MY LAST NEW YORK POST COLUMN OF 2024: Merrick Garland corrupted the Justice Department with political persecutions.

IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR: Trump’s Top 10 Best Moves of 2024.

These two were yuge:

No. 9: After cementing his hold on the Republican Party’s base with his commanding primary performance, Trump moved to change the leadership of the party as well. On Feb. 12, he announced his desire to see GOP chair Ronna McDaniel replaced by North Carolina GOP chairman Michael Whatley, with Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump serving as co-chair. McDaniel had always had an arms-length relationship with Trump’s MAGA movement, and she was blamed by many in the party for not doing enough to ensure Trump’s victory in 2020, both before and after the Nov. 3 election, including her lackluster support for the president’s claims that the election was rigged.
…
No. 7: The media also ridiculed Trump for campaigning in exceedingly liberal New York City. Once again, they played themselves for fools. Since Trump was spending so much time in New York City thanks to the Letitia James civil fraud trial, the E. Jean Carroll civil suit for defamation, and ultimately the so-called hush-money trial, what choice did he have? It should have been no surprise that the presumptive GOP nominee decided to campaign in his hometown. In April, Trump visited the Manhattan bodega where a clerk fatally stabbed a would-be robber and then was charged with murder by the same district attorney who had the former president on trial for vastly hyped felony charges based on the fact that he called payments to his lawyer “legal expenses.” Trump also visited a construction site and a local firehouse. But even better, and clearly one of the best moves of 2024, was Trump’s decision to hold a rally in the South Bronx while awaiting a verdict in the hush-money case. The Democrats’ smear against Trump as a racist looked pathetic as a diverse crowd of blacks and Hispanics joined whites to applaud Trump’s message of a stronger America.

On #9, the energized RNC was everything in 2024 that it should have been in 2020 but wasn’t.

Democrats could scream “Racist!” all day and all night — and did. But the crowds described in #7 told a different story.

LIGHTNING DEAL: Mens Dress Shirts for Men Long Sleeve Wrinkle Free. #CommissionEarned

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Hope for America — We Survived Carter and Now (Almost) Biden. “The leftists in the MSM are having a field day whitewashing the real Jimmy Carter record after having to be semi-honest about Joe Biden for a bit. They’re back in their element and it’s too much even for someone like me who writes about these idiots all the time.”

SELF-DEPORTATION WORKS, TOO, EVEN THOUGH MITT ROMNEY WAS MOCKED FOR SUGGESTING IT:

Sweden has now turned its immigration into a net outflow.

They did this very complicated trick.

1, Stop letting people in
2. Stop giving any money to the ones already there

So hard, I doubt any developed nation could copy it.

— Department of Decline (@LeoMars75) December 29, 2024

I was dubious of the claim but it checks out. “Last year’s trend of fewer asylum seekers in Sweden and fewer residence permits granted continues. According to the Swedish Migration Agency’s prognosis, Sweden is on track to have the lowest number of asylum seekers since 1997 and, for the first time in over 50 years, Sweden has net emigration.”

Not that I’m saying deportation shouldn’t be used, too — use every tool in the toolbox.

HE LEARNS:  Elon Musk Calls for Major Reform of Broken H-1B Visa Program — Proposes to Make it More Expensive to Hire Overseas Than Domestically.

OVERREACH: Just Get Us the Hell out of Syria Already.

AT LEAST. Blackball Them, At Least.

As tempting as it is to prosecute all the people who abused power by going after Trump and his allies, as a practical matter, only a few, if any, will face justice in the courts.

A few, such as Fauci, should be prosecuted for lying to Congress, and any open and shut cases should be pursued. Even if Biden preemptively pardons some of the malefactors, it may be possible to haul them before Congress and force them to either spill the beans, face contempt of Congress charges, or perjury if they continue to lie.

But for the most part, all but the very worst will skate, at least legally.

But there are other means to punish those who violated the public trust–people like Mark Milley or others who are cashing in on their time at the pinnacle of power: blackball them.

The Biden administration did this with many Trump officials–they made it known that if a company that did business with the government in any way hired Trump people, there would be consequences. For the first time in memory, working at the White House or in a position of power in an administration was a black mark harming one’s employability or income.

The Trump people should do this x2. Chances are good that a figure such as Mark Milley will never face justice for what amounted to treason, but his income stream could be severely hampered by making it clear to his connected employers that doing business with Milley means not doing business with the government.

I’m not sure that Milley shouldn’t be on the “prosecute” list, too.

EMIL KASTEHELMI ON RUSSIA’S BALTIC SABOTAGE EFFORTS: A thread.

The latest sabotage operation was likely aimed at Estonia, which is soon disconnecting itself from the Russian electricity grid together with Latvia & Lithuania. Singular damaged cables don’t cause a crisis yet, but we’ve likely only seen the beginning, the testing phase.

The current situation can also be described as the gray phase. The enemy is conducting sabotage, disinformation and hybrid operations, which can be followed with more significant diplomatic and even military pressure. I doubt Russia has planned to stop their actions yet.

Currently, operations are carried out through various covert arrangements, although it’s not unclear to anyone whose interests lie behind them. Russia is actively testing how the politicians and authorities in the targeted areas react to sabotage and various other operations.

The problem with the West is that countries prefer to hesitate, when clear and determined force would be needed. A show of force is the only thing Russia understands. Any display of weakness encourages Russia to continue and strike harder, as has happened throughout the year.

Metaphorically, Russia stabs soft societies with a bayonet until it meets steel. Finland has endured numerous hostile operations over the past year, such as sabotage, weaponization of migrants and cyber attacks. Now some steel has been finally shown with a strong response.

And by tiny Finland, at that. Maybe the loss of one of their “shadow fleet” tankers will give Moscow pause.

YES:

Carter “INVENTED the jealous, manipulative ex-President model that Obama put on steroids in 2016” https://t.co/BzzkfliK0Q

— Ron Coleman (@RonColeman) December 30, 2024

JONATHAN TURLEY: Silence of the Labs: How a Censorship Campaign Failed to Kill a COVID Origin Theory.

ROBERT SPENCER: Ridiculous: Appeals Court Upholds Trump’s Liability in E. Jean Carroll Sexual Abuse Case.

YOU DON’T HATE THE FEDS ENOUGH:   South Dakota ranching couple indicted by Forest Service for fence in place since 1950.

ANOTHER CONSEQUENCE OF THE GLOBAL BABY BUST:

Large families generate personality types that are increasingly absent from the world with the disappearance of large families — super responsible eldest siblings who raise younger children; youngest children largely insulated from parental influence; a combination of the… https://t.co/fgmuGg4wuK

— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) December 30, 2024

EMPHASIS ON “SHOW”:   Biden Laughably Boasts About ‘Getting to Show Up for the American People’.

A CIA COVER-UP? WHAT ARE THE ODDS?  Whistleblower Claims CIA Covered Up Foreign Involvement in Havana Syndrome Attacks in Revealing Interview.

HE DAMNED NEAR OUTLIVED THE NY TIMES:  Unreal: Jimmy Carter Outlived His NYT Obituary Writer.

THE LEFT HAS HAD A PRETTY GOOD RUN FOR AN IDEOLOGY THAT HAS BEEN PROVEN BANKRUPT CONCLUSIVELY AND FINALLY 33 YEARS NOW:  This State Provides a Microcosm for All the Issues Facing Dems Right Now.

IT’S NOT A CIVIL WAR. IT BARELY COMPETES IN DECIBELS WITH MY MOM AND HER SISTERS ARGUING ABOUT WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BUY THE ROAST BEEF THAT SUNDAY:  Family Arguments.