THIS JUST IN: Trump breaking the old-boy GOP mold again.

JustTheNews reporting that “Trump taps transition co-chair Linda McMahon as Education Secretary.”

“It is my great honor to announce that Linda McMahon, former Administrator of the Small Business Administration, will be the United States Secretary of Education,” Trump posted to his Truth Social. “As Secretary of Education, Linda will fight tirelessly to expand [Universal School Choice] to every State in America, and empower parents to make the best Education decisions for their families.”

His cabinet picks are going to change The Swamp forever.

BLAST FROM THE PAST: I know, I know, it’s rather tacky to say “I told you so.”

But I told you so.

Reading the news that Catherine Herridge might be spending time in the pokey reminded me of this article I wrote…back in 2013. (h/t to Mark Tapscott for his light-handed editing).

R.I.P., Ted Olson. A great lawyer, a lovely man, and a gentleman of the first order.

BREAKING: Harris has called Trump to concede the election, according to JustTheNews.

“President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke by phone earlier today where she congratulated him on his historic victory,” Trump Campaign Communications Director Steven Cheung said in a statement.”

Here’s the statement.

THE SMELL OF DESPERATION: I know, it’s “no sh*t, Sherlock” but I can’t help but comment that Google News — millions of Americans’ “front page” — is so steeped in the MSM’s “conventional wisdom.”

But don’t take my word for it. Pictures are worth a thousand words, and here’s a screen shot from 10am:

SCORE ONE FOR THE GOOD GUYS: A Florida court yesterday that vacated an Order that required re-writing history and removing commentary on social media. Apparently, the court on March 13 demanded that, according to Eugene Volokh:

“[Anyone] remove and cause to be removed from any Site (including the web sites themselves and all URLS and links, even if they change) all statements, posts, social media, or videos or documents related to directly or indirectly to a lawsuit between Alex Daoud (mayor of Miami Beach from 1985 to 1991) but later convicted of bribery and various other charges. Some years later, he arranged a real estate deal together with his daughter, Kelly Hyman (a lawyer and occasional political commentator)—but that went bad, and led her to sue him.”

According to Volokh’s post yesterday, media lawyer and good pal Marc Randazza got the Order vacated. Eugene is right of course, that such a broad sweeping order — not even served upon non-parties — more than likely violates both the First Amendment’s ban on prior restraints and in general, Due Process when it comes to demanding that media do (or not do) something over which they have not been made a party.

WANT PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE OF SHEER IDIOCY?

FILE UNDER AYFKM? Reuters utterly beclowns themselves again. The news agency who brought you “Green Helmet Guy” and “Fake IDF Missiles” proves once again that if an ignorant child writes idiotic editorialization, as long as it fits the “conventional wisdom” in their bubble, it’s off to the races.

Case in point: Today they filed a piece of garbage about the State of Missouri probing Google over the suppression of conservative content. In the file, this little gem of editorialization appeared:

“Trump and his supporters have alleged without evidence that Google searches displayed only “bad stories” about the former U.S. president.” (Emphasis added).

“Without evidence? Under what rock is this child living? As many of you know, as a First Amendment lawyer I have the honor of advising representing many outfits including The Heritage Foundation and The Daily Signal, The Daily Caller, and Just The News. And I can (without breaking any attorney/client privileges) tell you there is a sh*t-ton (that’s the legal phrase) of evidence that news outlets perceived as “right leaning” are most assuredly on Double Secret Probation with Google, Apple, MSN and others.

Just ask the good folks at PJMedia, or the Good Professor. I’m sure they’ll affirm.

YOU JUST HAVE TO LAUGH: Once a dog, always a dog.

“Former President Bill Clinton called Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake “physically attractive” during a campaign stop in Arizona to stump for Vice President Kamala Harris and Lake’s opponent, Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ).”

First, not that he’s wrong, she’s a looker, for sure. And lest we forget Bubba did the men of America an enormous favor by declaring that oral sex wasn’t “sexual relations.”

My ruling from the bench: I’ll allow it:

FILE UNDER “YOU ALWAYS KNEW HE WAS A SLEAZEBALL”: Creepazoid Congressman Adam Schiff first popped up on my radar screen after he led the “Russia! Russia! Russia!” scam. I remember quite distinctly watching him on live TV calling Tucker Carlson a “Russian agent.” No factual basis, no evidence, just a smear. In typical Carlson fashion, he laughed it off.*

Anyhoo, Just The News published this story yesterday:

“In the two decades before he became the Democrats’ U.S. Senate nominee in California, former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff repeatedly declared in mortgage and election filings that both of his homes – one in California and the other in Maryland – were his “principal residence.” The claims have now prompted an ethics complaint and could be prosecutable as fraud, experts said.”

It would seem that “saving democracy” has nothing to do with, oh, I don’t know, maybe following laws regarding residency requirements to serve the people?

I forgot: “Shut up, serf.”

*BONUS LEGAL TRIVIA: Many folks don’t remember that the landmark Gertz v. Welch decision establishing the higher standards in libel a public figure must prove, nobody remembers that the alleged libel was that the plaintiff was called a “Communist-fronter.” Nobody challenged whether that statement carried defamatory meaning. (After all, it was around 1969). Not so sure it would play out the same way today.

AM I BLUE? APPARENTLY MANY OF US ARE (without knowing it): JustTheNews is reporting that:

A sprawling investigation into the online fundraising platform ActBlue has expanded into 19 states, as attorneys general across the country press the company on its security practices and whether Democrats might be using the platform to cheat on election donations.

So much for all that “saving democracy” blather.

The news site adds that:

“In a letter sent last week to ActBlue CEO and President Regina Wallace-Jones, the state attorneys general highlighted potential security issues with the online fundraising platform that could be allowing donations made in people’s names who didn’t donate. [***] “Recent reporting suggests that that [sic] there may be donors across the country who are identified in filings with the Federal Election Commission as having donated to candidates through ActBlue (and other affiliated entities), but who did not actually make those donations,” the attorneys general wrote.”

I would not be surprised if some of the “donations” were charged to still-active credit cards assigned to dead people. Please give my “shocked face” a rest, would you please? 

WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED? “One of NJ’s richest towns is once again denied its request to delay building affordable housing.”

Now, look at Millburn’s voting record: (Click to embiggen)

Do as we say, not as we do.

Note: It was 8,559 for Biden, 2,953 for Trump

TIMMY GOT ISSUES. Here, have a laff, courtesy of The Daily Caller: “Timmy Got Issues.”

SETTING THE BAR HIGHER FOR SELF-DELUSION: What is it about some of these “media” and “political” reporters who are 100% clueless when it comes to the disdain and lack of respect from the general public?

Live in a bubble, die in a bubble.

I thought Brian “Potato Boy” Stelter was always at the top of that class, but the often-wrong, but never-in-doubt Taylor Lorenz, hoping to save face by “going independent” has upped the ante.

She says:

“I will be reporting on the people and movements that are steering tech and internet culture, from weird online phenomena, to under-the-radar trends, to content creators, platform developments, policy initiatives, and the powerful forces that shape our online world. It’s about who has power on the internet and how that power is being wielded.”

Like most leftist dopes, her real goal is to preserve, if not expand her own “power” to “shape the online world.”

Here’s a fun trick: Go to her announcement linked above. Search for the words “accuracy,” “fairness” or “clarity.

Get back to me on that, huh?

BAH! WHO NEEDS ELECTRICITY, ANYWAY: An interesting case is coming up before SCOTUS, in which electrical grid operators have filed an unprecedented amici brief. The bottom line, as Just the News reports is:

“Organizations that manage, coordinate and monitor electricity service for 156 million Americans across 30 states are warning that the Biden-Harris administration’s power plant rule will be catastrophic for the nation’s grid.”

At the heart of the case is that the grid operators’ research says:

“[T]hey found a number of problems. The EPA grossly overestimated the ability of intermittent wind and solar to deliver reliable electricity during peak demand periods, according to the analysis, and it also found the agency didn’t perform any reliability analysis on the rules. The result would be blackouts lasting days in some cases.”

The question (for me, anyway) is will the same Court that flipped Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council remain steadfast in maintaining that “agency interpretations of statutes — like agency interpretations of the Constitution — are not entitled to deference.”

I’ve had my own run-ins in litigation against federal agencies (mostly in FOIA matters) and found maddening the argument that an agency could get away with simply saying “because we said so.”

If I had better Google-fu I’d insert that clip from one of the Sunday talk shows where during the Bureau of Land Management and Cliven Bundy mess, Harry Reid, in a remarkable example of body language, said essentially when the federal government says do something, you do it. Key was the image: while he said the words “federal government” he emphatically pointed at himself. Most telling.

I suspect that the enormous elasticity applied to “Chevron deference” might have been partially fueled by district court judges who, feeling overburdened, were only too happy to clear one more matter off of their dockets.

Worth keeping an eye on.

**If anyone can find that clip, please feel free to add it in comments and I’ll update this post.**

TRUTHBOMB: No matter who you are supporting in this election, one thing is for sure: Nobody knows nothing, and if they say they do, they are either lying, shilling, or just plain crazy.

NO SURPRISE, BUT: By now everyone is aware that NYC Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted of various federal fraud charges, and the Court just unsealed the indictment.

It’s full of the typical grift we’ve seen elsewhere in Big Blue Cities. (Kwame Kilpatrick, anybody?)

What I find annoying is that the MSM is playing “Guess That Party” again. For example, NBC’s report never uses the word “Democrat” once.

I can imagine the automatic excuse is “oh, everyone already knows he’s a Democrat.”

That’s not journalism.

BTW: A picture is worth 1,000 words:

BUT THE NARRATIVE! A lie goes around the world before the truth is even out of bed.

Every dope and his brother (or sister) regurgitating the DNC’s talking points will insist — as if it were gospel — that Trump “encouraged” and “incited” the January 6th riots.

Kamala Harris said in the debate that:

“On that day, the president of the United States incited a violent mob to attack our nation’s capital, to desecrate our nation’s Capitol. On that day, 140 law enforcement officers were injured, and some died.”

This is pure ipse dixit. (A legal term for bullsh*t.)

Leave aside the fact that the implication that the riot “caused” any law enforcement deaths is wholly unfounded; leave aside the fact that Harris never had the decency or courage to acknowledge Ashley Babbitt’s death; leave aside that as for an “insurrection” those people couldn’t organize a f@rt after a Hungarian dinner. The media has continued to propel this “conventional wisdom.”

But not so fast. JustTheNews has released sworn testimony that Trump had tried in vain to have the military or National Guard protect the capitol from protestors well before Jan. 6.

And wouldn’t you know:

“[General] Milley confirmed a second time during the interviews that Trump was clear in his wishes. “It was just what I just described, which was, ‘Hey, I don’t care if you use Guard, or soldiers, active-duty soldiers, do whatever you have to do. Just make sure it’s safe,” the general told the IG.”

The Deep State smiles:

“[Rep.] Loudermilk during his subcommittee’s ongoing probe of Jan. 6 security failures show civilian leadership at the Pentagon admittedly openly they would not comply with Trump’s wishes, with some saying they did not like the optics of armed soldiers or Guardsmen roaming the Capitol with weapons during what was supposed to be a peaceful transition of power. (Emphasis added)”

Optics. Freakin’ optics. Somehow I suspect no great strategist — from Sun Tsu to Von Clausewitz to Guderian to Georgy Zhukov to G.S. Patton — ever placed “optics” above efficacy.  

“There was absolutely — there is absolutely no way I was putting U.S. military forces at the Capitol, period,” [Defense Secretary Christopher Miller] told the inspector general during his March 2021 interview.

But in my dotage I have come to realize that that stupid people will believe only what they want to believe:

• “He’ll put you back in chains.”
• “There are no U.S. troops in any combat zone.”
• “Trump is the architect of Project 2025”
• “I inherited the worst inflation ever and fixed it.”
• “JD Vance is simultaneously a stupid redneck and a privileged Ivy League white boy.”

I know, I’m in a really cynical mood right now, but I’m beginning to believe that Justice Holmes was correct in his conclusion in Buck v. Bell.

(Read the last line).

“AMERICAN POLICY”? WUT? OK, AOC has never been accused of being the brightest candle in the church. Fine. But her comments on the pager-bombing of Hezbollah terrorists defies any comprehension of foreign policy.

Just the News reported that Squad Member Sandy says that:

“Yesterday my House office was tagged with blood-splattered signs accusing me of supporting terrorism after I questioned the pager operation, which clearly runs counter to US policy,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a post on X. “They must live under a rock to not know I don’t take well to bullies.”

No, if it’s true, I can’t support vandalism, although given her track record of making sh*t up, I’m not convinced that it was “blood.” I’ve seen no Capitol Police reports confirming that.

But the real point is where in the world does she get off tying “US policy” to the pager attacks? Even her pals at Hamas and Hezbollah haven’t suggested any evidence that the US was involved.

More importantly, and the question IP readers should ask is why she and Omar Ilhan, Rashida Tlaib, Hakeem Jeffries, and other squad members are consistently silent on how female genital mutilation, capital punishment for being gay, and using civilians as human shields is off the table as to U.S. policy. Those are not part of U.S. policy, but…crickets.

Could it be that the disease of DEI automatically gives such barbaric human rights abuses a free pass? “You don’t understand,” say the Democratic apologists. “We have no right to judge their cultural differences.”

And god forbid Kamala Harris make a meaning statement on this issue.

IN THE MAIL: How the Jester Became King: Dave Portnoy and the Real Story of Barstool Sports is now available on Amazon for pre-ordering.

In full disclosure, I did the pre-publication legal review for the book. It’s an unauthorized biography, but very accurate with well-sourced facts and quotes including citations.

To be honest, I’m somewhat ambivalent about Portnoy. He proudly shows his role in the development of “bro’ culture” which isn’t totally my cup of tea. I’ve never been much of a “frat boy.” (Though I have to say his “one-bite pizza test” is awesome).

But at the same time, this highly-detailed story shows his vigilance against wokeness, and also the time-tested truth that if you have an idea, bust your @ss to make it work, and maintain a sense of humor, you’ll do well.

And indeed, he has done well.

IF NOT FOR DOUBLE STANDARDS, THEY’D  HAVE NO STANDARDS AT ALL: Mainstream media, in the march to demonize Tucker Carlson, howled mercilessly when in 2020 Fox filed court papers in a libel suit saying he was not presenting “factual news, but commentary.”

“You Literally Can’t Believe The Facts Tucker Carlson Tells You. So Say Fox’s Lawyers” NPR crowed. Business Insider took the same howling path, headlining their story “Fox News won a court case by ‘persuasively’ arguing that no ‘reasonable viewer’ takes Tucker Carlson seriously.” (Note: that publication’s founder is Henry Blodgett. You know, the guy who pleaded guilty to securities fraud. A paragon of virtue and truth, for sure).

No, it’s never a good look for a media defendant to say “I was joking” ot “it’s opinion not fact,” but lawyers are obligated to provide the most zealous defense they can to their clients.

So how is it that those same people forget that a year before the Tucker case, Rachel Maddow, who said on-air that “One America Network literally is paid Russian propaganda.”

I don’t know about you, but the word “literally” means, well, literally. 

OAN sued and you’ll never guess what her lawyers argued…wait for it… “No reasonable viewer could conclude that Maddow implied an assertion of objective fact.”

Today we have a replay of the same double standard. CNN’s Jake (rhymes with “fake”) Tapper is, along with CNN, being sued for defamation in Florida to the tune of $1 billion after he and CNN aired a wholly shoddy piece, accusing Zachary Young and his security consulting company, Nemex Enterprises Inc., of illegally profiting when helping people flee Afghanistan during the Biden-Harris administration’s f’ed up military withdrawal from the country in 2021.

The court said “CNN argues it did not intend to harm; its language was either opinion or ambiguous.”

That doesn’t sound much like “The Most Trusted Name in News.”

The facts of that case are stunning, some of which are contained here. CNN’s internal communications are an atomic bomb of Actual Malice.

If I were Young, I wouldn’t settle either.

My question is simple: Don’t any of these people own a mirror?

NOT SHOCKING, BUT DISAPPOINTING (Warning: longish post):

As most IP readers know, although I am not an absolutionist on the First Amendment (nor any of the Bill of Rights) I’ve dedicated my professional life to defending not just the right, but the need for what Justice Brennan called “the breathing space” upon which democracy depends to give all political speech, even that which we may find unfounded or even offensive.

I bring this up because I cannot help but remind people to hold the news media as accountable as they do politicians and policy makers. This leads me to emphasize how critical it is to support — or at least read — news platforms that are dedicated to providing accurate and fair stories, and in a nod to the value of hearing heterodoxy that the First Amendment (and indeed real democracy) needs, cover stories and viewpoints of all stripes.

Free marketplace of ideas, and all that.

Case in point: JustTheNews, a wholly independent and thriving news website has the courage (and business smarts) to present stories that the stenographers in the mainstream media routinely ignore.

They reported today on the fact that there are serious and provable connections between a Soros-funded racial justice organization that supports liberal prosecutors and coordination with the Biden-Harris administration to apply lawfare against former President Trump.

The key issue as a citizen is to get all the facts and make up your own mind. When the media incessantly refuses to dig into questions, [insert motivation here] the public is, in a word, shortchanged.

In my career as a newsroom lawyer, I recall speaking with a reporter in the Bloomberg newsroom about the failure to cover the “Fast and Furious” scandal of the Obama-era.

“What’s that?” the reporter asked me. “I’ve never heard of that.”

Res Ipsa loquitur. 

We’ve seen a relevant observation here many times:

So, gentle reader, I implore you to regularly read the “out of the mainstream” news platforms available — and encourage others to do the same.

The Daily Caller, The Daily Signal, PJ Media, among others are not slanted in conservative bias. They simply provide clean, clear and factual news of interest to libertarians and conservatives who are not getting all the facts.

To be sure, the faux-liberals running search engines and other wanna-be censors (those who bellow “We must suppress disinformation to save democracy”)  have done their damndest to demonetize and suppress these voices. Frankly, I find the arrogance and dehumanization of such paternalistic policies to be what I call “liberal fascism.”

You don’t have to believe everything you read,  but you are better served by reading everything.

***Disclosure: I have provided some of the above listed news platforms with editorial and legal advice, and this posting has not been suggested, sponsored or approved by any of them.***

DOES THIS MAKE SENSE? I would never pretend to be an expert on firearms, especially rifles of most kinds. (When I was a combat correspondent I was given an M-16A but never fired it).

When I read this headline from CNN it left me scratching my head:

“Georgia school shooter hid an AR-15-style rifle in his backpack and left class with his bag the morning of the deadly rampage.”

Wut? An AR-15 in a backpack? So I did a little research.

• According to Gunbuilders.com, the average AR 15 with a 16″-long barrel measures approximately 32.75″ from the muzzle devices to the buttstock.
• The New York Times did a review of popular school backpacks, and most of them average about 18 x 12 x 6.5 inches.

So would someone with more experience please explain to us how this student managed to fit a 32″ weapon into a backpack that couldn’t possibly be longer than 20 inches or so?

CNN says that “Colt Gray brought the gun into the school on his own. The assault-style rifle could not be broken down, but Gray hid it in his backpack.”

I know, I know…

IT’S ALWAYS PROJECTION WITH THESE PEOPLE: California Attorney General Rob Bonta joined a bipartisan coalition of 42 attorneys general in sending a letter to Congress supporting the United States Surgeon General’s recent call for Congress to require a surgeon general’s warning on social media platforms.

AYFKM?

TechCrunch asks the right question:

“Can we add a warning label to the First Amendment that says “Actually reading this can cause extreme embarrassment to grandstanding politicians”?

Step back and ask yourself, where do these people get off bleating about “saving our democracy” while at the same time undercutting the role a free press plays in democracy?

Justice Hugo Black got it right when he said:

“Whatever differences may exist about interpretations of the First Amendment, there is practically universal agreement that a major purpose of that Amendment was to protect the free discussion of governmental affairs. This of course includes discussions of candidates, structures and forms of government, the manner in which government is operated or should be operated, and all such matters relating to political processes.”

If you are interested, you can go right to the source. John Stuart Mill wrote in 1859 that:

“If we censor expressions that are false, then our beliefs will be ‘held as a dead dogma[s], not living truth[s]’, i.e. we will not have a clear and lively understanding of the truth.”

“BIAS? WHAT BIAS?” Part Deux: The Columbia Journalism Review, staffed by People Who Are Smarter Than You and Know Things really tips their hand in this execrable article titled “Is the press ‘sanewashing’ Trump?”

One line struck me as the dead giveaway:

“The biggest problem, I concluded, was not journalists’ failure to resolve an unresolvable debate about exposure, but their failure to accurately describe Trump’s rhetoric…”

You see, the starting point is that Trump is crazy. If that’s your baseline, then there’s no pretending you are seeking truth and reporting it.

(IMHO, Trump, for the most part, is crazy like a fox. He knows exactly what he’s doing, and he is a GrandMaster Troll.)

Meanwhile, Kamala’s word-salad generation continues unabated, and consistently softened or even ignored by a compliant group of cheerleaders.

“The New York Times is attempting to spin Vice President Kamala Harris’ history of unflattering viral moments as “celebratory artifacts” following her swift emergence as the presumptive Democratic nominee,” Fox reported.

As my hero Jules Winnfield would say…