and Mr. Mayorkas reversed Federal law and all common sense, opening our borders to the worst subversion in our collective history!

Forgive my candor but your disastrous record at home and abroad has produced the polar opposite of deterrence, ill-considered threats that lately shed the blood of our best and brightest. As you stand at Dover tomorrow to provide a dignified reception for their remains, please comfort their families and the nation which sent them by at least attempting to perform the role of their Commander-in-Chief. Understand that the whole world will be watching, wondering if the America which rode to their rescue so many times in history has become so fatally divided that its own survival is now in question.

So how are you now prepared to answer them, Mr. Biden, particularly as your spokes-persons assure us that your threats finally have real meaning? Will you be able to discern that critical dividing line between Target Destroyed and What Have We Done? Whatever your decision, will you keep faith with those brave, long-suffering soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines sent to do your bidding? Finally, try to remember that your primary duty as a wartime leader is to provide a sticking point for the nation’s will to prevail against its adversaries, no matter how unprepared you may feel for that role. And as you take those first measured steps toward conflict, have you considered doing what FDR did on D-Day and leading the nation in prayer?

Colonel (Ret.) Kenneth Allard is a former West Point faculty member, Dean of the National War College and NBC News military analyst.

Replaced by Another Political Hack

Since John Kerry is stepping down as Biden’s “climate czar” to go back into politics and try to help Biden get reelected President (is he actually considered an expert at that?), I guess it’s only appropriate that he will be replaced as “climate czar” by yet another Democrat political hack: John Podesta.

https://www.breitbart.com/environment/2024/02/01/white-house-taps-john-podesta-to-succeed-john-kerry-as-u-s-climate-envoy/

Podesta’s climate science experience includes helping negotiate Obama’s Paris Climate Accord and overseeing spending on “green energy” in Biden’s “Inflation Reduction Act.” In short, blowing enormous amounts of borrowed money and making deals that harm America while enriching other nations like China that pollute far worse than we do.

Yep, he’s the perfect replacement for John Kerry, all right!

Babylon Bee: Biden has a new press secretary

No wonder President Biden can’t close the border or reduce inflation or make any headway in the Middle East or with Russia/Ukraine. He’s too busy communicating with much more important people. Well, not people, exactly. Muppets…

https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2024/01/31/joe-bidens-response-to-elmos-viral-online-wellness-check-backfires-as-americans-fault-him-for-their-depression/

The Babylon Bee is already on the story…

https://babylonbee.com/news/biden-names-elmo-new-press-secretary

I have to admit, that would be an immense improvement.

And as long as we’re checking in with the Babylon Bee, here are a few more much-needed laughs from stories that aren’t really that much faker than anything on MSNBC.

https://babylonbee.com/news/mike-lindell-arrives-in-texas-to-build-a-mypillow-border-wall

https://babylonbee.com/news/biden-cleverly-distracts-from-civil-war-by-starting-world-war

https://babylonbee.com/news/california-becomes-first-state-to-ban-heterosexual-marriage

https://babylonbee.com/news/mayorkas-says-hes-not-sure-how-he-can-be-impeached-when-he-doesnt-even-do-anything

O’Keefe gets on-camera admission of Biden’s mental decline, Kamala’s unpopularity

James O’Keefe, founder of Project Veritas and now O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) and the Citizen Journalism Foundation, has done it again, using a disguise and hidden cameras to dig past the messages you and I are told and get to the truth we otherwise might never hear.

O’Keefe’s face is well known in Washington DC, so he colored his hair and wore fake glasses to go to a restaurant on January 21, 2024, for a “first date” with someone who works in the Executive Office of the President.  This individual is Cybersecurity Policy Analyst Charlie Kraiger, who does the usual first-date thing of impressing his companion with “inside” information relating to what he does for a living.  No doubt it does impress first dates when you tell them you work “for the White House.”

That’s why it’s so hilarious when he tells O’Keefe at one point, “I’m good at keeping secrets.”  What he’s good at is singing like a canary.

He says he manages cybersecurity for two federal agencies, the State Department and USAID.  (Side note:  That’s the United States Agency for International Development, which is headed by Obama’s UN ambassador Samantha Power, remembered in part for her name being on many, many surveillance requests.  President Biden nominated her to run USAID in January 2021.  She’s yet another Obama holdover.)

https://www.usaid.gov

Kraiger’s job, he tells O’Keefe, is “oversight management.”  He helps oversee “responses to cyber incidents and cybersecurity problems.”  He protects “the networks of the federal agencies” that “you give all your information to.”  He says also that “we’re the President’s voice when we go into meetings, in terms of discussing and promoting the President’s priorities.”  (Aside:  well, this President does have trouble being his own voice.)  “I have recurring meetings with them where we talk about goals and we talk about the President’s priorities, and, like, how they are coming on certain executive order deliverables and all of this kind of stuff.”

Then the conversation gets gossipy, with Kraiger exclaiming at one point, “I’m just telling you what I’ve heard!”  O’Keefe leads the conversation by telling him he “loves all of Biden’s policies” but is concerned about the President’s mental fitness, saying, “Just witnessing --- it’s a bad look.  He stumbles to talk.”  Kraiger answers lightly, “Yes, he’s no Barack Obama.”

When O’Keefe flat-out asks him if Biden is going to be the nominee, he immediately answers, “Yes.”  O’Keefe shakes his head slightly, giving Kraiger a nonverbal cue that it’s okay to freely admit their concerns about this.

So, do his colleagues at the White House realize Biden has this problem?  Kreiger answers slowly, “I think that they probably do, but no one in modern history has ever said, like we’re not gonna renominate the President for a second term.  That just hasn’t happened.”

“And she [Kamala] will be the Vice President nominee,” Kraiger continues.  “There was a debate about removing her from the ticket, but, sadly, they didn’t.”

Kraiger brings up one of the weirder problems with Kamala, that she “can’t keep black staff.”  They “quit en masse.”  Even THE NEW YORK TIMES did a story about this, he says.  “People sent it around the office; everyone was like, ‘Oh (bleep).’”

When O’Keefe brings up the concern that Biden has “got dementia,” Kraiger says he hasn’t been diagnosed, but “he’s definitely slowing down.”  When asked if his colleagues at the White House realize this, he says, “I think so,” and also mentions the bad polling.  His colleagues talk privately of their concerns, he says, but they can’t speak publicly --- “no, no, no” --- about either Biden’s cognitive dysfunction or Kamala’s unpopularity.  “They have to toe the line.”

Note that he’s spilling this to his “date,” whom he has just met.

“They know it.  Of course they do.  But it’s the optics and, like, the scandal I think they feel wouldn’t be worth it...Does it make sense?  No, but that’s what I’ve heard.”

“You can’t remove the first black lady to be Vice President from the (bleep) presidential ticket.”  Because of the message it would give to black voters, “how would you spin that?”

“Like, she’s a woman, and she’s multiracial...I think they’re really concerned about that.”

“I think they need to get rid of him or get rid of her.  But I don’t think they’re gonna do that.”

(Another aside: Note that nowhere in this conversation was the topic raised about how dangerous it might be to America to retain a President who’s clearly in mental decline. The first and only consideration is protecting the Democratic Party and staying in power. If the guy they’re protecting leads the entire nations over a cliff, destroys national security and the economy, and gets us into World War III, that’s just a risk they’re willing to take.)

Of course, bringing in Michelle Obama to save the day would solve the Democrats’ race-and-gender problem, and this does seem likelier (to us) every day, but Kraiger tells O’Keefe he doesn’t think it will happen.  Still, he’s basing that prediction on a remark he heard her make years ago in a meeting, when he was just an intern.  When asked then if she would ever run for office, she’d said no, he told O’Keefe.  Paraphrasing her, he said Michelle had told them she’d seen all this (bleep) her husband had had to go through and it didn’t interest her.

Finally, O’Keefe decides to end the conversation.  “So you work in cybersecurity for the White House,” he says as he removes his glasses, “and my question is, what are you doing in a meeting with James O’Keefe?  And how do you think it looks to the American people that working in the Office of Cybersecurity, you’re sitting across the table from James O’Keefe?”

“...What type of cybersecurity operation are you guys running over there?...Did you not do your research?”  O’Keefe suggests they were running “a clown show.”

Sounds like it, but this is a serious concern.  (Note:  we do expect O’Keefe to supply an unedited video of the complete conversation.)  What if a spy for China or another adversary had pulled the same “dating” ploy to get information about the most pressing concerns at the White House?  Maybe start a relationship with someone there --- it apparently isn’t hard --- just to have an ongoing source of information?  How many would-be Eric Swalwells are working in such proximity to power?

Since this meeting, Charlie Kraiger’s social media has been scrubbed.  (Just as well; it said he likes “long walks on the beach” and “diplomatic negotiations.” Ick.)  And today, O’Keefe will release a follow-up video to let us know what else has happened since the ambush of this Chatty Kathy.

https://thelibertydaily.com/james-okeefe-gets-top-white-house-cyber-official/

UPDATE on January 6 “pipe bomber” story

We’d thought Dan Bongino might have had FBI agent-turned-whistleblower Kyle Seraphin on his Wednesday show to talk about the latest revelations about the J6 pipe bomber “investigation,” but it was not to be.  (His guest instead was Peter Navarro, still great.)  Perhaps Seraphin will be on today, but in the meantime, Bongino did have much more to say about it himself on his podcast.

He said he’d been 99 percent sure that the pipe bombs were a set-up designed to stop any congressional discussion of mail-in ballot security prior to certification of the election, but that now he has no doubt whatsoever, not even that 1 percent.  Now he says there is no other possible explanation, and he’s absolutely sure it was an “op.”  If they’d needed it, he explained, they would’ve had an attempted assassination of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to blame on Trump and “MAGA Republicans.”

Recall that Seraphin has said the FBI had identified the person who appeared to have placed the bombs late on January 5 (though we’ve never seen video of him placing them) by using security-cam video to trace his walk to the Metro and also the card he used to take the train.  Video also caught him getting into a car at his destination, and both the license number of the car and the Metro card were linked to the same name.  The FBI found out where this “person of interest” lived and had Seraphin and his team stake it out for a period of days, but blocked them when they asked to conduct an interview.  The entire team was taken off this lead and put on low-level J6 cases.

The man they wanted to talk to happens to be a former Air Force chief master sergeant who retains his security clearance and is now working as a contractor.  Whoa.

Bongino isn’t sure, but he also speculates that the plainclothes Capitol Police officer who walked by and apparently found the bomb by the bench in front of the DNC wasn’t supposed to find it, and that this messed up their plan.  Or else he was unknowingly sent there to find it and wasn’t in on the full operation --- until later, when he would’ve realized this and is now having to keep his mouth shut.

That might explain why we also haven’t been told this person’s identity.  Really, it’s so odd that we haven’t, because, gosh, he found the pipe bomb that could have blown up the Vice President-elect!  He foiled a domestic terrorist plot!  He’s a hero!  Why don’t we even know his name?

I know this story sounds increasingly like something out of a spy thriller, but Bongino worked in the Secret Service himself for a decade and is quite familiar with the way these ops work.  What sounds like wild conspiracy theory to someone else might sound to Bongino like “Thursday.”

Bongino starts talking about the pipe bomber case at 14 minutes in.  He expresses frustration that so few are talking about it; I wonder if he’s aware we’re among the “handful” (his word) who are.

https://bongino.com/ep-2177-the-j6-bomber-case-just-got-even-stranger

“We’re getting to the point now of no return,” he concludes, “when the government and the FBI has become so accustomed to lying to us and setting up fake narratives to benefit themselves...that government insiders in the National Security Council and the FBI and elsewhere have been so used to giving you all the middle finger that even the idea of doing the right thing right now is like a foreign concept.  And once that psychology sets in that they can (bleep) us over, it’s all gone, folks.”

If you’d like a thorough recap of what we know so far about the pipe bomber case, REVOLVER NEWS has a detailed one, here.  They’ve been doing some amazing reporting on this --- with help from Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, who is on it --- and they share Bongino’s opinion that, in their words, “the January 6 pipe bombs are 100 percent a hoax and 100 percent a cover-up.”

https://revolver.news/2024/01/the-plot-thickens-damning-new-details-emerge-in-jan-6-pipe-bomb-cover-up/

I Just Wanted to Say

Thank you for reading my newsletter.

Kenneth Allard

Even if you’re a blue-dog Democrat who considers Joe Biden a national security guru, do you really think our adversaries are deterred whenever they hear him, his Vice President or his secretaries of state and defense collectively mouthing the word: “Don’t”? No, I don’t think so either and not just because the Persian ancestors of today’s Iranian mullahs are often credited with inventing chess. You see, chess is a game of great subtlety where outcomes depend on discerning an opponent’s strategy, sensing when he is constructing a trap, planning a daring gambit – or simply bluffing because the game is already well past his depth. Nor would a chess master have to be particularly astute to discern the especially uneven track record that Messrs. Biden, Blinken and Austin have blundered into - from Afghanistan and Ukraine to the Chinese spy balloon and now the Israeli-Hamas war. In fact, you can make a far better counter-argument that our global adversaries have profited by consistently acting against whatever transient interest happened to be the American policy du jour. 

The odds against us are so dire that today you have to wonder if our president has any remaining “street-creds” with either our allies or our enemies. You might remember a similar situation depicted in the 1987 movie, “The Untouchables,” a fictionalized account of how Al Capone’s empire was crushed during the Prohibition era. In one of its most memorable scenes, Sean Connery plays a tough-as-nails street-cop who instructs District Attorney Elliot Ness on how deterrence is measured in Chicago’s gangland.  Their no-nonsense dialogue went something like this: “He comes at you with a knife, you answer with a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send two of his to the morgue. So what are you prepared to do, Mr. Ness?”

So what are you really prepared to do now, Mr. Biden? Can you please begin by not trembling every time you mumble that the US wants no wider war with Iran! The only message those repeated aversions produce in Teheran is the certainty that they are on a winning path, that their strategy of fighting to the last Houthi is succeeding brilliantly. Being chess masters, the Iranians understand indirection, the art of moving pawns across the board in a way that sews confusion and distress in the Nirvana of official Washington. From Foggy Bottom to the Pentagon’s five-sided puzzle palace, they endlessly plan on having plans and success is even more relative than with their Kissin’ Cousins in West Virginia. Can you possibly understand that our adversaries around the world have watched gleefully over the last three years as every quasi-threat issued by your administration has proven hollow? Sadly, that is true even here in Texas, which never needed a foreign policy until you and Mr. Mayorkas reversed Federal law and all common sense, opening our borders to the worst subversion in our collective history!

Forgive my candor but your disastrous record at home and abroad has produced the polar opposite of deterrence, ill-considered threats that lately shed the blood of our best and brightest. As you stand at Dover tomorrow to provide a dignified reception for their remains, please comfort their families and the nation which sent them by at least attempting to perform the role of their Commander-in-Chief. Understand that the whole world will be watching, wondering if the America which rode to their rescue so many times in history has become so fatally divided that its own survival is now in question.

So how are you now prepared to answer them, Mr. Biden, particularly as your spokes-persons assure us that your threats finally have real meaning? Will you be able to discern that critical dividing line between Target Destroyed and What Have We Done? Whatever your decision, will you keep faith with those brave, long-suffering soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines sent to do your bidding? Finally, try to remember that your primary duty as a wartime leader is to provide a sticking point for the nation’s will to prevail against its adversaries, no matter how unprepared you may feel for that role. And as you take those first measured steps toward conflict, have you considered doing what FDR did on D-Day and leading the nation in prayer?

 

 

Colonel (Ret.) Kenneth Allard is a former West Point faculty member, Dean of the National War College and NBC News military analyst.

Mike Huckabee

We’d thought Dan Bongino might have had FBI agent-turned-whistleblower Kyle Seraphin on his Wednesday show to talk about the latest revelations about the J6 pipe bomber “investigation,” but it was not to be.  (His guest instead was Peter Navarro, still great.)  Perhaps Seraphin will be on today, but in the meantime, Bongino did have much more to say about it himself on his podcast.

He said he’d been 99 percent sure that the pipe bombs were a set-up designed to stop any congressional discussion of mail-in ballot security prior to certification of the election, but that now he has no doubt whatsoever, not even that 1 percent.  Now he says there is no other possible explanation, and he’s absolutely sure it was an “op.”  If they’d needed it, he explained, they would’ve had an attempted assassination of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to blame on Trump and “MAGA Republicans.”

Recall that Seraphin has said the FBI had identified the person who appeared to have placed the bombs late on January 5 (though we’ve never seen video of him placing them) by using security-cam video to trace his walk to the Metro and also the card he used to take the train.  Video also caught him getting into a car at his destination, and both the license number of the car and the Metro card were linked to the same name.  The FBI found out where this “person of interest” lived and had Seraphin and his team stake it out for a period of days, but blocked them when they asked to conduct an interview.  The entire team was taken off this lead and put on low-level J6 cases.

The man they wanted to talk to happens to be a former Air Force chief master sergeant who retains his security clearance and is now working as a contractor.  Whoa.

Bongino isn’t sure, but he also speculates that the plainclothes Capitol Police officer who walked by and apparently found the bomb by the bench in front of the DNC wasn’t supposed to find it, and that this messed up their plan.  Or else he was unknowingly sent there to find it and wasn’t in on the full operation --- until later, when he would’ve realized this and is now having to keep his mouth shut.

That might explain why we also haven’t been told this person’s identity.  Really, it’s so odd that we haven’t, because, gosh, he found the pipe bomb that could have blown up the Vice President-elect!  He foiled a domestic terrorist plot!  He’s a hero!  Why don’t we even know his name?

I know this story sounds increasingly like something out of a spy thriller, but Bongino worked in the Secret Service himself for a decade and is quite familiar with the way these ops work.  What sounds like wild conspiracy theory to someone else might sound to Bongino like “Thursday.”

Bongino starts talking about the pipe bomber case at 14 minutes in.  He expresses frustration that so few are talking about it; I wonder if he’s aware we’re among the “handful” (his word) who are.

https://bongino.com/ep-2177-the-j6-bomber-case-just-got-even-stranger

“We’re getting to the point now of no return,” he concludes, “when the government and the FBI has become so accustomed to lying to us and setting up fake narratives to benefit themselves...that government insiders in the National Security Council and the FBI and elsewhere have been so used to giving you all the middle finger that even the idea of doing the right thing right now is like a foreign concept.  And once that psychology sets in that they can (bleep) us over, it’s all gone, folks.”

If you’d like a thorough recap of what we know so far about the pipe bomber case, REVOLVER NEWS has a detailed one, here.  They’ve been doing some amazing reporting on this --- with help from Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, who is on it --- and they share Bongino’s opinion that, in their words, “the January 6 pipe bombs are 100 percent a hoax and 100 percent a cover-up.”

https://revolver.news/2024/01/the-plot-thickens-damning-new-details-emerge-in-jan-6-pipe-bomb-cover-up/

Mike Huckabee

FBI agent-turned-whistleblower Kyle Seraphin said the FBI had quickly tied the supposed January 6 pipe bomber to a Metro fare card and a license plate but did not allow him to interview the person of interest and pulled his team off that lead.  So reports Luke Rosiak at DAILY WIRE.

Agents had used security camera video along the “bomber’s” route to track him to the Metro station and were able to identify the Metro fare card he used. From the fare card, they determined the stop in Northern Virginia where he got off, and surveillance footage in the parking lot showed him getting into a car.  (This is just the investigative scenario one would think would have taken place, given the abundance of video cameras everywhere.)

The fare card and the license plate were both in the name of the same person:  a retired Air Force chief master sergeant who was now working as a contractor with a security clearance.  Intriguing.

Seraphin and his team were assigned to surveil the home of this “highly specific lead” for days but, incredibly, were blocked from interviewing him.  As Rosiak reports, Seraphin said that “they were called off the target completely and told to pore through low-priority leads about minor January 6 participants.”

Read Rosiak’s full story, here.  If Seraphin is Dan Bongino’s guest today (Wednesday), which is very likely the case, we’ll have an update tomorrow.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/fbi-tied-january-6-pipe-bomber-to-metro-card-of-ex-gov-official-but-blocked-interview-of-him-former-agent-says

And in the meantime, here’s Michael Shellenberger on what we currently know.  (It still refers to the FBI as being “evidently...unable to track him down.”)

https://www.bizpacreview.com/2024/01/21/shellenberger-expands-on-jan-6-pipe-bomb-mystery-house-of-cards-about-to-fall-1429588/

 

Mike Huckabee

Not content with being America’s most successful killer of babies in the womb masquerading as a women’s health clinic, Planned Parenthood is now out to confuse and mislead children by blurring the meanings of “sex” and “virginity” just as the left has for clearcut terms such as “men” and “women.” Now, they’re telling your kids that virginity is a “social construct.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/01/26/planned-parenthood-targets-youth-video-virginity-invents-definition-sex/

Watch the genuinely creepy video at the link, and I think you’ll agree with the comment from Students For Life president Kristan Hawkins: “Planned Parenthood hates kids. It’s just that simple. If they can’t kill them in the womb or sterilize them with gender transition hormones, they’ll corrupt them with sexual degeneracy like this. They are truly monstrous in every single way.”

Another quote worth underlining, from Moms For Liberty: “Planned Parenthood wants to have a footprint in every public school in America. Through the CDC’s ‘Community Schools’ WSCC (Whole School, Whole Child, Whole Community) model, Planned Parenthood will be a ‘community partner’ welcomed into your child’s school. This is what they will teach.”

And this is one of many reasons why so many people now say that keeping your kids in public school is a form of child abuse.

Mike Huckabee

Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, the one Democrat who dared to challenge Biden for the Presidency (and pulled over 20% of the vote in the New Hampshire primary), is running against him from the left on some issues and the right on others. And in one case, he’s just challenging Biden from the standpoint of common sense and basic human decency.

https://www.westernjournal.com/dem-congressman-calls-party-completely-delusional-live-cnn-experienced-trump-rally/

Having zero positive accomplishments to run on, Biden has made his entire reelection campaign about demonizing Trump and his supporters, painting about 72 million Trump voters as racist, extremist, terrorist, fascist enemies of “democracy.” But Phillips, I’m sure, shocked Biden’s sycophants on CNN by telling them, “My party is completely delusional right now.”

Phillips did something that none of Trump’s critics will do: he actually attended a Trump rally and met some MAGA voters.

Phillips said, “I saw the line of people waiting in the cold for hours. And I thought, ‘What the heck?'” He watched Trump greet about 50 people in line, “every single one of them thoughtful, hospitable, friendly — all of them so frustrated that they feel nobody’s listening to them but Donald Trump.” As for the “white nationalist” smear, he said it was a diverse crowd, including people who’d never been to a Trump event before.

Phillips believes his party would do a lot better if it listened to the concerns of working Americans and showed them some respect instead of demonizing them. But good luck with that. They not only won’t attend a Trump rally, their housepet media outlets won’t even air his speeches. They really think that if they cover their eyes and ears (sadly, they never cover their mouths), they can make reality go away. It’s a basic tenet of leftism. They’ve now reached the “hermetically sealed echo chamber” stage. 

I hope that in November, Trump’s victory will leave them as shocked and traumatized as it did in 2016, when they also never saw it coming because they absolutely refused to look.

Mike Huckabee

The January 6 pipe bomb story continues to develop, like a photo in the darkroom that is slowly coming into full view.  Reporters at REVOLVER NEWS continue to sniff out problems with the narrative like bloodhounds, Julie Kelly contributes her own considerable January 6 knowledge, and Dan Bongino, with his background in the Secret Service and current law enforcement contacts, fills in some of the gaps.  We’ve been among the handful of media outlets that have (so far) been talking about it.  And today, there’s more. 

By way of someone he describes as “my buddy...a law enforcement contact,”  someone who “operated at the highest levels of law enforcement” and an expert in video security, Bongino has gained an understanding of how particular types of security cameras are used.  Recall that the wide shot of the “man with the backpack” informing the Capitol Police and Secret Service of the pipe bomb in front of the DNC headquarters suddenly pans and zooms in on the park bench where the pipe bomb is.  Bongino’s camera expert verifies that this means someone in the Secret Service or DC Metro has called the Joint Operations Center and alerted them to the location of the newly-discovered “device.”  The camera starts looking for it; this tells Bongino’s friend that this camera is a PTZ, short for “Pan-Tilt-Zoom.”  The significance:  Those cameras are installed only when they’re going to be manned 24 hours.

In other words, there always would’ve been someone training a camera on the area where the bomb was.  Someone would’ve seen the bomber walk into the area and place the bomb the night before the rally, if that’s what really happened.  And it would’ve been recorded for posterity on high-quality video.  Where IS that?

An additional guarantee would’ve been the fixed cameras that are always used in combination with the PTZ, to ensure they still get a wide shot even when the PTZ operator is panning and zooming.  The placement of that bomb would’ve been lovingly captured on video.  So why did the FBI show us a grainy, glitchy, old-fashioned (and apparently doctored) security camera tape that showed neither the act of placing the bomb nor the identity of the so-called bomber?

It seems likely that the two bombs weren’t placed when the FBI says they were.  The one in front of the DNC, especially, was in a spot where it could hardly avoid being noticed, if not by a passer-by then certainly by Secret Service agents who swept the area prior to Kamala’s arrival.  Agents would be fired if they missed a bomb during a sweep, so Bongino would “bet anything” that the bomb, which appears to have been a dummy, was placed after the sweep.  (As we’ve asked, if it was so obviously a dummy that agents let children walk right by it, why did police bring in the bomb-defusing robot?  Was that just for show?)

The other thing we can’t get past is the fact that Kamala Harris was at the DNC building that day instead of at the Capitol building, right at the time when she was scheduled to be certified as the first woman --- the first black woman, in fact --- to be Vice President of the United States.  One would think she’d have been surrounded with fawning media attention and glory that day, that cameras would’ve been following her the entire day, documenting the historic event.  But no, she suddenly just left at 11:25, before the riot started, to go to the DNC for some nonspecific meeting.  It makes no sense.

And the way this was ignored in the weeks and months afterwards makes no sense, either.  To recap, the new administration, even Kamala herself, hid the fact that the Vice President-elect had been at the DNC when the pipe bomb was found and had thus experienced a brush with death concocted by mysterious domestic terrorists.  Bongino played an interview clip of Kamala speaking of her whereabouts vaguely:  “I was at the Capitol that morning, and then I was, um, in a meeting, and I was told that I should leave, and then I was taken to a secure location.”

So, there was NO PARTICULAR REASON why she should leave?  Kamala completely left out the part about the pipe bomb and how close she happened to be to it at the time.  By omission, she implied that she was at the Capitol during the riot.

This is bizarre, too:  Even in a Tweet sent out by Kamala on January 6, just a few hours after this experience, she said nothing about it.  She mentioned only “the assault on the Capitol.”

Can you think of a legitimate explanation for the Democrats passing up an opportunity to tell the story of Kamala almost getting blown to smithereens by a pipe bomb no doubt left by a Trump-supporting domestic terrorist on January 6, perhaps in an assassination attempt?  We can’t, either.  Normally, they would go wild with that story.

Bongino discussed the outstanding Julie Kelly piece we linked to a couple of days ago about Kamala being MIA at the Capitol at the very time her election as Vice President was to be certified.  In case you didn’t see that, here it is…

https://www.declassified.live/p/kamala-harris-still-unexplained-presence

Anyway, the pipe bomb story is just not holding up.  Here’s how this looks to Bongino:  “I think this was a plot.  Whose plot, I don’t know --- obviously someone who hates Donald Trump.  I think they were so afraid that some of the malfeasance in the election was going to be exposed by the January 6 certification process, in front of the entire country, that they needed a distraction, even if they had to create the distraction themselves.”

Knowing the Secret Service as he does, he sees no chance that they were in on this.  “Someone was trying to frame MAGA people to make it look like they were assassinating the Vice President,” he said.  “That has to be the reason she was there.  Nothing else makes sense.”

He believes what we’ve also suggested, that this was a back-up plan to interrupt the certification process in case the riot didn’t materialize (and they had ways of helping that along).  Once they had the riot they wanted --- again, we call ‘em as we see ‘em --- this other story could go away.  But the certification process had to be derailed somehow because concerns about the security of mass mail-in voting --- concerns that everyone knew were legitimate --- were going to be brought up to challenge the 2020 outcome.

He asks media people who are skeptical of this to “go debunk it” by asking Kamala what she was doing at the DNC that day.  (No one ever has!)  And ask the DC Metro Police about the PTZ camera that was obviously used and would have captured the bomber.

Bongino has “exactly zero doubts” that the pipe bomber deception is the biggest scandal in politics.  “I’ll bet you my career on it,” he said.  “I’ll bet you my entire livelihood on it...that they were trying to set someone up, and it broke bad.  It broke really bad.  And now they’re covering it up.”

Worse, he thinks they’re already working on a similar “Plan A-Plan B” strategy to mess with this year’s election, probably something violent they can blame “MAGA” for.  As we always say, don’t take the bait!

Here’s the full podcast, very powerful stuff.  His shredding of the pipe bomb story starts 16 minutes in.

https://bongino.com/ep-2172-heres-what-nikki-haley-should-do-now

And if you’re inclined to dismiss this because it’s not from an “official” source, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, who deserves thanks for getting the “pan-and-scan” pipe bomb video released, is all over this, too.

https://twitchy.com/dougp/2024/01/24/rep-thomas-massies-thread-on-the-unsolved-j6-pipe-bombs-mystery-n2392106

 

Mike Huckabee

Blessings on you and your family from all the Huckabee team! Today, if you have a moment, leave me a comment about something you read. Comments help me fine tune what I am writing, and they show that we have an active community of readers.

Sincerely,

Mike HuckabP.S. The Morning Edition delivers Monday-Saturday.

Daily Bible Verse

You will be secure under a government that is just and fair. Your enemies will stay far away. You will live in peace and terror will not come near.

Isaiah 54:14 NLT

Newsletter Notes

15 stories

5,152 words

Reading time: About 24 minutes

Escalation

I warned that by siding 5-4 against Texas and with a lawless President who refuses to do his constitutional duty to secure the border, the Supreme Court might be foolishly laying the groundwork for a soft (best case scenario) civil war. The SCOTUS ruled that Biden had the power to order Texas to remove the razor wire barrier the state National Guard put up to hold back the massive invasion of illegal aliens that Biden caused (As one satirical site put it, “SCOTUS rules that the National Guard has no right to guard nation.” Another said, “SCOTUS rules Biden has sovereign power to destroy America’s sovereignty.”)

I also reported that Texas responded to the SCOTUS by putting up more razor wire. Since then, the crisis has rapidly escalated.

https://dailycaller.com/2024/01/24/texas-greg-abbott-border-fence-supreme-court

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said, “The federal government has broken the compact between the United States and the States” by refusing to do its constitutional duty to protect the states and enforce immigration laws. For the benefit of any SCOTUS Justices who aren’t that familiar with the Constitution (hey, one of them doesn't even know what a "woman" is), Abbott cited Article IV Section 4 which says the federal government “shall protect each [State] against invasion” and Article I, Section 10, Clause 3 which says the states have a “sovereign interest in protecting their borders.”

Abbott went on: “The failure of the Biden Administration to fulfill the duties imposed by Article IV, § 4 has triggered Article I, § 10, Clause 3, which reserves to this State the right of self-defense. For these reasons, I have already declared an invasion under Article I, § 10, Clause 3 to invoke Texas’s constitutional authority to defend and protect itself. That authority is the supreme law of the land and supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary. The Texas National Guard, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and other Texas personnel are acting on that authority, as well as state law, to secure the Texas border.”

So what happens next? Will Biden try to enforce his open border by threatening Texas with F-16s? (FYI: The Texas Air National Guard has those, too.)

Matt Vespa at Townhall.com nominated as the “most insane” response that of Texas Democrat Rep. Joaquin Castro, who urged Biden to federalize the Texas National Guard and order them to do his bidding (in doing so, he also repeated the lie that Texas was responsible for the recent drownings of three illegal migrants, which we thoroughly debunked here.)

https://www.westernjournal.com/want-civil-war-dems-congress-call-biden-seize-control-texas-national-guard/

Several Congressional Democrats are echoing his call, which would only escalate things further. Besides, it’s no certainty that Texans would side with Biden against their own state. And officials from other states who are sick of Biden’s willful dereliction of duty are voicing solidarity with Texas.

https://twitchy.com/samj/2024/01/25/youngkin-va-stands-with-texas-n2392151

I asked one of my staffers who is a born/raised/dyed-in-the-wool Texan what he thinks of Castro’s suggestion. His response: “I never could stand this arrogant leftist jerk, and the idea that he ‘represents’ the great Lone Star State sickens me. If he’d been at the Alamo, he not only would’ve leapt at the offer to run away, he would’ve run straight to Santa Anna to rat on the Texicans. He should be kicked out of office and the state of Texas with a pointy-toed boot, along with anyone who’d vote to reelect his traitorous rear end.”

Okay, I think that sums up the attitude in Texas pretty well. Just as I predicted, some are already creating history-inspired flags with a razor wire fence and the taunt, “Come and Take It!” And peaceful rallies supporting Texas’ right to defend itself from invasion are already gearing up.

https://www.toddstarnes.com/values/convoy-of-truckers-heading-toward-texas-border/

I suspect that if anyone is going to climb down and cool off this rapidly-rising confrontation, it will have to be the Biden White House. Unless they really want to risk dividing the nation, starting a second civil war or even attacking American citizens, all in the name of defending Biden’s right not to do his sworn duty of securing America's border during an election year in which illegal immigration is the #1 concern of voters.

Two more reasons why I’m so proud of my daughter, Sarah:

She really knows how to handle hostile liberal reporters and she knows a dead-end job when she sees one.

https://www.westernjournal.com/sarah-huckabee-sanders-shuts-possibility-trumps-vp-sounds-like-no/

Complaint filed

The watchdog group The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust has filed an ethics complaint against 10 far-left Democrat Congress members.

https://www.westernjournal.com/pelosi-aoc-house-dems-hit-ethics-complaint-accused-repeatedly-misusing-funds/

They are accused of misusing taxpayer-paid resources for partisan political gain, such as using official House photos and videos, or websites and social media accounts created by government employees, for campaign purposes, in violation of House rules. The complaint includes 91 pages of examples. The members named include such leading lights of the left as Nancy Pelosi, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, Ted Lieu, Ilhan Omar and Jamaal Bowman. Ayanna Presley isn’t named, but examples of transgressions by her are included in the list.

I can already imagine the excuses the media will make for them. Like, “It’s okay for them to do this because it’s so important to reelect them so that they can keep doing good, and how can they do good for others if they don’t do good for themselves first?...”

Yet another higher cost that we can thank the Biden Administration for:

Due to the Houthi militant attacks on ships in the Red Sea, global shipping rates are skyrocketing.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/global-shipping-rates-skyrocket-red-sea-crisis-deepens

This wouldn’t be happening if they had any fear of our President doing anything about it. But on the bright side, maybe prices will moderate if the Houthis will just “decide to stop their attacks.”

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2024/01/20/pentagon-its-up-to-the-houthis-when-they-decide-to-stop-striking/

Think again

If you think the government trying to force everyone into electric vehicles was a monumentally stupid overreach of power…well, you’re right. But it was hardly the first time. Democrats have been trying to forcibly impose their half-baked ideas on us for years (some might say, “like dictators”), with similarly disastrous results. Check out the story of how New Jersey’s ban on plastic grocery bags “to save the Earth” has backfired spectacularly and only made the problem worse.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/blue-states-bag-ban-meant-protect-environment-backfires-staggering-rate-study

By the way, this doesn’t even mention the fact that it’s probably a good thing nobody’s reusing those “reusable” grocery bags because that would give them two options: repeatedly carry food in a bag that might have salmonella and other dangerous bacteria on it from leaking meat packages, or regularly wash the bags, using hot water, electricity, gas and detergents, harming the environment far more than just using a throw-away plastic bag.

It's almost like the left never thinks any of their grand ideas through…

CVS closes DC store

https://www.foxbusiness.com/retail/cvs-store-close-dc-thieves-ransack-location-months-leaving-shelves-bare

Sadly, I think the commenters on the story probably nailed it when they said this is just part of a never-ending cycle: Democrats let thieves run wild, stores shut down, locals complain about being in a food or pharmacy desert, then vote to reelect Democrats, decade after decade. It will never change until they make the intellectual connection between the way they vote and the way their lives stink.

The real contender

While in Virginia to pander to pro-abortion voters, President Biden said, “Hello, Virginia, and the real Governor, Terry McAuliffe.”

https://redstate.com/sister-toldjah/2024/01/23/glenn-youngkin-responds-accordingly-to-joe-bidens-bizarre-virginia-gubernatorial-election-denialism-n2169124

This prompted the actual real Governor, Republican Glenn Youngkin, to tweet back, “Mr. President, I’m right here.” Youngkin defeated McAuliffe in 2021 by 50.6 to 48.7%. He also has an approval rating in Virginia of 54% while Biden’s is at 37%.

I think the best comment came from Chris Barron of Right Turn Strategies, who tweeted, “Sounds like Biden should be removed from the Virginia ballot. Subverting democracy, denying elections, basically insurrection.”

The Top Contender

It would be hard to name the most incompetent do-nothing in the Biden Administration (you’d have to start with Biden and work down), but “Secretary of Transportation” Pete Buttigieg has to be at the top of the contender list. While he’s occupied his time with battling “racist roads,” pushing DEI policies, taking unannounced paternity leaves and celebrating his birthday, the supply chain crisis worsened, trains were derailing, thousands of flights were being canceled, and now, passenger jets are literally falling apart in mid-air due to issues like missing screws. Jazz Shaw at Hotair.com has more on this alarming trend.

https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2024/01/22/um-why-is-our-planes-wing-missing-all-those-screws-n606666

This is part of a larger discussion that’s brewing about how society may be getting more dangerous because of DEI, and the awarding of important jobs to people who are not the most competent.

In a discussion with Ben Shapiro, Elon Musk zeroed in on the problem of bowing to people just because they claim to be part of some oppressed group. He warned that we need to return to the concept of merit, where it “doesn’t matter whether you’re a man or a woman, what race you are, what beliefs you have; what matters is how good are you at your job." He added, “That's the least racist [or] sexist you can be.”

https://www.theblaze.com/shows/the-rubin-report/elon-musk-2667069385?

It’s also what America once stood for, before the proponents of the new racism started claiming that not judging people by their skin color was racist.

Hard-Wired for Disaster

By Kenneth Allard

On January 22^nd, the Supreme Court of the United States, by a 5-4 vote and while acting on an emergency petition by the Biden administration, decided that the State of Texas may no longer use razor wire to deter immigrants from crossing the banks of the Rio Grande along their well-traveled northern routes. Although this ruling from the Supremes was unaccompanied by any explanation, it was consistent with a recent finding by Federal District Judge David Ezra. Back in September, with the immigrant flood at its height, Judge Ezra criticized Texas Governor Greg Abbott for installing a thousand-foot, floating river-barrier opposite the border town of Eagle Pass; even worse, Governor Abbott acted without obtaining Federal permission! “Unfortunately for Texas, permission is exactly what federal law requires before installing obstructions in the nation’s navigable waters." the judge added in his final harrumph. https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/06/texas-border-floating-barrier-buoys-federal-judge-ruling/

Having spent a professional lifetime defending the very Constitution honored these days mostly in the breach, may I offer a word of advice to those black-robed military illiterates temporarily occupying the benches of the nation’s highest courts? Since Judge Davis’ court is located in Austin, he is closest to the ongoing scourge known as our southern border. Although estimates vary greatly, our Border Patrol believes something like 6.3 million people illegally crossed into Texas over the last three years, not including got-aways, human traffickers and potential terrorists who wish to remain anonymous. 

It is doubtful that Judge Davis has ever escaped Austin’s tony environs long enough to confer with the ranchers, farmers and sheriffs doggedly trying to cope with these human waves of misery. You rarely see this grim news covered by the major networks but practically anyone from The Valley could have told the judge about those 28,000 Chinese immigrants – mostly male and of military age – who suddenly appeared on our doorsteps. Do you think those extraordinary numbers might somehow be related to our current tensions with the PRC? None of your law books likely even mentioned the Chinese way of war, their mastery of striking ruthlessly at lucrative targets inexplicably left unguarded. You have probably never heard of Mao or Sun Tzu but instead obsessed over obtaining Federal permission slips before bolstering our defenses?

Apart from such local lunacies, the idiocy that today passes for American jurisprudence is best displayed inside the lawless environs of the nation’s capital, currently obsessed by the Anti-Trump Lawfare Campaign. But have you noticed that every indictment, each new media-manipulated specification, seems only to achieve a strange harmonic that somehow spawns new sympathy for Mr. Trump? In a weird way, the border debacle and the lawfare campaign seem to be merging, the scourge of fentanyl punctuating the desperation ordinary Americans feel for political and legal systems that no longer reflect their needs. Did the Biden White House ever imagine that their well-orchestrated campaign to saddle Donald Trump with 91 Federal indictments would only underline his point about the Swamp striking back at him and every ordinary American?

Upon hearing about the Supreme Court’s decision on razor-wire, my first reaction was to deplore the widening distance between our military and the society it defends. To the uninitiated, razor-wire seems too much a weapon of war to have any conceivable role in border control: If, however, you are not dealing with docile waves of immigrants but with an invasion, your perspective changes instantly. Wonder of wonders, our Constitution also recognizes this critical distinction, Article 4, Section 4 declaring, “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against invasion…” By any reasonable calculus, the United States does not face an immigration problem but a foreign invasion that means to occupy our country and fundamentally transform our society.  

To close that border and to reverse the priorities of the last three years means recognizing that half-measures and bureaucratic gamesmanship will no longer suffice, even if we can somehow avoid a terrorist attack to penalize our negligence. As a separate and co-equal branch of government, the Supreme Court ironically finds itself able to do the right thing. By reversing its recent ruling while declaring that the nation faces an invasion under the classic definition of Article 4, the Court can send a historic signal that reinforcing our borders has now become a matter of national survival.

Colonel (Ret.) Ken Allard is a former West Point faculty member, Dean of the National War College and NBC News military analyst.

Huck PAC makes a new round of endorsements

Today, Huck PAC is pleased to announce the financial support of these pro-life Republicans. To date we have given over $600,000 to 100+ candidates:

Nathaniel Moran for U.S. House (TX-1) $5,000

Keith Self for U.S. House (TX-3) $5,000

Pat Fallon for U.S. House (TX-4) $5,000

Lance Gooden for U.S. House (TX-5) $5,000

Jake Ellzey for U.S. House (TX-6) $5,000

Greg Murphy for U.S. House (NC-3) $5,000

Virginia Foxx for U.S. House (NC-5) $5,000

David Rouzer for U.S. House (NC-7) $5,000

Richard Hudson for U.S. House (NC-9) $5,000

Chuck Edwards for U.S. House (NC-11) $5,000

Dean Phillips challenges Joe Biden

Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, the one Democrat who dared to challenge Biden for the Presidency (and pulled over 20% of the vote in the New Hampshire primary), is running against him from the left on some issues and the right on others. And in one case, he’s just challenging Biden from the standpoint of common sense and basic human decency.

https://www.westernjournal.com/dem-congressman-calls-party-completely-delusional-live-cnn-experienced-trump-rally/

Having zero positive accomplishments to run on, Biden has made his entire reelection campaign about demonizing Trump and his supporters, painting about 72 million Trump voters as racist, extremist, terrorist, fascist enemies of “democracy.” But Phillips, I’m sure, shocked Biden’s sycophants on CNN by telling them, “My party is completely delusional right now.”

Phillips did something that none of Trump’s critics will do: he actually attended a Trump rally and met some MAGA voters.

Phillips said, “I saw the line of people waiting in the cold for hours. And I thought, ‘What the heck?'” He watched Trump greet about 50 people in line, “every single one of them thoughtful, hospitable, friendly — all of them so frustrated that they feel nobody’s listening to them but Donald Trump.” As for the “white nationalist” smear, he said it was a diverse crowd, including people who’d never been to a Trump event before.

Phillips believes his party would do a lot better if it listened to the concerns of working Americans and showed them some respect instead of demonizing them. But good luck with that. They not only won’t attend a Trump rally, their housepet media outlets won’t even air his speeches. They really think that if they cover their eyes and ears (sadly, they never cover their mouths), they can make reality go away. It’s a basic tenet of leftism. They’ve now reached the “hermetically sealed echo chamber” stage. 

I hope that in November, Trump’s victory will leave them as shocked and traumatized as it did in 2016, when they also never saw it coming because they absolutely refused to look.

Feel Good Story of the Day!

The New York Post reports that the Democratic Socialists of America (i.e., “socialists”) are so deep in the red (you’d think they’d like that) that they have to slash $500,000 from their staff-related expenses. They’ll first ask for volunteers to take a severance package (Wait, I thought they worked for free? Aren’t fat salaries and severance packages for filthy capitalists?!) And “If necessary, we will then explore initiating lay-offs according to the DSA union’s contract.” Wait, they plan to lay off union workers like capitalist running dog oppressors of the people?!

https://nypost.com/2024/01/21/news/democratic-socialists-face-seven-figure-crisis-amid-palestinian-support-that-may-force-dreaded-layoffs-of-staff/

What makes this even more schadenfreude-ilicious is that their revenue has tumbled because Jewish “progressive” donors who had long overlooked the DSA’s attacks on Israel drew the line at their support of clearly anti-Semitic, pro-Hamas mobs threatening Jews as they block streets. I would call this “The Great Awakening.”

As for the socialists having to lay off the workers to boost cash flow, to quote humorist A. Whitney Brown on the fall of the Soviet Union: “Who would’ve guessed that the fatal flaw of communism would be that there’s just no money in it?”

Oscar Postscript And Razzie Nominations

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

Yesterday, I complained that what I thought was the best movie of 2024, “Godzilla Minus One,” was snubbed by the Oscars (and I mean that sincerely: the script, characters and actors are so compelling that I would have loved it even if Godzilla weren’t in it. He’s just the big, fire-breathing icing on the cake.) Turns out I was wrong: it did get one nomination for Best Visual Effects. While it deserved much more, at least it got a nod for its superlative effects on a reported budget of $15 million, which was probably less than the catering bill on such Hollywood CGI dung heaps as “The Marvels,” “Antman & The Wasp: Quadrophenia” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Dysentery” (Hat tip to Doomcock for that one), none of which got SFX nominations.

But you will see those movies (except, bafflingly, “The Marvels”) on the nominations list for the Razzies, or the Golden Raspberry Awards for the worst in cinema for 2024. I don’t envy them having to winnow down that list.

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/razzie-nominations-2024-chris-evans-jennifer-lopez-1235879949/

Bongino:  Fake J6 pipe bomb is “biggest political scandal in politics”

The January 6 pipe bomb story continues to develop, like a photo in the darkroom that is slowly coming into full view.  Reporters at REVOLVER NEWS continue to sniff out problems with the narrative like bloodhounds, Julie Kelly contributes her own considerable January 6 knowledge, and Dan Bongino, with his background in the Secret Service and current law enforcement contacts, fills in some of the gaps.  We’ve been among the handful of media outlets that have (so far) been talking about it.  And today, there’s more.

By way of someone he describes as “my buddy...a law enforcement contact,”  someone who “operated at the highest levels of law enforcement” and an expert in video security, Bongino has gained an understanding of how particular types of security cameras are used.  Recall that the wide shot of the “man with the backpack” informing the Capitol Police and Secret Service of the pipe bomb in front of the DNC headquarters suddenly pans and zooms in on the park bench where the pipe bomb is.  Bongino’s camera expert verifies that this means someone in the Secret Service or DC Metro has called the Joint Operations Center and alerted them to the location of the newly-discovered “device.”  The camera starts looking for it; this tells Bongino’s friend that this camera is a PTZ, short for “Pan-Tilt-Zoom.”  The significance:  Those cameras are installed only when they’re going to be manned 24 hours.

In other words, there always would’ve been someone training a camera on the area where the bomb was.  Someone would’ve seen the bomber walk into the area and place the bomb the night before the rally, if that’s what really happened.  And it would’ve been recorded for posterity on high-quality video.  Where IS that?

An additional guarantee would’ve been the fixed cameras that are always used in combination with the PTZ, to ensure they still get a wide shot even when the PTZ operator is panning and zooming.  The placement of that bomb would’ve been lovingly captured on video.  So why did the FBI show us a grainy, glitchy, old-fashioned (and apparently doctored) security camera tape that showed neither the act of placing the bomb nor the identity of the so-called bomber?

It seems likely that the two bombs weren’t placed when the FBI says they were.  The one in front of the DNC, especially, was in a spot where it could hardly avoid being noticed, if not by a passer-by then certainly by Secret Service agents who swept the area prior to Kamala’s arrival.  Agents would be fired if they missed a bomb during a sweep, so Bongino would “bet anything” that the bomb, which appears to have been a dummy, was placed after the sweep.  (As we’ve asked, if it was so obviously a dummy that agents let children walk right by it, why did police bring in the bomb-defusing robot?  Was that just for show?)

The other thing we can’t get past is the fact that Kamala Harris was at the DNC building that day instead of at the Capitol building, right at the time when she was scheduled to be certified as the first woman --- the first black woman, in fact --- to be Vice President of the United States.  One would think she’d have been surrounded with fawning media attention and glory that day, that cameras would’ve been following her the entire day, documenting the historic event.  But no, she suddenly just left at 11:25, before the riot started, to go to the DNC for some nonspecific meeting.  It makes no sense.

And the way this was ignored in the weeks and months afterwards makes no sense, either.  To recap, the new administration, even Kamala herself, hid the fact that the Vice President-elect had been at the DNC when the pipe bomb was found and had thus experienced a brush with death concocted by mysterious domestic terrorists.  Bongino played an interview clip of Kamala speaking of her whereabouts vaguely:  “I was at the Capitol that morning, and then I was, um, in a meeting, and I was told that I should leave, and then I was taken to a secure location.”

So, there was NO PARTICULAR REASON why she should leave?  Kamala completely left out the part about the pipe bomb and how close she happened to be to it at the time.  By omission, she implied that she was at the Capitol during the riot.

This is bizarre, too:  Even in a Tweet sent out by Kamala on January 6, just a few hours after this experience, she said nothing about it.  She mentioned only “the assault on the Capitol.”

Can you think of a legitimate explanation for the Democrats passing up an opportunity to tell the story of Kamala almost getting blown to smithereens by a pipe bomb no doubt left by a Trump-supporting domestic terrorist on January 6, perhaps in an assassination attempt?  We can’t, either.  Normally, they would go wild with that story.

Bongino discussed the outstanding Julie Kelly piece we linked to a couple of days ago about Kamala being MIA at the Capitol at the very time her election as Vice President was to be certified.  In case you didn’t see that, here it is…

Anyway, the pipe bomb story is just not holding up.  Here’s how this looks to Bongino:  “I think this was a plot.  Whose plot, I don’t know --- obviously someone who hates Donald Trump.  I think they were so afraid that some of the malfeasance in the election was going to be exposed by the January 6 certification process, in front of the entire country, that they needed a distraction, even if they had to create the distraction themselves.”

Knowing the Secret Service as he does, he sees no chance that they were in on this.  “Someone was trying to frame MAGA people to make it look like they were assassinating the Vice President,” he said.  “That has to be the reason she was there.  Nothing else makes sense.”

He believes what we’ve also suggested, that this was a back-up plan to interrupt the certification process in case the riot didn’t materialize (and they had ways of helping that along).  Once they had the riot they wanted --- again, we call ‘em as we see ‘em --- this other story could go away.  But the certification process had to be derailed somehow because concerns about the security of mass mail-in voting --- concerns that everyone knew were legitimate --- were going to be brought up to challenge the 2020 outcome.

He asks media people who are skeptical of this to “go debunk it” by asking Kamala what she was doing at the DNC that day.  (No one ever has!)  And ask the DC Metro Police about the PTZ camera that was obviously used and would have captured the bomber.

Bongino has “exactly zero doubts” that the pipe bomber deception is the biggest scandal in politics.  “I’ll bet you my career on it,” he said.  “I’ll bet you my entire livelihood on it...that they were trying to set someone up, and it broke bad.  It broke really bad.  And now they’re covering it up.”

Worse, he thinks they’re already working on a similar “Plan A-Plan B” strategy to mess with this year’s election, probably something violent they can blame “MAGA” for.  As we always say, don’t take the bait!

Here’s the full podcast, very powerful stuff.  His shredding of the pipe bomb story starts 16 minutes in.

https://bongino.com/ep-2172-heres-what-nikki-haley-should-do-now

And if you’re inclined to dismiss this because it’s not from an “official” source, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, who deserves thanks for getting the “pan-and-scan” pipe bomb video released, is all over this, too.

https://twitchy.com/dougp/2024/01/24/rep-thomas-massies-thread-on-the-unsolved-j6-pipe-bombs-mystery-n2392106

Hunter investigation still perking along as part of impeachment inquiry

We’ll have a detailed update on the investigation into the Biden financial scandal soon, but here are few new developments:

It’s been so long since former Hunter business partner Devon Archer was convicted of defrauding a Native American tribe of $60 million in a bond insurance scheme that it’s easy to forget he’s supposed to go to prison, eventually.  Appeal followed appeal, but now, finally, the Supreme Court has, for a second time, rejected it.  That’s all he gets.  Archer is going to prison for a year and a day.

Hunter himself is scheduled to be deposed in a closed-door setting --- clearly not what his attorneys had wanted --- on February 28.  Before then, a number of his business associates are scheduled to testify.  All of this is part of Congress’s impeachment inquiry into the President.

The DAILY CALLER has a recap on Archer’s association with Hunter during those heady Burisma days and his subsequent testimony before congressional committees.  Plus, for when you have time, there’s an hour-long video interview of him with Tucker Carlson.  Archer seems very happy and jocular in it; perhaps at the time he made it, he was still thinking then he might avoid prison time.

https://dailycaller.com/2024/01/22/supreme-court-reject-devon-archer-appeal-criminal-conviction/

One of the other Hunter associates scheduled to testify before Congress is Rob Walker, who was deeply involved in the Bidens’ business with Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC, as well as with a Romanian oligarch who sent payments totaling about $3 million.  Walker goes before the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees this Friday.

We love to make up questions for Congress to ask witnesses, but the DAILY CALLER has already put together five great ones to ask Walker, with some background on each.  A couple of them deal directly with Joe Biden’s involvement.

https://dailycaller.com/2024/01/23/five-questions-need-answers-rob-walker-hunter-biden-china

Finally, legal expert Margot Cleveland offers an analysis of Hunter’s lucrative career as a fine artist.  As you know, the gallery owner representing him, George Berges, has testified he was never told of any “ethics” safeguards to keep Hunter in the dark about who bought his “art.”  The two people who spent the most on his “art” were, coincidentally, both big Democrat donors.  The biggest spender, of course, was big donor and Hunter “sugar brother” Kevin Morris.

Morris testified before the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees last Wednesday.

“...When studied in its entirety,” Cleveland writes, “the gallery owner’s testimony paints a picture of an attempt to launch a new enterprise to provide cover for a continuation of the Biden family’s pay-to-play scheme.”  Morris’ testimony adds “further definition,” she adds.

Cleveland asks an interesting question:  Why would Biden’s friend and benefactor Morris go through the gallerist at all to buy Hunter’s work?  (We know that in an unusual arrangement, Morris was also paying Berges’ 40 percent commission.)  Morris had previously bought two pieces directly from Hunter; why didn’t he just keep doing that?  Cleveland has some ideas…

https://thefederalist.com/2024/01/19/hunters-painting-foray-had-all-the-classic-earmarks-of-a-biden-family-influence-peddling-operation/

Law professor Jonathan Turley also has an insightful column on Morris, whom he calls “the man of many faces.”  Is Morris a donor, a friend, a lawyer?  A documentary filmmaker?  A shaper of public opinion?  The way he’s handed out “loans” to Hunter, he seems to be largely a bank.

https://jonathanturley.org/2024/01/22/the-many-faces-of-kevin-morris-who-is-the-real-me/#more-214487

I Just Wanted to Say

Thank you for reading my newsletter.

Mike Huckabee

Not all leftists have hopped aboard the censorship train --- some actually are quite fond of the first Amendment and actively promote the free expression of diverse views.  The far left has gone so crazy trying to squelch whatever they choose to call “misinformation” that the term “civil libertarian” or “classical liberal” might be a better way to classify these (former?) leftists.  Glenn Greenwald, who co-founded THE INTERCEPT but resigned in 2020 after they censored one of his stories critical of Biden, is one of these.  He has no problem shredding the Democrat Party whenever he sees this as appropriate.

Matt Vespa (most definitely not a leftist) at TOWNHALL has a piece about Greenwald’s appearance January 7 on a ZEROHEDGE panel discussing January 6.  There were a variety of viewpoints represented, even Alex Jones’, and Vespa has to give credit to Greenwald for “not being afraid to discuss any issue with anyone.”

“Kanekoa the Great” and others posted on X a series of clips, entertainingly edited to turn them into a Three Stooges-style slap down, in which Greenwald deftly deconstructs the narrative that January 6 was a coup or “insurrection” and that nonviolent people deserved to be detained as “conspirators.”

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2024/01/23/watch-a-progressive-reporter-shred-a-bunch-of-leftists-over-january-6-n2634049

Speaking of J6 protesters getting treatment they did not deserve, one incident that’s receiving attention with the release of more video was the severe facial injury caused by a rubber bullet being shot from a 40-millimeter grenade launcher right into a man’s face.

This violates Metro Police general orders.  According to veteran SWAT team supervisor and expert on excessive force Steven Hill, this equipment is designed to strike and incapacitate armed or violent individuals who are outside the range of officers.  Officers trained in its use learn that an impact to someone’s head, neck, central chest or spine can cause serious bodily injury or death.  In this case the bullet tore the man’s lip off, disfiguring him, and reportedly took some teeth with it as well.

This man was identified as 30-year-old Michael Dickinson of Philadelphia.  After he was hit, not one officer, including the shooter, intervened with any kind of medical aid, though people in the crowd were pleading that he was seriously hurt, bleeding and needed help.      

But exactly nine months later, on October 6, Dickinson did finally get the attention of law enforcement, when he was apprehended by the FBI in a pre-dawn raid and charged with multiple offenses:  "Assaulting, Resisting or Impeding Certain Officers, Civil Disorder, Entering and Remaining in a Restricted Building or Grounds, Disorderly and Disruptive Conduct in a Restricted Building or Grounds, Engaging in Physical Violence in a Restricted Building or Grounds, Disorderly Conduct in a Capitol Building, Act of Physical Violence in the Capitol Grounds or Buildings."

https://www.wnd.com/2024/01/police-shot-j6-demonstrator-face-refused-aid/

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months’ incarceration, plus 3 years of probation and a $2,000 fine.  Yes, he HAD gotten rowdy and absolutely should not have done that, but considering he was “armed” only with a bucket of water and a paper cup, he was wildly outmatched by the cop with the grenade launcher.

https://www.wnd.com/2024/01/police-shot-j6-demonstrator-face-refused-aid/

LAW & CRIME’s write-up from the day after his arrest glosses over his injury, simply mentioning in passing that he had “sustained facial injuries from a rubber bullet.”  It also said the FBI had obtained his hospital records from January 6 and 7.  The news that he had been shot in the face with a grenade launcher by a Metro Police officer came later.

https://lawandcrime.com/u-s-capitol-breach/philadelphia-man-threw-what-appears-to-be-a-coffee-tumbler-at-police-on-jan-6-feds-say/

Mike Huckabee

Mike Huckabee

The 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a block on a new Texas law requiring publishers to designate books as having either sexually relevant or sexually explicit content before they can be sold to public schools. Publishers sued to overturn the law, claiming it’s “unduly burdensome, logistically unattainable, and risked pushing some businesses out of the public school market” (Heaven forbid anyone should be pushed out of the business of exposing minors to porn.) The Appeals panel sided with them, claiming that it violates the publishers’ First Amendment rights.

That seems a bit bewildering, considering it doesn’t ban the sale of books, it just requires the labeling of their contents before they can be sold to schools and seen by children. Does this mean that the Hollywood movie rating label system that restricts audiences under 13 or 17 from seeing certain films is also unconstitutional? Here are more details on the case…

https://dallasexpress.com/state/block-of-txs-sexually-explicit-book-law-upheld/

The law’s creator, state Rep. Jared Patterson, said a number of attorneys worked on the bill and reviewed Supreme Court cases in writing it, and they will appeal. He said the law isn’t about censoring characters or stories, but “content that is just radically vulgar and obscene.” He gave an example from a book found in Dallas school libraries that was described as “inappropriately crude and even pornographic,” but I’m not going to repeat it here. You can click the link and read it yourself if you’re over 17.

I wonder what the Founders would say if they knew that one day, a major political party in power in America would interpret the First Amendment to mean that you could censor and jail people for criticizing the government, but giving pornography to school children is free speech?

Mike Huckabee

There are times when it’s hard to write about the statements coming out of the Biden White House because the sheer gall of their transparent lies is so infuriating. Like (with a straight face) blaming the Republicans for the illegal immigration crisis that Biden deliberately caused from his very first moments in office when he started reversing all of Trump’s border policies.

Or this week, when they had the audacity to try to blame Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas National Guard for the drowning deaths of three would-be illegal immigrants in the Rio Grande because Abbott removed the purposely ineffective US Border Patrol from that area and replaced them with the state Guard.

This false narrative was started by Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cueller and amplified by the Biden White House, which falsely claimed that the Texas Guard physically blocked the Border Patrol from providing aid to the drowning migrants. The DHS said Abbott’s policies were "cruel, dangerous, and inhumane, and Texas’s blatant disregard for federal authority over immigration poses grave risks." That was in a (false) filing to the Supreme Court, as part of their appeal to stop Texas from doing the feds' duty that they refuse to do. Naturally, this story got big play in liberal media outlets.

https://redstate.com/videos/2024/01/18/media-gobble-up-white-house-lie-about-dead-illegal-immigrants-n2168891

If there’s still anyone in the media or the Democratic Party (but I repeat myself) who cares about facts, here are a few inconvenient ones:

https://redstate.com/mdempsey/2024/01/16/once-again-biden-admin-and-fellow-dems-push-false-narratives-to-discredit-any-border-enforcement-by-texas-n2168794

1. Patrolling that side of the river is Mexico’s responsibility. Nevertheless, on that night, the Border Patrol alerted the Texas Military Department to a possible migrant distress situation. The TMD sent a boat to investigate and found nothing. They later saw Mexican authorities responding to an incident on their side of the river, but were told they needed no assistance.

2. Nobody on our side of the border was even notified of these tragic drownings until at least an hour after they happened. Even if the feds had still been in that area, it would have made no difference.

3. The TMD has water rescue equipment and provides medical aid to migrants when needed.

4. The Border Patrol union approved of Abbott taking control of that area, calling it a “force multiplier” that allowed them to concentrate on other areas of the border. A spokesman said, "Governor Abbott is not harming Border Patrol operations, he is enhancing them." Translation: “Thank God someone in charge is finally doing something to secure the border.”

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/spencerbrown/2024/01/12/border-patrol-union-abbott-eagle-pass-n2633551

5. In light of all this, the Biden DHS was forced to retract its slander against Abbott and Texas, which I seriously doubt will get the same coverage as the initial false accusation. Indeed, I expect Biden to add this to the repertoire of debunked lies he keeps repeating, like the “very fine people” hoax.

6. Since Biden took office, over 1,000 illegal immigrants have died trying to enter the US, not to mention all the women who’ve been raped and the children who’ve been trafficked. This White House has shown precious little concern for any of them until it found three deaths that it could exploit to falsely smear its political enemies.

https://redstate.com/mdempsey/2024/01/16/once-again-biden-admin-and-fellow-dems-push-false-narratives-to-discredit-any-border-enforcement-by-texas-n2168794

If Biden and his minions want to see who is really responsible for the deaths of those three people who thought they could cross the river and easily enter the US, I assume that with all the egomania in politics, there must be plenty of mirrors in DC that they can gaze into.

Which leads me to this final, highly related fact:

7.  All 18 Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee voted unanimously to impeach DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for creating an unprecedented illegal immigration crisis by “consistently, willfully and systemically” refusing to follow the laws, abusing his authority, breaching the trust of Congress and the American people, and failing to fulfill his oath of office. They called it “a crisis that has cost the lives of thousands of Secretary Mayorkas’ fellow Americans,” thanks to the criminals and drugs that have poured in. 

https://redstate.com/jeffc/2024/01/18/house-homeland-committee-republicans-unanimously-vote-to-impeach-border-crisis-king-mayorkas-n2168901

I suppose you can also add those to the list of deaths that the Biden Administration doesn’t care about because they’re just not politically useful.

Blessings on you and your family from all the Huckabee team! Today, if you have a moment, leave me a comment about something you read. Comments help me fine tune what I am writing, and they show that we have an active community of readers.

Sincerely,

Mike Huckabee

Daily Bible Verse

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31

Newsletter Notes

18 stories

3,240 words

Reading time: About 15 minutes

“Huckabee” Preview

Join me tonight for a special “The show must go on!” episode of “Huckabee” on TBN (You’ll see what I mean when you tune in.) My news-making guests include Rep. Jim Jordan and Sen. Josh Hawley. Platinum-selling country singer/songwriter Granger Smith will tell us why he walked away from the music business to become a minister. And we’ll have some inspiring music from Grammy-winning artist Victory.

Just curl up in front of your warm TV tonight at 8 and 11 EST, 7 and 10 CST, or Sunday at 9 EST/8 CST on TBN. To find out how to watch TBN, from local cable and broadcast channels to streaming, visit https://www.huckabee.tv and click on “Channel Finder” on the top menu. You can stream previous episodes, highlights and online-only “Digital Exclusives,” including extended interviews, “In Case You Missed It” and “Facts of the Matter” segments, plus extra performances by our great musical and comedy guests and links to all their sites, at https://www.huckabee.tv. You can also find past shows, highlights and digital exclusives on YouTube and my Facebook page.

More on the March

Friday, thousands of pro-life supporters defied the snow and frigid temperatures to gather in Washington, DC, for the annual March For Life. Fox News has some of the highlights, including speeches by House Speaker Mike Johnson and University of Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/top-4-moments-2024-march-for-life

Here’s more on the event and Harbaugh’s appearance from Breitbart News.

https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2024/01/19/its-great-day-michigan-coach-jim-harbaugh-delivers-speech-at-march-for-life-in-d-c/

New Hampshire update

On the eve of the New Hampshire primary, a judge threw out another attempt to block Trump from the ballot by the defenders of "our democracy."  Here’s more on that and the reactions, including Sen. Tim Scott’s decision to endorse Trump.

https://www.westernjournal.com/trump-holds-major-rally-new-hampshire-judge-dismisses-attempt-keep-off-granite-state-ballot/

Updates:

Friday, divorce attorneys for the wife of Georgia Trump special prosecutor Nathan Wade filed court documents that include bank and credit card records to support the claim that Wade went on lavish trips and cruises with DA Fani Willis. But they don’t show whether they shared a room or Willis reimbursed Wade.

https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2024/01/19/bank-records-show-fani-willis-misused-funds-took-trips-with-alleged-lover-n4925671

Willis is trying to get a subpoena from Wade’s wife Joycelyn quashed, but her attorneys called her legal arguments “disingenuous and specious.” Hardly the first time that's been said of her legal arguments.

Also, since playing the racist and sexist cards against a fellow black woman probably wouldn’t work, Willis tried attacking Wade’s wife with the Democrats' favorite fallback smear: accusing her of trying to discredit her to help Donald Trump. Yes, I’m sure that helping Trump is the reason she’s divorcing her husband and asking questions about his alleged mistress and the nearly $700,000 in payments approved by her that he allegedly conveniently forgot to mention to her.

https://redstate.com/jeffc/2024/01/19/embattled-fulton-county-da-fani-willis-makes-bizarre-accusation-against-wife-of-her-alleged-lover-n2168942

About that crazy J6 pipe bomber video that makes no sense...

If you’ve read our commentary from yesterday about the video of the discovery of the DNC pipe bomb on January 6 and agree with us that something was very wrong, you’ll be gratified to know that former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino thinks so, too.  And because he smells a rat, he made this strange video the entire subject of his Friday podcast.  What we see on video makes no sense to him, either.

As thoroughly well-versed in law enforcement and Secret Service protocol as he is, he’s in a position to know when something’s “off.”  And he simply can’t explain the abnormal reaction of these agents to the tip-off that there’s a bomb nearby.  Even the tipster’s behavior, he observes, is oddly relaxed.

To cite just a few of the questions this video raises, why would the agents just be meandering around instead of taking fast, professional action, especially since, as we would come to know almost a year later, the soon-to-be Vice President of the United States was in that building?  Why was she there in the first place?  Why would the administration lie for almost a year and claim she was in the Capitol building, a more logical place for her to be that day, and had to be evacuated from there?  Why would agents not immediately cordon off the area near the bomb instead of letting a group of children (!) walk right by.  Why, these officials acted as if they knew the bomb wouldn’t really go off.  How on earth would they have known that?  And if they did know that, why did they send in the little robot bomb defuser?  Was that possibly just for show?

All this is a head-scratcher for Bongino, who not only asks the same questions we did but seems to be about 97.9 percent sure of the answer.  We’ll tell you one thing:  it’s not “conspiracy theory” to be asking questions about this mystery and for real journalists to try to find the answers themselves.

https://bongino.com/ep-2169-explosive-video-surfaces-about-the-jan-6th-bomber

Must-Read!

The Media Research Center uncovered a plan by the Biden DHS to skew the 2024 election using our taxpayer dollars against us. By perverting an anti-terrorism program, they not only plan to brand Trump and his supporters as terrorists to silence them in the media, but also to fund “education” seminars to train leftist teachers to spread their bile; and to pay people to write blog posts about how dangerous Trump and MAGA people are to America and how they must be stopped. The MRC even has a list of some of these DHS-funded propaganda pieces that have already appeared, but of course, were not labeled as paid political ads.

Victoria Taft at PJ Media has that list and far more details about the Biden Administration’s latest attempt to utilize the political communications tactics pioneered by Joseph Goebbels.

https://pjmedia.com/victoria-taft/2024/01/18/bidens-monstrous-anti-terror-plan-to-censor-conservatives-n4925595

The Biden White House spews false border narratives

There are times when it’s hard to write about the statements coming out of the Biden White House because the sheer gall of their transparent lies is so infuriating. Like (with a straight face) blaming the Republicans for the illegal immigration crisis that Biden deliberately caused from his very first moments in office when he started reversing all of Trump’s border policies.

Or this week, when they had the audacity to try to blame Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas National Guard for the drowning deaths of three would-be illegal immigrants in the Rio Grande because Abbott removed the purposely ineffective US Border Patrol from that area and replaced them with the state Guard.

This false narrative was started by Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cueller and amplified by the Biden White House, which falsely claimed that the Texas Guard physically blocked the Border Patrol from providing aid to the drowning migrants. The DHS said Abbott’s policies were "cruel, dangerous, and inhumane, and Texas’s blatant disregard for federal authority over immigration poses grave risks." That was in a (false) filing to the Supreme Court, as part of their appeal to stop Texas from doing the feds' duty that they refuse to do. Naturally, this story got big play in liberal media outlets.

https://redstate.com/videos/2024/01/18/media-gobble-up-white-house-lie-about-dead-illegal-immigrants-n2168891

If there’s still anyone in the media or the Democratic Party (but I repeat myself) who cares about facts, here are a few inconvenient ones:

https://redstate.com/mdempsey/2024/01/16/once-again-biden-admin-and-fellow-dems-push-false-narratives-to-discredit-any-border-enforcement-by-texas-n2168794

1. Patrolling that side of the river is Mexico’s responsibility. Nevertheless, on that night, the Border Patrol alerted the Texas Military Department to a possible migrant distress situation. The TMD sent a boat to investigate and found nothing. They later saw Mexican authorities responding to an incident on their side of the river, but were told they needed no assistance.

2. Nobody on our side of the border was even notified of these tragic drownings until at least an hour after they happened. Even if the feds had still been in that area, it would have made no difference.

3. The TMD has water rescue equipment and provides medical aid to migrants when needed.

4. The Border Patrol union approved of Abbott taking control of that area, calling it a “force multiplier” that allowed them to concentrate on other areas of the border. A spokesman said, "Governor Abbott is not harming Border Patrol operations, he is enhancing them." Translation: “Thank God someone in charge is finally doing something to secure the border.”

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/spencerbrown/2024/01/12/border-patrol-union-abbott-eagle-pass-n2633551

5. In light of all this, the Biden DHS was forced to retract its slander against Abbott and Texas, which I seriously doubt will get the same coverage as the initial false accusation. Indeed, I expect Biden to add this to the repertoire of debunked lies he keeps repeating, like the “very fine people” hoax.

6. Since Biden took office, over 1,000 illegal immigrants have died trying to enter the US, not to mention all the women who’ve been raped and the children who’ve been trafficked. This White House has shown precious little concern for any of them until it found three deaths that it could exploit to falsely smear its political enemies.

https://redstate.com/mdempsey/2024/01/16/once-again-biden-admin-and-fellow-dems-push-false-narratives-to-discredit-any-border-enforcement-by-texas-n2168794

If Biden and his minions want to see who is really responsible for the deaths of those three people who thought they could cross the river and easily enter the US, I assume that with all the egomania in politics, there must be plenty of mirrors in DC that they can gaze into.

Which leads me to this final, highly related fact:

7.  All 18 Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee voted unanimously to impeach DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for creating an unprecedented illegal immigration crisis by “consistently, willfully and systemically” refusing to follow the laws, abusing his authority, breaching the trust of Congress and the American people, and failing to fulfill his oath of office. They called it “a crisis that has cost the lives of thousands of Secretary Mayorkas’ fellow Americans,” thanks to the criminals and drugs that have poured in. 

https://redstate.com/jeffc/2024/01/18/house-homeland-committee-republicans-unanimously-vote-to-impeach-border-crisis-king-mayorkas-n2168901

I suppose you can also add those to the list of deaths that the Biden Administration doesn’t care about because they’re just not politically useful.

A somewhat positive Trump ruling

In a somewhat positive but predictably lenient ruling, Judge Tanya Chutkan sided with Donald Trump’s attorneys and ordered “special counsel” Jack Smith to stop issuing discovery demands to the defense while the case has been stayed. But of course, she found enough wiggle room in the language of her own order to deny their demand that Smith be held in contempt of court, as any other prosecutor who blatantly violated a court order would have been.

https://www.westernjournal.com/dc-judge-sides-trump-reins-jack-smith/

I wonder if the language of her ruling would have been so malleable if the situation were reversed, and it was Smith demanding that Trump’s attorneys be held in contempt for ignoring Chutkan’s orders? I’ll let you ponder that puzzler.

Amicus brief filed

In other Trump lawfare news, on Thursday, three former US Attorneys General filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court, opposing efforts to keep him off the ballot under the 14^th Amendment. They argue that the people pushing this are misrepresenting the meaning of the Amendment, which clearly does not apply to Presidents, and if the SCOTUS rules in their favor, it “would create a precedent with ruinous consequences for our democratic republic.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/01/18/former-attorneys-general-file-amicus-brief-insisting-trump-constitutionally-qualified-for-ballot/

Interesting detail: One of the Attorneys General is Bill Barr, one of Trump’s most outspoken critics. But apparently, he loves the Constitution more than he dislikes Trump. Let’s hope all the people like that vote in November.

Related: A judge in Washington State rejected a 14^th Amendment challenge and ruled that Trump will remain on the ballot there.

https://redstate.com/wardclark/2024/01/18/ruling-trump-to-remain-on-washington-state-primary-and-general-ballots-n2168908

Hearing scheduled

The Georgia judge overseeing Fulton County DA Fani Willis’ crackpot RICO case against former President Trump and his associates has scheduled a hearing into allegations that Willis has an improper personal, financial and professional relationship with her special prosecutor, Nathan Wade.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/01/18/report-georgia-judge-schedules-hearing-fani-willis-s-alleged-improper-relationship-top-prosecutor/

I expect irony alarms to go off all over the place when Willis starts complaining about how unfair and traumatic it is to be hauled into court to face accusations of improper conduct by her political enemies. Especially when they have more evidence of actual wrongdoing that she does.

A firestorm

Milford Regional Medical Center in Massachusetts set off a firestorm after a video was posted online of chief medical officer Dr. Peter Smulowitz warning potential patients that they may be denied care if they make comments that might be offensive about “others’ race, ethnicity, accent, religion, gender, sexual orientation or other personal traits.” This also includes “body language” or a “hostile tone of voice.” So I guess you can be denied medical care if someone thinks you don’t look or sound woke enough.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/milford-regional-medical-center-warns-it-may-deny-care-to-those-using-unwelcome-words-about-race-gender/ar-BB1gW3LK

This is allegedly to protect the hospital’s “safe, caring and inclusive environment.” Funny, doesn’t sound very safe, caring or inclusive to me. I thought hospitals were supposed to include anyone who, you know…needs a hospital! They’re turning away patients for not being politically correct enough? Who’s running this place, Jimmy Kimmel?

Luckily for the sick and injured, they will get a chance to explain themselves. Hope they can do it quickly before they bleed out.

I see that this video is now “unlisted” on the hospital’s YouTube channel. I would advise everyone in the area to unlist this hospital from their emergency contacts list.

Appeals Court upholds block on new Texas law

The 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a block on a new Texas law requiring publishers to designate books as having either sexually relevant or sexually explicit content before they can be sold to public schools. Publishers sued to overturn the law, claiming it’s “unduly burdensome, logistically unattainable, and risked pushing some businesses out of the public school market” (Heaven forbid anyone should be pushed out of the business of exposing minors to porn.) The Appeals panel sided with them, claiming that it violates the publishers’ First Amendment rights.

That seems a bit bewildering, considering it doesn’t ban the sale of books, it just requires the labeling of their contents before they can be sold to schools and seen by children. Does this mean that the Hollywood movie rating label system that restricts audiences under 13 or 17 from seeing certain films is also unconstitutional? Here are more details on the case…

https://dallasexpress.com/state/block-of-txs-sexually-explicit-book-law-upheld/

The law’s creator, state Rep. Jared Patterson, said a number of attorneys worked on the bill and reviewed Supreme Court cases in writing it, and they will appeal. He said the law isn’t about censoring characters or stories, but “content that is just radically vulgar and obscene.” He gave an example from a book found in Dallas school libraries that was described as “inappropriately crude and even pornographic,” but I’m not going to repeat it here. You can click the link and read it yourself if you’re over 17.

I wonder what the Founders would say if they knew that one day, a major political party in power in America would interpret the First Amendment to mean that you could censor and jail people for criticizing the government, but giving pornography to school children is free speech?

Spot-on perfect

Why am I not at all surprised to learn that Adam Schiff’s latest crusade is a bill to protect rats?

https://www.westernjournal.com/america-torn-shreds-democratic-reps-adam-schiff-ted-lieu-go-protecting-rats/

FYI: This is not a defense of glue traps, which have been banned in many places for being needlessly cruel and unhygienic. Still, you have to appreciate how spot-on perfect it is that the person who’s the face of being kind to rats is Adam Schiff.

Photo of the Day!

First Lady Jill Biden visited Hunter High School in Utah, where she set the Internet rolling with laughter by being photographed under a big banner reading, “HUNTER HIGH.” Not exactly a state secret.

https://www.westernjournal.com/jill-biden-becomes-victim-poor-sign-placement-high-school-visit-utah/

Taking flak

Super Bowl organizers are taking flak for announcing that this year’s opening ceremony will include performances of the National Anthem, “America the Beautiful,” and “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which has become known as the “black national anthem” in the wake of the BLM movement.

https://www.westernjournal.com/nfl-announces-black-national-anthem-performer-super-bowl/

To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with the song, which is a hymn of thanksgiving dating back to 1900. It’s just that many people believe it’s being used as a tool to foster racial divisiveness because black people don’t need a separate national anthem. They already have a national anthem. It’s called “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and the whole point of America is that we all share it together.

Kurt Schlichter’s Latest:

He’s a DeSantis supporter, but he recognizes that Trump is going to be the nominee. He also warns that Republicans need to put aside their resentments and hurt feelings and start working together, because if you care about the continued existence of America, the ONLY thing that matters is that the next President be a Republican.

https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2024/01/18/iowa-was-bad-bad-news-for-ron-desantis-n2633740

So true

Good article from Derek Hunter about how the media is no longer in the business of finding the truth and reporting it; they’re in the business of unquestioningly broadcasting Democratic Party lies. And he brings the evidence to prove it.

https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2024/01/18/you-need-to-know-what-the-media-doesnt-want-to-tell-you-n2633769

RIP Peter Schickele (aka P.D.Q. Bach)

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

I am very sad to have to report that composer and classical music satirist Peter Schickele has died at his home in Bearsville, New York, at 88.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/17/arts/music/peter-schickele-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Ok0.1duU.TRWMsMySQ7GM&smid=url-share

Many people might not realize that he was a serious composer whose works were performed by such prestigious artists as the New York Philharmonic and the Minnesota Opera. He also wrote scores for films such as “Silent Running” and musical numbers for Broadway. But he was reportedly a bit irked that he would always be best known for creating his musical alter ego, history’s most questionable classical composer, P.D.Q. Bach – the “last and by far the least” of Johann Sebastian Bach’s 20-odd children, “and certainly the oddest.”

Known as the Spike Jones of the classical world, Schickele was inspired by pianist/comedian Victor Borge. He created hilarious parodies and pastiches of classical works allegedly by Bach’s misfit offspring, with titles such as “Concerto for Two Pianos vs. Orchestra” and “Hansel and Gretel and Ted and Alice,” “an opera in one unnatural act.” He also became famous for his entrances to concerts, such as swinging down from the balcony on a rope or being chased down the aisle by a gorilla. He won five Grammy Awards, one for his serious classical works and four for Best Comedy Album, including “Oedipus Tex and Other Choral Calamities” and “Music for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion.”

And like Spike Jones, who gave us the Latrine-o-phone (a musical toilet seat), he invented such bizarre instruments as a combination trombone and bassoon called the Tromboon, and the “left-handed sewer flute,” which was made of plumbing pipes.

While he might have sometimes felt overshadowed by his creation, he deserves a place in the classical music hall of fame, not just for his serious works but for his brilliant parodies, which introduced more people to classical music than anyone since Bugs Bunny. RIP.

I Just Wanted to Say

Thank you for reading my newsletter.

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MESSAGE FROM MIKE HUCKABEE

Help me fight back against Big Tech censorship. If you would like to subscribe to the daily, advertisement-free version of my newsletter for $5 monthly or $36 annually, on Substack, go here.

Mike Huckabee

Let’s establish at the outset that our purpose here is not to further any so-called “conspiracy theory.”  That’s not what we do by simply asking questions about a bizarre incident that still has few answers.  After the “Justice” Department has spent three years abusing the constitutional rights of thousands of rally participants to ensnare them in their J6 net, one would think they’d have revealed the identity of the pipe bomber, locked him up and thrown away the key.  Why they haven’t done this is mystifying.

We’re duty-bound to keep asking questions --- and so far, we have a perfect record of being proven right in our skepticism of official narratives.  But, in the words of REVOLVER NEWS, “That the regime has invested so much in the ‘insurrection’ story of January 6^th helps explain its commensurate hostility to anyone who challenges that narrative.”  (Of course, that’s one reason we’re exclusively on Substack now!)  Any reporting that might dare to point towards government involvement is immediately dismissed as conspiracy theory.  One FBI agent-turned-whistleblower, Marcus Allen, who shared --- without even endorsing --- a REVOLVER story with his colleagues ended up having his security clearance revoked and his loyalty to the United States questioned.  Here’s that story:

https://revolver.news/2023/05/bombshell-fbi-agent-security-clearance-revoked-for-sharing-revolver-news-article-on-january-6th-questioned-allegiance-to-the-united-states/

Today, newly-released Capitol Hill surveillance video examined by REVOLVER NEWS --- where they actually have real journalists trying to get the real story of the J6 pipe bomber --- shows more odd and downright inexplicable behavior surrounding the discovery of the pipe bomb at the entrance to the DNC, where Vice President Kamala Harris happened to be spending time that day.  REVOLVER’s latest story gets deep into the weeds on this new video, which was finally released thanks in part to the efforts of Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, but we encourage you to take the time to review their whole report.  We’ve summarized the most important points here.

The biggest new take-away --- and the strangest part of the story --- is that from what we see on this video, there’s no sense of urgency whatsoever when the “man with the backpack” walks over to Metro Police and Secret Service cars to tell them about the pipe bomb he has noticed by a bench near the entrance to the DNC.  Until now, the “official” narrative has been that when officers were informed of this, about 15 minutes after the other bomb had been discovered at the RNC, there was an urgent scramble to find this possibly explosive device, but, curiously, that’s not what happened at all.

They were so nonchalant, they even let children walk right past the area.  Wouldn’t they have blocked it off if they were concerned there might be a live explosive device near the sidewalk?

By the way, the man in the backpack, who has never been publicly identified by investigators but simply referred to as a “passerby,” has been confirmed by THE BLAZE’s Steve Baker to be a plainclothes officer working for the Capitol Police.  Coincidentally (or not), multiple sources have told REVOLVER NEWS that the first responder to the RNC pipe bomb was a Capitol Hill security officer who had previously worked for the Capitol Police.  What are the odds? 

Baker’s story elaborates on the law enforcement officers’ stunning lack of concern after being told about the pipe bomb, saying the video shows that they took a couple more minutes and “finished their lunch” before attending to the situation.   Not that they would’ve gotten any sense of urgency from the man in the backpack.  This unhurried individual had sauntered up to the driver’s side of the Metro PD patrol van, conversed, then casually walked around to the passenger side and chatted a few more seconds.  Then he’d sauntered over to the adjacent black Secret Service SUV (there to protect Kamala Harris) and spoken to the driver, and then ambled off the same way he came.

Tell me, would you behave as cavalierly as the man in the backpack if you’d just spotted a pipe bomb?  And if you were in one of those two cars and cared at all about doing your job --- or even just surviving yourself --- wouldn’t you immediately jump out of your car and get everyone the (bleep) away if you thought a bomb could go off at any moment?

After the man walks away, the video camera pans to the park benches and zooms in to where the pipe bomb had been found, so apparently some communication was made to whoever was manning that camera.  But then, things get even stranger, as several Secret Service agents come into frame, standing casually very close to the pipe bomb.  A lively group of children cross the street and walk directly in front of the benches where this WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION is still sitting.  As REVOLVER NEWS reports, “The Secret Service agents don’t think to warn these children at all, but instead themselves walk right by the bench as well, without a care in the world!  You have to see it to believe it.”

After the children pass by with no warning given, the Secret Service officers stand around for about a minute longer until a Capitol Police officer walks up close to the pipe bomb and takes a picture of it.  He then gives a thumbs-up sign to the Metro and Secret Service agents a little way down the sidewalk.  About the only way to explain this bizarre behavior is to say they all knew the bomb was inert and wouldn’t go off, but how would they possibly know that?  And if they did know that, why did they call in a bomb-safe robot to “defuse” it just a few minutes later?  It makes no sense.

And what do we say, class, when something makes no sense?  It means there’s a piece of information we don’t have.

The timing of the discoveries of the two pipe bombs was weird as well.  From REVOLVER:  “...If the discovery of the DNC pipe bomb was not related to some special urgency to look for an explosive device at the DNC in the immediate aftermath of the first [so-called] ‘RNC’ pipe bomb [NOTE:  it was closer to the nextdoor Capitol Hill Club] being reported, we are faced with a nearly impossible coincidence. This would require us to accept not only that the DNC pipe bomb somehow lay out in the open for over 17 hours undiscovered (by motorists, pedestrians, the DNC security guard, and Secret Service), but that the man in the backpack just happened to discover the DNC bomb (that had been laying undiscovered for 17 hours) barely 15 minutes after the first pipe bomb was reported. This is a very strange and remarkable coincidence indeed, and it underscores the critical need to identify and question the man in the backpack to learn more about the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the DNC pipe bomb.”

The detailed REVOLVER piece also goes back over the finding of the “RNC” pipe bomb and the unlikelihood that the events surrounding the discovery of both bombs would fall together as they did.  It also examines officials’ bewildering year-long lie about Kamala being at the Capitol building when she was really at the DNC office, supposedly with her life at risk.  Worth the time.

https://revolver.news/2024/01/secret-service-foreknowledge-or-criminal-negligence-damning-new-evidence-surfaces-fbi-january-6-pipe-bomb-story/

Also, Darren Beattie at REVOLVER NEWS has just done an interview with Tucker Carlson, and in the first 20 minutes that you can see without a subscription, he discusses the strange new video and talks us through the craziness we see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-jbrLo81Bs

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MESSAGE FROM MIKE HUCKABEE

Help me fight back against Big Tech censorship. If you would like to subscribe to the daily, advertisement-free version of my newsletter for $5 monthly or $36 annually, on Substack, go here.

Mike Huckabee

What the White House has maintained publicly about Hunter Biden’s “art” sales is very different from the real story, according to gallerist and art dealer Georges Berges’ transcribed interview before the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees last week.  I know this is going to shock you, but --- are you sitting down? --- it appears the White House lied about this.

John Solomon at JUST THE NEWS has the update, but here’s what we already knew:

There apparently was no “ethics agreement” that Berges ever saw, no system to make sure Hunter and the first family never knew who his high-dollar buyers were, as White House spokesperson Jen Psaki had maintained there was.

According to Berges, Hunter knew who the buyers were for 70 percent of his “art.” 

Hunter netted about $900,000 from the sales, in a period spanning more than two years.

The buyers were mostly Democrat donors, one of whom, Elizabeth Naftali, received a prestigious commission appointment.  She has said she bought one painting before her appointment and the other one after.  The most high-volume buyer of all was “sugar brother” Kevin Morris, whom Hunter had met not long before at a donor event.  In addition to being a wealthy Hollywood attorney and producer with millions to spend on Hunter, he also happened to be an art collector --- who knew?

Morris had an unusual agreement with the dealer in which he personally paid Berges’ 40 percent commission on the sales.  As we’ve previously noted, that should have been the tip-off to Berges that something wasn’t quite kosher.

All that was bad enough, but now that Solomon has seen the full transcript of Berges’ interview, there’s more to this story:

Berges told the congressional committees that President Biden both called and met him at the White House during the time he was representing Hunter’s “art” to potential buyers.  Also, Hunter requested that he be informed of who the buyers were, negating even the idea of an ethics agreement.

“I believe in the first contract, he [Hunter] was able to know who the buyers were,” he told them.  That was in 2020.  “I don’t know how it was phrased or --- but I remember that there --- that that was the difference.”  When asked if that was the normal kind of agreement, he said, “That part was different.  Normally, the gallerist does not let the artist know who the collectors are.”  In fact, when asked how many of the other artists he represents now (totaling 15) wanted to know the identity of purchasers, Berges said none of them.  About a year later, Berges said, in a subsequent deal, they did change the agreement to say that Hunter was not to be told.

But the most interesting part is that President Biden himself was making contact with Berges.

When asked by a House investigator if he’d had contact with the President, he said he had.

“Okay.  And was that in person or on the phone or both?” the investigator asked.

“Both,” Berges answered.

When asked when and where the in-person meeting was, Berges said, “At the White House, during Hunter’s --- Hunter’s daughter getting married.”

The phone call was placed by the President to Berges, ostensibly to (yes, we know this sounds strange) congratulate Berges’ daughter for finishing camp.

The President has repeatedly denied having contact with any of Hunter’s business associates, though testimony from former business partner Devon Archer wildly contradicts those denials.  Obviously, Joe Biden spoke with Berges on at least those two occasions.  Yet according to Berges, the subject of the “ethics” agreement never came up in conversation, with Joe or anyone else at the White House.  From Berges’ interview transcript: 

Investigator: “When you’re seeing in the press that the White House is putting in certain safeguards regarding an ethics agreement but you’ve had no conversations with the White House, I mean, did you ever say to Hunter Biden, ‘Hey, where’s this coming from?”

Berges: “I might have.  I probably did, yeah.”

I: “And do you remember what he said to you?”

B: “I don’t --- I do remember being surprised.”

I: “Why were you surprised?”

B: Because I hadn’t had any communication with the White House about an agreement.”

Oh, and one other detail.  If you were wondering how Hunter made the connection with Berges to represent his “art” in the first place, that was made through Lanette Phillips, who is (surprise) a Joe Biden fundraiser.  Hunter made his first sale in December 2020, shortly before his father would take office.

https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/tueart-dealer-told-congress-joe-biden-called-met-him-while-he-sold

In related news, Berges also told the committees that he’s decided not to renew his contract with Hunter, despite making $1.5 million in sales of Hunter’s “art” to 10 people.

Working with Hunter “hasn’t been the best decision for me,” he said.  “I never expected the whole security issue or the death threats and people assuming political affiliation, which was completely wrong.  It was a little bit more than I could chew...obviously, I kind of wanted my life back.  So I haven’t agreed to renew that contract now.”

It’s sad to see that some on the political fringes may have dealt unfairly with Mr. Berges and even threatened violence against him.  It seems he understandably regrets getting involved with the Bidens and would like to stay as far away from politics as he can.  Let’s wish him the best in that endeavor.

https://www.newsmax.com/us/hunter-biden-art-george-berges/2024/01/16/id/1149763/

Hunter’s felony gun case just got more serious as well, with the breaking news that his lie about drug use on an official gun purchase form is backed up not just by what he wrote in his book BEAUTIFUL THINGS but by actual cocaine residue on the brown leather pouch in which he kept the gun.  That gun has been held as evidence since 2018, and the white powder, according to a court filing, could still clearly be seen when the gun was examined again in 2023, when the residue was finally tested.  So the feds have had this evidence for five years, and we’re just now hearing about it.

It came out in court yesterday because Hunter, in his allegation of selective prosecution (not kidding), tried to say there was no proof he’d actually had a drug problem.  Surprise!

Here are the amusing details.  It’ll be interesting to see if Hunter’s attorney Abbe Lowell re-thinks his aggressive courtroom strategy, as it doesn’t seem to be working well with this client.

https://dailycaller.com/2024/01/16/fbi-investigator-cocaine-firearm-pouch-hunter-biden-doj-prosecutor/

FOX NEWS has more on the indictment itself.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hunter-bidens-gun-pouch-had-cocaine-residue-prosecutors-claim

Finally, in a quick update on the still-possible contempt of Congress charge --- though Hunter says he’ll comply after all, given a new subpoena --- the House Rules Committee has paused consideration of that charge while a new closed-door deposition date is negotiated.

As House Oversight Chairman James Comer said on Tuesday’s HANNITY, “I think what’s happened over the last few days is, Abbe Lowell has realized that we have won.  We are in a position to win in court...We have done everything by the book...So now, Abbe Lowell’s come back, basically begging, and offering for Hunter Biden to be deposed without any condition.”

“...This is about Joe Biden,” he continued.  “Hunter Biden’s a key witness in the investigation.  We believe that at the end of the day, if we make every effort to bring Hunter Biden in, that will help solidify the final report that we’re gonna issue to the American people.”  And if the interview falls through, Hunter WILL be held in contempt.

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/hunter-biden-impeachmen-tinquiry-joe-biden/2024/01/16

Hunter Epilogue:  If you’re (understandably) suffering from Hunter News Overload, at least read this headline.  Then fall to the floor, laughing helplessly.

https://dailycaller.com/2024/01/16/department-of-justice-doj-hunter-biden-laptop-verified/

Mike Huckabee

Mike Huckabee

“This may be the most significant instance of the United States government turning against its own citizens that we’ve encountered in our lifetime.”

That’s the conclusion of a must-read new piece in REVOLVER NEWS that brings together an array of details showing what the administration, some members of Congress, and the law enforcement bureaucracy have done (and continue to do) to American citizens in furtherance of their own political agenda.  “What’s emerging,” they say, “is a chilling image of a rogue and desperate regime willing to go to any lengths, including imprisoning innocent Americans, to keep its grip on power and punish its political enemies.”

Anyone who thinks that’s hyperbole needs to take a look at what they’ve put together over long months through the magnificent reporting of Julie Kelly and Darren Beattie.  For when you have time, here’s “The Essential REVOLVER NEWS January 6 Reading List” that they assembled two years ago.  Most of this background information should be familiar to longtime newsletter readers, as we’ve covered it in detail.  But what a great compendium to share with family, friends and acquaintances who might not be as well-versed in what really happened.  (Also highly recommended: Kelly’s eye-opening book, titled “JANUARY 6:  How Democrats Used the Capitol Protest to Launch a War on Terror Against the Political Right.”)

https://revolver.news/2022/01/the-essential-revolver-news-january-6-reading-list/

This administration’s mad power-lust, fueled as it was by TDS, was even turned on a former President of the United States, especially during the past two years, when they decided it was permissible to commit a shocking armed raid on Mar-A-Lago a few months before the 2022 election.  We would add that the blatant targeting of Trump is one big reason why so many Republicans so strongly back him today, as seen in last night’s Iowa caucuses.  He’s seen as THE leader who can and will get in there and fix this unholy and most decidedly un-American mess.

On Monday, Kelly and Beattie appeared on Sebastian Gorka’s podcast, stunning Gorka with some of their latest details.  Kelly delves into the matter of DC U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves and his leftist political agenda.  Recall that Graves is also one of two Biden-appointed prosecutors who refused to allow Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss to prosecute Hunter Biden in their districts.  Graves is supervising ALL the J6 cases.

It should be noted that before and after her book came out, Kelly personally attended the trials of the various J6 defendants and read all the court filings and legal judgments, so she has a good idea of the mindset of the actors involved, particularly Judge Tanya Chutkan.  Reading her orders, one can see the twisted “logic” behind punishing people innocent of any violent or even provocative act.  In her mind, she had already convicted anyone who was there as being part of the “insurrection,” just for being at the rally at all.  It was essentially a blanket condemnation.

Gorka started his interview by observing the government is “upping the ante” as the January 6 narrative is crumbling, with Graves announcing in a big presentation just days ago that “you’re committing a felony even if you didn’t go into Congress.”  As we’ve discussed, in his zeal to double the number of his J6 indictments and keep the stack of cases growing, this prosecutor is fine with putting someone in prison just for standing in the wrong spot outside the building.  But Kelly said this legal strategy is really not new (note the aforementioned Judge Chutkan), citing the conviction of Enrique Tarrio, who was charged with obstruction of an official proceeding and trespassing (!) even though he wasn’t anywhere near the Capitol building on January 6.  The man was in a Baltimore hotel.  He got 22 years in prison.

“But what Matthew Graves did last week was really egregious,” Kelly said.  “...This is the centerpiece of Joe Biden’s presidential re-election campaign, and Matthew Graves, another partisan disguised as a prosecutor, did his part with that egregious hour-long presentation.”

Now view that in light of something else that happened this week, the sentencing of Ray Epps, who is clearly seen on video yelling at the top of his lungs multiple times the day before the rally for the crowd to “go INTO the Capitol!!!”  (The crowd didn’t go for it; sensing a trap, they started chanting, “Fed!  Fed!  Fed!”)  Unbelievably, Epps got a suspended sentence of less than a year --- no jail time at all --- when others have received astonishing sentences of 20-plus years in prison.

Gorka also brought up something new this week that we haven’t addressed yet:  the insistence by a Pentagon source that Gen. Mark Milley was the “architect” of the events of that day, as he’s the one who obstructed the deployment of National Guard troops that had been green-lighted by President Trump.  Col. Earl G. Matthews, a former Guardsman now serving in the Army Reserve, called Milley “the Don Barzini of the Deep State.”

As senior military advisor to the President, Gen. Milley had no legal role in the chain of command, according to Matthews.  But he managed to exploit relationships and run it as “his own feudal possession.”  Read what Matthews said about the role played by Army leadership on J6 --- not wanting to appear as if they were cooperating with President Trump in any way --- and you’ll see another chunk of the government’s narrative fall to the ground.

https://redstate.com/mccabe/2024/01/10/army-colonel-j6-witness-milley-is-the-don-barzini-of-the-deep-state-n2168511

Even with all this, Beattie --- who deserves credit for coining the term “fed-surrection” --- informed Gorka that “the cracks in the official narrative are far more severe even than what you’ve described,” though he didn’t have time in that brief podcast to get into it in detail.  He said that with Ray Epps’ slap on the wrist, “they’re trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube, tie up loose ends” and that Epps “would have been Central Casting for their fake insurrection narrative,” a hulking 6’3” former Marine in camo and a Trump hat.  On the day of the rally, Epps skipped Trump’s speech in favor of directing people to the Capitol building.  And at just the right moment, Epps found himself “magically pre-positioned right at that initial breach point, whereupon he whispers in a man’s ear and two seconds later, the initial breach occurs [with the barriers being moved].”

After this was accomplished, Epps texted his nephew to say he’d “orchestrated” it.  Epps had been the head of the Arizona chapter of the Oath Keepers and on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, but he was dropped from that and ended up doing softball interviews with THE NEW YORK TIMES and 60 MINUTES while other J6-ers were held without bail.  Beattie, wording it as nicely as possible, concluded that Epps is “not an authentic actor.”

https://revolver.news/2024/01/powerhouse-j6-reporters-stun-seb-gorka-with-insider-deets-on-two-major-players/

The REVOLVER NEWS piece brings up yet another example of the crumbling J6 narrative.  Remember former Capitol Police Lt. Tarik Johnson, the official that Pelosi’s committee made sure it did NOT talk to?  And Special Agent David Lazarus, whose testimony helped put Oath Keepers in prison but who appears to have perjured himself after newly-released J6 video shows he couldn’t have been in the right place to witness what he testified about?

Johnson (a hero in our book) posted an “EMERGENCY UPDATE!!!” on X with the news that Capitol Hill Police Chief Thomas Manger --- whom he called “arguably the most corrupt politician in the country,” which is saying something --- has decided to do no internal investigation of Lazarus’ allegedly false testimony.  The rug is getting pretty lumpy with all that stuff swept under it.

https://twitter.com/elleonceotk/status/1746638838112420258?s=51&t=J4D-_h2kFjBAjWxykloF4w

Mike Huckabee

So now Biden is building the wall, asking Mexico to keep migrants on their side of the border, and redesignating the Houthis as terrorists.

https://justthenews.com/government/security/biden-admin-plans-redesignate-houthis-terrorists-report

Also, his DOJ finally, at long last, admitted that Hunter Biden’s laptop was real.

https://dailycaller.com/2024/01/16/department-of-justice-doj-hunter-biden-laptop-verified/

Apparently, their argument for reelecting Joe instead of Trump will be that after three years, he’s finally realized that Trump was right about everything.

Reminder: Know who falsely told us for years that Hunter’s laptop was “Russian disinformation,” that Trump colluded with Russia, that Joe Biden knew nothing about his son’s business deals, that there was an ethics agreement preventing Hunter from knowing who was buying his “art,” etc. etc. etc.? The same media outlets that are so obsessed with airing only “The TRUTH” that they refuse to show Trump’s speeches: CNN and MSNBC.

Get the feeling that there’s about as much truth in their alleged “news” reporting as there is actual cheese in a spray can of pasteurized, processed, cheez-food product?

Mike Huckabee

As expected, Donald Trump won a record victory in the Iowa Caucuses. He took 51% of the vote, smashing George Bush’s previous record of 41%. And his 29.8% margin of victory over second placer Ron DeSantis obliterated Bob Dole’s record winning margin of 12.8%. Nikki Haley came in third at 19.1% (she declared that this is now a “two-person race,” but it’s unclear who that second person is that she's referring to.) Vivek Ramaswamy was fourth with 7.7%, and as I predicted, he started the post-Iowa field-thinning by dropping out and endorsing Trump.

https://www.westernjournal.com/ap-republican-caucuses-live-updates-trump-wins-iowas-leadoff-voting-contest/

Interestingly, Texas pastor and little-known candidate Ryan Binkley won 774 votes for 0.7%. That's four times more support than the 191 votes and 0.2% taken by Asa Hutchinson.

There was some controversy early on that drew complaints from the DeSantis campaign after the AP called the race for Trump with less than 1% of the vote in and people still caucusing. They’re right to complain about that, but it didn’t seem to make much difference in the long run.

DeSantis and Haley say they’re moving on to New Hampshire and South Carolina, although Haley announced that she won’t participate in any more GOP debates.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2024/01/16/haley-wont-participate-in-next-debates-n2633686

But Newt Gingrich says it’s already time to stick a fork in it. He told Fox News that despite all the lawfare, slander and censorship thrown at Trump, "He's the nominee. Get over it – He is the nominee. He's going to win the nomination. The news media doesn't want to say that because they need to somehow hype ‘please watch us while we go through this charade’."

He said there is no viable path for a second-place candidate to come from behind and win: "[Y]ou get to be the leading ‘irrelevant’ or the second ‘irrelevant’ or the third ‘irrelevant’, but nobody is going to be number two because he is going to dominate totally if you look at the country at-large."

https://www.foxnews.com/media/trump-stuns-pundits-defying-political-gravity-iowa-win-nominee-get-over-it

Despite claims that Trump will alienate women voters, an AP poll found that he actually got more support from GOP women in Iowa (54%) than from men (53%.) One red flag that the campaign will need to address is that his support was much higher among rural women than suburban women (59% to 40%), who are an important factor in the November vote. He’ll need to work hard to dispel the phony Boogey-man image that the Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) have created, and convince suburban women that it’s not in their best interests to keep voting for high crime, open borders, endless wars, eroded Constitutional rights and a terrible economy.

The media reacted to Trump’s crushing victory exactly the way you’d expect: by having a full-scale tantrum worthy of a two-year-old in the Walmart candy aisle.

Trump’s victory speech was actually rather moderate and mature. He called for unity, praised his rivals for their efforts, and talked about how he planned to begin making America great again by ending the rising threats abroad, fixing the economy and rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. He even said he wasn’t going to go too hard on Joe Biden, although he then referred to him as the worst President in history. But by Trump’s standards (and considering the evidence), I’d say that IS going easy on him.

https://redstate.com/smoosieq/2024/01/15/donald-trump-addresses-supporters-following-iowa-caucus-win-n2168778

But if you were trying to watch the speech on CNN or MSNBC (and why would anyone do that?), you couldn’t, because they cut away from it. Instead, they filled the time with their far-left talking heads ranting against Trump and his supporters. Like Joy Reid complaining that there are too many white Christians in Iowa. Or CNN’s Jake Tapper, who claimed that Iowans “believed the lie” (what, that CNN is a news channel?) and that Trump was spouting “anti-immigrant rhetoric” when he said he would start deporting the millions of illegal aliens Biden has allowed to cross our open border.

This is a good example of how liberals only win arguments by changing the definitions of words. An illegal alien is not an “immigrant.” Immigrants respect America’s laws and follow the system to become US citizens, and are among our best and most patriotic citizens. Literally anybody can cross an open border illegally, which is the problem. By the way, polls show that a majority of Americans agree with those Trump policies they’re demonizing, including securing the border and deporting illegal aliens.

Even more hilariously, MSNBC’s tiny viewing pool was treated to Rachel Maddow piously intoning about how they made the painful decision not to show Trump’s speech because they’re so devoted to airing the truth. She then went into a weird diatribe about how Trump is a dangerous fascist but his supporters are even worse. You might recall that fascism is a political doctrine in which the government dictates which views are allowed to be expressed. You might also recall Ms. Maddow as the professional fabulist who misled her viewers for years, feeding them ever-wilder “Russian collusion” conspiracy theories that all turned out to be horse manure.

So why is this lying hypocrite still employed by MSNBC? I like my writers, but if they’d tainted my reputation by pushing a lot of patent rubbish for two years, I would have fired them. Whenever I see Maddow now, it’s like seeing a flashing neon sign reminding me not to believe a word I hear on MSNBC.

As laughable as these histrionics are, they do offer a serious lesson in how this campaign is going to play out, and it shows that Trump and the GOP will have to be clever and diligent in cutting through the attempts to silence and censor their message. These people are terrified, but not that Trump will be a fascist dictator (he was already President for four years, and I notice none of them ended up in a gulag.)

They’re terrified that if Americans see Trump unfiltered by them, it will undo three years’ worth of their efforts at creating a straw man and standing between him and the public to keep people from seeing who he really is: a man who was once the most popular celebrity on NBC before he announced for President as a Republican, and overnight, magically transformed into a racist, Nazi monster. They’ll also use the “We can’t let Hitler speak!” dodge as an excuse for Biden not to “lower himself” to debate Trump, as if he possibly could.

To quote Newt Gingrich: “Get over it!”

To save you (and me) the annoyance of having to watch this bilge, Nick Arama at Redstate.com did it for us and recapped it, and he has my eternal gratitude. He also makes the correct observation that despite all the claims that the Republicans are “extremists,” there are only a handful of extremists on the fringe of the rightwing, while they are the animating force of the modern Democratic Party.

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2024/01/16/cnn-and-msnbc-flip-their-lids-after-trump-wins-censor-trumps-victory-speech-n2168783

---

MESSAGE FROM MIKE HUCKABEE

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Mike Huckabee

Blessings on you and your family from all the Huckabee team! Today, if you have a moment, leave me a comment about something you read. Comments help me fine tune what I am writing, and they show that we have an active community of readers.

Sincerely,

Mike Huckabee

P.S. Just a reminder: The Morning Edition, delivers Monday-Saturday

Daily Bible Verse

⁵ My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.

⁶ He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved.

Psalm 62:5-6 KJV

Newsletter Notes

12 stories

4,348 words

Reading time: About 20 minutes

Trump wins Iowa

As expected last night, Donald Trump won a record victory in the Iowa Caucuses. He took 51% of the vote, smashing George Bush’s previous record of 41%. And his 29.8% margin of victory over second placer Ron DeSantis obliterated Bob Dole’s record winning margin of 12.8%. Nikki Haley came in third at 19.1% (she declared that this is now a “two-person race,” but it’s unclear who that second person is that she's referring to.) Vivek Ramaswamy was fourth with 7.7%, and as I predicted, he started the post-Iowa field-thinning by dropping out and endorsing Trump.

https://www.westernjournal.com/ap-republican-caucuses-live-updates-trump-wins-iowas-leadoff-voting-contest/

Interestingly, Texas pastor and little-known candidate Ryan Binkley won 774 votes for 0.7%. That's four times more support than the 191 votes and 0.2% taken by Asa Hutchinson.

There was some controversy early on that drew complaints from the DeSantis campaign after the AP called the race for Trump with less than 1% of the vote in and people still caucusing. They’re right to complain about that, but it didn’t seem to make much difference in the long run.

DeSantis and Haley say they’re moving on to New Hampshire and South Carolina, although Haley announced that she won’t participate in any more GOP debates.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2024/01/16/haley-wont-participate-in-next-debates-n2633686

But Newt Gingrich says it’s already time to stick a fork in it. He told Fox News that despite all the lawfare, slander and censorship thrown at Trump, "He's the nominee. Get over it – He is the nominee. He's going to win the nomination. The news media doesn't want to say that because they need to somehow hype ‘please watch us while we go through this charade’."

He said there is no viable path for a second-place candidate to come from behind and win: "[Y]ou get to be the leading ‘irrelevant’ or the second ‘irrelevant’ or the third ‘irrelevant’, but nobody is going to be number two because he is going to dominate totally if you look at the country at-large."

https://www.foxnews.com/media/trump-stuns-pundits-defying-political-gravity-iowa-win-nominee-get-over-it

Despite claims that Trump will alienate women voters, an AP poll found that he actually got more support from GOP women in Iowa (54%) than from men (53%.) One red flag that the campaign will need to address is that his support was much higher among rural women than suburban women (59% to 40%), who are an important factor in the November vote. He’ll need to work hard to dispel the phony Boogey-man image that the Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) have created, and convince suburban women that it’s not in their best interests to keep voting for high crime, open borders, endless wars, eroded Constitutional rights and a terrible economy.

The Media reacts

The media reacted to Trump’s crushing victory exactly the way you’d expect: by having a full-scale tantrum worthy of a two-year-old in the Walmart candy aisle.

Trump’s victory speech was actually rather moderate and mature. He called for unity, praised his rivals for their efforts, and talked about how he planned to begin making America great again by ending the rising threats abroad, fixing the economy and rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. He even said he wasn’t going to go too hard on Joe Biden, although he then referred to him as the worst President in history. But by Trump’s standards (and considering the evidence), I’d say that IS going easy on him.

https://redstate.com/smoosieq/2024/01/15/donald-trump-addresses-supporters-following-iowa-caucus-win-n2168778

But if you were trying to watch the speech on CNN or MSNBC (and why would anyone do that?), you couldn’t, because they cut away from it. Instead, they filled the time with their far-left talking heads ranting against Trump and his supporters. Like Joy Reid complaining that there are too many white Christians in Iowa. Or CNN’s Jake Tapper, who claimed that Iowans “believed the lie” (what, that CNN is a news channel?) and that Trump was spouting “anti-immigrant rhetoric” when he said he would start deporting the millions of illegal aliens Biden has allowed to cross our open border.

This is a good example of how liberals only win arguments by changing the definitions of words. An illegal alien is not an “immigrant.” Immigrants respect America’s laws and follow the system to become US citizens, and are among our best and most patriotic citizens. Literally anybody can cross an open border illegally, which is the problem. By the way, polls show that a majority of Americans agree with those Trump policies they’re demonizing, including securing the border and deporting illegal aliens.

Even more hilariously, MSNBC’s tiny viewing pool was treated to Rachel Maddow piously intoning about how they made the painful decision not to show Trump’s speech because they’re so devoted to airing the truth. She then went into a weird diatribe about how Trump is a dangerous fascist but his supporters are even worse. You might recall that fascism is a political doctrine in which the government dictates which views are allowed to be expressed. You might also recall Ms. Maddow as the professional fabulist who misled her viewers for years, feeding them ever-wilder “Russian collusion” conspiracy theories that all turned out to be horse manure.

So why is this lying hypocrite still employed by MSNBC? I like my writers, but if they’d tainted my reputation by pushing a lot of patent rubbish for two years, I would have fired them. Whenever I see Maddow now, it’s like seeing a flashing neon sign reminding me not to believe a word I hear on MSNBC.

As laughable as these histrionics are, they do offer a serious lesson in how this campaign is going to play out, and it shows that Trump and the GOP will have to be clever and diligent in cutting through the attempts to silence and censor their message. These people are terrified, but not that Trump will be a fascist dictator (he was already President for four years, and I notice none of them ended up in a gulag.)

They’re terrified that if Americans see Trump unfiltered by them, it will undo three years’ worth of their efforts at creating a straw man and standing between him and the public to keep people from seeing who he really is: a man who was once the most popular celebrity on NBC before he announced for President as a Republican, and overnight, magically transformed into a racist, Nazi monster. They’ll also use the “We can’t let Hitler speak!” dodge as an excuse for Biden not to “lower himself” to debate Trump, as if he possibly could.

To quote Newt Gingrich: “Get over it!”

To save you (and me) the annoyance of having to watch this bilge, Nick Arama at Redstate.com did it for us and recapped it, and he has my eternal gratitude. He also makes the correct observation that despite all the claims that the Republicans are “extremists,” there are only a handful of extremists on the fringe of the rightwing, while they are the animating force of the modern Democratic Party.

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2024/01/16/cnn-and-msnbc-flip-their-lids-after-trump-wins-censor-trumps-victory-speech-n2168783

A postscript on Martin Luther King Jr. Day:

The FBI put out a tweet honoring MLK, and was immediately eviscerated by Twitter (X) users and Community Notes, which reminded us that “The FBI engaged in surveillance of King, attempted to discredit him, and used manipulation tactics to influence him to stop organizing. King’s family believe the FBI was responsible for his death.”

Kudos to Mark Hemingway for reminding us that “the man in LBJ's (White House) responsible for monitoring King and disseminating the illegal recordings to humiliate him was none other than beloved progressive PBS icon Bill Moyers.”

https://instapundit.com/626873/

Related: I find that most leftist attacks on Trump tell you far more about the attacker than about Trump. For instance, on Monday, Trump’s campaign put out a simple cartoon on social media, showing Iowans how to vote in the Caucuses.

https://www.westernjournal.com/weirdos-mediaite-lose-minds-harmless-video-trump-posted-caucus/

The leftist website Mediaite managed to twist this into both an accusation of ignorance and disrespect about Martin Luther King Jr. Day (apparently, you’re not supposed to tweet about anything else on that day, and/or it’s horrific not to include the “Jr.,” which prompts me to ask, if that’s so necessary, why is it frequently abbreviated as “MLK Day” rather than “MLKJ Day”?) and a weird sexual controversy because the cartoon character didn’t have genitalia.

What kind of sick cartoons did these people’s parents let them watch as kids, and is that why they turned out the sad way they did?

100 days

Guy Benson at Townhall.com has a round-up of the disgusting pro-Hamas, anti-Israel rallies around the US, marking 100 days since the horrifying October 7^th attack on Jews in Israel.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2024/01/15/disgusting-pro-terrorism-rallies-in-new-york-dc-london-celebrate-100-days-since-hamas-massacre-n2633614

As these protesters have become more emboldened by authorities’ refusal to make them obey the law, their disruptions hit a new low on Saturday night when a mob of them gathered outside the White House. They waved Palestinian flags while chanting, “Ceasefire Now," "Free, Free Palestine," and "Yemen, Yemen make us proud / Turn another ship around," showing their support for attacks on ships by Iran-backed Houthi militants.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/white-house-staff-relocated-pro-palestinian-rioters-damage-exterior-fencing-hurl-objects-cops

The situation escalated when the protesters damaged the fence around the White House, and staffers and journalists inside were relocated to ensure their safety. As many pundits noted, if they’d been wearing red MAGA caps, they would have been arrested, branded as “insurrectionists” and imprisoned for years, but chances are they will face zero consequences for their open support of terrorists, threats and vandalism of the White House, and interfering with government business.

Maybe they were extra mad because on Friday, Biden admitted that the Houthis are terrorists. The Trump Administration had designated them as terrorists, but Biden revoked that designation. Apparently, he mindlessly revoked everything Trump did without any regard for why it was done, under the theory that “Trump BAD!,” which explains a lot of the disasters we’re dealing with today.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/01/15/biden-admits-houthis-are-terrorists-after-reversing-trumps-foreign-terrorist-organization-designation/

Related: Hamas released footage of three hostages that confirms they were alive, but it’s not clear when they were filmed. The terrorists added ominously, “Tomorrow we will inform you of their Fate.”

https://redstate.com/bobhoge/2024/01/14/sick-hamas-releases-propaganda-video-of-hostages-tomorrow-we-will-inform-you-of-their-fate-n2168720

These are just three of over 130 hostages who are still being held by Hamas. As Bob Hoge rightly says at the link, if these pro-Hamas protesters really cared about ending the war, they’d be demanding that Hamas release its hostages, not that Israel surrender.

Also related: These pro-terrorist leftists might think they can get away with being public menaces with no consequences, but they’re learning quickly that they’d better not mess with Texas.

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2024/01/14/anti-israel-protester-finds-its-not-good-to-mess-with-texans-when-he-disrupts-abbott-event-n2168717

Kerry steps down

It was announced that John Kerry is stepping down as President Biden’s “climate czar” and will instead work on Biden’s reelection campaign. Ironically, his no longer taking private jets to climate conferences all over the world may represent the biggest reduction in CO2 emissions that this Administration has yet achieved.

https://www.westernjournal.com/ap-john-kerry-us-climate-envoy-leave-biden-administration/

I wish Kerry just as much success with Biden’s presidential campaign as he brought to his own.

Willis responds

Fulton County DA Fani Willis has finally responded – sort of – to allegations that she enriched herself with tax money by paying big bucks to her unqualified, married boyfriend Nathan Wade to act as Trump special prosecutor, and he, in turn, spent some of the money on lavish trips with her.

She didn’t respond in legal fashion, nor did she deny the allegations. But she did go in front of a friendly crowd at a black church and play the race card like crazy.

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2024/01/14/fani-willis-comments-on-scandal-n2168718

Willis insinuated that the accusations are racially motivated because the other two special prosecutors are white and only she and Wade, who are black, are accused of wrongdoing. Yes, but maybe that’s because the other two prosecutors had nothing to do with all that corruption mentioned in the first paragraph.

Defying any bolts of lightning from above, Willis declared in church, "You cannot expect black women to be perfect and save the world. The Lord is completing us, we are not perfect. We need your prayers, we need to be allowed to stumble. We need grace. We are all flawed, sinners, unworthy, imperfect, damaged."

Much of that is true. However, these allegations aren’t just about personal sins and shortcomings, they’re also about public corruption and illegality. What is flawed, unworthy, imperfect and damaged is her case. As for personal sins, you can’t expect forgiveness for them while refusing to admit you committed them.

Chris Queen at PJ Media also has some good comments on this transparently self-serving speech and how disgusting it was that it came in a church during what was supposed to be a day honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who stood up to real racism.

https://pjmedia.com/chris-queen/2024/01/15/whatchu-talkin-bout-willis-fani-goes-to-church-to-grandstand-n4925485

A “grave injustice” in Florida

A 19-year-old illegal alien in St. Johns County, Florida, is accused of causing the death of a sheriff’s officer who was trying to detain him and is facing charges of resisting an officer with violence and manslaughter. But while he hasn’t been in the US for long, either he’s already learned a lot about our system (possibly from listening to Fani Willis), or his lawyer certainly has. 

His attorney is threatening a lawsuit over this “grave injustice” against his client, whom he claims “was a victim of police brutality. He was a victim of racial profiling. He was a victim of violation of his fourth, fifth, and sixth amendment constitutional rights. Those who are responsible for this abuse will be held accountable.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/01/14/illegal-alien-accused-killing-sgt-michael-kunovich-rights-violated/

The officer remains dead, but at least we can be comforted in knowing that the illegal alien accused of causing his death enjoys all those Constitutional rights guaranteed to US citizens. And since we’re holding people other than him accountable for this, how about Joe Biden and Alejandro Mayorkas?

Hmm

As part of its “diversity and inclusion” initiative, the Federal Aviation Commission is actively seeking to hire people with “targeted disabilities,” including “hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism." 

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2024/01/15/the-faa-wants-people-with-severe-intellectual-disabilities-to-work-for-them-n2633625

I’m sure nervous flyers will be comforted to know that the agency in charge of airline safety will be staffed by people with psychiatric problems and severe intellectual disabilities. If it’s good enough for the White House, it’s good enough for the FAA.

Reporting the news

Back in November, we reported on the shooting and wounding of three Palestinian students in Burlington, Vermont. I said then that if they were targeted for being Muslim, that was a deplorable hate crime and should be condemned and prosecuted, but we didn’t know. That didn’t stop a number of media talking heads and politicians, including President Biden, from charging ahead and framing it as an Islamophobic hate crime and the shooter as a deranged MAGA type.

Well, we finally know the real story, and surprise! It doesn’t fit the preferred media narrative. The accused shooter is reportedly a mentally-unstable leftist and Hamas sympathizer who likely had an episode, ran outside in a rage and shot the young men as they were passing his house without even knowing who they were.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2024/01/14/the-supposed-anti-muslim-vermont-shooter-supported-hamas-n2633629

Again, this is why we don’t report news until we know what happened. Other people ought to try that sometime.

Rand: Proof Fauci needs to go to prison

After last week’s House testimony in which Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted that pandemic-era social distancing regulations were based on zero science, and that the lab leak hypothesis was not a “conspiracy theory,” in between claiming not to recall salient facts over a hundred times, Sen. Rand Paul is citing the testimony as vindication for his long-standing argument that Fauci should go to prison.

https://www.westernjournal.com/rand-paul-fires-off-really-thinks-fauci-deserves-frankly-go-prison/

Sen. Paul said that for making one of the worst public health decisions “in the entire history of the world,” Fauci “should just be pilloried.” But trying to silence discussion of the lab leak theory and denying knowing anything about it to Congress while privately admitting his concerns is a different story. He said, “For his dishonesty, frankly, he should go to prison. If you lie to Congress, and you’re dishonest, and you won’t accept responsibility.”

He’s right, but unfortunately, we’ve seen in recent years that if you are among a certain favored political circle, you can lie all you want to Congress and face no consequences. That’s our new pandemic.

RIP JOYCE “TRIXIE NORTON” RANDOLPH

By Pat Reeder

We've just lost another familiar TV face that generations of us have grown up watching. Joyce Randolph, who played Trixie, the wife of Ed Norton (Art Carney) on the original classic sitcom “The Honeymooners,” died Saturday in her New York apartment at 99.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/joyce-randolph-dead-honeymooners-trixie-1235787487/

You are forgiven if you were surprised to hear she was still alive, since her co-stars Jackie Gleason, Art Carney and Audrey Meadows all passed away quite a while ago, the most recent being Carney in 2003. Although she had worked before in summer stock with Meadows, Gleason hired her after seeing her on a Clorets commercial. Of the four main characters, she had the least to do, once joking that her favorite episodes were any “in which I had more than six or seven lines.”

Although she never played Trixie with Gleason again after the original “Golden 39” episodes, she did revive the role along with Meadows as Alice Kramden for a cameo on the 1991 sitcom, “Hi, Honey, I’m Home.”

Her TV resume may not be extensive, but if you’re going to be known for one role in a show that lasted only one season, you couldn’t do better than being part of the main cast on what many consider the greatest sitcom of all time. RIP.

The J6 case against the GOVERNMENT grows as official narrative falls apart

“This may be the most significant instance of the United States government turning against its own citizens that we’ve encountered in our lifetime.”

That’s the conclusion of a must-read new piece in REVOLVER NEWS that brings together an array of details showing what the administration, some members of Congress, and the law enforcement bureaucracy have done (and continue to do) to American citizens in furtherance of their own political agenda.  “What’s emerging,” they say, “is a chilling image of a rogue and desperate regime willing to go to any lengths, including imprisoning innocent Americans, to keep its grip on power and punish its political enemies.”

Anyone who thinks that’s hyperbole needs to take a look at what they’ve put together over long months through the magnificent reporting of Julie Kelly and Darren Beattie.  For when you have time, here’s “The Essential REVOLVER NEWS January 6 Reading List” that they assembled two years ago.  Most of this background information should be familiar to longtime newsletter readers, as we’ve covered it in detail.  But what a great compendium to share with family, friends and acquaintances who might not be as well-versed in what really happened.  (Also highly recommended: Kelly’s eye-opening book, titled “JANUARY 6:  How Democrats Used the Capitol Protest to Launch a War on Terror Against the Political Right.”)

https://revolver.news/2022/01/the-essential-revolver-news-january-6-reading-list/

This administration’s mad power-lust, fueled as it was by TDS, was even turned on a former President of the United States, especially during the past two years, when they decided it was permissible to commit a shocking armed raid on Mar-A-Lago a few months before the 2022 election.  We would add that the blatant targeting of Trump is one big reason why so many Republicans so strongly back him today, as seen in last night’s Iowa caucuses.  He’s seen as THE leader who can and will get in there and fix this unholy and most decidedly un-American mess.

On Monday, Kelly and Beattie appeared on Sebastian Gorka’s podcast, stunning Gorka with some of their latest details.  Kelly delves into the matter of DC U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves and his leftist political agenda.  Recall that Graves is also one of two Biden-appointed prosecutors who refused to allow Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss to prosecute Hunter Biden in their districts.  Graves is supervising ALL the J6 cases.

It should be noted that before and after her book came out, Kelly personally attended the trials of the various J6 defendants and read all the court filings and legal judgments, so she has a good idea of the mindset of the actors involved, particularly Judge Tanya Chutkan.  Reading her orders, one can see the twisted “logic” behind punishing people innocent of any violent or even provocative act.  In her mind, she had already convicted anyone who was there as being part of the “insurrection,” just for being at the rally at all.  It was essentially a blanket condemnation.

Gorka started his interview by observing the government is “upping the ante” as the January 6 narrative is crumbling, with Graves announcing in a big presentation just days ago that “you’re committing a felony even if you didn’t go into Congress.”  As we’ve discussed, in his zeal to double the number of his J6 indictments and keep the stack of cases growing, this prosecutor is fine with putting someone in prison just for standing in the wrong spot outside the building.  But Kelly said this legal strategy is really not new (note the aforementioned Judge Chutkan), citing the conviction of Enrique Tarrio, who was charged with obstruction of an official proceeding and trespassing (!) even though he wasn’t anywhere near the Capitol building on January 6.  The man was in a Baltimore hotel.  He got 22 years in prison.

“But what Matthew Graves did last week was really egregious,” Kelly said.  “...This is the centerpiece of Joe Biden’s presidential re-election campaign, and Matthew Graves, another partisan disguised as a prosecutor, did his part with that egregious hour-long presentation.”

Now view that in light of something else that happened this week, the sentencing of Ray Epps, who is clearly seen on video yelling at the top of his lungs multiple times the day before the rally for the crowd to “go INTO the Capitol!!!”  (The crowd didn’t go for it; sensing a trap, they started chanting, “Fed!  Fed!  Fed!”)  Unbelievably, Epps got a suspended sentence of less than a year --- no jail time at all --- when others have received astonishing sentences of 20-plus years in prison.

Gorka also brought up something new this week that we haven’t addressed yet:  the insistence by a Pentagon source that Gen. Mark Milley was the “architect” of the events of that day, as he’s the one who obstructed the deployment of National Guard troops that had been green-lighted by President Trump.  Col. Earl G. Matthews, a former Guardsman now serving in the Army Reserve, called Milley “the Don Barzini of the Deep State.”

As senior military advisor to the President, Gen. Milley had no legal role in the chain of command, according to Matthews.  But he managed to exploit relationships and run it as “his own feudal possession.”  Read what Matthews said about the role played by Army leadership on J6 --- not wanting to appear as if they were cooperating with President Trump in any way --- and you’ll see another chunk of the government’s narrative fall to the ground.

https://redstate.com/mccabe/2024/01/10/army-colonel-j6-witness-milley-is-the-don-barzini-of-the-deep-state-n2168511

Even with all this, Beattie --- who deserves credit for coining the term “fed-surrection” --- informed Gorka that “the cracks in the official narrative are far more severe even than what you’ve described,” though he didn’t have time in that brief podcast to get into it in detail.  He said that with Ray Epps’ slap on the wrist, “they’re trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube, tie up loose ends” and that Epps “would have been Central Casting for their fake insurrection narrative,” a hulking 6’3” former Marine in camo and a Trump hat.  On the day of the rally, Epps skipped Trump’s speech in favor of directing people to the Capitol building.  And at just the right moment, Epps found himself “magically pre-positioned right at that initial breach point, whereupon he whispers in a man’s ear and two seconds later, the initial breach occurs [with the barriers being moved].”

After this was accomplished, Epps texted his nephew to say he’d “orchestrated” it.  Epps had been the head of the Arizona chapter of the Oath Keepers and on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, but he was dropped from that and ended up doing softball interviews with THE NEW YORK TIMES and 60 MINUTES while other J6-ers were held without bail.  Beattie, wording it as nicely as possible, concluded that Epps is “not an authentic actor.”

https://revolver.news/2024/01/powerhouse-j6-reporters-stun-seb-gorka-with-insider-deets-on-two-major-players/

The REVOLVER NEWS piece brings up yet another example of the crumbling J6 narrative.  Remember former Capitol Police Lt. Tarik Johnson, the official that Pelosi’s committee made sure it did NOT talk to?  And Special Agent David Lazarus, whose testimony helped put Oath Keepers in prison but who appears to have perjured himself after newly-released J6 video shows he couldn’t have been in the right place to witness what he testified about?

Johnson (a hero in our book) posted an “EMERGENCY UPDATE!!!” on X with the news that Capitol Hill Police Chief Thomas Manger --- whom he called “arguably the most corrupt politician in the country,” which is saying something --- has decided to do no internal investigation of Lazarus’ allegedly false testimony.  The rug is getting pretty lumpy with all that stuff swept under it.

https://twitter.com/elleonceotk/status/1746638838112420258?s=51&t=J4D-_h2kFjBAjWxykloF4w

I Just Wanted to Say

Thank you for reading my newsletter.

Mike Huckabee

Yesterday, the Labor Department reported that the year-to-year consumer price index rose by 3.4% in December. It was 3.1% in November, and economists had predicted 3.2%.

https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2024/01/11/inflation-surged-more-than-expected-in-december/

This resurgence of inflation has experts worried that the Fed won’t start reducing interest rates, as hoped. It’s also more bad news for the Biden reelection campaign, since he’s hilariously running on the claim that Bidenomics has fixed the inflation problem.

Even 3.1% inflation is higher than the Fed’s target of 2%, and higher than inflation under Trump. This is also another 3.4% price hike on top of the double-digit price hikes that have already been baked in during the first two years of Biden’s term. When the liberal talking heads claim to be mystified by why Americans aren’t giving Biden credit for the great economy, they should consider that people’s grocery bills are twice what they were three years ago while Biden is bragging about bringing inflation down to 3 percent.

Related: South Carolina Democrat Rep. James Clyburn bemoaned to MSNBC that Americans are listening to “disinformation” and just can’t “grasp” how great a job Biden has done as President.

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2024/01/11/clyburn-nobody-can-grasp-how-good-biden-is-theres-disinformation-and-tweeting-thats-not-good-for-america/

Also related: Chris Matthews on MSNBC urged urban liberals to vote so they can save democracy by outvoting rural Americans, whom he compared to crazy cult members and terrorists and accused of exhibiting “rural rage.” Gee, I wonder why this guy doesn’t have his own show anymore?

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2024/01/11/clyburn-nobody-can-grasp-how-good-biden-is-theres-disinformation-and-tweeting-thats-not-good-for-america/

Actually, the only real “rage” I see these days is coming from the left. Maybe they’re just upset at having to live in the cesspools that the Democrats they keep voting for have turned their cities into.

Also also related: Here’s an example of the kind of Matthews-approved liberal elite brain trusts that are running our cities. San Francisco’s city council voted 8-3 to demand that Israel call a ceasefire in Gaza.

https://twitchy.com/grateful-calvin/2024/01/10/they-did-it-peace-declared-across-middle-east-after-san-francisco-calls-for-ceasefire-n2391589

My favorite Twitter comment on this was “Israel just voted to demand that San Francisco clean up all the drug needles and human feces.”

It’s really a tragedy what our cities have become under leftist misrule. The YouTube movie critic The Critical Drinker recently said something about LucasFilm and Disney that could apply to every blue city in America, but especially San Francisco: they’re organizations founded by geniuses and inherited by morons.

Mike Huckabee

Even I was surprised at how quickly the idiotic Georgia RICO prosecution of Donald Trump and his associates devolved into “House of Cards” mixed with “Days of Our Lives.”

It’s only been a couple of days since the bombshell court filing by one defendant accusing DA Fani Willis of unethical behavior for allegedly appointing her less-than-qualified secret paramour Nathan Wade as the special counsel, signing off on exorbitant pay for him, then profiting from it by accompanying him on lavish vacations and cruises. Then we learned that she likely coordinated the assault on Trump with the Biden cabal thanks to her boo actually filing for an expense reimbursement for the trip to the White House! That was all bad enough, but it seems that with each passing hour, this farce gets worse. Hang on while I try to recap the latest absurd twists in this sordid saga.

First, Politico reports that Willis colluded with Nancy Pelosi’s one-sided and illegally-formed January 6^th Kangaroo Kommittee to get tips on prosecuting Trump, then allegedly used a procedural trick to keep the defendants from learning that as part of discovery. This concealing of evidence alone could be enough to get the cases thrown out.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/01/10/report-fani-willis-secretly-colluded-with-january-6-committee-could-blow-up-case/

Follow The Money: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that since January of 2022, Willis’s DA office has paid Wade nearly $654,000. That not only makes him likely the highest-paid prosecutor in the state (despite his lack of experience in that job), it’s also far more than the $186,000 a year that the state’s Supreme Court Justices are paid.

https://www.ajc.com/politics/who-is-nathan-wade-fulton-special-prosecutor-in-trump-case/6XUFAK3TCBCOPDK4WZLY2RXVLA/

Instapundit has some interesting comments from an anonymous Atlanta attorney who is familiar with some of the players and who spills the beans on what those in the local legal community are saying…

https://instapundit.com/626167/

Now, some soap opera twists: Willis is accused of beginning her affair with Wade before he filed for divorce from his wife. The estranged wife “pounced” (to use the media’s favorite term) and has already subpoenaed Willis to testify in their divorce proceedings. I hope Wade saved some of that money because it sounds like he’ll soon be giving up a big chunk of it.

https://redstate.com/jenvanlaar/2024/01/10/new-wife-of-fani-willis-alleged-lover-engages-in-some-lawfare-of-her-own-n2168542

And to put the cherry on top of this manure sundae, here’s a report from Chris Queen at PJ Media about some of the other questionable hires and Democrat political connections in Willis’ office that would appear to be expressly forbidden by Fulton County’s policy on conflicts of interest.

https://pjmedia.com/chris-queen/2024/01/10/strange-bedfellows-more-fani-willis-hires-reveal-conflicts-of-interest-n4925354

Related: Now that Georgia DA Fani Willis has been revealed as an (“alleged”) corrupt political actor who might be guilty of a RICO charge herself, I’m starting to wonder if making scurrilous attacks on Donald Trump comes with a karmic boomerang – or maybe Trump is just blessed with an “I’m rubber, you’re glue” gene. That might explain why one of the chief figures who’s been trying to get him removed from ballots around the nation for his alleged “crimes” that he was never even indicted for has himself just been arrested on federal tax fraud charges.

https://www.westernjournal.com/man-aggressively-tried-get-trump-removed-2024-ballots-arrested-federal-charges/

Mike Huckabee

On Tuesday, I appeared on NEWSMAX to say that Fulton County, Georgia, DA Fani Willis should be disbarred and all the charges against Trump dropped in his election interference case.

At that time, news had broken that a co-defendant in the case, Michael Roman, alleges that Willis should be disqualified from the case because she had been having an improper relationship with a (married) special prosecutor, private attorney Nathan Wade, whom she had named to assist in securing the Georgia grand jury indictment against Trump.  According to the motion, she did this despite having attorneys in her office who were perfectly capable of prosecuting the case.  Wade, on the other hand, had never prosecuted a felony RICO case before. He seems to have been hired for...other reasons.

As reported in NEWSMAX, “The motion argues that Willis’ failure to disclose her alleged relationship with the special prosecutor while paying him for his work on the Trump case with funds he allegedly used to go on extravagant vacations with the DA could amount to honest services fraud, as well as ‘a predicate act which could result in a RICO charge against both the district attorney and the special prosecutor.’”

So, how ironic would it be if, after working to make this huge, ludicrous RICO case against Trump and an array of his associates, Willis herself got charged with a legitimate RICO violation?  They just keep accusing Trump of the things they’re doing themselves.  Here’s what I had to say about it yesterday…

Huckabee: Fani Willis scandal huge in Trump Georgia case - Read Mike's News Analysis - Mike Huckabee

But as it turns out, the grift and marital hanky-panky were just the tip of the iceberg that is about to wham into Willis’ whole operation and likely sink it.  What they’ve been doing is much, much worse.  Can someone this corrupt be disbarred twice?

By now, you probably know that Willis is accused of using tax money to take exotic trips to the Caribbean, Florida and Napa Valley and even go on two cruises together with Wade.  According to Roman’s motion, “Since being appointed as special prosecutor, the special prosecutor has been paid an estimated almost $1,000,000.00 in legal fees...The district attorney’s yearly salary, including state and county supplements, is $198,266.66.”

A big question is how specifically Willis herself is benefitting financially from the money being paid to her very “special” special prosecutor.

President Trump, in DC on Tuesday for an important hearing on presidential immunity, responded to the news, saying the Georgia case is now “totally compromised.”

Alina Habba appeared on HANNITY Tuesday night to say that if the allegations against Willis are true, “that is so disturbing on so many levels.”  Taxpayer dollars in Georgia are being used to subsidize Willis’ boyfriend, “who is now teamed up with her to persecute and prosecute Trump.”

“...When I thought we couldn’t get any lower, when I thought we really couldn’t attack him any more, with literally no self-respect and dignity, we have this.  We have a woman who’s now bringing in somebody who’s her boyfriend, paying him quadruple, ten times what she’s making...and [they] vacation on taxpayer dollars, and then in their spare time talking about going after Trump.”

“If this is true,” Habbas said, “if she really was using taxpayer dollars to funnel [to] vacations, and then go after Trump, completely disregarding ethics...[committing] selective prosecution, going after someone as a target and then teaming up with your friends, the only RICO I see is the RICO with the DAs and AGs that is happening.  The conspiracy is not a conspiracy at all.  We have Soros-backed, and other funders that we’ve seen that are backing these individuals, and they are coordinating, they are profiting, and they are becoming famous politically; their agenda is all the same:  Get Trump.  That is the only RICO case I see here.”  

“...Donald Trump has done nothing wrong, and they have intentionally done this in order to interfere with an election because they can’t beat him in the polls.”

If something about the romantic angle sounds familiar, perhaps you’re reminded of the FBI’s Peter Strzok and paramour Lisa Page getting all steamy at the thought of taking down Trump during the “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation, pushing the Russia Hoax “insurance policy.”  For people who hate Trump, this effort is apparently a powerful aphrodisiac.

I digress.

Anyway, Athena Thorne at PJ MEDIA wrote about the story broken by the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION.  Fulton County records show that DA Willis approved payments of $654,000 in legal fees to alleged boyfriend Wade since January 2022, and he did receive the money.

It gets shadier.  Willis hired Wade to help her “get Trump” on November 1, 2021.  On November 2, he filed for divorce.  Apparently, their affair had predated his hiring and has continued throughout their work on the case.

"The district attorney and the special prosecutor…suffer from irreparable conflicts of interest, and have violated their oaths of office under the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct and should be disqualified from prosecuting this matter," declares the court filing.

But in THE MOST corrupt part of this --- yes, it gets worse --- the motion alleges improper coordination between the DA’s office and Biden’ s White House.  We can be sure of this because the “special” special prosecutor, who apparently is not the brightest bulb in the box, filed for reimbursement and documented a meeting with the White House counsel (!!!) about the case.

Willis hasn’t denied the allegations in this motion but through a spokesperson said she would address the situation “through appropriate court findings.”  So, she suddenly cares about being “appropriate”?

https://pjmedia.com/athena-thorne/2024/01/09/oh-la-la-court-filing-accuses-fulton-county-da-fani-willis-of-sleeping-with-the-help-n4925326

Victoria Taft, also at PJ MEDIA, has dug deeper on the issue of Willis’ team conspiring with the White House to prosecute Trump and says that “White House fingerprints couldn’t be more clear when one starts connecting these dots.”

Biden has denied that the White House is involved in this in any way, but that denial has to be right up there with the one about never speaking to Hunter’s business associates or knowing anything about the family business.  Any denial from Biden now, about anything, is laughable.  So now we have a President of the United States conspiring with his own “Justice” Department and regional law enforcement to take down the one political opponent whom polls show would beat him handily this coming November.  As one pundit posted on X, “Banana republic if you can keep it.”

Constitutional law expert Mike Davis, founder of the Article III Project, cites “clear, obvious coordination” between Biden’s White House and the DOJ to bring charges against Trump.  He’s called for immediate hearings of the House Judiciary Committee to look into the connections between Biden’s White House and all four of the cases, under three prosecutors, that have been brought against Trump, not just Willis’ case.  He appears to have evidence on White House coordination with Alvin Bragg’s New York “fraud” case as well.

According to Davis, Wade sent a bill for one White House counsel meeting and also for two other meetings at the White House --- one of these BEFORE the RICO indictment of Trump was sought.

Be sure to read Taft’s piece, as this is where you’ll see the documentation of Wade’s activities.  Can it get any lower than this?  Stay tuned.

https://pjmedia.com/victoria-taft/2024/01/09/biden-white-house-counsel-is-running-all-the-lawsuits-against-trump-n4925341

Mike Huckabee

Blessings on you and your family from all the Huckabee team! Today, if you have a moment, leave me a comment about something you read. Comments help me fine tune what I am writing, and they show that we have an active community of readers.

With gratitude,

Mike Huckabee

Daily Bible Verse

¹⁶ Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

Matthew 10:16 KJV

Newsletter Notes

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Reading time: About 18 minutes

Hunter Biden pulls another stunt; no “ethical plan” for sale of his “artwork”

Apologies in advance for the preponderance of Hunter Biden news in today’s newsletter.  There’s just so much, and it speaks so loudly of the corruption that is the current administration.  Let’s get started…

Wednesday morning, the House Oversight and Accountability Committee’s “mark-up” meeting on a resolution to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress was crashed by...Hunter Biden himself.  He walked in flanked by lead attorney Abbe Lowell and the person who is paying for Lowell, Hunter’s “sugar brother” and wealthy Hollywood attorney/producer Kevin Morris, and the three of them took seats.  Of course, they’d brought a large entourage and camera crew into the room as well.

Was Hunter there in response to his subpoena?  No.  This was a stunt that was over in just a few minutes, as the meeting-crashers quickly walked right out again, unwilling to sit through the outspoken comments from Reps. Nancy Mace and Marjorie Taylor-Greene.  MT-G appeared ready to start asking questions of Hunter right then, but Hunter wasn’t there to do that.

Morris seemed highly entertained by the spectacle.  He’s been working for months producing a documentary on Hunter, and the little circus he and his friends created was surely intended to be a part of that.  He looked pleased.

And it WAS entertaining, as Mace revealed a sharp sense of humor.  “My first question is who bribed Hunter Biden to be here today?” she quipped.  “That’s my first question.  Second question, you are the epitome of white privilege.  Coming into the Oversight Committee, spitting in our face, ignoring a subpoena to be deposed --- what are you afraid of?  You have no balls to come up here.”

Our one quibble with that is that she might have called it “political privilege.”  President Trump’s white family has never been spared the responsibility to testify --- in the very kind of closed-door depositions that Hunter is trying to dodge now.

Hunter and his entourage streamed out of the room in a flash when Greene took the floor; she didn’t even have time to ask one question.  “I think it’s clear and obvious for everyone watching this hearing today that Hunter is terrified of strong conservative Republican women because he can’t even face my words as I was about to speak to him,” she said after they were gone. “What a coward.”

We’re not sure if the “strong conservative Republican women” issue is a factor for Hunter, as it would be surprising if Hunter had ever even talked to one in his whole life.  (Maybe it would have helped.)  My guess is that he would’ve been out the door just as fast if Chairman James Comer had started questioning him.

Abbe Lowell gave a statement to the press after they left that was his usual steaming load, going on about how willing they’d been to participate in a public hearing.  (Given Hunter’s quick exit from this one, we wonder about that!)  He says they don’t want a closed door because this is “a tactic that Republicans have repeatedly misused in their political crusade to selectively leak and mischaracterize what witnesses have said.”  He said Hunter doesn’t want to participate in a hearing in which Republicans can “distort, manipulate or misuse that testimony.”

That is, to use some of our favorite highly technical legal jargon, a hoot.

Once again, we have a big Democrat accusing Republicans of doing what THEY do.  How many hours and hours of closed-door testimony have members of the Trump family had to put on the record?  How much testimony was taken behind closed doors by Nancy Pelosi’s January 6 Kangaroo Kommittee, later to be presented during public hearings in highly edited form?  As far as we can see, it’s the Democrats who specialize in obtaining massive amounts of testimony in secret and then cherry-picking and leaking it.  So Lowell is, to use another favorite technical term, full of it.  He has no grounds to reject this congressional subpoena and absolutely does not get to dictate the terms.

https://dailycaller.com/2024/01/10/hunter-biden-flees-committee-hearing

This is the second stunt Lowell has pulled on behalf of Hunter.  On December 13, the day he was scheduled to be deposed behind closed doors, Hunter delivered a press conference outside the building instead.  Kevin Morris was there that day, too.  Recall that the outdoor space had been reserved by California Rep. Eric Swalwell, who has no business being in Congress at all after getting touchy-feely with a Chinese spy.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/how-democrats-helped-orchestrate-surprise-hunter-biden-appearance-to-slight-house-gop/ar-AA1lsdZv

Now, on to breaking news about the money paid for Hunter’s “artwork.”  George Berges, owner of the Manhattan gallery that was selling Hunter’s paintings, told House impeachment investigators that three of the purchasers were prominent Democrat donors.

Well, who did anyone think would buy them --- art lovers??

Elizabeth Hirsch Naftali was already known to have bought his work, two months after Joe Biden became President, and she later was appointed by President Biden to a prestigious commission.  The major buyer was...(drum roll, please)...”sugar brother” Morris, who also happens to be an art collector.  What are the odds?

[Interesting side note:  Naftali’s niece was among the first American hostages to be released by Hamas as part of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and the terror group.]

According to a report in THE MESSENGER, Hunter knew who his buyers were.  Sources said he found out on his own, rather than being told by Berges.  But Berges apparently was unaware of any plan to keep the Bidens in the dark about who was buying.  After interviewing Berges, the Oversight Committee called this “an ethics nightmare.”

Maryland Rep. Jame Raskin stepped in to defend President Biden, saying Joe had no knowledge of these art sales.  “It’s not illegal to buy and sell abstract art in America,” he said.

https://www.westernjournal.com/gallery-owner-admits-bought-hunter-bidens-art-report/

No, it’s not, unless it’s being used as a way to launder bribe money.  In Jonathan Turley’s new column, he writes about the frequent reassurances from Jen Psaki that “there was a special ethical plan in place with the gallery to prevent Hunter from knowing who purchased the art.”  Berges, though, says he was never contacted by the White House about this and that Hunter knew who had purchased “roughly 70 percent” of the value of his art.

Turley points out that Berges was reading news accounts of this “special ethical plan” and knew there wasn’t one but never objected to this alleged misrepresentation.  He just sold paintings and gave money to Hunter.  Berges might not have told Hunter who bought them, but, as we’ve all known from the beginning because we’re not stupid, it was easy for Hunter to find out.  The buyers must’ve found SOME way to let him know, like maybe a note in that year’s Christmas card.

Oddly, when Kevin Morris bought paintings, he paid the dealer’s commission as well.  As Turley says, “The strange arrangement reinforces the view that this was all a sham, from the alleged ethics plan to the purchases themselves.”  He notes that Morris was a major Democrat donor who had only briefly known Hunter when he started paying all his bills.  The column is a must-read.

https://jonathanturley.org/2024/01/10/hunters-art-dealer-contradicts-white-house-claims-over-art-sales/#more-214019

Prayers and condolences

We extend our prayers and condolences to former First Lady Melania Trump and her family on the death of her mother, Amalija Knavs. Melania tweeted that her mother was “a strong woman who always carried herself with grace, warmth, and dignity. She was entirely devoted to her husband, daughters, grandson, and son-in-law. We will miss her beyond measure and continue to honor and love her legacy."

https://www.westernjournal.com/melania-trump-gets-outpouring-support-announces-tragic-death/

Time to take the blinders off

Those who claim the idea of a two-tiered “justice” system is a rightwing conspiracy need to take their blinders off, especially after the developments of the past week.

First, we had the DC Court of Appeals unanimously ruling that January 6^th defendants could be convicted of “disruptive and disorderly conduct” even if they were just standing there doing nothing. That was followed by an announcement that the Biden DOJ would expand its jihad against J6 protesters to hunt down people who did nothing more than walk past the Capitol (apparently, the lawn was a restricted area, as if anyone could’ve known that.)

https://redstate.com/streiff/2024/01/06/federal-appeals-court-rules-that-for-january-6-defendants-standing-still-and-quiet-is-disorderly-conduct-n2168368

This blatant attempt to terrify Republicans into not daring to ever question an election the Democrats won was then topped by news that J6 defendant Ray Epps had been given the staggering sentence of…probation, $500 restitution, and 100 hours of community service.

This is from a “justice” system that’s thrown other J6 defendants into federal prison for years, some of whom weren’t even in DC at the time. Epps is on video from that day, aggressively inciting Trump supporters to go into the Capitol, with some bystanders warning others not to listen to him and calling him “a fed.” Epps and the government have denied that, yet it took years for him to face any charges, and now, he’s been let off not with a slap on the wrist but a kiss on the hand, by the same prosecutors who are trying to put conservative grannies into prison for over a decade for praying outside an abortion clinic.

Here's a write-up by Beege Welborn at Hotair.com on this story that would be laughable if it weren’t so transparent and infuriating.

https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2024/01/09/woof-a-year-probation-and-theyre-still-saying-ray-epps-wasnt-a-fed-n603854

It includes an examination of how the AP framed the story, soft-pedaling what Epps did and sympathetically tut-tutting that the poor baby was “targeted by right-wing conspiracy theories.” I’m sure many people will consider this verdict as confirmation that those “conspiracy theories” were correct. And the coverage of it will only reinforce another “right-wing conspiracy theory” that the media are also on the payroll of the feds. Although I’m willing to believe that they’re campaign volunteers.

And another one bites the dust:

A federal judge in Nevada threw out an attempt to bar Trump from the ballot, in this case ruling that the plaintiff didn’t have standing to bring the suit. Details at the link. Let’s all hope the SCOTUS boots this nonsense for good soon so that we can get on with having an election based on the Democrats’ worst nightmare: letting people vote for the candidate of their choice.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/nevada-judge-rejects-trump-ballot-eligibility-challenge-gop-opponent-improperly-manufactured-standing

Another court case seemed to go less positively for Trump on Tuesday, as his attorneys argued to a three-judge panel (two of them Biden appointees) of the DC Court of Appeals that he had immunity from prosecution for acts taken in his official duties as President. The judges seemed skeptical, peppering them with questions right off the DNC hotline, like asking if he should get immunity if he ordered Seal Team 6 to assassinate his political opponent. Let’s hope they rule quickly so it can be appealed to the SCOTUS where it might be taken more seriously.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/01/09/liberal-court-appears-skeptical-of-donald-trumps-immunity-claims-in-hearing/

By the way, I’m not an attorney, but I probably would have answered that question like this: “That’s irrelevant because ensuring elections are conducted legally is part of the President’s official duties. While the current Administration might disagree, assassinating your political opponents is not.”

Christie drops out

Wednesday, Chris Christie dropped out of the GOP presidential race, acknowledging that there’s no path forward to victory for him. He also declined to endorse another non-Trump candidate.

https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2024/01/10/christie-christie-finally-drops-out-of-presidential-race-n4925376

I’m not going to list all the cruel double-entendre headlines like “Field thins,” because I don’t think that’s very classy. Still, Christie didn’t exactly bow out with class, as his farewell speech played the same one-note as his campaign: viciously attacking Donald Trump and his own party for voting for Trump.

https://pjmedia.com/stephen-kruiser/2024/01/11/the-morning-briefing-gosh-whatever-will-gop-voters-do-without-chris-christie-n4925368

He even managed to get caught on a hot mic slamming Nikki Haley’s campaign, which is really hurling rocks from a glass house.

https://redstate.com/bonchie/2024/01/10/listen-chris-christie-caught-on-hot-mic-has-unflattering-things-to-say-about-nikki-haley-n2168559

Christie’s departure prior to Iowa makes a good point about the Iowa Caucuses. A lot of pundits sneer that Iowa isn’t a reliable indicator of who will win the nomination. That’s true: I won Iowa in 2008 and didn’t become President – sadly for America, I like to think. But that’s not the point. Iowa might not choose the ultimate winner, but it does narrow the field by showing us who has no chance to win. That’s a vital function in itself. Watch my TBN TV show this weekend; I plan to talk more about this.

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Iowa: A Debate and a Townhall

Last night, with the Iowa Caucuses drawing near, CNN hosted a debate between Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, while Fox News hosted a townhall with Donald Trump.

I’m not going to go into all the details of both, since it would take up the whole newsletter. But here’s a good recap from Townhall.com of the high points of the Haley-DeSantis fracas:

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2024/01/11/debate-highlights-n2633485

Personally, I thought that both had good moments, but DeSantis was better at laying out policies while Haley spent too much time attacking her opponent and pushing a website that supposedly exposes his “lies.” The word “lies” has lost all meaning in modern politics; it’s hurled at anyone who expresses an opinion you disagree with or changes his/her mind in light of new information. When I send you to a website for more info in this newsletter, it's to save my space and your time; but when someone’s debating, I’d like to hear what they think in their own words, like, right now.

I thought the best comment came from Bob Hoge at Redstate.com, who wrote, “I know this is a GOP debate, but still not enjoying two Rebubs attempting to rip each other into shreds. Neither of them is the problem. Biden is, and he’s driving America off a cliff. How about we talk about that?”  But of course, we couldn’t, because…”This is CNN!”

Hoge's comment came from Redstate’s live-blog of the debate and Trump’s town hall. If you’d like to read some enjoyable commentary, you can scroll back through it all here:

https://redstate.com/liveblog/2024/01/10/double-the-fun-redstate-live-blogs-desantishaley-debate-and-trumps-town-hall-n252

As for Trump’s townhall, the major news that came out of it was that he said he already has a VP pick in mind, but didn’t reveal who it was. He also denied charges that his second term would be about “retribution,” saying he would be too busy making the economy great, and I assume, cleaning up the giant mess created by Biden and his handlers. But I hope his disavowal of retribution doesn’t mean he won’t fire and/or prosecute a lot of people who greatly deserve it. Removing unelected, deep state power abusers isn’t retribution, it’s a vital part of “making America great again.”

At this writing, Fox has yet to post the entire townhall online, but here’s a three-minute distillation from Politico, which covers some important points, even if it leaves out some of Trump's best and most important points (hey, it’s from Politico.) I notice that a lot of the commenters mentioned how amazing it was just to see a President who is capable of speaking about issues extemporaneously without having a giant teleprompter in front of him.

https://youtu.be/6Q6ZS2R5_5w?si=kOmWhdO_pDTdQQNP

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NYC chooses illegal aliens over students

With a dangerous winter storm set to hit New York City, officials there moved 2,000 illegal aliens from the tent shelter at Floyd Bennett Field to the gym at James Madison High School. The students will have to stay home and undergo “virtual classes” so that their school can be taken over by people who shouldn’t be here in the first place (thanks, Joe Biden!)

https://www.westernjournal.com/migrant-camp-moves-high-school-forces-students-classrooms/

While a lot of New Yorkers are complaining about this, maybe they should look on the bright side. If those kids went to school in New York, they’d probably be miseducated into voting for Democrats who are responsible for this. At least now, they get to see firsthand the dreadful effects of Democrat policies. Maybe that and avoiding New York school will help them grow up smarter so they don’t vote like their parents.

New Epstein documents released

The last set of Jeffrey Epstein court documents were released, and they include some allegations of sex trafficking involving prominent names. Among them are the late New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (who can’t defend himself), Alan Dershowitz (those allegations have already been debunked and retracted), Richard Branson, Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton and even Donald Trump. Previous releases exonerated Trump, with witnesses saying they’d never seen him at Epstein’s home or on his island.

https://redstate.com/bonchie/2024/01/09/big-names-accused-of-sex-trafficking-in-last-epstein-document-dump-n2168495

At the link, Bonchie of Redstate.com reports that one Epstein accuser claimed Trump had sexual relations with an unnamed friend of hers at Epstein’s home “on regular occasions,” and that she had sex tapes of him, Clinton and others.

https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2024/01/08/media-outlets-bury-revelation-that-epstein-accuser-retracted-trump-allegations/

However, many media outlets are blaring the Trump accusation but leaving out or burying the part where she retracted the claims in 2019. The New Yorker reported then that she admitted to having “invented the tapes to draw attention to Epstein’s behavior, and to make him believe that she had ‘evidence that would come out if he harmed me.'”

https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2024/01/08/media-outlets-bury-revelation-that-epstein-accuser-retracted-trump-allegations/

I tend to believe that if there were any incriminating tapes of Trump, the Biden DOJ would have leaked them long ago.

Fauci forgets

Dr. Anthony Fauci was grilled Monday about the government’s pandemic-era failures in a closed-door hearing by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. While the testimony was not made public, the Committee chairman reported that Fauci claimed more than 100 times not to recall details surrounding “pertinent COVID-19 information or conversations.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/01/09/lawmakers-fauci-said-he-did-not-recall-over-100-times-during-testimony/

Hey, cut him some slack. Maybe he suffered brain damage from breathing so much CO2 while wearing three facemasks.

Dad of the new year

A big salute to this New York dad who stood up to obnoxious, traffic-blocking pro-Palestinian protesters and made them move out of his way so he could get to his daughter – yet he also resisted the temptation to run over them. I think they got the idea, though, that he would go through all of them with his fists if he had to, and they stepped aside.

https://www.westernjournal.com/free-palestine-protesters-think-can-stop-father-seeing-daughter-mistaken/

Better take this as a red flag: Americans – even New Yorkers -- are getting fed up with your garbage, and their patience is at an end. You want a ceasefire? Tell your friends in Hamas to give up their hostages and surrender. Problem solved.

Less than impressive evidence

The more hysterical the Democrats get with their claims about the mortal dangers of Donald Trump, the less impressive their evidence is. One of the latest assaults came from Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, who released a report that claims Trump is compromised by taking money from foreign governments (yes, this is the party of Joe and Hunter Biden, but we’ll put that irony aside for now.)

https://dailycaller.com/2024/01/05/left-wing-trump-foreign-influence-money/

The report claims that Trump’s businesses raked in $7.8 million from 20 foreign governments during the first two years of his term. Ooh, sounds incriminating! But hold on, the Daily Caller looked at the details:

Turns out the majority of that money came from one Chinese bank that had been renting office space in Trump Tower since 2008, years before Trump even ran for President. And we know how tough Trump was on China, so that didn’t buy any favors. Nine of the countries paid less than $10,000 to Trump businesses, with one, Cyprus, paying just $590, or about five hours’ pay for Hunter Biden from that Ukrainian energy company.

Committee member and notorious blowhard Jamie Raskin called these numbers evidence of “the Trump family’s staggering corruption.” But the director of the Government Accountability Institute replied, “The difference between Trump’s foreign income and Biden’s foreign income is that Trump had legitimate goods and services to sell and was tough on China while the Bidens did not have any legitimate business and Joe has been weak on China.”

And of course, the minor detail that Trump donated all of his companies’ profits from foreign businesses to the US Treasury, just like he donated his entire presidential salary back to the government. Biden isn’t doing that, but he should. In fact, he should be paying us for having to endure his presidency and all the rubbish from his supporters, like this.

“The Party of Science!”

A group of environmental activists in Bristol, England, demanded an end to gas-powered cars by vandalizing a car. They slashed its tires, painted “CLIMATE CRIMINAL” on the door and stuck a leaflet under the wiper telling the owner, “Your gas-guzzler kills.” 

It was a Tesla.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Electric car vandalised by climate activists in Bristol (bbc.com)

That’s “These go to 11” stupid. I’d compare these people’s intelligence to a bag of rocks, but I’m afraid the rocks would sue me.

Related: I wonder if, after these morons finished their jihad against gas-guzzling electric cars, they went home and enjoyed some special “plant-based peanut butter”?

https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2024/01/09/plant-based-peanut-butter-is-a-thing-and-i-cant-stop-laughing-n4925340

Line of the Day!

Greg Gutfeld agrees with Michelle Obama: “We can’t have politicians who behave like children. Democrats will try to transition them.”

Headline of the Day!

From Stephen Kruiser at PJ Media: “Georgia Trump Haters Are Getting Their Fani Handed To Them”

https://pjmedia.com/stephen-kruiser/2024/01/10/the-morning-briefing-georgia-trump-haters-are-getting-their-fani-handed-to-them-n4925345

Well worth reading the whole thing, especially the part where he says that the loathsome people who think hating Trump gives them the moral high ground “have long struck me as a collection of bottom-feeders who would sell their mothers for beer money.”

“Mary Poppins” Star Glynnis Johns Dies at 100

By “Huckabee” pop culture guru Pat Reeder

I’m sad to have to report that British actress Glynnis Johns died last week at an assisted living home in Los Angeles of natural causes at the age of 100.

https://variety.com/2024/film/obituaries-people-news/glynis-johns-dead-mary-poppins-mrs-banks-1235861986/

Johns appeared in many films over her long career, including “The Court Jester” with Danny Kaye, “While You Were Sleeping,” “The Sundowners” (for which she got an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress) and probably her most famous role, as the mother, Mrs. Banks, in “Mary Poppins.” She also had a renowned stage career, but she said that she put her personal life first, knowing she could always come back to her work.

She holds a special place in my heart as the co-author of “Hollywood Hi-Fi,” the book about unlikely celebrity singers (http://www.hollywoodhifi.com). Glynnis Johns was a unique case: someone who couldn’t sing all that well, but that very trait resulted in the creation of one of the greatest standards of all time, and the only big pop hit ever written by Broadway icon Stephen Sondheim.

In 1973, Johns was set to star in the original Broadway production of Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music.” Sondheim had to write a song for her, and he thought she had a lovely voice, but she had a limited range and couldn’t hold long notes. So he wrote a song taking those vocal limitations into mind. It was “Send In The Clowns.” Perhaps because it was simple rather than one of his usual complicated, tongue-twisting compositions, it became his most popular song, covered by countless real singers from Frank Sinatra to Judy Collins.

And that’s how Glynnis Johns being a not-great celebrity singer gave us one of America’s greatest songs. RIP.

I Just Wanted to Say

Thank you for reading my newsletter.

Mike Huckabee

The 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals just knocked down the Biden Department of Energy’s efforts to force us to replace our washing machines and dishwashers with more expensive “green” appliances.

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2024/01/09/5th-circuit-delivers-delicious-smackdown-of-biden-doe-n2168470

Eleven states sued over the regulations, and the court agreed with them that it was "unclear how or why DOE thinks it has any statutory authority to regulate 'water use' in dishwashers and washing machines," and even if they had the authority, their rule was "arbitrary and capricious" since their standards are causing Americans to use more energy and water as they have to wash things multiple times to get them clean.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who led the lawsuit, said, "There is no fourth branch of government sanctioned in the United States Constitution. Federal bureaucrats can't just tell you what kind of appliances you have to use." Let’s hope this encourages more legal pushback on the other unconstitutional micro-management efforts by unelected bureaucrats, from taking away our gas stoves and heaters to trying to outlaw gas-powered cars.

Andrew Bailey is one of the true champions fighting against federal assaults on individual rights, including the case that exposed Deep State collusion with social media to silence conservative speech. My interview with him on last weekend’s episode of “Huckabee” on TBN is a must-see:

https://www.huckabee.tv/guests/andrew-bailey

Mike Huckabee

I’ve long reported on the many drawbacks of electric vehicles that Biden is trying to hide as his Administration tries to force us all into them. Fortunately, consumers are catching on fast, and EV sales are tanking. Car makers are panicking over their losses while surveys show many people who bought an EV say they’ll never do that again and plan to go back to ICE cars.

But in case you need more reason to doubt Biden’s dictate that “EVs are the future,” here’s a new wrinkle: EVs are much heavier than gas-powered cars because the batteries account for anywhere from 1,000 to nearly 3,000 pounds, depending on the vehicle. That’s caused a 2011 study by UC economics professor Michael Anderson to resurface. It found that heavier cars make collisions far more dangerous. Being hit by a car that weighs 1,000 pounds more than your own increases your odds of being killed by 47 percent!

https://www.popsci.com/technology/electric-vehicle-weight-safety/

When Obama said to never underestimate Biden’s ability to BLEEP things up, I didn’t know that it would someday also mean that he’d become the worst car designer since Homer Simpson.

https://youtu.be/EHGczDHTDpo?si=1nYt45WUTvGEy9yN

RELATED: 

The 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals just knocked down the Biden Department of Energy’s efforts to force us to replace our washing machines and dishwashers with more expensive “green” appliances.

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2024/01/09/5th-circuit-delivers-delicious-smackdown-of-biden-doe-n2168470

Eleven states sued over the regulations, and the court agreed with them that it was "unclear how or why DOE thinks it has any statutory authority to regulate 'water use' in dishwashers and washing machines," and even if they had the authority, their rule was "arbitrary and capricious" since their standards are causing Americans to use more energy and water as they have to wash things multiple times to get them clean.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who led the lawsuit, said, "There is no fourth branch of government sanctioned in the United States Constitution. Federal bureaucrats can't just tell you what kind of appliances you have to use." Let’s hope this encourages more legal pushback on the other unconstitutional micro-management efforts by unelected bureaucrats, from taking away our gas stoves and heaters to trying to outlaw gas-powered cars.

Andrew Bailey is one of the true champions fighting against federal assaults on individual rights, including the case that exposed Deep State collusion with social media to silence conservative speech. My interview with him on last weekend’s episode of “Huckabee” on TBN is a must-see:

https://www.huckabee.tv/guests/andrew-bailey

Mike Huckabee

Blessings on you and your family from all the Huckabee team! Today, if you have a moment, leave me a comment about something you read. Comments help me fine tune what I am writing, and they show that we have an active community of readers.

Sincerely,

Mike Huckabee

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Daily Bible Verse

⁶ For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6 KJV

Newsletter Notes

9 stories

3,499 words

Reading time: About 16 minutes

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We aren’t lying about the border

Monday, “Homeland Security Secretary” Alejandro Mayorkas held a press conference near the US-Mexico border, where he accused his critics of lying about him and insisted that “Some have accused DHS of not enforcing our nation’s laws. This could not be further from the truth.” I haven’t been so convinced since Joe Biden declared Trump to be the enemy of democracy as he tried to have him imprisoned and banned from ballots.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/01/08/dhs-chief-mayorkas-border-fix-bus-more-migrants-u-s/

In the midst of record illegal immigration with millions of border crossers swarming into the US, Mayorkas blamed Congress for not funding Biden’s plan to deal with illegal immigrants, which would have spent even more taxpayer money on apprehending and processing illegal entrants, then releasing them inside the US and giving them bus fare to wherever they want to go to await their court date that they likely won’t show up for nearly a decade from now.

Meanwhile, the President of Mexico made heavy demands for help in curbing illegal immigration, including $20 billion and work permits for 10 million Hispanics. Funny, Trump was able to make them cooperate using the immense leverage we have over their economy. I guess they know a pushover when they see one.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mexican-president-demands-20-billion-work-permits-10-million-hispanics-exchange-immigration-help

This is a plan that House Speaker Johnson should declare dead-on-arrival. I’m hopeful that he will, judging by how he responded on Tuesday morning to the Biden Administration’s attempts to blame the border catastrophe on Republicans.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/speaker-johnson-fires-back-white-house-border-policy-standoff-national-security-catastrophe

Johnson told Fox News Digital, “Since his first day in office, President Biden and his administration have worked to systematically undermine America’s border security.” He listed more than 60 Biden actions, from halting border wall construction to expanding catch-and-release inside the US, that “manipulated the federal bureaucracy to open our borders to illegal immigrants, human trafficking, fentanyl, and potential terrorists. The result is a humanitarian and national security catastrophe."

Johnson said, "The President must use his executive authority to repair what he has broken. I am calling on him to do so." Fat chance of that, but at least it sounds as if he won’t fall for passing Biden’s latest effort to fund even more illegal immigration under the guise of fighting illegal immigration.

Related: Because sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying, the Babylon Bee perfectly sums up the Biden Administration’s efforts to prevent Texas from doing the job on the border that they’re supposed to be doing but won’t.

https://babylonbee.com/news/biden-sues-texas-saying-its-against-the-law-to-pass-a-law-to-enforce-the-law

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I didn’t see this coming

Well, here’s something I never expected to see: an accusation of actual, scandalous wrongdoing coming out of the ridiculous Trump RICO trial in Georgia. Except it doesn’t involve Trump or his associates.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/01/08/trump-co-defendant-alleges-fulton-county-da-fani-willis-in-corrupt-romantic-relationship/

Former Trump campaign official Michael Roman has filed a motion for charges against him to be dropped and for political hatchet woman/county DA Fani Willis, special prosecutor Nathan Wade and the entire DA’s office to be disqualified from further prosecution of the case.

Roman’s motion accuses Willis and Wade of having an improper, clandestine romantic relationship that began before the case started and included taking vacations and cruises together; and that she had no legal authority to appoint him as special prosecutor. He further claims that they have profited significantly from this case at the expense of taxpayers, and that they “have violated laws regulating the use of public monies, suffer from irreparable conflicts of interest, and have violated their oaths of office under the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct.”

I can’t verify the truth of those charges, and at this time, we’re still waiting for Willis to respond. But I just hope I’m not drinking coffee in front of my computer when she claims it’s an outrage to take innocent behavior and try to twist it into a crime.

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Notice 703

If you’re on Social Security, you’ve likely received or will soon receive a Notice 703. That’s a letter from the Social Security Administration, warning that your Social Security benefits may be taxable and providing a worksheet to help you figure out how much of your SS checks for 2023 that they’re going to demand you give back in April.

Many recent retirees may be in for a shock at tax time, since they naturally figured that their Social Security wouldn’t be counted as new taxable income. After all, it’s NOT. It’s your own money that you already paid taxes on years or even decades ago. The government took it on the promise that they’d give it back to you with interest when you retired. But thanks to a tax reform bill in the ‘80s, it started being considered taxable income if you continue working and earning other pay.

So to be clear: The politicians spent like drunken sailors on shore leave (apologies to drunken sailors for comparing them to politicians), driving inflation through the roof and forcing Americans to continue working into their 70s and beyond because Social Security doesn’t cover basic living expenses. Now, they punish the elderly for continuing to work to survive by claiming that the pay they earn makes them wealthy plutocrats who don’t need to keep all of their Social Security, so they tax a big chunk of it back.

And how much do you have to earn to reach that plutocrat level? A whopping $25,000 if you’re single and $32,000 if you’re married and filing jointly. FYI: that’s not adjusted gross income. That’s TOTAL income before any deductions. It also includes any pension payments, dividends or other savings or investment income.

FYI: Here’s why retirees have to keep working until they die. The Blaze reports that since Biden took office, retirement accounts have lost 25% of their value (an estimated $1 trillion net loss.) In the third quarter of 2023 alone, pension plans lost $3.3 trillion. And due to Bidenflation, the average American family has lost the equivalent of about $7300 in annual income.

For years, there have been moves in Congress either to eliminate this unconscionable soaking of seniors or at least to greatly raise the outdated income threshold to reflect the huge inflation of recent years. Thus far, nothing has come of them. We should all let our representatives know that it’s long past time to end this monstrous double taxation of Social Security payments and stop forcing struggling seniors to pay for the government’s spendaholism.

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Ohio News

UPDATE: After inexplicably vetoing a bill to ban “gender-affirming” (actually the opposite) mutilations of children and bar men from women’s sports, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Friday signed an executive order that pretty much repeats the first part of that ban. Of course, executive orders can be reversed much easier than laws.

https://pjmedia.com/paula-bolyard/2024/01/05/out-of-left-field-ohio-gov-mike-dewine-has-lost-his-mind-on-transing-children-n4925257

This also makes little sense if he really believes, as he said, that such a ban inserts the government between children and their parents making the best medical decisions for them. Never mind that permanently mutilating a child with unnecessary elective surgery and chemicals is NEVER in the child’s best interests, or that certain medical facilities that provide “trans” procedures to minors have become notorious for deliberately misleading parents on the consequences or cutting them out of these decisions entirely.

Paula Bolyard has more at the link, and let’s hope the Ohio legislature clears up the confusion by overriding his veto.

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Positive Court Decision Round-up:

For people who accuse their opponents of being authoritarian dictators, the Democrats sure don’t have much respect for Constitutional rights, the rule of law or the court system. Fortunately, we do still have a court system that occasionally defends those things.

For example, on Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge by the Biden Administration to Idaho’s new law banning abortion except to save the life of the mother, but they allowed the law to go into effect. This puts on hold the Biden White House’s attempt to force Idaho ER doctors to perform abortions, even if it violates their religious or ethical beliefs. And FYI, despite hyperbolic claims from the pro-abortion lobby, the Idaho law does not consider removing miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies as abortions.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/01/06/supreme-court-blocks-biden-admins-attempt-to-force-idaho-er-doctors-to-perform-abortions/

Also, a three-judge panel of the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals dissolved a hold placed on a new California law, banning the carrying of firearms in most public places. A lower court allowed the law to go into effect on January 1^st, despite the fact that it is in direct violation of the Supreme Court's 2022 Bruen ruling that the right to carry a gun in public places for self-defense is protected by the Second Amendment. The judge who originally stayed the law called it unconstitutional, “sweeping, repugnant to the Second Amendment, and openly defiant of the Supreme Court.”

The case will be heard in April. Let’s hope the full appeals court throws out this law and saves the SCOTUS the trouble.

https://www.worldtribune.com/2nd-amendment-victory-appeals-court-restores-right-to-carry-in-california/

When the law was allowed to go into effect, an attorney for the plaintiffs said, “The right to carry in California was unconstitutionally eliminated for almost a week.” Meanwhile, California officials began declaring just about every public place as a “gun-free zone,” meaning that nobody but criminals could carry guns in them.

The liberals in California defied the SCOTUS and the Constitution and imposed this clearly unconstitutional law anyway in the name of “safety.” It would be nice if they were at all concerned for the safety of law-abiding citizens who need guns to protect themselves from all the criminals they’ve let run wild.

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Least Surprising News Of The Day:

New data shows that illegal aliens have less than a 5% chance of being deported under Biden.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/01/07/data-illegals-have-less-than-5-percent-chance-of-being-deported-under-biden/

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Huck’s Hero Final Salute:

Let’s all pause to give a final salute to one of the true heroes of World War II, who passed away last week at 104.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25253608/mike-sadler-dead-aged-103-sas-hero/

During his extraordinary service with the British military, Major Mike Sadler was a gunner and anti-tank specialist, he parachuted into France after the D-Day landings, worked with the UK intelligence service MI6, was captured by the Nazis and escaped, and had part of Antarctica named after him. But most impressive, he was the last surviving member of the original SAS (Special Air Service.)  In that capacity, he taught himself to navigate by the stars and became chief navigator to SAS founder David Stirling. He became known for his “superhuman” ability to lead long-range missions through the deserts of North Africa, once leading a 100-mile trek through the shifting sands with no maps and no water.

Go to the link to read his astonishing life story and see the photos of him in his youth. This is what a real hero looks like.

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Silly Woke Nonsense of the Day!

The British Film Institute sparked a mocking backlash by announcing that it would start putting “trigger warnings” on 1960s James Bond movies, because they “reflect views prevalent in its time, but will cause offence today (as they did then).”

https://pjmedia.com/chris-queen/2024/01/05/when-will-we-stop-worrying-about-whether-old-entertainment-will-offend-people-n4925233

As Chris Queen points out, “It's long past time for the ruining of our cultural classics to come to an end.” He asks, who was offended by 007 in the 1960s? “Grubby Communist henchmen? Megalomaniac billionaires’ intent on taking over the world? SMERSH? SPECTRE? (Someone should tell the BFI that both of those organizations are fictional) …Sexy Japanese secret agents, rifle-toting henchmen on skis, mute Korean butlers with razor-brimmed hats…?”

I’m old enough to remember when Sean Connery as 007 was called “the man every woman wanted and every man wanted to be.”  I guess liberals today think that every woman wants a woke feminist man, and every man wants to be a woman.

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Campaign 24: Here come the Obamas!

You probably saw the story in yesterday’s newsletter about President Obama taking a lunch with President Biden before the holidays to express concern with how the Biden campaign was going and to advise him to surround himself with different people.  Obama reportedly expressed anxiety about a possible Trump return to power.

But what we didn’t get into yesterday was the question of why that story would appear now.  It first appeared in the WASHINGTON POST, in a piece by Tyler Pager, and so would have been leaked there, perhaps by someone in the White House, perhaps by someone allied with the Obamas (though I may repeat myself).

WAPO reported that Obama “suggested to Biden’s advisers that the campaign needs more top-level decision-makers at its headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, or else must empower the people already in place.  Obama hasn’t recommended specific individuals but did mention David Plouffe, who managed Obama’s 2008 race, as the type of senior strategist needed at the Biden campaign.

“During the lunch,” the report said, “Obama noted the success of his re-election structure in 2012, when some of his top presidential aides, including David Axelrod and Jim Messina, left the White House to take charge of the re-election operation in Chicago.”

So, here we go.  Putting an Obama-style campaign in place.  Will it eventually be moved to Chicago to work for...someone else?

“Obama also recommended that Biden seek counsel from Obama’s own former campaign aides,” WAPO reported, “which Biden officials say they have done…”  In conversations with Biden’s associates, Obama has been even more explicit about the need to be more “agile.”

Matt Margolis in PJ MEDIA made the point that Biden’s problem isn’t his campaign --- it’s his record of utter failure.  But he doesn’t tie Biden’s catastrophes to this insidious involvement of the Obamas in his presidential race.  We hypothesize a direct connection.

Biden’s gonna be out, you know.  And stories about the Obamas’ involvement in the ‘24 race appear to be very strategically timed.

https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2024/01/06/barack-obama-hits-panic-button-on-biden-campaign-n4925271#google_vignette

AXIOS wrote about the WAPO story, mentioning that “Biden and his allies will spend over $1 billion this year telling voters Trump is terrible.”  It occurs to me that if Trump really had been so terrible as President, they wouldn’t HAVE to spend a billion dollars to convince voters of that!  We’d all just know.  They’re spending that much money because the situation is the opposite:  we know that Trump was right about so many things and made some great decisions as President.

According to their report, top Democrats who’d been thinking the Biden campaign was being too complacent were relieved at Biden’s speech, because they liked the horrid thing.  They called the speech the campaign’s “we get it” moment.  So expect to see a lot more darkness and lying about Trump and January 6.

AXIOS likes to answer for its readers the question of “why it matters?”  In this case, they say it reflects a need by “someone” to “light a fire” under Biden’s campaign people.  But we don’t think that quite captures it.  The “someone” is most likely Obama, and the fact that this story was leaked to WAPO at this particular time reflects the Obamas’ strategy for their own comeback.

https://www.axios.com/2024/01/07/obama-biden-trump-2024-election

Adding to the picture of the Obamas’ growing involvement, Sean Hannity reported Monday night that Michelle Obama appeared in a recent wide-ranging interview on what is billed as “the Number One health and wellness podcast” to express her own Trump-fear, which she said keeps her up at night.

“I am terrified about what could possibly happen [in the next election],” she said on the Jay Shetty “On Purpose” podcast, “because our leaders matter.  Who we select, who speaks for us, who holds that bully pulpit, it affects us in ways that I --- sometimes I think people take for granted.  You know, the fact that people think that government, you know, doesn’t even do anything.  And I’m like, ‘Oh, my God!  Does government do EVERYTHING for us.  And we cannot take this democracy for granted.  And sometimes I worry that we do.  And those are the things that keep me up.”

Never mind her disturbing observation that government does everything for us.  Michelle, without mentioning Trump by name, launched into problems with the tone of messages, and we know exactly who she’s talking about: “The tone and tenor of the message matters.  We just can’t say...the first thing that comes into our minds.  That is not authenticity to me.  That’s childish, and we see childish leadership right before us --- what that looks like and how that feels, where someone is just base, and vulgar and cynical in a leadership position.  It doesn’t trickle down well.  You know, that just begets more of that.”

It’s as we’ve said for a long time: that if Michelle were running against Trump, she would be offered up as the nation’s “healer,” the strong but gentle antidote for the rawness that is Trump.  She reinforced that image during this interview.

“I think we are obligated to model,” she said, “for those of us that have a platform, because it resonates.  And I want to resonate good.  I want to resonate reason and compassion and empathy.  And that’s more important than my feelings. ‘Cause my feelings, I can take care of those.”

“That’s a master class in communication,” Shetty responded with an admiring chuckle.  Michelle’s combination of empathy and energy “is so empowering for everyone who’s listening and watching.”  Tellingly, she said she learned this perspective “on the campaign trail.”

Michelle also made it clear that after living so closely with the leader of the free world, she knew a LOT.  Some of it she didn’t want to know, and it kept her up at night.

She did a skillful cleanup job on remarks she’d made years ago about “not loving my country.”  “People will distort you whenever they can,” she said, obviously not thinking about how relentlessly the Democrats distort Trump.  She said people tried to “other-ize” her and her husband, as “the first black people,” accusing her husband of “being a terrorist” (what, not a Russian agent?), labeling her as “an angry black woman,” etc.  It was “to make people afraid of us,” which is “a strategy that gets played again and again and again.”  (What, like calling someone a dictator and a threat to democracy?)

She oh-so-pleasantly dropped a nasty dig at Trump at the end: “I mean, the bars [levels of expectation] are different for people in life.  That I’ve learned.  This is the thing about being an ‘other’ [as in, being black].  You learn how to be excellent all the time, because you can’t be ‘less than.’  Other people can.  Other people can be indicted a bunch of times and still run for office.  Black men can’t.” This teaches you to be good, she said, and you end up benefiting from that “extra resilience.”

“But it’s still not fair.” 

By the way, if Michelle would like to see a list of black men who were indicted and went on to run for office (and win), we’ll see what we can do.  For now, two words:  Marion Barry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Barry

Certainly, the Obamas aren’t getting involved in this campaign for Biden’s sake.  The Obamas famously can’t stand the Bidens.  Besides, President Biden has his own problems with “tone” these days, most recently in his dark, divisive, foreboding speech at Valley Forge.  Michelle didn’t mention THAT, of course, but we all know it’s true.

The opening to Michelle’s podcast interview, which runs a little more than an hour, looks like a brief promotional piece for her.  Watch about the last ten minutes and tell me she’s not running for President, and essentially a socialist one.  Low-information voters who know little about Obama-style leadership and the REAL “threat to democracy” currently residing in DC thanks in large part to him will be mightily impressed.  Don’t say you weren’t warned.

https://news.yahoo.com/michelle-obama-am-terrified-could-154821087.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

Related: I didn’t want to say much more about Biden’s kick-off speech last Friday for his 2024 Scaremongering Tour, but this blog post from John A. Lucas that analyses Biden’s Kim Jong Un-like propaganda tactics, expose some of the outrageous lies Biden spouted, and sums it up as the “worst presidential speech ever,” is well worth reading.

---

I Just Wanted to Say

Thank you for reading my newsletter.

Mike Huckabee

You probably saw the story in yesterday’s newsletter about President Obama taking a lunch with President Biden before the holidays to express concern with how the Biden campaign was going and to advise him to surround himself with different people.  Obama reportedly expressed anxiety about a possible Trump return to power.

But what we didn’t get into yesterday was the question of why that story would appear now.  It first appeared in the WASHINGTON POST, in a piece by Tyler Pager, and so would have been leaked there, perhaps by someone in the White House, perhaps by someone allied with the Obamas (though I may repeat myself).

WAPO reported that Obama “suggested to Biden’s advisers that the campaign needs more top-level decision-makers at its headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, or else must empower the people already in place.  Obama hasn’t recommended specific individuals but did mention David Plouffe, who managed Obama’s 2008 race, as the type of senior strategist needed at the Biden campaign.

“During the lunch,” the report said, “Obama noted the success of his re-election structure in 2012, when some of his top presidential aides, including David Axelrod and Jim Messina, left the White House to take charge of the re-election operation in Chicago.”

So, here we go.  Putting an Obama-style campaign in place.  Will it eventually be moved to Chicago to work for...someone else?

“Obama also recommended that Biden seek counsel from Obama’s own former campaign aides,” WAPO reported, “which Biden officials say they have done…”  In conversations with Biden’s associates, Obama has been even more explicit about the need to be more “agile.”

Matt Margolis in PJ MEDIA made the point that Biden’s problem isn’t his campaign --- it’s his record of utter failure.  But he doesn’t tie Biden’s catastrophes to this insidious involvement of the Obamas in his presidential race.  We hypothesize a direct connection.

Biden’s gonna be out, you know.  And stories about the Obamas’ involvement in the ‘24 race appear to be very strategically timed.

https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2024/01/06/barack-obama-hits-panic-button-on-biden-campaign-n4925271#google_vignette

AXIOS wrote about the WAPO story, mentioning that “Biden and his allies will spend over $1 billion this year telling voters Trump is terrible.”  It occurs to me that if Trump really had been so terrible as President, they wouldn’t HAVE to spend a billion dollars to convince voters of that!  We’d all just know.  They’re spending that much money because the situation is the opposite:  we know that Trump was right about so many things and made some great decisions as President.

According to their report, top Democrats who’d been thinking the Biden campaign was being too complacent were relieved at Biden’s speech, because they liked the horrid thing.  They called the speech the campaign’s “we get it” moment.  So expect to see a lot more darkness and lying about Trump and January 6.

AXIOS likes to answer for its readers the question of “why it matters?”  In this case, they say it reflects a need by “someone” to “light a fire” under Biden’s campaign people.  But we don’t think that quite captures it.  The “someone” is most likely Obama, and the fact that this story was leaked to WAPO at this particular time reflects the Obamas’ strategy for their own comeback.

https://www.axios.com/2024/01/07/obama-biden-trump-2024-election

Adding to the picture of the Obamas’ growing involvement, Sean Hannity reported Monday night that Michelle Obama appeared in a recent wide-ranging interview on what is billed as “the Number One health and wellness podcast” to express her own Trump-fear, which she said keeps her up at night.

“I am terrified about what could possibly happen [in the next election],” she said on the Jay Shetty “On Purpose” podcast, “because our leaders matter.  Who we select, who speaks for us, who holds that bully pulpit, it affects us in ways that I --- sometimes I think people take for granted.  You know, the fact that people think that government, you know, doesn’t even do anything.  And I’m like, ‘Oh, my God!  Does government do EVERYTHING for us.  And we cannot take this democracy for granted.  And sometimes I worry that we do.  And those are the things that keep me up.”

Never mind her disturbing observation that government does everything for us.  Michelle, without mentioning Trump by name, launched into problems with the tone of messages, and we know exactly who she’s talking about: “The tone and tenor of the message matters.  We just can’t say...the first thing that comes into our minds.  That is not authenticity to me.  That’s childish, and we see childish leadership right before us --- what that looks like and how that feels, where someone is just base, and vulgar and cynical in a leadership position.  It doesn’t trickle down well.  You know, that just begets more of that.”

It’s as we’ve said for a long time: that if Michelle were running against Trump, she would be offered up as the nation’s “healer,” the strong but gentle antidote for the rawness that is Trump.  She reinforced that image during this interview.

“I think we are obligated to model,” she said, “for those of us that have a platform, because it resonates.  And I want to resonate good.  I want to resonate reason and compassion and empathy.  And that’s more important than my feelings. ‘Cause my feelings, I can take care of those.”

“That’s a master class in communication,” Shetty responded with an admiring chuckle.  Michelle’s combination of empathy and energy “is so empowering for everyone who’s listening and watching.”  Tellingly, she said she learned this perspective “on the campaign trail.”

Michelle also made it clear that after living so closely with the leader of the free world, she knew a LOT.  Some of it she didn’t want to know, and it kept her up at night.

She did a skillful cleanup job on remarks she’d made years ago about “not loving my country.”  “People will distort you whenever they can,” she said, obviously not thinking about how relentlessly the Democrats distort Trump.  She said people tried to “other-ize” her and her husband, as “the first black people,” accusing her husband of “being a terrorist” (what, not a Russian agent?), labeling her as “an angry black woman,” etc.  It was “to make people afraid of us,” which is “a strategy that gets played again and again and again.”  (What, like calling someone a dictator and a threat to democracy?)

She oh-so-pleasantly dropped a nasty dig at Trump at the end: “I mean, the bars [levels of expectation] are different for people in life.  That I’ve learned.  This is the thing about being an ‘other’ [as in, being black].  You learn how to be excellent all the time, because you can’t be ‘less than.’  Other people can.  Other people can be indicted a bunch of times and still run for office.  Black men can’t.” This teaches you to be good, she said, and you end up benefiting from that “extra resilience.”

“But it’s still not fair.” 

By the way, if Michelle would like to see a list of black men who were indicted and went on to run for office (and win), we’ll see what we can do.  For now, two words:  Marion Barry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Barry

Certainly, the Obamas aren’t getting involved in this campaign for Biden’s sake.  The Obamas famously can’t stand the Bidens.  Besides, President Biden has his own problems with “tone” these days, most recently in his dark, divisive, foreboding speech at Valley Forge.  Michelle didn’t mention THAT, of course, but we all know it’s true.

The opening to Michelle’s podcast interview, which runs a little more than an hour, looks like a brief promotional piece for her.  Watch about the last ten minutes and tell me she’s not running for President, and essentially a socialist one.  Low-information voters who know little about Obama-style leadership and the REAL “threat to democracy” currently residing in DC thanks in large part to him will be mightily impressed.  Don’t say you weren’t warned.

https://news.yahoo.com/michelle-obama-am-terrified-could-154821087.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

 

 

Related: I didn’t want to say much more about Biden’s kick-off speech last Friday for his 2024 Scaremongering Tour, but this blog post from John A. Lucas that analyses Biden’s Kim Jong Un-like propaganda tactics, expose some of the outrageous lies Biden spouted, and sums it up as the “worst presidential speech ever,” is well worth reading.

https://johnalucas6.substack.com/p/worst-presidential-speach-ever

Mike Huckabee

Blessings on you and your family from all the Huckabee team! Today, if you have a moment, leave me a comment about something you read. Comments help me fine tune what I am writing, and they show that we have an active community of readers.

With gratitude,

Mike Huckabee

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Daily Bible Verse

Thus says the Lord,
    your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“I am the Lord your God,
    who teaches you to profit,
    who leads you in the way you should go.

Isaiah 48:17 ESV

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

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Newsletter Notes

7 stories

2,974 words

Reading time about 14 minutes

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Today’s theme in the news is “Don’t tell Joe Biden, he’ll only make it worse.”

First, the story of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s secret weeklong hospitalization following unrevealed elective surgery grew into a bigger scandal over the weekend when it became known that not only was the public not informed, even the Biden White House and the White House National Security Council were kept in the dark. For the past week, with wars and terrorist threats raging around the world, we effectively had no Defense Secretary on the job and nobody in the White House even knew it.

https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2024/01/06/defense-secretary-austin-scandal-is-even-worse-than-we-thought-n4925274

To be fair, considering how badly both Austin and Biden do their jobs, for the military to have no leadership at all was probably preferable to being led by either one of them. Still, when it comes to leadership, the United States military and the American people deserve better than nothing.

Derek Hunter at Townhall.com writes that this, among other recent stories, shows that not even Democrats respect Biden or trust his competence.

https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2024/01/08/even-democrats-dont-respect-joe-biden-n2633295

He notes that there are only a couple of reasons why this info would be kept from the President. One is that the Pentagon thinks Biden is such a nonentity that they didn’t feel the need to inform him. Another is that they wanted to keep him out of the loop so he wouldn’t step in and make things even worse. Neither speaks highly of Biden or what those close to him think of his abilities.

Meanwhile, Stephen Kruiser at PJ Media reminds us of what a useless disaster Austin has been as Defense Secretary, putting more emphasis on infesting the military with wokeness and trans activism than on winning wars. As for his mysterious surgery, Kruiser suggests, “Maybe he was having a procedure to have his pronouns changed.”

https://pjmedia.com/stephen-kruiser/2024/01/08/the-morning-briefing-theres-useless-then-theres-lloyd-austin-useless-n4925280

Another area in which Democrats are struggling mightily to keep Loopy Joe out of the loop is his own reelection campaign. Not only are people mocking his attempts to scare us into thinking January 6^th was the worst attack in history and Trump is Hitler reincarnated, but his own campaign volunteers are un-volunteering in droves.

https://www.westernjournal.com/alls-not-bidenland-volunteers-quitting-droves-anonymous-staffers-claim/

It seems that they are appalled that Biden doesn’t share their “values,” which apparently include siding with the murderous terrorists of Hamas against Israel.

As Matt Margolis at PJ Media notes, even Barack Obama is reportedly “extremely concerned” about the fecklessness of Joe’s reelection campaign (he shouldn’t be surprised; everything Joe touches loses all its feck.) Obama is reportedly “working behind the scenes with Biden’s aides and allies” to arrange for campaign officials “to have the authority to make decisions independently, without the need for approval from the White House.”

https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2024/01/06/barack-obama-hits-panic-button-on-biden-campaign-n4925271

So his own campaign staff wants us to reelect a President who’s not even consulted on decisions about his own campaign because he’d just screw things up? Well, there’s a vote of confidence!

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Day 1 Plans

Former President Trump wrote an op-ed in which he said that if elected again, on day one, he will reverse all of Biden’s immigration policies and restore a secure border. He will then start a massive deportation initiative and invoke a 1798 law called the Alien Enemies Act “to remove known or suspected gang members, drug dealers, or cartel members from the United States.”

https://www.westernjournal.com/trump-draws-line-sand-pens-op-ed-vowing-invoke-225-year-old-law/

I look forward to hearing all the anguished cries about Trump invoking archaic laws from the same people who are trying to keep him off the ballot with an amendment targeted at veterans of the Confederacy.

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Least Surprising News of the Day!

A new study finds that only 3.4% of American journalists identify as Republicans.

https://ground.news/article/b68545d5-545d-45e1-b47f-1c7b74889dcb

Also surprising: Only 36% admit to being Democrats.

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Feel-good story to start your week:

Congratulations to Andrew and Bertha Kowalczyk of Fenton, Missouri, who last week celebrated their 80^th wedding anniversary. Click the link to read their remarkable lifelong love story and see a heartwarming video.

https://redstate.com/jenniferoo/2024/01/05/feel-good-friday-st-louis-octegenarians-celebrate-80-years-of-marriage-n2168350

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Digging deeper on job creation

I reported Friday that a higher-than-expected 216,000 jobs were added in December, which set the Biden White House and its media water carriers to trumpeting the miracle of Bidenomics that the poor deluded public mysteriously fails to appreciate. I also pointed out that 55,000 of those new jobs were in government, which is hardly a good sign for a strong private sector economy.

Now, Matt Margolis has dug deeper into the numbers, and he warns that they’re not as rosy as depicted – in fact, they might even verge on “catastrophic.”

https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2024/01/05/what-the-media-wont-tell-you-about-the-latest-jobs-report-n4925243

First, the unemployment rate of 3.7% did not go down. That’s 0.3% higher than last January and 0.2% higher than in the last month before the pandemic under Trump. Margolis points out that “there was also a 0.3 percentage point decline in both the labor force participation rate and the employment-population ratio,” meaning that “the percentage of the nation’s working-age population actually decreased in December,” despite it being a traditionally strong month for temporary hiring.

The hiring was mostly concentrated in just a handful of fields, including (as I noted) government, health care, social assistance and construction. Government accounted for 24% of nonfarm payroll jobs. While professional, scientific, and technical services added 25,000 jobs in December, that’s still far below the 2022 monthly average of 41,000. And “Employment in temporary help services declined in December, shedding 33,000 jobs, and has lost 346,000 jobs since March of 2022.” 

Biden touts himself as the great job creator by taking credit for every existing job people returned to after the COVID lockdowns ended. But even counting all those Trump-era jobs as his own creation, employment is still well below where it was trending before the COVID lockdowns disrupted it.

But here are the really catastrophic numbers: “According to the BLS, the number of full-time workers went from 134,727,000 in November to 133,196,000 in December. That’s a whopping 1.531 million decline.” And while the government reported 216,000 jobs added in December, the Zero Hedge website pointed out that “the far more accurate Household Survey showed that the number of Employed workers actually collapsed by an unprecedented 683K, the biggest drop since the US economy was shut down by COVID!”

This is why the spin from the White House and the media about the miracle of Bidenomics is about as effective as wheels spinning on ice. If you’re in government (and if you are, congrats on your big pay raise) or a green lobbyist or a highly-paid media talking head, the Biden economy is doing great for you. For everyone else, to paraphrase Larry L. King, they know when someone is urinating on their boots and telling them it’s a rainstorm.

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Biden’s “Valley Forge” speech was one big snow job

After President Biden’s shameful, lie-filled speech at Valley Forge, we considered running a full transcript and going into detail picking apart all the huge whoppers in it, but, frankly, it seemed as though such a bad speech from such a bad President just didn’t warrant all that stinking work.  Really, aren’t you just sick of the “insurrection” lie at this point?  We KNOW it’s not true. A recent poll found that nearly half of Americans have woken up to the realization that it’s not true. We know that this has shifted into a fake campaign strategy for the Democrats, built on sand.  (Will it stand upright just long enough to get Trump off the ballot, in the name of “democracy”?)

But that campaign has to stretch through most of this year.  So the “insurrection” lie has to keep growing, to keep Trump-phobia going!  And the DOJ is ready to provide more manure to grow it in, in the form of new charges for “thousands” more January 6 protesters, coming courtesy of DC U.S. Attorney Michael Graves.  As Julie Kelly reports, Graves warned last week that he’d be coming after anyone else who “stood on government property.”  She adds, though, that “recent court activity could shut down his latest crusade of terror.”

Graves is the prosecutor overseeing the government’s “unprecedented and ongoing criminal investigation into the four-hour disturbance that has so far resulted in the arrest of 1,200 Americans,” Kelly reports.  All those cases.  And this could not have been more political.  Last week, on January 4, the same day Biden launched his first J6-themed campaign ad, Graves --- whom you might recall worked for Biden’s 2020 campaign and is himself a Biden appointee --- gave an hour-long press briefing to a handful of reporters.

His remarks were in the same inflammatory tone of Biden’s J6 speech, with some of the same whoppers included.  Points for keeping the narrative consistent, even though it’s by lying.

“On January 6, 2021, the United States lost control of the grounds around the Capitol and most of the Capitol itself,” he said from his office.  “In scenes reminiscent of a medieval battle, officers engaged in hand-to-hand combat with members of the invading force.”

“Invading force” --- get it?  Not Americans exercising their First Amendment rights in a massive protest that some took too far?  Graves was lying.

He claimed that this was the “largest single day mass assault on law enforcement in our nation’s history.”  That, too, was a lie.

And did you know that DC juries have not acquitted EVEN ONE J6 defendant?  They’re all found guilty as charged, sometimes even up-charged!  Graves bragged about this, and unfortunately, this part of his briefing was true.

To enlarge his net even wider, Graves warned that he’s targeting thousands more people who didn’t even go inside the Capitol that day.  Apparently, they only need to have been standing in the wrong spot, under 18 U.S. Code 1752, which criminalizes knowingly entering or remaining on restricted buildings or grounds.  According to Kelly, almost all the J6 defendants so far have been hit with misdemeanor charges related to this.

To make these charges stick, the government is “stuck” with the argument that the grounds around the Capitol were automatically restricted because Vice President Mike Pence was supposedly there.  But defense attorneys have been prohibited from interviewing Pence’s Secret Service detail to find out exactly where he was, especially after he was reportedly evacuated at 2:20 PM.  The charges rise or fall with Pence’s location, so...why??

The government maintains Pence was on a loading dock on Capitol property, but why not let Biden’s security detail say so under oath?  Might they be trying to maintain a lie about Pence’s location so that all those people can be charged with entering a restricted area?  There’s nothing wrong with skepticism about their story and demanding it be cleared up, given that the DOJ lied in charging documents (!) for nearly a year about VP-elect Kamala Harris’ location that afternoon.  They maintained all that time that she was in the Capitol building when it turned out that, curiously, she was at Democratic National Committee headquarters --- you know, where one of two pipe bombs had been placed by...well, some mystery person they still haven’t identified (!), at least publicly.

Think of it, they’re jetting all around the country to raid people’s houses and arrest them by the thousands for merely standing near the Capitol building on that day, yet the government still can’t tell us who planted those pipe bombs.  They could at least feign a little interest in doing that.

Kelly points out what should be obvious to all:  that people being expected to know Pence was in or at the building and that therefore the Capitol LAWN was “restricted” is absurd.  But our current government traffics in absurdity.

And that appears to be why DC judges and juries have gone right ahead and convicted J6 defendants on this trespassing offense.  They DON’T CARE if their argument is absurd --- they figure they’ve already won on jury selection.  These convictions include defendants who got there after the initial barriers and signage had been removed, which happened early on, shortly after 1 PM.  So for all the rest of the afternoon, protesters had no clue they were in a restricted area.

But it’s on appeal that these prosecutions based on Pence’s location start developing some cracks.  Kelly discusses a couple of cases in which appeals are showing the government hasn’t met its burden of proof.  It might be that to make this charge stick on appeal, prosecutors will have to prove that each defendant, individually, somehow had divined that Pence was there.  I hope you’ll read her article for the encouraging details.

Of course, as she points out, Jack Smith is still accomplishing his main goal, which is entirely political.  His mission, she says, is “accelerating the government’s campaign of fear related to January 6 and its relentless criminalization of political activity.”

Which brings us back to Biden’s cringe-inducing Valley Forge speech.  No, we didn’t go through the nasty thing line by line and highlight all the lies you can already catch.  Instead, let’s go to law professor Jonathan Turley’s must-read column for THE HILL, in which he says this speech proves conclusively that Biden is “no George Washington.”

However, I’d go much further than that bit of understatement and say Joe’s the opposite of George Washington.  Washington famously cared nothing for his own power and glory.  And, seriously, do you think anyone would ever think to create a story about Joe Biden as a boy, the point of which was that he “cannot tell a lie”?

Millions of voters have been pondering this narrative and are now rejecting the “insurrection” schtick.   To Democrats’ dismay, it’s seeming more in hindsight like a “protest that got out of hand for some people.”  And isn’t Biden laying on the Hitler/dictator comparisons a little thick, considering it’s his administration that’s arresting and detaining thousands of political prisoners, weaponizing the government to silence opposing speech, and trying to take his #1 opponent off the ballot, by imprisonment if necessary?  One quote that’s been going around since the speech is, “January 6, 2021…a day that will live in hyperbole.”

As Turley points out, “The speech is a masterpiece of contradiction.  Biden started by denouncing how Donald Trump’s campaign is ‘only about him’ [reminds us of what they kept repeating about him at the DNC convention in 2016], and ‘obsessed with the past.’  He then spent virtually all of the speech obsessing about Trump and January 6, 2021.”

All Biden has to run on is what can only be called Trumped-up fear.  Evil Trump will destroy democracy!  And Trump isn’t really even running against Biden himself --- he’s running against... democracy!  In Turley’s words, it takes an act of “willful blindness” to mentally remove Biden’s name from the ballot and put in “Democracy.”

As for Biden’s ridiculous claim to be the defender of free speech, Turley notes that you have to go all the way back to John Adams to find a President who was as anti-free speech as Biden is.  Could be, but WWI-era Democrat Woodrow Wilson offers stiff competition...

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/sedition-act-becomes-federal-law

“For Biden to run on free speech is about as convincing as Bill Clinton running on abstinence,” he says.

See, the best way we can deal with this nonsense is to mock it mercilessly.   Thanks, Prof. Turley; we love a great line.

https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/4392480-joe-biden-is-no-george-washington-and-valley-forge-proved-it/

Speaking of mocking Biden’s Valley Forge speech that proved he has nothing to run on but fear itself, that seems to be reaction it’s getting much to the shock of the Democrats and their media lapdogs.

Here’s a round-up of some scathingly entertaining commentary on it, first from Roger Kimball at American Greatness, who reports that Biden’s histrionic speech is being rightly “laughed at, guyed, ridiculed, and satirized” by Americans who are starting to view J6 more as a hoax than an insurrection. He quotes the J6 defendant who moved Nancy Pelosi’s lectern. Calling himself “Lectern Leader” on Twitter (X), he tweeted a photo of the incident with the comment, “Throwback to the time I brought America to its knees by moving furniture tens of feet and became king.”

https://amgreatness.com/2024/01/07/from-insurrection-to-satire-bidens-valley-forge-speech-fails-to-cement-the-trump-dictator-narrative/

Robert Spencer at PJ Media also has a terrific skewering of Biden’s “Scare voters stupid so they’ll reelect me” speech.

https://pjmedia.com/robert-spencer/2024/01/07/biden-trump-speaks-the-same-exact-language-used-in-nazi-germany-n4925285

He notes that Biden claimed Trump is speaking “the same exact language used in Nazi Germany.” Kimball replies, “What? Trump speaks German now?” He calls that slam “as ineptly stated as it is inaccurate.” He also shares this tweet from Donald Trump Jr.: “Happy Fake Insurrection Day!!! The first ever insurrection with armed tour guides and unarmed participants!”

PS – When even former Attorney General and thorn-in-Trump’s side Bill Barr is blasting Biden’s DOJ for unconscionably overcharging people over January 6^th, you know you’ve lost a large part of the nation.

https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/bill-barr-says-justice-department-went-too-far-prosecuting-jan-6-capitol-riot

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Social media explained...

https://www.gocomics.com/fminus/2024/01/08

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I Just Wanted to Say

Thank you for reading my newsletter.

Mike Huckabee

This past weekend brought some welcome news in the fight back against the politicization of the justice system. First, Judicial Watch has filed a $30 million wrongful death lawsuit against the government on behalf of the husband and estate of Ashli Babbett, the protester shot at point black range and killed by Capitol police officer Lt. Michael Byrd. Babbitt was unarmed, surrounded by cops, and her empty hands were in the air. She was posing no threat to Byrd before he shot her dead.

Yet he was not only not charged, the entire case was whitewashed. The Capitol Police cleared him of any wrongdoing, and he was treated like a hero in liberal media circles, despite his record of unsafe handling of firearms.

https://www.westernjournal.com/federal-govt-sued-30m-wrongful-death-jan-6-protester-ashli-babbitt/

Judicial Watch has dug up some shocking info on Byrd’s history of mishandling guns that had yet to be revealed, such as that he’d had his police powers revoked on more than one occasion for failing to meet or complete semi-annual firearms qualifications requirements. Also, his police powers were once revoked after he shot at his car while off-duty as some teenagers were stealing it, and stray bullets hit the sides of houses.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/01/30-million-wrongful-death-suit-jan-6-protester/

Despite Biden’s repeated false claims of multiple deaths of police officers on January 6th, Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said, “The only homicide on January 6 was the unlawful shooting death of Ashli Babbitt. Her homicide by Lt. Byrd is a scandal beyond belief.”

Let’s hope the civil court system will finally bring some justice that the Biden “Department of Justice” refused to pursue.

And in another J6 lawsuit, a defendant is seeking to overturn the charges on the basis of selective prosecution. He says the DOJ gave the mysterious figure Ray Epps a sweetheart deal, charging Epps with a single misdemeanor, while they charged him with eight felonies and ignored the same mitigating factors.

https://revolver.news/2024/01/j6-political-victim-files-suit-mocking-biden-regime-for-blessing-ray-epps-with-sweetheart-deal/

That second case is a good example of our two-tiered justice system, where the same party that turned a blind eye to hundreds of violent BLM and Antifa riots across America continues to treat anyone who was even in the general vicinity of the Capitol that day like John Dillinger. The intelligence agencies that were too distracted to see the October 7th Hamas attack coming have devoted three years to tracking down and charging over a thousand people, throwing not just the book but the entire law library at them, in what is now the largest investigative and prosecutorial campaign in US history. It would be nice if they went after the drug cartels with that much drive.

Here’s an example of one of those violent insurrectionists, whose convictions for doing things that video showed he clearly didn’t do was just upheld by totally impartial Judge Tanya Chutkan, who’s also overseeing one of Jack Smith’s cases against Trump.

https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/01/appeals-court-upholds-jan-6-defendant-conviction-for-disorderly-conduct-despite-his-passive-quiet-and-nonviolent-conduct/

By the way, Trump’s attorneys have formally requested that Smith be cited for contempt of court for continuing to press discovery demands even though the case has been halted pending appeal, a clear violation. Anyone want to bet that she’ll actually hold Smith accountable?

https://www.westernjournal.com/trump-makes-powerhouse-move-hold-jack-smith-contempt-court/

FYI, Smith is also continuing to use propaganda to try to poison public opinion and taint the jury pool, you know, like non-contemptuous prosecutors do.

https://instapundit.com/625328/

Well, I think that’s enough about January 6th for now. But if the Democrats insist on running on that all through 2024 (because that and unfettered abortion are literally all they’ve got to run on), this should give them an idea of how it’s going over.

Mike Huckabee

I reported Friday that a higher-than-expected 216,000 jobs were added in December, which set the Biden White House and its media water carriers to trumpeting the miracle of Bidenomics that the poor deluded public mysteriously fails to appreciate. I also pointed out that 55,000 of those new jobs were in government, which is hardly a good sign for a strong private sector economy.

Now, Matt Margolis has dug deeper into the numbers, and he warns that they’re not as rosy as depicted – in fact, they might even verge on “catastrophic.”

https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2024/01/05/what-the-media-wont-tell-you-about-the-latest-jobs-report-n4925243

First, the unemployment rate of 3.7% did not go down. That’s 0.3% higher than last January and 0.2% higher than in the last month before the pandemic under Trump. Margolis points out that “there was also a 0.3 percentage point decline in both the labor force participation rate and the employment-population ratio,” meaning that “the percentage of the nation’s working-age population actually decreased in December,” despite it being a traditionally strong month for temporary hiring.

The hiring was mostly concentrated in just a handful of fields, including (as I noted) government, health care, social assistance and construction. Government accounted for 24% of nonfarm payroll jobs. While professional, scientific, and technical services added 25,000 jobs in December, that’s still far below the 2022 monthly average of 41,000. And “Employment in temporary help services declined in December, shedding 33,000 jobs, and has lost 346,000 jobs since March of 2022.” 

Biden touts himself as the great job creator by taking credit for every existing job people returned to after the COVID lockdowns ended. But even counting all those Trump-era jobs as his own creation, employment is still well below where it was trending before the COVID lockdowns disrupted it.

But here are the really catastrophic numbers: “According to the BLS, the number of full-time workers went from 134,727,000 in November to 133,196,000 in December. That’s a whopping 1.531 million decline.” And while the government reported 216,000 jobs added in December, the Zero Hedge website pointed out that “the far more accurate Household Survey showed that the number of Employed workers actually collapsed by an unprecedented 683K, the biggest drop since the US economy was shut down by COVID!”

This is why the spin from the White House and the media about the miracle of Bidenomics is about as effective as wheels spinning on ice. If you’re in government (and if you are, congrats on your big pay raise) or a green lobbyist or a highly-paid media talking head, the Biden economy is doing great for you. For everyone else, to paraphrase Larry L. King, they know when someone is urinating on their boots and telling them it’s a rainstorm.

Mike Huckabee

Blessings on you and your family from all the Huckabee team! Today, if you have a moment, leave me a comment about something you read. Comments help me fine tune what I am writing, and they show that we have an active community of readers.

Sincerely,

Mike Huckabee

Daily Bible Verse

14 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. ² In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

John 14:1-2 ESV

Newsletter Notes

12 stories

3,216 words

Reading time: About 15 minutes

SCOTUS agrees to review the Colorado Supreme Court’s ballot decision

Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to review the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision removing Donald Trump from the state ballot. It’s on an expedited schedule for a February 8^th hearing, and questions were not limited, which I hope means they will address the entire range of nonsense claims about insurrection and the 14^th Amendment, and throw all of this garbage lawfare on the ash heap of history where it belongs. Then we can get back to letting Americans decide for themselves who to vote for. That is, if the guardians of “our democracy” in the Democratic Party don’t come up with some other harebrained scheme to interfere with their right to vote.

https://reason.com/volokh/2024/01/05/supreme-court-will-consider-trump-section-3-disqualification-case/

Related: A judge in Wyoming just threw out an attempt to block Trump from the ballot over the 14^th Amendment ban on “insurrectionists.”

https://www.westernjournal.com/judge-shuts-newest-attempt-remove-trump-ballot/

Well, it’s that most sacred of days on the Democrat’s holy calendar:

January 6^th, a darker date than Pearl Harbor Day and 9/11 combined, when Democrats would be flying their American flags at half-staff if any of them still flew the American flag.

Expect to hear endless dark and divisive speeches from President Biden on down to the lowest bowels of Congress (that would be the Squad) and the media (MSNBC), about how a group of unarmed Trump supporters, many of whom were milling around taking selfies, were engaged in an “insurrection” to overthrow the United States government. And of course, how only voting for Democrats can save “our democracy.” The hype grows bigger every year. By this time next year, I expect DC to have a January 6^th Day Parade, with giant balloons of Liz Cheney and Adam Schiff, which like the real things will be filled with hot gas.

But is all this balloon juice and wailing and gnashing of teeth over January 6^th actually working to convince the public that the GOP is the party of riots and undermining elections? It appears that all the government and media efforts to dominate the news and shut down opposition speech have only raised more questions and suspicions. To paraphrase one of those old dead, white guys who supposedly has nothing to teach us, “Methinks they dost protest too much.”

After three years of endless caterwauling over the January 6^th “insurrection” and Trump’s “false, unsubstantiated claims” of a rigged election, a new Suffolk University/USA Today survey found that Americans’ skepticism about J6 and the 2020 election is actually rising.

https://www.wnd.com/2024/01/poll-stunner-nearly-40-say-jan-6-protesters-point/

The percentage who think the J6 protesters were criminals has dropped from 70% shortly after it happened to only 48% today. One-third say the DOJ’s legal actions against them should be reversed. Most surprising, the number who say they “went too far, but had a point” has risen from 24% to 37%. The poll also found that a rising number of Americans are concerned that ballots won’t be accurately cast and counted this November. You can find all the numbers at the link above.

For the record, I’ve said from the beginning that anyone who actually committed rioting or acts of violence in the Capitol should face the full legal consequences. But that doesn’t mean that every aunt and uncle in a MAGA cap who walked past the Capitol that day should be hounded into prison by politicized prosecutors who are more jealous than Inspector Javert in “Les Miserables.”

January 6^th Legal News:

This anniversary weekend also brought some welcome news in the fight back against the politicization of the justice system. First, Judicial Watch has filed a $30 million wrongful death lawsuit against the government on behalf of the husband and estate of Ashli Babbett, the protester shot at point black range and killed by Capitol police officer Lt. Michael Byrd. Babbitt was unarmed, surrounded by cops, and her empty hands were in the air. She was posing no threat to Byrd before he shot her dead.

Yet he was not only not charged, the entire case was whitewashed. The Capitol Police cleared him of any wrongdoing, and he was treated like a hero in liberal media circles, despite his record of unsafe handling of firearms.

https://www.westernjournal.com/federal-govt-sued-30m-wrongful-death-jan-6-protester-ashli-babbitt/

Judicial Watch has dug up some shocking info on Byrd’s history of mishandling guns that had yet to be revealed, such as that he’d had his police powers revoked on more than one occasion for failing to meet or complete semi-annual firearms qualifications requirements. Also, his police powers were once revoked after he shot at his car while off-duty as some teenagers were stealing it, and stray bullets hit the sides of houses.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/01/30-million-wrongful-death-suit-jan-6-protester/

Despite Biden’s repeated false claims of multiple deaths of police officers on January 6^th, Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said, “The only homicide on January 6 was the unlawful shooting death of Ashli Babbitt. Her homicide by Lt. Byrd is a scandal beyond belief.”

Let’s hope the civil court system will finally bring some justice that the Biden “Department of Justice” refused to pursue.

And in another J6 lawsuit, a defendant is seeking to overturn the charges on the basis of selective prosecution. He says the DOJ gave the mysterious figure Ray Epps a sweetheart deal, charging Epps with a single misdemeanor, while they charged him with eight felonies and ignored the same mitigating factors.

https://revolver.news/2024/01/j6-political-victim-files-suit-mocking-biden-regime-for-blessing-ray-epps-with-sweetheart-deal/

That second case is a good example of our two-tiered justice system, where the same party that turned a blind eye to hundreds of violent BLM and Antifa riots across America continues to treat anyone who was even in the general vicinity of the Capitol that day like John Dillinger. The intelligence agencies that were too distracted to see the October 7^th Hamas attack coming have devoted three years to tracking down and charging over a thousand people, throwing not just the book but the entire law library at them, in what is now the largest investigative and prosecutorial campaign in US history. It would be nice if they went after the drug cartels with that much drive.

Here’s an example of one of those violent insurrectionists, whose convictions for doing things that video showed he clearly didn’t do was just upheld by totally impartial Judge Tanya Chutkan, who’s also overseeing one of Jack Smith’s cases against Trump.

https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/01/appeals-court-upholds-jan-6-defendant-conviction-for-disorderly-conduct-despite-his-passive-quiet-and-nonviolent-conduct/

By the way, Trump’s attorneys have formally requested that Smith be cited for contempt of court for continuing to press discovery demands even though the case has been halted pending appeal, a clear violation. Anyone want to bet that she’ll actually hold Smith accountable?

https://www.westernjournal.com/trump-makes-powerhouse-move-hold-jack-smith-contempt-court/

FYI, Smith is also continuing to use propaganda to try to poison public opinion and taint the jury pool, you know, like non-contemptuous prosecutors do.

https://instapundit.com/625328/

Well, I think that’s enough about January 6^th for now. But if the Democrats insist on running on that all through 2024 (because that and unfettered abortion are literally all they’ve got to run on), this should give them an idea of how it’s going over.

National Bird Day

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

This weekend marks one of the most important dates of the year. I refer, of course, to January 5^th, which was National Bird Day.

It’s a day established to appreciate the beauty that birds bring to the world, and to call attention to the cruelty of the international bird smuggling trade and bird breeding mills, and the plight of pet birds that are kept in captivity without proper care. Parrots especially are likely to fall victim: people buy them because they're colorful or they (might) talk. They don’t realize they aren’t décor; they’re as intelligent as a four-year-old child and need a great deal of attention and interaction. But they can be great pets and even become part of the family. Plus, having bird cages can actually make the New York Times useful again.

This day is a big deal to my wife/co-writer Laura Ainsworth and I because we’re bird lovers who share our home with a dozen rescued parrots and cockatoos, and we support a number of parrot rescues, including the Oasis Sanctuary, Wings of Love, Ricki's Rescue, Mango's Haven and more. We'd like to remind you that pet rescue is not just for dogs and cats: there are many pet bird shelters that desperately need support. Parrots can live up to 70 years and are often shuffled from owner to owner. Their vet bills and other expenses are very high (as we know well.)

Also, if you want a parrot because you think it would be funny to teach it to curse, please DON’T! These birds often need to be rehomed. If you teach a parrot to curse, you greatly diminish its odds of finding a future loving home. Some people even punish the bird by locking it away when it doesn’t even know what it’s done wrong. Teaching a parrot to curse is straight-up animal cruelty.

If you've ever thought of adopting a parrot, please check out these shelters online. There are many sweet, beautiful, intelligent birds who have been through heartbreaking experiences at the hands of people, but they can blossom into fantastic, trusting friends with a little love and attention.

And that includes the special needs ones, like those taken in by Ricki’s Rescue in Florida. Here's an essay I wrote about a little disabled cockatiel named Rosey who was the light of our lives.

https://www.lauraainsworth.com/news/rosey.htm

Finally, if you're sick of hearing about Taylor Swift, here's another singer that we believe is much better:

“Free and Fair Elections”

A reminder that President “Free and Fair Elections” is not only using every tactic to keep his Republican opponent off the ballot, he’s also trying to keep his Democratic challengers off the primary ballot.

https://dailycaller.com/2024/01/04/democrat-eliminate-biden-primary-challenges-florida-north-carolina/

The Democrats view both voter choice and “a woman’s right to choose” the same way that Henry Ford viewed customer choice for the Model T: “It comes in any color you want, as long as it’s black.”

Epstein update

As the Jeffrey Epstein documents continue to be released, the first batch showed that, despite the hopes and false narratives of Democrats, the testimony exonerated Trump, with witnesses saying they’d never seen him at Epstein’s homes or on his island, nor had one of them ever given him a massage. Bill Clinton, however, didn’t come out so well, with one recounting that Epstein had once said that Bill “likes them young.”

Juanita Broaddrick had a comment on that disclosure, and since I’m sure that many liberal media outlets that claim to be champions of women who’ve been victimized (but are really just party mouthpieces) will not report what she said, I will:

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/01/04/juanita-broaddrick-reacts-to-epstein-document-release-there-are-good-menand-then-theres-bill-clinton/

A new jobs report

The Labor Department reported this morning that 216,000 jobs were added in December, which is higher than expected.

https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2024/01/05/america-created-216000-jobs-in-december/

Of course, due to years of fiscal mismanagement and profligate spending by the government, we now have a no-win situation where strong hiring means the Fed might have to keep interest rates painfully high to tamp down the economy and prevent another inflation surge. Considering 52,000 of those new hires are government jobs, I seriously doubt that anyone’s learned any lessons.

The Experts Speak!

The “experts” predicted that once the large field of GOP presidential contenders started winnowing down, they’d stop splitting the anti-Trump vote and Trump’s wide lead would dwindle to his hardcore MAGA base of 35%. Well, the field is now down to only three serious contenders (Trump, Haley and DeSantis – Christie should drop out; I’d say his audition for a job at CNN is already accomplished. And Stephen Kruiser at PJ Media says the perfect job for Vivek Ramaswamy would be Trump’s press secretary, based on how deftly he filets biased reporters…

https://pjmedia.com/stephen-kruiser/2024/01/05/the-morning-briefing-ok-ive-got-the-perfect-gig-for-vivek-ramaswamy-n4925210)

…And here he is, doing it again…)

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2024/01/05/watch-vivek-does-it-again-flips-script-on-nbc-reporter-as-she-has-meltdown-n2168319

Yet according to the Real Clear Politics average of polls, with the vote mostly now split in just three ways, Trump is currently at nearly 63%.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/republican-presidential-field-shrinking-not-trump-lead

Of course, I always warn people not to put too much faith in polls, particularly not those that are taken before a single primary vote has been cast. But it seems clear that the Democrat lawfare effort to destroy Trump with bogus felony charges and frivolous lawsuits has backfired bigly, enraging fair-minded Americans and rallying them to Trump. Anyone who might disapprove of porn in schools, wide open borders or abortion up to the age of weaning must look at the legal persecution of Trump by these leftist zealots and think, “There but for the grace of God go I.”

It might also be a factor in black voters turning away from Biden (the idea that the criminal justice system is always fair and unbiased against system outsiders doesn’t play very well with that demographic.) But of course, that could just be due to the fact that Biden is a horrible, horrible President.

Related: This news will have Democrats rushing to squeeze some Play-Doh. A new survey by the Daily Mail finds that Biden’s support among young women aged 18-29 has plummeted by 18 points since last June, from 60% to 42%.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12919689/female-voters-Biden-poll-collapse-young-support.html

This is the “Life of Julia” demographic, the young women that Democrats condescendingly view as dependent on Big Daddy government. They’re the main reason the expected 2022 red wave was blunted. The Dems think they’re single-issue voters (abortion), so I guess they think they’ll forever overlook issues like inflation, crushing interest rates, rampant crime and having their rights systematically stripped away from them in order to appease the trans cult.

We can expect the Dems to react to this news with panic, and by turning up to 11 the shrill accusations that Trump will take away abortion rights (he’s actually pretty moderate on that issue, while it’s the Dems who’ve become extremists and back unlimited abortion far beyond any laws in Europe) or that he’s a Hitler-like dictator. I would hope that any women who are old enough to remember when he was President for four years might remember that it was a time of widespread peace and prosperity, law and order, dismantling of government power, restoration of individual rights and the first Administration in years that started no new wars.

Still, as the article predicts, the left hopes that young women will come around to voting for Biden as “the lesser of two evils.” I hope I am never in the same room with anything that could be described as a greater evil than this presidency.

A small court Trump victory

In a small court Trump victory, a California judge dismissed “with prejudice” (meaning it can’t be brought into court again) an attempt to keep Trump off the state ballot. It was based on a plaintiff’s novel complaint that watching the January 6^th riot on TV caused him such trauma that Trump was guilty of “negligent infliction of emotional distress.” The judge said that law has a two-year statute of limitations. But what if it took the plaintiff three years to work up the courage to come out of his safe space?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/donald-trump-victory-as-judge-dismisses-case-to-keep-him-off-ballot/ar-AA1msqLF

Blaming someone else

In the Democratic Party’s never-ending effort to blame the Biden-created border crisis on anyone other than Biden (and even some liberal media outlets are finally starting to see through that), New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that he will sue the bus companies that transport illegal aliens from Texas to New York. He wants them to pay $700 million for the costs of providing hotel rooms, food, etc. to their passengers.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2024/01/05/nyc-sues-bus-companies-bringing-illegal-immigrants-n2633203

Legal analysts call it a ridiculous and frivolous lawsuit that will just waste more taxpayer money in legal fees. The bus companies are doing nothing wrong. It was Biden who decided that these people should be allowed to enter the US and go anywhere they want; transporting them there is the bus companies’ job. Adams should sue Biden, but that would be placing the blame where it belongs.

I will be watching this lawsuit carefully, though. If the courts rule that bus companies have to pay the hotel and meal bills for their passengers after they get off, I’ll be doing all my traveling by Greyhound from now on!

“Huckabee” Preview

Join me tonight for a news making episode of “Huckabee” on TBN. I’ll have a report on my recent trip to Israel where I visited with victims of the October 7^th attack with Yael Eckstein of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, and we even had to take shelter from a rocket attack ourselves at one point. I’ll also talk to Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who’s leading a landmark social media censorship case against the Biden Administration. You’ll also meet a Huck’s Hero with a great idea for all dads (moms, too.) And we’ll have terrific entertainment from comic Jeff “Big Daddy” Wayne and country star Niko Moon.

Be there tonight at 8 and 11 EST, 7 and 10 CST, or Sunday at 9 EST/8 CST on TBN. To find out how to watch TBN, from local cable and broadcast channels to streaming, visit https://www.huckabee.tv and click on “Channel Finder” on the top menu. You can stream previous episodes, highlights and online-only “Digital Exclusives,” including extended interviews, “In Case You Missed It” and “Facts of the Matter” segments, plus extra performances by our great musical and comedy guests and links to all their sites, at https://www.huckabee.tv. You can also find past shows, highlights and digital exclusives on YouTube and my Facebook page.

David Soul RIP

By “Huckabee” pop culture guru Pat Reeder

As we were going to press yesterday, word came that actor David Soul died late Thursday night at 80.

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/starsky-hutch-actor-david-soul-dead-80

Soul was best known for playing Detective Kenneth "Hutch" Hutchinson on the buddy cop series “Starsky & Hutch” (Starsky was Paul Michael Glaser) from 1975 to 1979. He had previously played one of the Bolt brothers on the series, “Here Come The Brides,” and he appeared in the Dirty Harry movie, “Magnum Force” and the TV horror film, “Salem’s Lot.” He continued as a working actor for years, forging a new career as a stage star in London’s West End, including the hit musical “Blood Brothers.”

A bit of trivia other obits likely won’t mention: In 1983, Soul starred in an NBC series that lasted only five episodes. It was called “Casablanca,” and he played Rick Blaine, the role Humphrey Bogart played in the classic movie ("Play it again, Huggy Bear.")  It was one for the Bad Idea Hall of Fame.

Since I’m the co-author of “Hollywood Hi-Fi” (http://www.hollywoodhifi.com), a book about singing celebrities, I must also mention that he parlayed his “Starsky & Hutch” fame into teen idol success, landing a #1 hit in the US in 1976 with “Don’t Give Up On Us.” He also scored five hit singles in the UK and eventually released five albums. RIP.

(By the way, since this news will probably make you curious, both Glaser and Antonio Fargas, who played “Huggy Bear,” are still alive.)

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