WHISTLEBLOWER: ‘Prolific Anti-Trump FBI Agent’ Broke Protocol To Spearhead Election Lawfare.

Former FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) Timothy Thibault, who was fired for violating the Hatch Act after Grassley exposed his public anti-Trump statements, authored the initial language for “Arctic Frost,” the investigation that would become former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s lawfare case against Trump over the 2020 election.

“Thibault took this action despite being unauthorized to open criminal investigations in his ASAC role,” a joint press release from the senators stated. They also said the Justice Department and FBI had a “plot to pin Trump.”

The investigation was then advanced by Justice Department Public Integrity Sector official Richard Pilger, former head of the Election Crimes Branch, who was also the subject of a Grassley report stating he “undermined the department’s election-related efforts.”

Pilger’s authorization allowed the Justice Department to advance a full criminal and grand jury investigation.

Kash Patel has a full plate.

ALL FAMILY BUSINESS IS BEING SETTLED:

🚨 #BREAKING: The Trump admin has just FIRED David Sundberg, the FBI Assistant Director for Washington, DC

Sundberg led the WITCH HUNT against J6ers, and failed to find ANY “leads” on person who supposedly placed pipe b*mbs around on J6

CLEANING HOUSE! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/2MDhwBy45A

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) January 31, 2025

IT’S TIME FOR VICTORIA TAFT’S West Coast, Messed Coast™ — And Suddenly ‘Trump Proofing’ California Seems Like a Really Dumb Idea.

IT’S FUN EXPOSING THE HYPOCRISY BUT THE PROBLEM IS THAT THEY REVEL IN IT: Jets and Luxury Cars: Reporter Exposes Rank Hypocrisy of Davos Elites.

JON CALDERA: FDA completely contradicts Denver council claims on flavored nicotine.

I quit smoking decades ago. I committed to smoke only after sex.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has officially declared the Denver City Council is working to kill people. This counters the council’s stated fib they want to help people stop smoking.

I know we’ve been over this before. But the timing of the FDA’s action is just too delicious, like a fine cigar, not to spend a moment celebrating it.

If you recall it was mere weeks ago when Denver’s City Council put aside such trifling issues as crime, homeless squalor and tens of thousands of immigrants sucking up city resources to ban the sale of flavored nicotine products.

Instead of focusing on how to keep mentally ill violent criminals behind bars and not running around town stabbing folks, the council banned the sale of products like Zyn, the popular tobacco-free nicotine pouch. We were told this was going to save lives by keeping people away from the evil gateway product that leads to deadly cigarettes.

How very embarrassing, then, that after years of rigorous study, the nation’s Food and Drug Administration has cleared the makers of Zyn to market their product, finding it leads to reducing tobacco use, not increasing it. Oopsie!

But by banning flavored vapes, Denver gives the appearance of DOING SOMETHING — something far more important to them than actually getting anything done.

Related: The Democrats’ Governance Problem. “Think about it. If you wanted safe streets and public order would your first impulse be to turn to…a Democrat? Or if you wanted a secure, actually-enforced border? How about efficient, effective delivery of public services? Or rapid completion of public projects and infrastructure? Or nonideological public administration?”

And that’s from Ruy Teixeira, a Democrat — or at least he used to be one.

FLORIDA MAN FRIDAY [VIP]: Drag Queen ‘Tot Mom’ Friend Threatens Trump on Facebook. “Today’s headline report doesn’t sound much like a Florida Man Friday story, but I promise you it is. This week we also have a lesson learned about ankle monitors and how to lose that Teacher of the Year award.”

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Data Republican’s Federal Government Grant Award Search database has moved here after hitting GitHub’s bandwidth limits.

WELL, I’M CONVINCED — RUN HER AGAIN:

BREAKING: Outgoing DNC Chair Jaime Harrison believes Kamala Harris can win in 2028.

— Leading Report (@LeadingReport) January 31, 2025

They won’t always stay this stupid but on days like today, it sure does feel like it.

SCOTT PINSKER: Would Trump WIN by Letting Bobby Kennedy and Tulsi Gabbard LOSE?

Right now, the Democrats don’t have a brand. Nor do they have a go-to brand ambassador — someone who exemplifies what the Democrats value and stand for. The 2024 election essentially eviscerated the Biden, Obama, Harris, Clinton(s), Schumer, and Pelosi power cabal that had ruled the Democratic Party with an iron fist since the early 1990s.

It’s gotten so bad that some Democrats are even calling for a “rebranding” of their “toxic” image.

My proposal: Instead of letting the Democrats rebrand themselves on THEIR terms, the Republicans should rebrand them on OUR terms.

And it’s easier than you think. Because the Democrats are so devoid of ideas, leadership, and direction, their “default setting” is to oppose whatever Trump supports.

Including his cabinet appointments.

If the Democrats kill the nominations of Gabbard and Kennedy, it brands them as ideological fanatics who won’t tolerate internal dissent.

It’s clever and does have merit. Nevertheless, Trump strikes me as less of a “win by losing” guy than a “win by winning” guy.

PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD (METAPHORICALLY SPEAKING):

🚨 UPDATE: The White House has just called on Hakeem Jeffries to APOLOGIZE for his threat of violence this morning. https://t.co/0TAoczBfb8 pic.twitter.com/WOOwCb9K3c

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) January 31, 2025

Get the DOJ on him for incitement.

HMM: The Case for “Avalanche Decoupling” From China.

Punishing Beijing for unprovoked aggression would be essential to maintaining U.S. credibility and leverage, but it would have to be balanced with U.S. interests. These include preserving macroeconomic and financial stability, dollar hegemony, and a functional and rules-based international trading system, as well as breaking U.S. and allied dependence on the Chinese market. Even in an extreme crisis scenario—for example, if Beijing attacked U.S. bases in East Asia during an invasion of Taiwan—attempting a total and immediate economic decoupling from China would be a costly and dangerous gamble. It would subordinate all other U.S. interests to a punishment strategy that might not even work.

But there is another option. Rather than threatening economic Armageddon if China crossed U.S. redlines in East Asia, Washington could offer an affirmative vision for how the international economic system can evolve to protect the vital interests of the United States, its allies, and third countries. This vision should include a U.S.-led allied agenda to protect economic security in peacetime, as well as a contingency plan to broaden and accelerate that program during and after a potential crisis of Chinese aggression.

The plan is “avalanche decoupling.” If Beijing crossed one of Washington’s redlines, the United States could work with its allies to manage the resulting global financial crisis, reshore critical supply chains away from China as fast as possible, and trigger a ratcheting trade policy to unlink noncritical supply chains over the longer term. The plan would also initiate the creation of an Economic Security Cooperation Board, a new institution with membership open to all countries except rogue states such as Iran, North Korea, Russia, and of course China.

Certainly, something to consider. The post-WWII rules-based system has largely served us well but inviting in countries — like Communist China and Putin-era Russia — who had no interest in playing by those rules was a mistake Western elites should pay dearly for, but won’t.

HMM: FAA Safety Report Says Staffing at Air Traffic Control Tower Was ‘Not Normal.’

THIS FEELS CORRECT:

I think I've figured it out.

I've been watching the US confirmation hearings and something very deep has shifted.

It's more than just the kinds of people being appointed, it's bigger than a 'vibe shift'… but I couldn't figure out what it was.

It's the revolution eating it's…

— Topher Field (@TopherField) January 30, 2025

Full text:

I think I’ve figured it out.

I’ve been watching the US confirmation hearings and something very deep has shifted.

It’s more than just the kinds of people being appointed, it’s bigger than a ‘vibe shift’… but I couldn’t figure out what it was.

It’s the revolution eating it’s own.

Even Democrats are having their eyes opened as they watch their heros from the last few decades try to tear down the people who COULD have made the Democrats great again… People who SHOULD have been their next generation of Democratic heros.

RFK Jr and Tulsi Gabbard stand out as great examples, and long time Democrat power brokers like Bernie Sanders are trying every trick to destroy them, every weapon, all the things that USED to work, and it’s blowing up in their faces.

The Revolutionary Old Guard are trying to eat their own children, and are being devoured by them instead.

These senate confirmation hearings are highlighting the fact that MAGA is actually a unity movement, with the best of the Republicans AND the best of the Democrats, taking the country forward together and leaving the decrepit old guard behind.

Unity movements eventually fall apart over fundamental disagreements. But in the meantime, having the best of both parties agreeing on needed reforms can lead to fundamental improvements. It’s a once-in-a-generation — once-in-a-century? — opportunity, and Trump and his team are taking advantage.

A MAN WITH A PLAN:

Reducing the federal deficit from $2T to $1T in FY2026 requires cutting an average of ~$4B/day in projected 2026 spending from now to Sept 30.

That would still result in a ~$1T deficit, but economic growth should be able to match that number, which would mean no inflation in…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 31, 2025

More:

Before even getting to timed scripts, the number of government jobs that could be replaced simply with a mouse macro is astounding!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 31, 2025

I don’t doubt he’s wrong on either count. Milei showed the way, we just have to follow.

#METOO: Trump Wants to Make American Buildings Beautiful Again.

VDH: Mexico — Friend, Enemy, Neutral, or Something Else?

After four years of Biden’s appeasement, Mexico seems to assume that it has a sovereign right to encourage the flight of millions of its own impoverished citizens illegally into the U.S. and further assumes that it can fast-track millions of Latin Americans through its territory and across our border.

Mexico either cannot or will not address the billions of dollars of raw fentanyl products shipped in—mostly from China—and then processed for export to the U.S. by its cartels across a nonexistent border.

Mexico seems to have little concern that some 75,000 Americans on average die from mostly Mexican-imported fentanyl each year—more deaths in just the last decade than all the Americans killed in action during World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War combined. Who then is our friend, and who is our enemy?

This appalling death toll is in part due to the deliberate efforts of the cartels to mask fentanyl as less deadly narcotics or camouflage the poison by lacing it into counterfeit prescription drugs.

Mexico encourages its expatriate illegal aliens to send back some $63 billion per year in remittances.

Change the incentives. One way to do that is to tax the hell out of remittances.

HEH: Out of ALL the Kennedys, Caroline Kennedy Says RFK Jr. Is the Predator?

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE: The Resistance Attempts a Coup at USAID and It Doesn’t Go Well.

The director of employee and labor relations at the US Agency for International Development has been placed on administrative leave after a stunning refusal to follow directions given by President Trump’s transition team.

Tuesday, acting USAID Administrator Jason Gray ordered nearly 60 senior bureaucrats placed on indefinite administrative leave for taking actions to evade Trump’s executive orders; see Trump Suspends As Many As 60 Senior Bureaucrats for Trying to Evade His Executive Orders – RedState. In a memo, Gray said, “We have identified several actions within USAID that appear to be designed to circumvent the president’s executive orders and the mandate from the American people.“ As a result, we have placed a number of USAID employees on administrative leave with full pay and benefits until further notice while we complete our analysis of these actions.”

That was not the end of the drama at USAID.

It was also not the end of the winning.

WINNING: Another Wing of the Trump Library Might Be Paid for by CBS News.

FLASHBACK: FAA’s diversity push includes focus on hiring people with ‘severe intellectual’ and ‘psychiatric’ disabilities.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is actively recruiting workers who suffer “severe intellectual” disabilities, psychiatric problems and other mental and physical conditions under a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative spelled out on the agency’s website.

“Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the Federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring,” the FAA’s website states. “They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism.”

The initiative is part of the FAA’s “Diversity and Inclusion” hiring plan, which says “diversity is integral to achieving FAA’s mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel across our nation and beyond.” The FAA’s website shows the agency’s guidelines on diversity hiring were last updated on March 23, 2022.

The FAA, which is overseen by Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s Department of Transportation, is a government agency charged with regulating civil aviation and employs roughly 45,000 people.

We still don’t know exactly what caused Wednesday night’s fatal collision. But making it a priority to hire people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities for life-and-death positions is going to result in tragedy sooner rather than later.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Ya Know, Blaming Trump Ain’t What It Use to Be. “When are ‘reporters’ going to learn that they’re not smart enough to manipulate a conversation with, well, anybody? Heck, when are they going to stop referring to themselves as ‘reporters’ and ‘journalists’ so that I don’t have to type so many quotation marks? I need answers.”

PORTLAND IS A LITTLE SLOW ON THE UPTAKE:

5 years later Portland's economic development staff are figuring out 2020 riots and ideological positioning of the city were bad for Portland 😂 pic.twitter.com/L3rzzOUhf8

— andy chandler (@azcfilm) January 30, 2025

Exit quote: “Part of our job is to figure out how to get them back.”

Just spitballing here but maybe they could try going back to what they were doing before they screwed everything up.

HISTORY MIGHT NOT REPEAT BUT IT DOES RHYME: Disturbing Similarities: Dems on Slavery and Dems on Illegal Alien Labor.

YES, IT DOES: Trump’s Gaza proposal makes complete sense.

On Sunday, President Donald Trump floated a fantastic idea. Arab nations, he noted, should accept Gazans as refugees, a move that “could be temporary or long term.” The accommodation would allow Israel to eliminate the remnants of Hamas, which, in turn, would allow the international community to rebuild Gaza.

Not only would such a policy enhance the prospects of Middle East peace, but it’s also humane. While Gazans shouldn’t be compelled to move from their homes, they should be allowed to escape the generational tragedy foisted on them by the Arab world and their nihilistic leaders. And Israelis should monetarily incentivize them to move to safer environs.

The Associated Press, which shared office space with Hamas for years, contends that Trump’s suggestion “openly contradict[s] Palestinian identity and deep connection to Gaza.”

Does it?

Much more at the link but perhaps the most important thing to know is that not only does it make sense, but that Trump is sticking with it:

UNBELIEVABLE, WATCH 🔴

Trump says Egypt and Jordan will be taking in Palestinians

REPORTER: The president and the king of Jordan have both said that they, won't take in, displaced people from Gaza like you suggested. Is there anything you can do to make them do that? I mean,… pic.twitter.com/tsnQjC42fT

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) January 30, 2025

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: Now Is the Time for Peace. “We’ve seen enough war. Ukraine has certainly seen enough war. Even Russia, loath to admit it, has seen enough.”

Most weeks I take PJ Media readers on a deep dive into a topic I hope you’ll find interesting, important, or at least amusing in its absurdity. These essays are made possible by — and are exclusive to — our VIP supporters.