Sunday, December 15, 2024

Joe Biden & Co. are doing as much damage to the US as they can before they leave

NY Post  

"Joe’s even threatening a veto against a bipartisan bill that would create a slate of new federal judgeships, because he and his allies don’t want Trump filling them. "


 "Joe Biden and the Dem apparat around him have made it plain: They are going to do as much damage to America as they can on the way out the door. 

"Last week brought a record number of presidential pardons, including 1,500 commutations of the sentences of “nonviolent” felons, most of whom were already serving their sentences at home after being sprung from prison during COVID.

"Except the White House upped the count by overlooking some truly heinous offenses: a Pennsylvania judge who took bribes to send kids to a for-profit “detention” center; an Illinois clerk who embezzled over $53 million from a town of just 15,000 people; a Massachusetts woman convicted for a fentanyl-trafficking conspiracy.

"And that’s just what’s come out in the first days as local media across America scrutinize the long list.

"All this, to cover for Joe’s top priority: the pardon for his crooked son Hunter. 

"And what a pardon it was: not just getting him off the hook for the crimes he’d pled guilty to, but an unprecedented blanket amnesty for anything and everything Hunter might have done over an 11-year span. 

"And this after the prez swearing up and down the public square that he’d never even think of doing such a thing. 

"If there’s a more direct way of announcing to America that all their suspicions about elite self-dealing are true — that rules and regulations and laws don’t matter if you have enough cash and clout — we’d love to hear about it. " . . .

January 20 Can’t Come Soon Enough


. . ."The constant stream of lies about what is going on has been exhausting.  We knew that our inflation wasn’t going to be ‘transitory.’ But they lied anyway. We knew Biden was going to pardon his son, but he lied anyway, even after the constant, sickening drone from every Democrat that “No one is above the law.”  It didn’t stop the bureaucracy from digging in and making plans for the next four years.  After all, everything that was important to them was on their side… They had the money, the bureaucracy, the media, and Hollywood.  It was like watching a glorious party from next door, but we were not invited." . . .

"These people ruined the lives of so many, including children."

First Dem City on Border Czar Tom Homan’s List for Mass Deportations Revealed

 RTM  

"The announcement sets the stage for a potential legal and political battle, with Governor Pritzker already discussing potential legal challenges with the Illinois Attorney General’s office." . . .


"In a bold declaration at the Northwest Side GOP holiday party, President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming border czar Tom Homan announced plans for a massive deportation effort targeting Chicago, setting the stage for a potential confrontation with local leadership.
"Homan, 63, the former acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump’s first term, delivered sharp criticism of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.
"He called them “terrible” and urged them to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement efforts, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
"The incoming border czar outlined a comprehensive deportation strategy that will prioritize migrants with criminal records." . . .

Stuck On Stupid Democrats Plan Boycott of Inauguration [Or wear matching protest items?]

PJ Media  

"The bottom line here is that any Democrat's decision to boycott Trump’s inauguration isn't about principles—it’s about partisan pettiness. Their obsession with vilifying Trump has blinded them to the importance of setting an example for the country. Americans expect their leaders to rise above partisanship, not wallow in it." 

Democrats love outfits.

"For years, Democrats have made a spectacle of their disdain for President Trump at every opportunity, so it should come as no surprise that once again, Democrats are planning to boycott his inauguration. The same thing happened in 2017, when they skipped Trump’s inauguration because they claimed he’d stolen the election with the help of Russia. Now, after Trump won a landslide electoral college victory as well as the national popular vote, Democrats are once again coming up with excuses to skip the event. 

"According to a report from Axios, more than a dozen congressional Democrats have announced that they're going to skip the event, citing reasons ranging from “safety concerns” to personal principles—which is hilarious coming from any Democrat. This shameful display of partisanship not only highlights the left’s inability to respect democratic processes, but also exposes its penchant for theatrics over governance.

"Many Democrats justified their boycott by invoking the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, despite the fact that Trump had nothing to do with it and had called on his supporters to protest peacefully. Representative Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the J6 committee, referenced Trump’s “rhetoric” against him as his rationale. 

"Whatever, he won’t be missed.

"Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) claimed her decision stemmed from “concerns” about her “safety” as a Latina—weird she didn’t use Latinx—citing Trump supporters’ presence at the event. Gimme a break.

"This fearmongering doesn’t just insult millions of peaceful Trump voters; it reinforces the Democratic strategy of smearing political opponents as inherently racist. 

"Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) conveniently chose Martin Luther King Jr. Day events as her reason to avoid the inauguration. Something tells me that if Kamala Harris had won (God forbid), Omar would have found the time to attend the inauguration.

"Again, she won’t be missed. Frankly, I’d rather she and her brother not attend." . . .  Read more...

This is what happens when bureaucrats who have never run a business make rules for the rest of us

Jack Hellner 

"The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a bureaucracy created out of thin air by socialist Elizabeth Warren. Democrats pretend the bureau is just there to protect consumers which is B.S." . . .

. . ."Writing bad checks is also a crime, either a misdemeanor or a felony depending on the amount of the checks. Of course, Democrats don’t seem to care about crimes. They are anti-business.

Free checking accounts will be taken away from other customers who don’t write bad checks, but these CFPB bureaucrats and Biden administration officials don’t care. They got their talking points out that they are saving customers $5 billion per year, and this will save the typical household $225 per year. That is obviously not true. The typical household does not write bad checks, so it will save them zero—but it’s likely to cost them if they’re now suddenly paying for the services for which banks typically don't charge.

The CFPB, under Obama, also had a slush fund where it shook down corporations and gave some amounts back to political supporters instead of victims. There were also slush funds at EPA and the Justice Department.

JPMorgan Chase warned the CFPB and Biden administration that they would start charging for services that were previously free if this rule went through, and that these fees will hurt the poor and middle class the most (people about whom the Democrats only pretend to care). From a Wall Street Journal article:

[Marianne] Lake said Chase is planning to pass on the costs of higher regulation and charge customers for a number of now-free services, including checking accounts and wealth-management tools, if the rules become law in their current form. She expects her peers in the industry will follow suit.

‘The changes will be broad, sweeping and significant,’ Lake said. ‘The people who will be most impacted are the ones who can least afford to be, and access to credit will be harder to get.’

It is a true shame that most people posing as journalists just repeat what they are told instead of doing independent thinking and research, no matter what the subject is.

Blame Barack: Obama’s lost mystique marks the end of a political era

 NY Post  

. . ."And then, the disappointed former community organizer suddenly disappeared — pondering to which of his own four mansions his private jet would fly him home to commiserate." . . .


Former President Barack Obama had long been rumored as the catalyst for the 2020 Joe Biden nomination — and thereafter played the whispering puppeteer behind the subsequent lost Biden administration years.

As such, he and his coterie proved the virtual architects of the Biden administration, one of the most unpopular and failed presidencies in American history.

Recall earlier that after a flailing candidate Biden lost the first three 2020 primaries and caucuses, his inert campaign was headed nowhere.

"Obama and fellow Democratic insiders abruptly engineered the withdrawal of his rival 2020 presidential candidates: hard left but likely sure-loser candidates including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg.

"The Obamas ignored or withheld from the public their own firsthand knowledge that Biden was suffering from signs of dementia.

"Instead, they found Biden’s cognitive decline and his former concocted reputation as workingman’s Joe useful as a veneer for a veritable Obama third-term, “phone it in” administration. Or, as wistful Obama once conditioned his dream of a third term: “If I could make an arrangement where I had a stand-in, a front man or front woman, and they had an earpiece in . . .”

"The Obamaites then got their wish for four years of enacted hard-left directives that they could only have dreamed of while in actual power.

"But their radical menu since 2021 had divided and nearly wrecked the nation — hyperinflation, 12 million illegal aliens, a ruined border, spiraling crime, a shattered foreign policy of appeasement, the popular backlash against DEI/woke/trans chauvinism, partisan lawfare and weaponization of the government." . . .

West Point Apologizes, Confirms It Accepted Trump Nominee Pete Hegseth to the Academy

The Epoch Times  

“Officials at the U.S. Military Academy should not be feeding lies to left-wing reporters about President Trump’s nominees,” Cotton said. “West Point needs to thoroughly investigate this egregiously bad judgement and potential violation of the Privacy Act immediately.”


"The U.S. Military Academy has apologized for falsely saying President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, Peter Hegseth, was never accepted into the school, known as West Point.

“A review of our records indicates Peter Hegseth was offered admission to West Point in 1999 but did not attend. An incorrect statement involving Hegseth’s admission to the U.S. Military Academy was released by an employee on Dec. 10, 2024,” a spokesperson for West Point told The Epoch Times in an email.

“ 'Upon further review of an archived database, employees realized this statement was in error. Hegseth was offered acceptance to West Point as a prospective member of the Class of 2003. The academy takes this situation seriously and apologizes for this administrative error.”

"The statement came after Hegseth on Dec. 11 shared his letter of acceptance, dated Jan. 5, 1999, on the social media platform X.

"Hegseth said he had come to learn that ProPublica was planning to publish an article alleging he had not been accepted by West Point.

"ProPublica editor Jesse Eisinger said in response that two spokespersons for West Point told ProPublica that Hegseth had not been admitted. One said he did not even apply for admission. That prompted ProPublica to go to Hegseth." . . .

Looks like ABC has become MSNBC

TRUMP WINS Defamation Suit, ABC and Stephanopoulos Have to Fork Over $15 Million   

"The far-left hate network will also chip in a million bucks for Trump’s attorney fees. May this be the first of many such victories against the left’s relentless propaganda machine."  Robert Spencer

"Ah, sweet justice. Donald Trump has just won a massive victory against the far-left propaganda factory that masquerades as the news media, and patriots all across the land can hope, for the sake of our freedom and our future, that this is just the first victory of many. Will this herald an end to the left’s relentless efforts to mischaracterize, misrepresent, and misreport the words and deeds of patriots, so as to get as many people as possible to turn against them? That’s unlikely in the extreme. But it sure helps.

"Technically it's a settlement, but it's very clear which side came out on top. Fox News Digital, which broke this story first, reported Saturday that “ABC News and their top anchor George Stephanopoulos have reached a settlement with Donald Trump in his defamation suit, which will result in the news network paying the president-elect $15 million.” This settlement precludes Trump’s suit from going to trial, which shows that ABC’s top dogs understood how weak their case really was: they’re happy to fork over $15 million to make this thing go away rather than have a trial reveal just how far from actual journalism they have allowed themselves to stray.

"And so now “Stephanopoulos and ABC News will issue statements of ‘regret’ as an editor's note at the bottom of a March 10, 2024, online article, about comments made earlier this year that prompted Trump to file a defamation lawsuit.” The statement says: “ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements regarding President Donald J. Trump made during an interview by George Stephanopoulos with Rep. Nancy Mace on ABC’s This Week on March 10, 2024.' ” . . .  More here...

Jimmy Kimmel FINALLY Goes Too Far for Disney: Criminal "Praise" May END Late Night Career!  From the comments to this post:

"Lets remember that Kimmel cried because Trump won in a well deserved landslide. This dude's mind couldn't be more lost than it already is.

"Ok boycotting the sponsors didn’t work. Time to boycott ABC, HULU and everything Disney.

"I miss the old days. Late night used to be actually funny. This isn't new. Him and so many like him have been corrupting people's minds for years. He's nothing more than a mouth piece for the insane left. Disney is beyond redemption. They all need to go." . . .

Andrea Widburg: ABC and George Stephanopoulos settle with Trump for big bucks

. . .Even though [E. Jean] Carroll’s rape claim couldn’t pass muster in a civil case, that didn’t stop George Stephanopoulos, an ABC employee, from claiming that Trump had been “found liable for rape.” . . .

Saturday, December 14, 2024

ABC News Apologizes to Trump, Pays Large Settlement in Defamation Suit

RedState

. . ."Perhaps this will serve as some kind of deterrent to news networks letting their political biases get in the way of truthful reporting." . . .

ABC News, George Stephanopoulos agree to apologize to Trump

"Donald Trump has won again. ABC News and George Stephanopoulos have settled the defamation lawsuit brought by the incoming president, with the news network agreeing to pay  $15 million in damages while also issuing an apology.

"The lawsuit was first filed after Stephanopoulos claimed as a matter of fact that Trump had “raped” E. Jean Carroll. The comment came during an interview with Rep. Nancy Mace. 

"Of course, the issue was that Trump has never been charged or convicted of rape criminally nor has he been found liable for rape in any civil suit. Stephanopoulos made it up in an attempt to bait Mace, and it ended up being the basis of the now-settled civil suit against he and ABC News. 

"The apology issued as part of the settlement was tepid, but an apology nonetheless.

"ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements regarding President Donald J. Trump made during an interview by George Stephanopoulos with Rep. Nancy Mace on ABC’s This Week on March 10, 2024," the statement reads. 

"Aside from the $15 million, ABC News will also pay $1 million worth of Trump’s legal fees." . . .

Hamas relented in cease-fire talks under Trump pressure, official says

From the home of MSNBC and Joy Reid, Rachel Maddow, Ali Velshi, and many others. TD

 NBC News, of all sources!   "The president-elect's warning that he wants to see a deal before he takes office was “a big factor” in recent concessions, the source tells NBC News"

Pressure from President-elect Donald Trump was a major factor in Hamas relenting on two key issues during cease-fire and hostage-release talks with Israel, a senior administration official told NBC News on Friday.

New hope for an agreement had senior Biden administration officials fanning out across the Middle East this week with the goal of closing on a critical pact by the end of 2024. 

. . ."Basem Naim, a member of Hamas' political wing, told NBC News that he was not aware that the group had recently made concessions during negotiations.

"This month, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “Everybody is talking about the hostages who are being held so violently, inhumanely, and against the will of the entire world, in the Middle East — but it’s all talk, and no action!”

“ 'If the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against humanity,” he added..

"According to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media, Hamas has now agreed to Israeli forces staying in the Gaza Strip temporarily after fighting ends and to provide a complete list of hostages, including Americans, who will be released. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on the concessions Hamas was prepared to make." . . .

UnitedHealthcare CEO assassin seems to be Mr. December in the Democrat calendar. . .

...and Hamas killers had all the other months. TD

 Murder most arousing?  "Sickeningly, there are apparently many fanboys and fangirls of…murder and/or murderers. To wit: Jimmy Kimmel and his staff appear to be over the moon for the man suspected of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. On a recent edition of Jimmy Kimmel Live, the alleged comedian stated, “Many women and men are going nuts over how good-looking this killer is, and there’s a huge wave of horny washing over us, like… It’s like when one of the guys you work with says he— I had a dream about you last night.' ” . . .

Jimmy didn't cry?

The unintentional consequences of Luigi Mangione   . . ."There will be a quick rush of CEOs demanding – and getting – teams of bodyguards. 

"They will think – not without a certain logic – as the fan base of Mangione groupies will likely spawn at least a few other Mangione clones.  These sick sycophants will seek their own brand if “justice” against some aggrieved corporation.  If it can happen to a health insurance CEO – the others in that industry will swiftly move to get the best security guards money can buy.  They will rightly see themselves as targets, because a lot of people hate insurance companies. 

"But soon it will spread." . . .

Florida Woman Charged for Threatening Insurance Company: ‘You People are Next”  Briana Boston, 42, of Lakeland, FL, faces jail time after she allegedly threatened the people of BlueCross BlueShield.

"Authorities charged her “with threats to conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism.”

In a recorded call, Boston said, “Delay, deny, depose. You people are next.”

"The words “delay, deny, depose” were on the bullet casings that killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson." . . .

Joe Biden & Co. are doing as much damage to the US as they can before they leave

 NY Post  Donald Trump has a lot of cleanup work to do once he takes office. Good thing America’s with him on that. 

"Joe Biden and the Dem apparat around him have made it plain: They are going to do as much damage to America as they can on the way out the door. 

"Last week brought a record number of presidential pardons, including 1,500 commutations of the sentences of “nonviolent” felons, most of whom were already serving their sentences at home after being sprung from prison during COVID.

"Except the White House upped the count by overlooking some truly heinous offenses: a Pennsylvania judge who took bribes to send kids to a for-profit “detention” center; an Illinois clerk who embezzled over $53 million from a town of just 15,000 people; a Massachusetts woman convicted for a fentanyl-trafficking conspiracy." . . .

. . .And what a pardon it was: not just getting him off the hook for the crimes he’d pled guilty to, but an unprecedented blanket amnesty for anything and everything Hunter might have done over an 11-year span. 

"And this after the prez swearing up and down the public square that he’d never even think of doing such a thing. 

"If there’s a more direct way of announcing to America that all their suspicions about elite self-dealing are true — that rules and regulations and laws don’t matter if you have enough cash and clout — we’d love to hear about it. 

"Small wonder that a meager 22% of Americans back the pardon and tons of Biden’s fellow Dems, like Sen. Amy Klobuchar, primary challenger Rep. Dean Phillips, Colo. Gov. Jared Polis and even his own former top aide Anita Dunn all have cried foul.

"But doing favors for his family isn’t the admin’s only focus.

"The staffers and operators around our senile president are ramming through a laundry list of progressive demands, all spitting in the face of average Americans.

"They have Joe promising to do one more round of his student-debt giveaways, after he’s stuck the taxpayers with more than $175 billion." . . . 

From the comments to the above: "Make no mistake, this is being done by people in the shadows, Obama, Jarrett, holder and company. Every single one of their security clearances MUST be revoked immediately. Obama and Biden should not receive any information whatsoever."

Biden Commutes Sentence of Woman Who Conspired to Manufacture, Distribute Fentanyl   "President Joe Biden commuted the sentence of a woman who was sentenced to 15 years in prison over conspiring to manufacture and distribute an altered and more potent version of fentanyl." . . . 

The Historic Failure of the Biden Administration

James E. Fanell and Bradley A. Thayer  

"The Biden administration will be remembered as a failure, marked by economic decline, open borders, energy insecurity, and weakened U.S. global standing."

 "Whether American presidents are successes or failures is measured by their major foreign and domestic actions. That has been the historical standard by which they are weighed and which defines their legacy. Some presidents are outstanding in every respect. Washington defined the American presidency. Lincoln saved the Union and kept foreign powers, most importantly Great Britain, from intervening to aid the South. Most presidents are heavily mixed; Buchanan employed the Army to suppress the Mormon Rebellion, but his monumental failure was that he did not act to stop the Civil War. Lyndon Johnson’s failure in Vietnam defined his presidency. Richard Nixon had many successes in foreign policy, but Watergate was his demise. Jimmy Carter failed abroad and at home.

"With just over 40 days left, Americans are nearing the end of the Biden administration, and so it is fitting to provide an assessment of it and to place it in historical context. By any metric from American history and by any objective standard used to measure his predecessors in the White House, the Biden administration has been a catastrophic failure for the American people. Were that it was otherwise. An old man suffering from the horrors of dementia is a tragedy. Biden is not only a dementia patient but also President of the United States. It is clear that now he is more dementia victim than he is president. He cannot stay awake at international meetings and other fora, and he seems to willingly accept the deliberate snubs. Accordingly, as hard as it is to acknowledge, given that he is the President of the United States, world leaders, and Americans know that he has no business being in the nation’s highest office. This impacts all Americans and U.S. national security, and it is important to recognize facts that impact national security as they are, rather than as we would desire them to be.

"In the years to come, the fiasco of the Biden administration will be explained by multiple factors. We may certainly anticipate that presidential historians will argue that his dementia was debilitating and precluded him from effective leadership, or that his presidency was just a Potemkin Village. Others may assess that Barack Hussein Obama was actually in control through his direct intervention and via surrogates like Susan Rice—who overreached in pushing a radical Marxist agenda. At this point, no matter the causes, it is essential to document the Biden administration’s failures and to learn from them as a cautionary tale about the disastrous impacts of the worst president in American history. Of course, we note that his greatest catastrophes may be yet to come." . . .Full article...

Biden Quietly Commuted Sentences Of Chinese Spies   . . ."The three commutations were reportedly part of a prisoner swap in exchange for Mark Sweden, Kai Li, and John Leung, according to Financial Times.

"But prisoner swaps are typically hailed by the president and the media. When basketball player Brittney Griner was released from Russia (in exchange for the man known as “Merchant of Death”), Biden held a press conference at the White House celebrating Griner’s return.

"Biden similarly held another event when Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan were released.

"So why was Biden and his administration so quiet about this Chinese swap?"