Read it.

This must make Tucker feel pretty good. I know it would me.

As my dad (WWII Air Corps) used to say, “When you’re getting flak, you know you’re over the target”l

Read it.

Jury selection begins on Thursday in the trial of a Wisconsin state judge charged with helping a migrant appearing in her courtroom evade an immigration arrest in a case stemming from President Donald Trump’s initiative to prosecute individuals accused of resisting his immigration enforcement policies.

Hannah Dugan, an elected judge on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, is facing federal criminal charges brought by Trump’s Justice Department of concealing a person from arrest and obstructing federal proceedings. Dugan has pleaded not guilty.

Milwaukee-based U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman, overseeing the trial, is set to begin the process of selecting a jury on Thursday, with opening statements due to begin on Monday.

The case reflects tensions surrounding Trump’s immigration enforcement policies, including the presence of federal agents in courthouses. It also reflects the Justice Department’s efforts to criminally prosecute individuals it accuses of unlawfully impeding immigration enforcement.

It’s Hard To Be a Trumpist  In addtion to RINOs, there appear also to be TINOs.

How the Supreme Court is using Trump to grab more power for itself (Ian Millhiser/Vox)

Jared Kushner, the President’s Son-in-Law, Is Part of Paramount’s Bid for Warner Bros. Discovery (Lauren Hirsch/New York Times)  So what?

Boasberg escalates contempt inquiry over Alien Enemies Act deportations (Kyle Cheney/Politico)

Trump Ban on Wind Energy Projects Ruled Illegal by US Judge (Bloomberg)

MAGA Pushes Racist Cinnabon Worker’s Fundraiser Past $100,000 (J.D. Wolf/MeidasTouch News) MAGA is the New Nigger.

Court Reform: Breaking the Corrupt Rule of the Six GOPers Is Everything (Josh Marshall/Talking Points Memo)

Federal judge throws out Trump order blocking development of wind energy (Associated Press)

Trump, 79, Jolts Awake After Nodding Off at Roundtable (Erkki Forster/The Daily Beast)

A Trump Doctrine of Contradictions (Wall Street Journal)

The POLITICO Trump interview (Politico)

Trump’s trade wounds force White House into action (Courtenay Brown/Axios)  Wounds!

‘I Worry People Are Going to Get Hurt in the Short Term’ (Declan Harty/Politico)

We asked activists from authoritarian regimes what they wish they’d known sooner. Here’s what they said (Danielle Renwick/The Guardian)

Looks Like the Supreme Court Will Continue to Overturn the 20th Century (New York Times)  I like that idea.

Fact check: Trump denies saying something he said on camera five days ago (Daniel Dale/CNN)

There is a real chance of a US-Venezuela war — so why does it feel fake? (Joshua Keating/Vox)  Perhaps because it is fake.

Vulnerable Republicans sweat amid GOP divisions on health care (Alexander Bolton/The Hill)  They hope.

In Warner Fight, a Hollywood Plot That Makes Trump the Star (Damian Paletta/Wall Street Journal)

At will? Whose will? — Removing independent agency heads is part of a broader assault on a nonpartisan government (Don Moynihan/Can We Still Govern?)  In the Executive branch, the President’s will. You might read the Constitution. Just a suggestion. (The only ‘nonpartisan government’ is government by the Deep State.)

Democrats Want Probe of Trump Officials and Immigration Deals (Fola Akinnibi/Bloomberg)  Of coufrse they do.

Trump doesn’t rule out troops in Venezuela, says President Nicolás Maduro’s ‘days are numbered’ (Megan Lebowitz/NBC News)

After NIH grant cuts, breast cancer research at Harvard slowed, and lab workers left (Martha Bebinger/NPR)  Because, as we all know,  breast cancer research is TOTALLY the responsibility of the Federal government—and the Federal taxpayer.

Trump Reversing “Humphrey’s Executor” Is NOT Priced In

Supreme Court Struggles With How to Insulate the Federal Reserve From Politics (Adam Liptak/New York Times)

7 takeaways from POLITICO’s interview with President Trump (Megan Messerly/Politico)  Getcher Narrative right here.

The Movement: Warning signs emerge for MAGA populism over ObamaCare (Emily Brooks/The Hill)  MAGA is the New Nigger.

As Pope Leo’s MAGA criticism builds, Trump suggests he’d meet Catholic leader (Seb Starcevic/Politico)

Capitol agenda: What Trump told POLITICO about health care (Calen Razor/Politico)

How Jared Kushner became Trump’s indispensable second peace envoy (Washington Post)

Cheryl Hines ‘Surprised’ Friends Dropped Her Over RFK’s MAGA Conversion (Tom Latchem/The Daily Beast)  Trump Cooties.

‘Dishonors the decades-long bipartisan commitment’: Democrats slam Trump for his European takedown (Gregory Svirnovskiy/Politico)  I.e. Republicans are no longer rolling over.

America Has Become a Digital Narco-State (Paul Krugman)  Krugman has become a clone of Keith Olbermann.

Supreme Court Poised to Vastly Expand Presidential Power, Again (Kim Wehle/The Bulwark)

US civic health rating downgraded after year of ‘restrictive’ Trump actions (Maya Yang/The Guardian)

Justice Department faces call for internal probe into legal opinion on Venezuelan boat strikes (Scott MacFarlane/CBS News)

Advocacy groups sue Trump administration seeking release of legal memo justifying boat strikes (Courtney Kube/NBC News)

GOP lawmakers wary of Trump escalating beyond boat strikes in Venezuela (Washington Post)

Defense Bill Requires Trump Spy Agencies To Declassify COVID-19 Origins Intel, Chinese Obstruction Just the Trump Spy Agencies, mind you.

Trump Accidentally Sabotages Case for Bombings in New Interview Fiasco (Greg Sargent/New Republic)  Greg Sargent loses his shit.

New Illinois Law Limits Courthouse ICE Arrests God forbid ICE should get hold of an illegal immigrant with a criminal record—that would kill the whole Narrative.

DHS Nabs N.J. Twins in Plot to Shoot ICE Agents ‘on Sight’

Senate Democrats introduce bill to block Trump from putting face on dollar coin (Alexander Bolton/The Hill)

Life Inside the Undocumented Underground (Hunter Walker/Talking Points Memo)

Greene: ‘I feel very sorry’ for Trump (Sarah Fortinsky/The Hill)

The Inevitable, Trumpian Betrayal of Ukraine (The Contrarian)

Clinton-Appointed Federal Judge Tosses Trump’s Order Halting Wind Energy Projects

Trump will again test ‘blame Democrats’ message on the economy — this time at a casino (Alex Gangitano/Politico)

Read it.

Highlighting exactly why Barack Obama, Joe Biden and James Clyburn needed to deploy a 2021 Machiavellian strategy to get her moved onto the Supreme Court, Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson (KBJ) argues for the supreme power of the DC bureaucracy that must not be challenged by the President of the United States (Executive Branch).

In the case of Trump v Slaughter, the removal of the FTC Chair, Justice KBJ argues that presidential authority must be kept in check by the unelected “professionals and experts” who make up the bureaucracy underneath him. The “No Kings” argument is entirely ridiculous given the plenary power of the executive and the constitutional authority of the office.

Read it.

Illinois sanctuary policies have allowed more than 1,700 criminal illegal aliens to slip back onto the streets since President Trump took office on January 20, and the Department of Homeland Security is now calling out state officials for putting politics ahead of public safety. Among those released are individuals charged with or convicted of homicide, sexual assault, and kidnapping—crimes that should have kept them locked up and handed over to federal immigration authorities.

Read it.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is using his last months in office to release dozens of inmates convicted of homicide — and says many more are coming, according to NJ 101.5.

Since December 2024, Murphy has granted clemency to 283 offenders, including 31 people convicted of murder, felony murder, or aggravated manslaughter, according to NJ 101.5. Some had been serving life sentences or faced decades before being eligible for parole. All will now walk free with five years of supervision.

The governor fast-tracked the releases after creating a new Clemency Advisory Board. In November alone, he freed 23 convicted killers. Murphy has defended the move by highlighting a few cases involving women he says were victims of abuse and “received excessive sentences.”

Read it.

Western Civ is choking itself to death with lawfare in the name of “democracy.” If you think just a little bit past the sale, you will realize that few will say what they mean by “democracy,” including the most ardent “democracy” cultists. What it supposedly means is legal outcomes that the political left wants, not what the law, or the truth, or justice requires.

On the surface, the left pretends to want outcomes that favor their roster of designated victim groups: women, dark-skinned people, and sexual outliers, the familiar cast of characters with its tiresome scripts.

Read it.

Georgia State Rep. Sharon Henderson, D-Covington, was arrested Monday after a federal grand jury indicted her on charges alleging she stole more than $17,000 in pandemic unemployment benefits by falsely claiming she had lost work due to COVID-19.

“It is shocking that a public official would allegedly lie to profit from an emergency program designed to help suffering community members,” U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said in a statement. “Politicians who violate the public trust and steal from the needy to enrich themselves will be held accountable.”

Prosecutors say Henderson, who joined the Georgia House in 2021, applied for federal unemployment programs in mid-2020 while running for office, asserting she had recently worked for Henry County Schools.

Read it.

And rightly so.  Beyond that: The thieves need to go to jail.

Read it.

scandal, “I’m here to help.” He also said of state officials, “Let’s just go fight these people,” according to a 2021 audio recording now receiving renewed scrutiny after more than 50 guilty pleas in the scandal.

The audio, which Ellison has not denied, reveals fraudsters complaining that Minnesota agencies refused to reimburse them for money they claimed to have spent feeding children—claims found false in court. The fraudsters accused agencies of racism, and Ellison seemed to take these claims seriously, saying he would forward them to his staff.

Ellison’s press secretary, Brian Evans, flatly denied that the AG took any action to fulfill the implied promise to “fight” state agencies.

“During the meeting, Attorney General Ellison very clearly asked attendees to share examples of the discriminatory or unfair conduct they claim to have faced,” Evans told The Daily Signal. “They did not do so, and no action was taken in support of them.”

After the meeting, during which fraudsters suggested they would support Ellison’s reelection campaign, donors connected to the fraud ponied up cash.

Pipe bomb suspect confesses and has expressed support for Trump, sources say (Ken Dilanian/MS NOW)  Sources say! That proves it!

NPR Touts ‘Skeptical Judge’ Who Could Nullify Trump’s Defunding Order

The Supreme Court takes up the most unconstitutional thing Trump has done (Ian Millhiser/Vox)

Cowardly Pete Hegseth Is This Week’s Proof of the GOP’s Moral Rot (Michael Tomasky/New Republic)

Trump’s impossibly terrible “affordability” messaging (Aaron Rupar/Public Notice)

Trump administration moves to deny visas to factcheckers and content moderators (Richard Luscombe/The Guardian)

The War On Pete Hegseth

Newsom accuses Trump of wildfire aid snub (Politico)

Judge Skeptical of Trump’s Control of California Guard

Amnesty Intl: Alligator Alcatraz ‘Box’ May Amount to Torture

Trump’s Boat Strikes Corrode America’s Soul (Phil Klay/New York Times)

Trump wants to be known as a peacemaker while frequently threatening war (Dan Diamond/Washington Post)

Trump’s Security Strategy Focuses on Profit, Not Spreading Democracy (Anton Troianovski/New York Times)

Judge Rules Trump Exceeded Authority by Holding Deportees at Guantánamo (Carol Rosenberg/New York Times)

Pete Hegseth Is Seriously Testing Trump’s ‘No Scalps’ Rule (The Atlantic)

Scoop: Democrats call Trump’s bluff on releasing boat strike video (Andrew Solender/Axios)

Trump struggles to persuade Americans to ignore affordability issues (Naftali Bendavid/Washington Post)

Trump follows through on an especially ugly campaign promise (Justin Glawe/Public Notice)

Capehart Falsely Claims There Is No Evidence For Drug Boat Strikes

How Trump flipped America’s race conversation (Axios)

Pressure grows on ‘reckless’ Hegseth as twin scandals engulf Pentagon chief (Joseph Gedeon/The Guardian)

Impeachment Mania Returns In Time For The Midterm Elections

The Supreme Court weighs another step in favor of broad presidential power sought by Trump (Mark Sherman/Associated Press)

Hey, Does Anyone Want to Talk About Donald Trump’s Infirmities? (Jason Linkins/New Republic)

Trump’s Top 10 Worst Criminal Prosecutions (The Contrarian)

Trump wants to recreate a white America that never existed (Rebecca Solnit/The Guardian)

Immigration courts thrown into chaos as Trump administration purges dozens of judges (Emily Ngo/Politico)

Read it.

A former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) official appointed as deputy chief of the Office of Financial Operations during the Obama administration – and who still holds a security clearance – was indicted on Friday on charges of agreeing to launder $12 million for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) – which was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization in February of this year.

Democrats tee off on possible Treasury corporate tax move (Jacob Fulton/Roll Call)

Prosecutor who subpoenaed Letitia James could be disqualified, judge suggests (Politico)

Politico Finally Publishes Trump-Free Epstein Story

CNN’s Cornish: Trump Admin ‘SOL’ On Confirming Possible Hegseth Replacement

N.Y. AG Disputes Acting US Attorney’s Power to Probe Trump Suits

“Impermissible”: Congress fumes over Hegseth’s Venezuela strike secrecy (Josephine Walker/Axios)

DOJ orders prison inspectors to stop considering LGBTQ safety standards (Jaclyn Diaz/NPR)

Appeals court allows Trump National Guard deployment in DC to continue (Reuters)

Judge Mulls Removing Trump-Appointed Prosecutor in James Probe

Boston Judge (Again) Intervenes To Force Payments To Planned Parenthood

Trump Set to Win FIFA Peace Prize at World Cup Draw

Somali Americans Aren’t Afraid of Trump’s Bigotry (Ilhan Omar/New York Times)  And Trump isn’t afraid of their bigotry, either.

DOJ claims it has the power to decide who gets Trump’s sweeping 2020 pardon (Kyle Cheney/Politico)

Alleged Pipe Bomber’s Family Sued Trump DHS Over Illegal Immigration, Asked Biden DOJ To Address Racism (Luke Rosiak/The Daily Wire)

New York Times Mangles It: ‘Trump Calls Affordability a Con Job,’ He’s Slipping!

Trump administration plans to end prison rape protections for trans and intersex people, memo says (Adam Rhodes/Prism)

Trump Is Trying to Legalize Corruption by Abusing His Pardon Power (John Avlon/Rolling Stone)

Victim Mentality: Walz Whines About Driveby “Retard” Shoutings As Omar Suggests Trump Inciting Violence Against Her

Broadview conspiracy defendants want to see if White House played a role in their case (Jon Seidel/Chicago Sun Times)

Senate Dems Warn McMahon: Education Program Shifts Illegal

Senate Dems to McMahon: Efforts to shift Education Department responsibilities illegal (Ryan Mancini/The Hill)

FDA officials said without evidence that COVID-19 vaccines have killed children. Here’s what you should know (Madison Czopek/PBS NewsHour)  They have to stick that ‘without evidence’ in there so you’ll know what the Narrative is.

War Is Peace, the Dozing Don Edition (Susan B. Glasser/New Yorker) Propaganda is journalism, the New Yorker edition.

Trump’s Pardons Cover Every Conceivable Form of Corruption (Robert Tracinski/The UnPopulist)  Except the Democrat kind.

Second Strike Scrutiny Obscures Larger Question About Trump’s Boat Attacks (New York Times)

National parks change prioritizes Trump birthday over days honoring Black people (Kylie Mohr/SFGATE)

‘DISTURBING IMAGES’: ABC Spins Resisting the Border Patrol as Victimhood

Trump reveals what he wants for the world (Nahal Toosi/Politico)  More mind-reading in the Narrative Media.

Trump’s Affordability “Con Job” (Catherine Rampell/The Bulwark)

Trump’s Approval Rating Dips as Views of His Handling of the Economy Sour (New York Times)  With the NYT anyway.

Scoop: New fundraising platform ignites MAGA cash clash (Alex Isenstadt/Axios)

MAGA’s Affordability Crisis Will Soon Get Worse (Paul Krugman)

Mike Johnson scrambles to pass Pentagon bill as GOP ranks seethe (Meredith Lee Hill/Politico) Seethe!

A war criminal without a war (Lisa Needham/Public Notice

For international soccer, the way to keep Trump onside is clear: Flattery (Washington Post)

Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Could Be Illegal (Amanda Frost/New York Times)  Could!

Trump’s closure of Voice of America is coming back to bite him  George WIll in full TDS mode.

‘Really?!?’: Prince Harry Royally Roasts Donald Trump In Surprise Cameo With Colbert (Lee Moran/HuffPost)

Trump, 79, Is Fuming Over Coverage of His Deteriorating Health (Isabel Van Brugen/The Daily Beast)  Fuming!

Judges lash out at Justice Department for still listing Lindsey Halligan on court documents (CNN)

Trump Keeps Squeezing the Next Fed Chair (Victoria Guida/Politico)

Trump’s “Monroe Doctrine” bashes immigration and globalization (Andrew Childers/Axios)

Around the world, refugees are shut out of the US by Trump’s new policies (Associated Press)  Because, as everybody knows, the welfare of refugees it TOTALLY the responsibility of the U.S. govenemnrt—and the U.S. taxpayers.

The Trump-Epstein Emergency Isn’t in the Files (Todd Zwillich/Off Message)  But in the fever dreams of the proglodyte left.

‘Why are we letting this guy go?’ Donald Trump’s pardons upend US justice system (Financial Times)

‘Cultivate resistance’: policy paper lays bare Trump support for Europe’s far right (Jon Henley/The Guardian)  To the Guazrdian, there is no ‘riht’ but ‘far-right’.

Post-Trump, What Happens to His War Chest? Utah Offers One Clue. (New York Times)

Heckler Calls Border Czar Homan ‘Racist’ at TPUSA Event

The Supreme Court Is Doing Everything in Its Power to Save Trump in the Midterms (Slate)

Trump touts over $20 trillion in new U.S. investments, but the numbers don’t add up (Laura Doan/CBS News)

Democrats Need to Treat the Supreme Court Like the Villain It Is (Paul Waldman/The Cross Section)

Court blocks Trump administration effort to halt school mental health worker grants (Lexi Lonas Cochran/The Hill)

Read it.

The Trump administration could have a tough time making all of former President Joe Biden’s autopen actions “null and void,” which likely means he will face litigation, legal experts warn.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, “Any and all Documents, Proclamations, Executive Orders, Memorandums, or Contracts, signed by Order of the now infamous and unauthorized ‘AUTOPEN,’ within the Administration of Joseph R. Biden Jr., are hereby null, void, and of no further force or effect. Anyone receiving “Pardons,” “Commutations,” or any other Legal Document so signed, please be advised that said Document has been fully and completely terminated, and is of no Legal effect.”

Clemency may be the only question, since Trump can overturn any Biden executive order whether the president signed it personally or by autopen.

Read it.

Two of the federal judges facing impeachment threats refused to attend a Wednesday Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on “rogue judges.”

James Boasberg and Deborah Boardman, district judges in Washington and Maryland, respectively, told the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts that they would not appear over concerns about the separation of powers and judicial ethicsJames Boasberg and Deborah Boardman, district judges in Washington and Maryland, respectively, told the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts that they would not appear over concerns about the separation of powers and judicial ethics.

Their refusal was delivered through a Nov. 12 letter sent by U.S. Judge Robert Conrad, the director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, to Sen. Ted Cruz, who chairs the subcommittee.

Read it.

The race is on. Not just the race for California governor, but the race to be the first (or perhaps last) gubernatorial candidate to be raided by the FBI, arrested and sent to jail.

California is the most corrupt state in the country. 576 California officials were convicted of federal crimes in just the last decade. Its future governor could be the 577th criminal.

The current front runner is Attorney General Rob Bonta, Gov. Newsom’s handpicked successor, whose political prospects hit a slight bump in the road when he was forced to disclose spending

Newsbusters.

What will it take to get crime under control in our subways and public transit systems?

On Monday, news broke of another passenger set on fire in New York City’s subway — though this story wasn’t all it seemed.

The homeless man who at first said he was the victim of an attack turned tight-lipped when police pressed him about what happened.

Had he set his own clothes ablaze to attract attention?

In the wild environment our subways have become, a malicious attack or a madman’s self-inflicted injury are both all too believable.

Read it.

Leftist Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota should be investigating the claims of a sprawling welfare-fraud network tied to the state’s Somali community – schemes that reportedly funneled taxpayer dollars overseas, including at least one terrorist group. Instead, her office’s social media team attempted, one day before Thanksgiving, to launch a propaganda campaign on affordability on X that backfired spectacularly, culminating in a humiliating Community Note that exposed her sheer cluelessness. 

Klobuchar’s X post attempted to blame the entire power bill crisis on President Trump, with a graphic showing a parabolic line rising to the right that would alarm anyone.

“Under President Trump, electricity prices are surging — up 11%! — leaving millions behind on their utility bills, with past-due balances at an all-time high,” Klobuchar wrote on X, adding, “American families deserve better.”

The Community Note read, “Joe Biden was President from January 20, 2021 – January 20, 2025. Also, this chart is not representing the cost of electricity. It is showing the average past-due balances of Americans, which soared since 2022 under Joe Biden’s presidency.”

Read it.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and the Writers Guild of America said they were against the proposed merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery, warning that it would consolidate control of major news and entertainment outlets under a single corporate entity.

“If Paramount Skydance merges with Warner Bros., one giant media conglomerate would control…” Warren wrote on social media earlier this month, before listing more than a dozen networks that would fall under the merged company’s control.

“It’s a terrible deal,” she added.

Unexplained is why we ought to care what Professor Umbrage likes and doesn’t like.

Victor Davis Hanson.

I’d like to talk about insurrection chic. By that I mean this phenomenon of the Democrats in particular, and maybe the Left in general, it’s talking about ways of undermining the jurisdiction of our own federal government.

I don’t know what their model is. Is it Jefferson Davis, who ordered South Carolina State Troops to fire on the federal fort at Fort Sumter in 1861 that ushered in the Civil War? Or maybe it’s George Wallace, huh? Standing in the doorstep of the University of Alabama, saying, “We’re not going to, here in Alabama, obey state law on segregation and racial discrimination.”

Or maybe, did you ever see the movie “Seven Days in May” (1964) about an officer, General Scott? I think he was played by Burt Lancaster. And he said, basically, we’re going to nullify the presidential directives and not abide by a treaty of the federal government—try to, essentially, overthrow the government.

Read it.

In August, a jury took only four hours to review copious evidence to find Abdifatah Yusuf guilty of fraud. He owned and operated a number of non-existent medical care providers operating out of a single mailbox to steal $7.2 million from public finds. Even AG Keith Ellison praised this conviction.

However, this month, Hennepin county trial judge Sarah West has ruled that the conviction cannot stand because it was really just circumstantial evidence. The state failed to rule out “other reasonable inferences.” The mind boggles. What other, innocent explanation is possible from these facts?

Our new Somali friends (Remember: Diversity Is Our Strength!!) have probably looted a billion dollars from Minnesota welfare and health programs, even diverting funds to Somali terrorist groups along with conspicuous instances of exorbitant personal spending (as in the case of Abdifatah Yusuf) but the important thing is that we don’t judge and keep searching for a positive interpretation of the facts.

Read it.

Nearly a year after LA’s worst wildfires, we’re closer than ever to knowing what happened. And the answers were DEI, a small weed and fish. And an obsessive hatred for Ronald Reagan.

The roots of the environmentalist insanity that killed a dozen people and destroyed over 5,000 buildings actually go back a generation to the construction of the Reagan Library in Simi Valley. While RDS or Reagan Derangement Syndrome has become a distant memory, it was burning fiercely back then and the construction of the library seemed to be adding insult to injury..

Leftists looking for some way to block the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library seized on the presence of any plants in the area that they could brand as endangered including Lyon’s pentachaeta, a tiny daisy, and a weed, and a variety of milk vetch, an otherwise unremarkable plant that has a short life and tends to sprout after wildfires. The Reagan library was forced to agree to transplant the weeds, which didn’t work, but ate up time and money at the library.

The construction of the Reagan library went on in spite of the environmental obstructionism, but the campaign succeeded in listing the tiny daisy as an endangered species and began listing some milk vetches as endangered, crippling future developments and fire clearing projects.

Jonathan Turley.

For months, District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg has been very much in the news.

This spring, he issued a 46-page decision finding that the Trump administration may be in contempt of court for violating his order to return flights of deportees being sent to El Salvador.

In that ruling, Boasberg insisted that it was essential for him to know the facts on whether “officials of a coordinate branch” had undermined judicial integrity.

After all, nothing short of the separation of powers was at stake. This week, Boasberg announced that he was moving forward without further delay to ferret out who was responsible for the alleged violation.

That message, however, has now been undermined by another Judge James Boasberg, who is in the news this week as part of the controversy over the Justice Department’s acquisition of telephone records of leading Republican members of Congress.

Boasberg had imposed a gag order on telephone companies to prevent them from informing Congress that the executive branch was snooping on who had been in contact with them.

These two James Boasbergs seem as different as the two Jeffrey Epsteins referenced this week by Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) — one a presumably respectable medical doctor, the other a deceased sex offender. However, to use Crockett’s formulation, it was indeed “that James Boasberg” in both cases.

Read it.

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) launched his bid for governor of California this week, and he wasted no time floating a plan that could reshape elections far beyond the state’s borders. He told CNN’s Elex Michaelson on Saturday that he wants Californians to vote by phone, a proposal that fits neatly with the left’s push to loosen every guardrail that keeps our elections secure.

“I want to modernize the state,” Swalwell told him. “And, you know, [Newsom] wrote a book called Citizenville, which I read when I was up and coming. He laid out a lot of, you know, great ideas then, and he implemented some of them. And he, you know, was a modernizing force. He’s leaving. And so there is going to be a void. I want us to be able to vote by phone.”

“Vote by phone?” Michaelson asked, clearly surprised by the idea.

“Vote by phone, yeah,” Swalwell confirmed. “If we can do our taxes, do our, you know, our — make our health care appointments, you know, make, essentially, your — do your banking online. You should be able to vote by phone. Make it safe, make it secure. But it’s actually already happening all over the United States.”

Not in any Red state, it’s not.

“Make it safe, Make it secure”? Democrats are fighting against making even voting in person safe and secure.

You’ll go to Hell for lyin’, boy.

Edward Luttwak:

You know, we told the Iranians: “Jimmy Carter is going to go, and the moment he goes and you still have the hostages, you’re also going to have B-52s bombing and flattening the town of Qom,” which was the headquarters of the Ayatollah Khomeini.

Remember, Jimmy Carter is a catastrophic, catastrophic president because he was a pacifist. He didn’t have the sincerity to admit it, and therefore, the moment the United States was challenged, the United States could not respond because he was a pacifist. Even when he authorized the foolish and misbegotten rescue mission, his big assurances, his big emphasis talking to Colonel Beckwith, head of Delta Force, was, “Don’t kill Iranians. Whatever you do, don’t kill people.” So what the f*** are you going to do? But Carter was emphatic. Jimmy Carter, much celebrated on sentimental grounds, caused the half-century catastrophe of Iran all by itself because of his personal attitude.

Jimmy Carter—Worst. President. Ever.

Read it.

House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) warned Bill and Hillary Clinton Friday that if they continue to ignore deposition subpoenas regarding their history with Jeffrey Epstein, he will initiate contempt proceedings.

Good luck with that.

The New Neo.

Well, the wheels of justice grind slow:

Grammy-winning rapper Prakazrel “Pras” Michel of the Fugees was sentenced on Thursday to 14 years in prison for a case in which he was convicted of illegally funneling millions of dollars in foreign contributions to former President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign.

Michel, 52, declined to address the court before U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced him.

In April 2023, a federal jury convicted Michel of 10 counts, including conspiracy and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government. The trial in Washington, D.C., included testimony from actor Leonardo DiCaprio and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Justice Department prosecutors said federal sentencing guidelines recommended a life sentence for Michel, whom they said “betrayed his country for money” and “lied unapologetically and unrelentingly to carry out his schemes.”

Note he was charged prior to Trump becoming president.

Read it.

Iowa Republican Senator Joni Ernst came out swinging at Democrat-led states for allowing hundreds of millions of government food aid to be spent at fast-food establishments.

“The ‘N’ in SNAP stands for nutrition — not nuggets with a side of fries,” said Ernst. “I wish I was McRibbing you, but $250 million per year at the drive-through is no joke and a serious waste of tax dollars. I hate to be the one to say McSCUSE ME, but something needs to be done because taxpayers are not lovin’ it.”

Ernst said her review of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program found $524 million in allowed purchases “almost exclusively” at fast-food restaurants under program regulations approved by Democrats administering the program in nine states.

Read it.

New, disturbing revelations show just how far Joe Biden was willing to go to target his political enemies. In 2022, his Justice Department secretly seized more than two years of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan’s personal phone records. Fox News Digital obtained a subpoena that exposes the depth of Biden’s weaponization of the government against his enemies.

The subpoena shows a federal prosecutor — who later joined Jack Smith’s January 6 team — ordered Verizon to cough up Jordan’s records dating back to Jan. 1, 2020.

“The request appears to be the most expansive yet of the publicly known subpoenas targeting senators and current and former House members during Arctic Frost, the investigation that led to Smith bringing election-related charges against President Donald Trump,” Fox News Digital reports.

The Foundry.

A vote to condemn the “horrors of socialism” passed on a mostly party-line vote Friday, with 98 Democrats voting against it and 199 Republicans voting for it.

The bill passed 285-to-98. No Republicans voted against the bill, although 20 Republicans did not vote.

On the Democrat side, it was far from unanimous, with 86 members voting in favor, and 98 against. Two Democrats voted “present” and 27 did not vote.

Read it.

The House Democrats on the Oversight Committee, whose header is a picture of Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, released a cache of emails that they claimed indicted Trump. Instead the emails again confirm that Trump had broken ties with Epstein and wanted nothing more to do with him.

The Democrat members of the committee showed no interest in why members of their party in three states, New York, Florida and New Mexico, covered up for Epstein and kept him off the sex offender registry. That’s not something Trump, who didn’t even hold public office until six years later, could have done. If the House Dems on the Oversight Committee really wanted to know, they could have asked one of their own members: Rep. Melanie Stansbury.

At the recent ‘No Kings’ rally, Rep. Stansbury claimed that “America has no kings.” America may have no kings, but New Mexico had two influential ones.

Read it.

Chicago homeowners are demanding answers as property taxes rise without visible improvements, according to Fox News. In Lawndale on Chicago’s West Side, residents told ABC7 Chicago they’re paying more but seeing little change. Community leaders and the Lawndale Christian Development Corporation held a “property tax bonfire” to voice frustrations.

Resident Milton Clayton said, “There’s been a divestment in this community for the most part, but it seems like now that people have found an interest in reclaiming the neighborhood, now it’s like we’re being taxed for prosperity.”

Fox News writes that another resident, Thomas Worthy, said his bill rose by $977 and added, “The tax increase is tied to a TIF that I have no idea why… It’s collecting money from our neighbors and our streets, but we’re not being notified for why it’s in the bill.”

Read it.

Democrat Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida has been indicted on charges accusing her of stealing $5 million in federal disaster funds and using some of the money to aid her 2021 campaign, the Justice Department said Wednesday.

The Democrat is accused of stealing Federal Emergency Management Agency overpayments that her family healthcare company had received through a federally funded COVID-19 vaccination staffing contract, federal prosecutors said.

A portion of the money was then funneled to support her campaign through candidate contributions, prosecutors allege.

Yet another corrupt black female Democrat politician.

Read it.

Just over 15 years ago, when the Democrat-controlled House and the Democrat-controlled Senate were debating the healthcare proposals offered by the Democrat president, nearly everyone on the political right was unified in opposition. It may well have been the last time the right was united on anything, but it was indeed unified and resolute.

Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann (MN) warned that “This monstrosity of a bill will not only destroy the private healthcare market, it will lead to massive increases in premiums and rationed care.” Congressman (and eventual vice-presidential nominee and Speaker of the House) Paul Ryan (WI) complained that “This bill is a fiscal Frankenstein. It’s a government takeover that will explode costs and kill jobs.” Senator (and Republican Leader) Mitch McConnell (KY) insisted that Americans “want reforms that lower costs, not a trillion-dollar government experiment.”

Right-leaning commentators like George Will and Charles Krauthammer agreed, not only with each other but with Republicans in Congress as well. Krauthammer, in particular, argued that President Obama’s promise to “bend the cost curve” down was pure, unadulterated, and extensively documented fantasy. National Review, much maligned among Trump supporters these days, dedicated most of an issue to exposing and forecasting Obamacare’s fiscal absurdities and the likelihood that it would result in lower quality of care, increased taxes, and exploding insurance premiums. Even the Heritage Foundation—in the news lately for purportedly exacerbating rifts in the conservative coalition—likewise agreed with everyone in the movement, insisting that Obamacare was a disaster waiting to happen and would keep none of the promises that it made, all while destroying what was good and valuable in the private insurance market.

The Foundry.

In a recent interview, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared in unequivocal terms that President Donald Trump was “the worst thing on the face of the Earth.” You heard that right. Not a threat to democracy, not a danger to civility, the worst thing on the face of the Earth.

It was a statement so hyperbolic that it felt less like political commentary and more like a sermon from a zealot who has mistaken politics for theology.

Such rhetoric isn’t harmless. It corrodes the political imagination of a people already steeped in outrage. It plants in the public mind a simple but dangerous idea: that those who disagree with you aren’t just wrong, they’re evil. From that seed grows justification for all manner of destruction.

Read it.

Virginia law enforcement officials are voicing deep concerns that Attorney General–elect Jay Jones could undermine public safety and drive officers out of the profession, citing a string of past statements and actions they say reveal hostility toward police and a disregard for law and order.

Jones, a former Democrat state lawmaker, has faced mounting scrutiny since the surfacing of 2022 text messages in which he told Republican Delegate Carrie Coyner that House GOP Leader Todd Gilbert “gets two bullets to the head” and suggested police might stop shooting people if “a few police died.

He has since scaled back his rhetoric, but many in uniform say the damage has already been done, reports The Washington Free Beacon on Friday.

Read it.

A top housing official in President Donald Trump’s administration has referred California Rep. Eric Swalwell, a frequent critic of the president, to the Justice Department for a potential federal criminal investigation into alleged mortgage and tax fraud tied to a Washington, D.C., home, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, alleged in a letter Wednesday to Attorney General Pam Bondi that Swalwell may have made false or misleading statements in loan documents.

The California Democrat is the fourth member of his party in recent months to face similar allegations, reports NBC News.

I wonder whether he’s still baning Fang Fang, the Chinese spy?

UPDATE: Rep. Eric Swalwell’s $1.2 million DC home target of DOJ mortgage fraud criminal referral (Josh Christenson/New York Post)

Read it.

A judge declined Thursday to throw out the criminal case against U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver, who was charged with assaulting federal agents during a chaotic visit last spring to an immigration detention center in New Jersey.

McIver’s lawyers had argued that the prosecution was selective and vindictive, and that the New Jersey Democrat hadn’t assaulted anyone during her May 9 trip to Delaney Hall detention center in Newark. They also said McIver was performing legislative duties protected by the Constitution when she showed up to inspect the detention center, and was thus immune from prosecution.

U.S. District Judge Jamel Semper wrote that McIver failed to show the prosecution was vindictive and that her actions were “wholly disconnected” from the oversight she was conducting as a member of Congress.

Read it.

Controversy over the Obama Presidential Center is boiling over again in Chicago, as residents and preservationists question why a former president would build what many view as an oversized monument on protected, historic parkland — concerns detailed extensively by the New York Post.

According to the Post, critics across the city are still stunned that Barack Obama’s $850 million center — derisively dubbed “The Obamalisk” by some locals quoted by the paper — replaced prized sections of Jackson Park, the landmark landscape designed by Frederick Law Olmsted for the 1893 World’s Fair.

Construction began in 2021 and is expected to finish next spring.

The Foundry.

After weeks of noncommittal responses during the nation’s longest federal government shutdown, former Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who is now looking to unseat Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, has proclaimed the deal to end the government shutdown is “a bad deal for Ohioans.”

Brown took to X to express his displeasure with his fellow Democrats: “Half a million Ohioans are facing monthly premiums that are double or triple what they were paying. This is a bad deal for Ohioans. It does nothing to help the out-of-control costs people are facing. We can’t allow health care costs to skyrocket and not be willing to fight.”

Senate Democrats had refused to support measures that would reopen the government for more than 40 days until, on Sunday night, enough Senate Democrat Caucus members struck a deal with Senate Republicans to advance legislation that could reopen the government.

Brown is seeking a comeback bid after losing last November to now Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno.

Read it.

The American Freedom Law Center is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to grant oral arguments in its First Amendment lawsuit against Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel for the “irreparable harm” of her endorsing the Southern Poverty Law Center’s claim that AFLC is a “hate group.”

“From the very beginning, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has politicized and weaponized her office and abused her government authority to target political opponents,” AFLC co-founder Robert Muise told The Daily Signal in a statement Wednesday.

“Her use of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s ‘hate group’ list as a matter of public policy to identify organizations, mostly conservative Christian and Jewish organizations, for her propaganda attacks and threats of surveillance are detrimental to the rights and freedoms of individuals in our free society,” Muise added. “Indeed, this is right out of the pages of George Orwell’s famous novel, 1984, and it is unconstitutional.”

The case traces back to a 2019 press release Nessel published, along with Michigan Department of Civil Rights then-Director Agustin Arbulu, announcing a “Hate Crimes Unit” that would “fight against hate crimes and the many hate groups … in our state.” The announcement linked to the SPLC’s list of “hate groups,” which puts conservative and Christian organizations on a “hate map” alongside largely defunct chapters of the Ku Klux Klan.

Read it.

Progressives are trumpeting a report that consumers’ financial data may be less secure following Trump administration efforts to shrink the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

But in their eagerness to attack Trump, attention is refocusing on a massive scandal that plagued the “consumer watchdog” agency under Joe Biden– one that left over 250,000 people’s data exposed.

Read it.

For 28 years, the Democrats have controlled both houses of the state legislature, and apart from Schwarzenegger’s interlude from 2004 to 2010, there’s been a Democrat governor since 1999.

Nothing seems likely to change; this month, California’s voters approved a redistricting plan that is expected to reduce the number of Republican U.S. Congressmen to four out of 52. Democratic dominance in California’s cities and counties is equally absolute.

And yet they’re not accountable.

Democrats in California have perfected the art of persuasion with an electorate that for over two generations has been indoctrinated in public schools by teachers who themselves have been indoctrinated to hate capitalism, resent wealth, rebuke “whiteness,” and celebrate hedonism. All Democrat candidates have to say is “protect abortion,” “fight racism,” “climate emergency,” or “stop the Nazis,” and voter reaction is Pavlovian. Peak conditioning was achieved in the special election of 2025, when all they had to say was “stick it to Trump,” who they have turned into the biggest boogeyman since Hitler (someone who, just to be clear, really was a boogeyman).

Read it.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are facing severe backlash after releasing cherry-picked emails involving Jeffrey Epstein that mention President Donald Trump — despite no evidence of wrongdoing.

The release has been blasted by the White House and Republican lawmakers as a “fake narrative” aimed at smearing the president.

The emails, dated years before Trump’s presidency, show Epstein bragging in private exchanges about Trump allegedly telling Ghislaine Maxwell to stop recruiting young women from Mar-a-Lago’s spa.

Read it.

The Biden-era sanctuary state policies in California foisted on the state and Americans by Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom have once again collided with federal law — this time on America’s highways.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has admitted to illegally issuing 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) to foreign nationals who were not legally eligible to hold them, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Tuesday.

“After weeks of claiming they did nothing wrong, Gavin Newsom and California have been caught red-handed,” Duffy wrote in a statement. “Now that we’ve exposed their lies, 17,000 illegally issued trucking licenses are being revoked.

Read it.

Recently Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that New York was joining 14 other states in a “nonpartisan initiative” (though all 15 states have Democratic governors) called the Governors Public Health Alliance, a “coordinating hub for governors and their public health leaders and a unified, cross-state liaison with the global health community. The Alliance also provides a platform for governors to exchange best practices, align policies, and coordinate on issues like vaccine access, emergency response and health security.”

Bear in mind that Hochul is only Governor of New York because Andrew Cuomo stepped on his own dick during the Pandemic Panic.

Despite claiming the GPHA is “nonpartisan,” Hochul’s press release is anything but: “From undermining vaccine access and abortion rights to slashing billions in Medicaid funding from those in need, the federal government is wreaking havoc on public health and the institutions we rely on.” 

Hochul’s announcement also states: “This new Alliance builds on New York’s ongoing work to protect access to public health and scientific information amidst ongoing attacks from the federal government.”

Finally, the press release burnishes GPHA’s credentials by stating: “The Alliance is advised by leading public health experts, including former CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen,” as well as others.

All these platitudes of partisanship and self-promotion are par-for-the-course for a governor seeking reelection. However, for New York in general, and Hochul in particular, they are the height of hypocrisy.

The Foundry.

A watchdog group alleges that Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, filed inconsistent financial disclosure statements regarding investments, which potentially violated House rules and federal law if the unreported assets exceed $1,000 in value.

The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Conduct seeking an investigation into Crockett for failing to fully disclose financial investments in two dozen companies.

“Generally, a lot of members of Congress are trading and holding assets that could be considered a conflict of interest,” Kendra Arnold, executive director of FACT, told The Daily Signal. “When we see members of Congress not taking financial disclosure seriously, we do see other ethics problems.”

Associated Press, a Voice of the Crust.

This combination photo of eight senators is Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., top row from left, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and bottom row from left, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. (AP Photo)

Interesting. Both Senators from New Hampshire, both Senators from Nevada, the “Independent” from Maine, Uncle Fester from PA, and Hillary’s VP pick. Plus old Dem warhorse Dick Durbin.

UPDATE: Chuck Todd Laments Dems ‘Snatch Defeat from the Jaws of Victory’

UPDATE: Democrats rebel after 8 senators cut a deal to end the shutdown without ACA funds (NBC News)

UPDATE: Buttigieg Rips Senate Dems Who Broke Ranks on Shutdown

UPDATE: Newsom Blasts Senate Dems for ‘Betrayal’ in Shutdown Deal

UPDATE: Scoop: Schumer privately fought to extend government shutdown (Axios)

UPDATE: Why These Vichy Dems and Their Spineless Boss Need to Go Now (David Rothkopf/The Daily Beast)

UPDATE: Angry Democrats call on Schumer to resign after eight vote to end shutdown (Chris Stein/The Guardian)

UPDATE: Senate Ends Filibuster; Democrats Immediately Form Circular Firing Squad (Babylon Bee)