R.I.P., Ted Olson. A great lawyer, a lovely man, and a gentleman of the first order.
Archive for 2024
November 14, 2024
THIS WILL END WELL: ABC brass scramble to bring in pro-Trump voices to The View and other shows: ‘Panic mode.’
ABC News brass are in “panic mode” as they hunt for conservative voices to balance the rabid anti-Trump rhetoric spewed by the hosts on “The View,” as well as those on other shows, The Post has learned.
The Disney-owned network — which came under fire over how ABC News moderators grilled Donald Trump during the presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris — has been holding high-level meetings since last week’s rout by the former president, sources close to the situation told The Post.
ABC News Group President Debra OConnell and her recently elevated boss of ABC News Almin Karamehmedovic held the intense sit-downs with executive producers of the network’s various shows and other senior editorial leaders, sources said.
First on the agenda, according to one insider, is finding a pro-Trump panelist for its top-ranked daytime talk show, co-hosted by ultra-liberals Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin and Sara Haines, as well as Republican Trump-bashers Ana Navarro and Alyssa Farah Griffin.
“The View is facing pressure from higher-ups,” the source said. “Viewers can expect some major changes including bringing in new panelists that can bring in a pro-Trump perspective.”
The source did not signal whether one of the current panelists would be bounced or if the already crowded desk would add a seventh seat.
“Everyone on ‘The View’ endorsed Kamala Harris. They lost. They are out of touch with America,” the source said.
“For a show about different perspectives, ‘The View’ doesn’t seem to have any when it comes to Trump. ABC bosses don’t want to alienate the pro-Trump demographic.”
C’mon ABC News, the answer here is obvious:
GET READY FOR WINTER: Carhartt Men’s Relaxed Fit Washed Duck Sherpa-Lined Utility Jacket. #CommissionEarned
AMERICA’S CITIES WANT TO BE GREAT AGAIN:
Donald Trump’s decisive victory last week came as a shock to many. The president-elect looks likely to win the popular vote, having run up totals not only in the swing states but also in deep-blue strongholds. Most surprisingly, the Trump campaign put cracks in Democrats’ dominance of big cities.
In fact, Trump most overperformed in large metro counties, according to analyst Jed Kolko. Compared with his run against Joe Biden, Trump ran 9 points closer to Kamala Harris in such areas—a bigger gain than he saw in suburbs, college towns, or military posts.
It wasn’t just a few cities, either. Trump improved on his 2020 performance in cities as diverse as Chicago, Detroit, and Dallas. He won Miami-Dade County outright. He got the closest margin for a Republican in New York City in 30 years. He won a precinct in lower Manhattan; one south Philadelphia neighborhood voted for him by almost three to one.
These swings are partly a byproduct of the surprising diversity of the Trump coalition, which exit polling suggests may have included a fifth of black men and a majority of Latino men. In New York City, Trump ran up votes not just on Staten Island, but in hyper-diverse Queens and South Brooklyn.
What happened? It’s not, as some might suspect, that the nation turned far right. Rather, it’s that Trump’s campaign understood how to speak to a key constituency: the forgotten middle. These voters want their cities to be safer, their schools to be better, and their culture to be saner. And Trump’s success with them clearly marks a path for repeatable political success in cities nationwide.
We’ve descended into a bizarre hell-world in which Ezra Klein is a voice of sanity:
All the things the GOP was saying all year and these guys were denying. https://t.co/C5dgzpPz2B
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) November 14, 2024
Faster, please. As Tom Cotton wrote in 2021: Recall, Remove & Replace Every Last Soros Prosecutor.
GREAT MOMENTS IN MEDIA CONSOLIDATIONS: Not Satire: The Onion acquires Infowars.
The Onion has successfully acquired Infowars.
The satirical news outlet purchased Alex Jones’ right-wing conspiracy empire at a court-ordered auction, the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting announced Thursday.
“The dissolution of Alex Jones’ assets and the death of Infowars is the justice we have long awaited and fought for,” said Robbie Parker, whose daughter was killed in the 2012 school shooting.
As part of the deal, The Onion, owned by Twilio co-founder Jeff Lawson and led by chief executive Ben Collins, acquired Infowars’ website, product inventory, customers lists, social media accounts, and intellectual property.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. But the Sandy Hook families increased the size of The Onion’s bid by agreeing to forgo a portion of the money Jones owes them.
The Stig certainly got a nice press release out of this story, but I’m not sure how how many Infowars diehards will stick around to read the 2024 version of The Onion, especially when America’s Newspaper of Record is pumping out much better product these days. QED:
UNEXPECTED HEADLINES: The Left should welcome Matt Gaetz as attorney general.
Gaetz may be known as a bombastic MAGA supporter in the eyes of the media. He livestreams, he podcasts, he trades barbs with political enemies with acidic bluster. But for those who have closely followed his legislative career, the Florida lawmaker represents a sharp break from the corporate-friendly orthodoxy of the modern Republican Party. Indeed, Gaetz’s elevation will provide sprawling prosecutorial powers for continuing his push against special interest influence and corporate malfeasance.
His record speaks for itself. From his perch on the House Judiciary Committee, Gaetz has promoted a surprisingly consumer-friendly agenda, routinely breaking with his GOP colleagues on crucial votes. He previously supported legislative measures to break up Silicon Valley monopolies, sharply regulate the online data broker industry, ban noncompete employment contracts, and an end to the practice of forced arbitration, among other corporate accountability votes. He has also taken maverick positions on reducing FBI surveillance powers, cutting certain arms supplies to Saudi Arabia and legalising marijuana.
In addition, Gaetz has staked a position at times to the Left of some establishment Democrats. In the fight over the Ending Platform Monopolies Act — a bill designed to curb anticompetitive practices by Amazon and Google — Gaetz ended up supporting the legislation, while California Democrats close to the tech industry, such as Zoe Lofgren and Eric Swalwell, voted against it.
That’s all very interesting. But my primary concern is whether Gaetz will deweaponize DOJ and pursue justice against those who weaponized it.
If he does that, he’ll go down as one of the greats.
IT ALMOST ALWAYS COMES DOWN TO GASLIGHTING, PROJECTION, OR ASTROTURF: They’re Gaslighting Us About Why Kamala Didn’t Do Joe Rogan’s Podcast.
SUSTAINABILITY: US Deficit Explodes: Blowout October Deficit Means 2nd Worst Start To US Fiscal Year On Record.
It is only fitting that the twilight days of the Biden admin would exhibit more of the same fakeness that defined not only all of the past four years, but certainly the fakeness of that Kamala Harris presidential campaign which had a billion dollars a month ago and ended up in failure, broke and in debt. We are talking, of course, about the relentless debt-funded spree that somehow became synonymous with economic success in the US.
According to the latest Treasury data released today, in October – the first month of fiscal 2025 – the US spent a massive $584.2 billion, a 24.3% increase from the prior year, and a record government outlay for the month of October. On a trailing 6 month moving average basis, to smooth out outliers months, the spending hit $586 billion, effectively at an all time high with just the record spending spree during covid pushing government spending higher.
Key drivers of the deficit widening included outlays in the Departments of Health and Human Services and of Defense, up 12% and 13% respectively, adjusted for calendar differences. Health spending alone jumped by $62 billion compared with the same month last year.
At the same time, the US government collected just $326.8 billion in taxes, down a massive 19% from the $403.434 billion last October, and down even more from the $527 billion in tax receipts in September ’24. As shown in the next chart, while spending continued to grow exponentially, tax receipts have flatlined, and the 6 month average in October was just $380 billion, the same as three years ago!
There’s much more Bidenflationary spending baked into the budgets Democrats locked in during Biden’s first two years.
The DOGE boys have their work cut out for them.
SOMEBODY SET UP US THE GAY MUSLIM FURRY BOMB:
Found via Peter J. Hasson of the Washington Free Beacon who tweets, “People forget how truly insane 2017 was.”
HMM: Zhuhai car attack: China clears memorial as government scrambles to respond.
Authorities in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai removed wreaths, candles and bottles of Chinese alcohol, offerings laid at the scene of the deadliest mass killing in the country in a decade, as the government scrambled to respond and censor online outrage.
On Monday, a male driver angry at his divorce settlement, according to police, rammed his car into a crowd at a sports centre in the city of 2.5 million, killing 35 people and injuring 43. The government took almost a day to announce the death toll.
This prompted outrage on Chinese social media, where posts complaining about the government’s slow response and raising questions about the mental health of a nation shaken by a recent spate of similar killings, were being quickly removed.
All is not well in the workers’ paradise.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Joe and Jill Biden Totally Have Matching MAGA Hats. “I have to issue an apology to Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. I frequently mocked their ‘Joy’ campaign pitch, but their crushing defeat at the hands of Donald Trump and JD Vance last week is bringing me endless amounts of it.”
NICE WORK, FELLAS: Israeli assessment: Operation “Days of Repentance” devastated Iranian missile production.
According to assessments in Israel, the Israeli attack damaged solid explosives used in Iran’s ground-to-ground missiles, reducing Iran’s missile production capacity to around 10% of its pre-strike level.
As a result, until Iran manages to restore its missile production capabilities, it is expected to adopt a more conservative policy regarding its long-range missile launches. While estimates indicate that Iran still holds several hundred long-range missiles that it could launch at Israel, it is unlikely to do so all at once, as the rate of fire also depends on the number of launchers at its disposal.
Moreover, Iran’s decision-making factors must account for the fact that Israel’s strike on Iran’s advanced air defense systems has left the country nearly exposed to another potential Israeli attack. It is likely that the Iranian regime understands Israel still has an extensive target bank within Iran, including oil reserves and, naturally, its nuclear sites.
“Nearly exposed?”
Even when Iran’s air defenses were intact, Israel sortied something like one-third to one-half of its entire air force, did what needed doing to Iran, and then returned home without a loss.
THE 21st CENTURY ISN’T TURNING OUT AS I HAD HOPED: Power lesbian Corey Burke murders her father with an ice axe in Election Night meltdown at Seattle home.
A Blue Origin employee married to a prominent trans author and journalist has been accused of killing her elderly father with an ice axe on Election Night.
Corey Burke, 33, allegedly struck, stabbed and strangled her father, 67-year-old Timothy Burke, in a fatal attack at her $800,000 Seattle home on November 5.
Burke, a training manager at Jeff Bezos‘ rockets and spacecraft company, confessed to killing her father after he refused to turn off the lights, according to charging documents seen by DailyMail.com.
After emerging from the house with blood ‘dripping’ down her face, she confessed to police that she ‘freaked out,’ claiming there was ‘something important about Election Day.’
Burke reportedly told detectives that ‘she knew that she could not convince her father to keep the lights off’, so went upstairs and retrieved the murder weapon.
She then tripped her father and strangled him before attacking him with the ice axe.
Burke then bit him and hit him several times in the head and side with the blunt and sharp ends of the ice axe, cops say. His body was found in the basement.
Police say they recovered a bloody silver-and-blue ice climbing pick at the crime scene.
Burke was initially taken to a hospital for a mental health evaluation.
As former ABC Newsman Mark Halperin warned in October: “If Trump wins, it could lead to a profound shift within the Democratic Party, calling it ‘the greatest mental health crisis in the history of the country.'”
DO NOT LIE, CHEAT OR STEAL, OR TOLERATE THOSE WHO DO: CIA Officer Arrested in Cambodia for ‘Deadly Serious’ Leak of Classified US Docs on Israel.
MY NEW SUBSTACK ESSAY: Who are You? Voter ID law and election integrity should be top priority in new Congress.
THE DEEP STATE WILL NOT GO QUIETLY: Polymarket Predicted Trump’s Victory, and Now the FBI Has Raided Its CEO’s Home.
The raid was as theatrical and histrionic as the raid on Mar-a-Lago was: “The 26-year-old entrepreneur was woken up at 6:00 a.m. in his Soho home by law U.S. enforcement officers who demanded his phone and electronics.” Why show up at 6 a.m.? Why demand Coplan’s phone and electronics? Whatever this was about, was it really necessary to treat Shayne Coplan as if he were armed and dangerous?
Apparently, the answer is yes, because Polymarket had the audacity to represent accurately the electoral groundswell for Trump. The Post quoted a source calling the raid “grand political theater at its worst,” and adding sensibly: “They could have asked his lawyer for any of these things. Instead, they staged a so-called raid so they can leak it to the media and use it for obvious political reasons.”
Even worse, the feds didn’t even tell Coplan what it was all about. He was “not provided any reason for the incident, but the source said they expect it is political retribution since Polymarket accurately predicted Trump’s win – not traditional polls.” The raid is likely a prelude to more political persecution: “The government is likely trying to accuse Polymarket of market manipulation and rigging its polls in favor of Trump.”
If this raid is what the Post’s sources claim, it could prove a great test case of Matt Gaetz’s ability to clean house.
WELL SAID:
The risks of picking Peter Hegseth to head the Pentagon are too great.
I mean, we could end up with spy balloons flying over the country, disastrous pull-outs from warzones, Russia invading Europe, Iran expanding, and a recruitment crisis.
Best go with another DoD insider.
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) November 13, 2024
WE NEED A COMPLETE AND TOTAL SHUTDOWN OF AI, UNTIL WE CAN FIGURE OUT JUST WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON! Why Can’t We Be Friends? AI Music Video Provides Hilarious Glimpse of Trump and Biden as Best Buds.
Born to be friends, forced to be enemies. 😂pic.twitter.com/NyCU3YcNSV
— Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) November 13, 2024
AI Joe is far more lifelike than the real thing has been in almost a decade!
Earlier: Making video using a combination of AI and everyday video editing software.