Posts on Friday, August 12, 2022
Manhattan renters struggling to find affordable
apartments as rent soars to record $5,000
a month replies
apartments as rent soars to record $5,000
a month replies
NEW YORK -- If you thought New York City rent couldn't go any higher, it has. The average monthly rent in Manhattan has hit a record $5,000 a month, and renters are struggling to pay it. CBS2's Natalie Duddridge bumped into Mike Dias just as he was rushing to see an apartment in Hell's Kitchen to beat the other bidders. "It's crazy right now, insane," he said. "We're trying to stay under $4k, hopefully." One couple who just moved from the West Coast to New York says they are priced out of one bedrooms, so they're looking at studios, and even
It’s hard to decide what is more outrageous: Nicaragua’s dictator Daniel Ortega’s decision to shut down seven Roman Catholic Church radio stations and hold a bishop and his aides under house arrest, or Pope Francis’ total silence about these attacks on his own people. Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, closed down the Roman Catholic radio stations on Aug. 1. They were run by the Diocese of Matagalpa, a northern Nicaragua department whose bishop, Rolando Alvarez, is a frequent critic of the ruling couple’s human-rights abuses. Hours after the radio stations’ shutdown, Ortega’s police broke into the Divine
Former CIA Director Michael Hayden seemed to endorse the execution of former president Donald Trump on Thursday after a report indicated FBI agents were searching the former president’s residence for classified documents related to nuclear weapons.
Hayden responded to a tweet on Thursday by presidential historian Michael Beschloss, who noted that Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Americans who were convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union, were “convicted for giving U.S. nuclear secrets to Moscow, and were executed June 1953.”
Hayden, who previously served as director of the National Security Agency and the CIA
The raid on President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate coincides with developments in the civil lawsuit he filed against Hillary Clinton, Perkins Coie, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Lisa Page, Peter Strzok and the entire cabal of DOJ, FBI and Clinton campaign operatives via the fake Trump-Russia collusion hoax known as ‘spygate’.
It doesn’t take a deep political analyst to look at the 108-page lawsuit, consider the evidence that would be needed to prove the lawsuit at trial, then overlay the timing of the court case and FBI raid to see both the content of the files at Mar-a-Lago and the motives of the DOJ and FBI to intercept them.
ROME — Pope Francis met a group of transsexuals in the Vatican this week, the fourth such encounter just in 2022, the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano reports.
“The pope’s attention to people who live this fragility with great suffering is opening up unimaginable hopes,” said Sister Geneviève Jeanningros and Father Andrea Conocchia, a priest and religious sister that offer pastoral care for the group.
According to L’Osservatore Romano, the nun and the parish priest summarize the meeting, which took place after the pontiff’s weekly general audience Wednesday, as “revolution and hope,” words that express the meaning of the encounter for its participants.
Yesterday Merrick Garland delivered a brief press statement, apparently feeling heat with regard to DOJ’s Mar-a-Lago raid. Garland’s unimpressive performance did nothing to quell concerns about apparent political overreach by the DOJ and the FBI, so the Biden administration tried to invest the raid with seriousness by leaking to its favorite media outlets that the raid resulted from concerns about “nuclear documents.” This upped the ante somewhat from prior leaks that attributed the raid to “classified documents.” CORRECTIONS*
On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “New Day,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the immediate impacts on inflation from the Inflation Reduction Act will be continuing Obamacare premiums that already exist right now and energy costs, although we’ll have to “get this bill passed, and then we’ll see how the mechanics and all of that’s going to work” on energy.
Co-host Brianna Keilar asked, “How does it bring it down right now, though? Americans need it right now.”
Jean-Pierre responded, “So, for ACA, those premiums, those 800 — about — average about $800 a month savings for Americans, that’s going to continue. That is something that we were fighting for
Law enforcement is investigating former president Donald Trump for removal or destruction of records, obstruction of an investigation, and violating the Espionage Act, according to the search warrant for the FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago that took place on Monday.
A federal judge unsealed the search warrant for Trump’s residence, as well as other related documents on Friday afternoon. The Justice Department revealed earlier on Friday that Trump’s lawyers would not object to the documents’ release.
Meanwhile, a list of items removed from the property shows the FBI recovered eleven sets of classified documents during the search, including some top-secret documents that should only have been available in special government facilities.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said Friday on CNN’s “Newsroom” that the Republicans’ rhetoric on the FBI’s action at Mar-a-Lago was “dangerous, despicable and disappointing.”
Harlow said, “This morning, we know a lot more about why the FBI carried out the search. The FBI sought classified documents related to nuclear weapons. The New York Times reports officials were worried leaving those documents at Mar-a-Lago could leave them vulnerable to foreign adversaries acquiring them. I wonder if the tone of rhetoric you’re hearing this morning, given all of those developments, is different now from your Republican colleagues?”
New documents related to the FBI’s raid of former President Donald Trump’s Florida home do not explicitly mention nuclear weapons secrets, which The Washington Post reported agents were seeking in the Monday search. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on Friday unsealed unredacted copies of the FBI search warrant and receipts of items taken from Mar-a-Lago Monday during an FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s residence.
Nowhere on the warrant or on the receipts of items taken are “nuclear weapons” explicitly mentioned.
American Stasi
replies
Monday's shocking images of police sirens blaring outside Mar-a-Lago, former President Donald Trump's magnificent Palm Beach, Florida, estate, will not soon be forgotten.
Much has already been said and written about the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago that precipitated those sirens: "outrageous," "unprecedented," a "crossing of the Rubicon" moment. Regrettably, all of that is true. The siccing of the national law enforcement apparatus to execute a pre-dawn raid on a top partisan rival — especially when that rival is the head of state's predecessor and perhaps-likely future opponent — is a contemptible act of raw political bloodlust.
“We believe in the rule of law. That’s what our country is about, and no person is above the law,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told “Today” show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie during a TV interview Tuesday in an attempt to justify the unprecedented FBI raid of former President Donald Trump’s Palm Beach home.
If that’s the case — that we’re all “equal” under the law, as Pelosi says — what penalties will her husband, Paul Pelosi, face for allegedly drunk driving?
In May, the speaker’s husband was arrested and charged with driving under the influence in Napa Valley. “The DUI report alleges
This could be the first step toward Attorney General Merrick Garland’s impeachment.
Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia introduced articles of impeachment targeting Garland in the House of Representatives on Friday. (snip) Greene’s impeachment resolution accuses Garland of “endangering, compromising, and undermining the justice system of the United States” by aiding in the “persecution” of former President Donald Trump.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) is apparently hoping for a federal solution to the illegal immigration problem in New York, despite the state’s Democrat officials touting the “sanctuary” status of their state as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) busses illegal immigrants to New York City.
Hochul has wholly ignored the issues caused by her state’s immigration policies, including the “Green Light law,” which allows illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), a GOP gubernatorial candidate, is among those who have called on New York to take action and cease “incentivizing” illegal entry.
“I’m not here to pass blame on a Democrat or Republican policy,” Hochul said.
Jeffrey Toobin, the veteran legal analyst and writer who has opined on cases and the courts for CNN since 2002, appears to have offered his last testimony at the Warner Bros. Discovery-backed news outlet.
In a letter sent Friday to colleagues, Toobin revealed that he is parting ways with CNN, which has backed him in good times and bad. CNN placed Toobin on leave in the fall of 2020 after he acknowledged exposing himself during a video call with staffers from The New Yorker, where he had been working since 1993.
Dual system of silence? Garland, Wray
clam up on Trump search after blabbing
about Jan. 6 probe replies
clam up on Trump search after blabbing
about Jan. 6 probe replies
Stoic like a judge delivering a verdict from the bench, Attorney General Merrick Garland declared Thursday he was playing things by the book and wouldn't talk about the raid and ongoing investigation of former President Donald Trump.
"The Department of Justice will speak through its court filings and its work," he said, declining to answer any of the multitude of questions Americans have, except that he approved the Monday raid on the 45th president's home and doesn't object to releasing the search warrant.
Garland, however, was hardly as tight-lipped about the other major ongoing investigation that has consumed his department: the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
ALBANY — New York has amended several state laws to remove the word “inmate” and replace it with “incarcerated person” to refer to people serving prison time. The changes, signed into law Monday by Gov. Kathy Hochul, are intended to reduce the stigma of being in jail. Prison reform advocates have said the term “inmate” has a dehumanizing effect. Prisoners say it can feel degrading when jail guards refer to them as inmates, especially in front of their families during in-person visits. “Language matters,” said state Sen. Gustavo Rivera, a Bronx Democrat who sponsored the bill. “This is another concrete
Breaking: Biden Admin Launches Federal
Investigation Into Southern Baptist Convention,
Church Says replies
Investigation Into Southern Baptist Convention,
Church Says replies
President Joe Biden’s (D) administration has reportedly launched an investigation into the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) over its handling of alleged scandals within the church.
The SBC is the largest protestant faith group in the United States and is among the most politically conservative as 64% of the church’s members are Republican, according to a report from Pew Research Center.
“The SBC Executive Committee recently became aware that the Department of Justice has initiated an investigation into the Southern Baptist Convention, and that the investigation will include multiple SBC entities,”
From the moment Donald Trump came down the escalator to formally step onto the political stage, America’s leading establishment figures have misjudged what was happening. Most still refuse to think deeply about what drove such massive popularity for Trump. Some of it was his focus on issues, such as extended wars in the Middle East and a lack of border security, where there was a growing chasm between voters’ desires and politicians’ priorities.
The search warrant for the raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home on Monday suggests he is being investigated under the Espionage Act of 1917 — the same law that Hillary Clinton was suspected of violating in 2016.
Attorney General Merrick Garland admitted Thursday that he personally approved the warrant application, which seeks broad discretion to search Trump’s home based on three statutes: 18 U.S.C. section 793, on the mishandling of defense information; 18 U.S.C. section 1519, relating to the destruction of federal documents; and 18 U.S.C. section 2071, which punishes hiding, moving, or destroying federal documents.
The House passed Democrats’ massive spending package on Friday in a 220-207 vote.
The bill, which received support from every House Democrat, comes nearly one week after Senate Democrats passed the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” on Sunday in a party-line vote using budget reconciliation, which allows a measure to pass with a simple majority rather than needing to meet a 60-vote threshold.
The bill now heads to President Biden’s desk for final approval.
The legislation is essentially a pared down version of President Biden’s Build Back Better package
New York State Police have identified the suspect in Friday's stabbing of novelist Salman Rushdie as a New Jersey man who allegedly had 'sympathies toward the Iranian government.'
Rushdie, whose novel 'The Satanic Verses' drew death threats from Iran's leader in the 1980s, remained in surgery Friday evening hours after being stabbed up to 15 times by a man who rushed the stage as the author was about to give a lecture in western New York.
Authorities confirmed that Hadi Matar, 24, from New Jersey, had been arrested and was being held at state barracks in Jamestown, NY, close to where the literary event took place.
Key Democrat's Threat Makes Perfect Case
for Why Republicans Must Retake the House
in November replies
for Why Republicans Must Retake the House
in November replies
If there were ever a clearer red-flag warning why the Democrat majority in the House of Representatives must be unceremoniously kicked to the curb in the November midterm elections, I cannot recall it. But I am surprised that a key Democrat just purposely issued a beauty — for multiple reasons.
Democratic Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts, the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, suggested that the House would increase tax rates if his party remains in power following the upcoming midterm elections this fall, according to a congressional reporter. (Tweet)
California is set to become the first state in the nation to implement a program offering free meals for all students.
In the coming school year, the Universal Meals program will ensure children may eat for free while they are on their school’s campus, ABC 7 reported Thursday.
“The program is a part of Assembly Bill 130 signed into law by Governor Newsom last July,” the outlet said.
California’s Universal Meals Program will build on the federal National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP), the state’s Department of Education website reads:
The search warrant used to execute the raid on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home earlier this week revealed the ex-president is currently under federal investigation for obstruction of justice and violations of the Espionage Act, USA Supreme has confirmed.
The shocking revelation was made Friday afternoon after Trump’s legal team failed to oppose a motion previously made by the Dept. of Justice to unseal a copy of the search warrant used to raid his Palm Beach, Florida estate on Monday.
According to Politico, who obtained and reviewed a copy of the newly released search warrant,
British author Salman Rushdie, whose writings have made him the target of Iranian death threats, underwent emergency surgery Friday after being repeatedly stabbed in the neck at a literary event in New York state.
Rushdie was rushed by helicopter to hospital and taken into surgery, his agent Andrew Wylie said in a statement, pledging to provide an update on his condition as soon as possible.
Social media footage showed people administering emergency medical care onstage immediately after the attack. The interviewer also suffered a head injury.
A suspect was taken into custody by police, who gave no immediate details about his identity or probable motive.
Human Events has obtained a copy of the search warrant filed to search former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. That warrant was filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida, and details information about the property and the search.
The warrant details the address and locations to be searched, including that “The locations to be searched include the ‘45 Office,’ all storage rooms, and all other rooms or areas within the premises used or available to be used by FPOTUS and his staff and in which boxes or documents could be stored, including all structures or buildings on the estate.”
Anne Heche died Friday following a fiery car crash that left her in a coma for a week — with her rep confirming that she is “brain dead,” making her legally dead under California law.
Heche died at a Los Angeles-area hospital, her rep said in a statement Friday. She was 53.
“We have lost a bright light, a kind and most joyful soul, a loving mother, and a loyal friend,” the statement said.
“Anne will be deeply missed but she lives on through her beautiful sons, her iconic body of work, and her passionate advocacy. Her bravery for always standing in her truth, spreading her message of love and acceptance,
The US actor Anne Heche has died, a week after she was critically injured in a car crash.
The news was confirmed by a representative for her family to the US online media outlet TMZ, who said in a statement: “We have lost a bright light, a kind and most joyful soul, a loving mother, and a loyal friend.
“Anne will be deeply missed but she lives on through her beautiful sons, her iconic body of work, and her passionate advocacy. Her bravery for always standing in her truth, spreading her message of love and acceptance, will continue to have a lasting impact.”
On Friday afternoon representatives for Heche,
House Republicans demanded the Department of Justice now release not just the warrant used to raid Mar-a-Lago but the highly detailed accompanying affidavit.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday he would ask a judge to unseal the warrant, barring former President Trump's objection. Trump released a statement Friday calling for the warrant to be released immediately.
But the government has not yet taken steps to release the affidavit used in support of the warrant, which would reveal in further detail the broad investigation into Trump.
The warrant that authorized the search of former President Donald Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago shows it was issued by U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart on Aug. 5, 2022, at 12:12 p.m.—nearly three full days before the Justice Department and FBI conducted a raid to execute it.
The raid did not occur until the morning of Aug. 8, 2022, when federal agents from the FBI arrived at Mar-a-Lago to execute the search warrant.
The document, obtained and reviewed by Breitbart News, shows that the DOJ and FBI waited several days after Reinhart approved the warrant to conduct the raid, something that severely undercuts the talking points issued by Attorney General Merrick Garland
RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia author’s investigative effort to uncover the origins of a racist photo on Ralph Northam’s medical school yearbook page has ended inconclusively, according to the author, who has written a book that offers new details about the 2019 scandal and the former governor’s remarkable political survival. “Of course, I would like to have determined exactly who was in the photograph. And I gave that my best effort,” Margaret Edds, a retired journalist and the author of “What the Eyes Can’t See,” told The Associated Press ahead of the book’s November publication. Although Edds — like journalists
The trail of corruption and abuse stretches the length of the Great Wall of China by this point. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is out of control. Has the Russian collusion hoax not exposed how far agents and employees at the Department of Justice will go to undermine a duly elected president? There was election interference in 2016 and 2020, but the source was domestic, not foreign. It wasn’t the Russians but those working in the J. Edgar Hoover Building. Trump being smeared as a Kremlin agent was the first salvo, but in 2020, the Hunter Biden laptop came out in October of that year—threatening Joe Biden’s election chances.
In the murk of the #MeToo movement, Disney, the largest entertainment producer in the world, seemed to come out relatively unscathed.(Snip)But its squeaky-clean image was soiled this week with the admission by maverick heiress Abigail Disney that not only did the company know about Harvey Weinstein's prolific sexual abuse, it did nothing about it and may have even helped him pay off women who came forward. 'It was an open secret. I mean, it wasn't even a secret. Everyone knew what Harvey was about, and that was just fine as long as everybody saw it as, "well, this is just how business is done." 'Nobody had the moral
Years ago, I heard that Romans punished murderers by forcing them to carry the corpse of their victims on their backs for as long as it took for them to become infected and die. True or not, that’s the picture I get with Republicans like Bill Barr, Dick Cheney, Mitch McConnell and many others who are so determined to cling to the party’s old ways while cultural and political earthquakes are threatening to destroy America as we know it. When Trump came along as a no-nonsense outsider with a passion for winning “big league,” political curmudgeons were so enslaved to the status quo
“What a night!” Elizabeth Warren said.
It was past 3 a.m. on Iowa Caucus Night and we were barreling through the air from DesMoines to Manchester. At the back of the plane, the press corps was exhausted, contorted into resting positions in our seats but too scared to fall asleep for fear that the candidate would come to the back of the plane. And then there she was, coming right toward me, clad in a dark blue campaign-branded hoodie and brandishing party-size bags of Smartfood popcorn and Doritos.
Despite positive inflation data this week, Richmond Federal Reserve President Thomas Barkin said Friday that more interest rate increases will be needed to tamp down price pressures. Releases this week showing that consumer and wholesale price increases softened in July were “very welcome,” Barkin told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” in a live interview. “So we’re happy to see inflation start to move down,” he added. But he noted that, “I’d like to see a period of sustained inflation under control, and until we do that I think we’re just going to have to continue to move rates into restrictive territory.”
With the FBI’s recent raid on one of the homes of former President Donald Trump, the federal justice system in America has sunk below the level of third-world countries, according to Kash Patel, a former national security official in the Trump administration.
The FBI executed a search warrant at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida on Aug. 8 looking for White House documents Trump may have taken with him when leaving office, a lawyer for Trump told The Epoch Times. Trump said he’s been cooperating with law enforcement for months and there was no need for a raid.
FBI agents seized classified records from former President Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago during its unprecedented raid on Monday, including some marked as top secret, according to documents reviewed by Fox News.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart signed the warrant on Aug. 5, giving the FBI authority to conduct its search "on or before August 19, 2022," and "in the daytime 6:00 am. to 10:00 p.m."
"The locations to be searched include the ‘45 Office,' all storage rooms, and all other rooms or areas within the premises used or available to be used by FPOTUS and his staff and in which boxes or documents could be stored, including all structures or buildings
The FBI recovered 11 sets of classified documents — including some marked top secret and only meant to be available in special government facilities — from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate following its raid earlier this week, according to a new report.
The Wall Street Journal, citing a leaked inventory of what was taken from the Palm Beach resort, reported that agents removed around 20 boxes as well as a handwritten note, binders of photos, and Trump’s clemency grant to his longtime adviser Roger Stone.
"These are dark times for our nation," former President Donald Trump declared in response to the FBI's Monday morning raid on his Mar-a-Lago club and private residence in Palm Beach, Florida. He compared the event to "an assault" that "could only take place in broken, Third-World countries." Startled during the slow summer season, when Mar-a-Lago is closed and Trump resides at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, the staff complied with a search warrant. Ostensibly, the warrant applied to documents that Trump is alleged to have improperly removed from the White House in possible violation of the Presidential Records Act, which requires official records to be transferred to
Another major American company is raising prices again, but this time, don't blame inflation.
Disney is increasing the price on its streaming products and signaled that a price hike could be in the works at its theme parks as well. On Wednesday, the company said the price of Disney+ without ads is jumping $3 per month to $10.99 starting Dec. 8. Hulu with ads will increase by $1 per month to $7.99, and Hulu without ads will jump $2 per month to $14.99. Then on Thursday, Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Chapek indicated to CNBC's Julia Boorstin that a price increase will likely happen at theme parks
I have to say, I’m kind of enjoying this whole Trump-FBI raid news cycle. It’s so patently absurd, but like a badly written TV show, you just feel like you’ve got to see through until the end.
On Thursday, AG Merrick Garland finally spoke out while not really saying anything at all. He did agree to unseal the warrant used for the raid of Trump’s home, but he gave no details about what the FBI was after and what evidence they supposedly had to undergird their actions. It felt like an attempt to downplay the ordeal. Had the FBI failed to find what it was looking for?
Then the leaks started.
The American Bar Association on Monday axed a proposal to require law schools to "diversify" their student bodies after more than a year of warnings from law professors that the plan would force schools to violate federal law.
The proposal, first released in May 2021, would have required law schools to submit annual progress reports on minority enrollment to the American Bar Association. Law schools that failed to boost the enrollment of "underrepresented groups" would have been at risk of losing their accreditation.
A major breakthrough in nuclear fusion has been confirmed a year after it was achieved at a laboratory in California.
Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's (LLNL's) National Ignition Facility (NIF) recorded the first case of ignition on August 8, 2021, the results of which have now been published in three peer-reviewed papers. (snip) If we could harness this reaction to generate electricity, it would be one of the most efficient and least polluting sources of energy possible. No fossil fuels would be required as the only fuel would be hydrogen, and the only by-product would be helium, which we use in industry and are actually in short supply of.
Harry Potter author JK Rowling has ridiculed the Globe Theatre's portrayal of Joan of Arc as non-binary after women's rights campaigners said the switch was 'insulting and damaging'. (snip) It came after a Twitter user criticised The Globe's new I, Joan production.
Her remark of 'Coming next: Napoleon was a woman because he was defeated at Waterloo' was liked by Ms Rowling on the social media timeline.
It came moments after Heather Binning from Women's Rights Network told MailOnline the play was damaging to women.
Chris Wallace, the long-forgotten sufferer of narcissism and TDS, can’t be too pleased with his fading legacy at Fox News. His old stomping grounds, the studio at Fox News Sunday, has named Shannon Bream as his permanent replacement, all but ensuring his total erasure.
Bream is the complete package and in her first show will cement the clueless Wallace as completely obsolete. Gorgeous, talented, insightful, and unlike Wallace, someone who puts America first. She has a no-nonsense approach that seeks truth above ideology, something Wallace also lost the ability to do long ago.
Author Salman Rushdie was attacked at a literary event in upstate New York Friday, when an assailant stormed the stage soon after his introduction.
The man proceeded to punch or stab Rushdie, who was scheduled to talk at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, N.Y., some 75 miles south of Buffalo. (Photos) Rushdie’s work earned him death threats from the Iranian government in the 1980s, and his book “The Satanic Verses” was banned in the country in 1988.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
“Get stuff done”? Hardly, as Politico reports this morning on Eric Adams’ attempts to deflect his own failures onto Greg Abbott. Texas has sent perhaps a few hundred illegal immigrants into New York City for the “sanctuary” that Mayor Adams proudly proclaimed last year, which Adams now blames for a breakdown in services to the homeless.
That’s nonsense, reports Janaki Chadha. New York City’s shelter system began breaking down when Adams took office, and Adams hasn’t gotten any “stuff done” to resolve it — except to shift blame to Texas:
New York City’s sprawling network of homeless shelters are bursting at the seams as rents skyrocket, evictions accelerate and a new mandate
One of the main reasons why the left’s propaganda is so effective with so many is the ability to stick to a script in order to present a uniform narrative across media outlets with talking heads all regurgitating the same talking points, and a perfect example is the aftermath of the FBI’s storming of former President Donald J. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
Following initial confusion and outrage over the extreme escalation in the regime’s political war against the leading candidate of the opposition party, those whose livelihoods depend on their being able to sell falsehoods and distortions to the public clearly got the memo and Grabien Media founder Tom Elliott put together
I have to say, I’m kind of enjoying this whole Trump-FBI raid news cycle. It’s so patently absurd, but like a badly written TV show, you just feel like you’ve got to see through until the end. On Thursday, AG Merrick Garland finally spoke out while not really saying anything at all. He did agree to unseal the warrant used for the raid of Trump’s home, but he gave no details about what the FBI was after and what evidence they supposedly had to undergird their actions. It felt like an attempt to downplay the ordeal. Had the FBI failed to find what it was looking for?
Then the leaks started
Anti-Trumpers on social media are thrilled outraged at the possibility that former President Donald Trump kept important documentation regarding America’s nuclear weapons at Mar-a-Lago. After The Washington Post published an article reporting that “[c]lassified documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the items FBI agents sought in a search of former president Donald Trump’s Florida residence on Monday,” Trump haters issued a barrage of hot takes on the matter, hoping this component of the story would be one of several smoking guns that will finally take down the Orange Man What Is Bad™.
The FBI raid of former President Donald Trump's Florida estate sparked backlash from extreme right-wing users on internet forums against a Florida magistrate judge who approved the unprecedented search, prompting concerns about judicial security from law enforcement in the Palm Beach area.
Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, who is believed to have signed the still-sealed FBI warrant approving the bureau’s Monday raid at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, has been subject to antisemitic attacks, disclosure of where he allegedly lives, and threats against his family on pro-Trump online social media forums, including the message board formerly known as "TheDonald.win."
New York City welcomed another busload of 89 immigrants from Texas today, including one family with a child as young as one.
An ambulance was sent to wait at Port Authority for the migrants as one passenger is 'very, very sick' and needs medical attention.
Those on the bus have been tested for COVID and there have been 'a number of positive tests,' says Manuel Castro, who works in the NYC Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs.
Nearly three quarters of DailyMail.com readers said in a poll they did not approve of the FBI raid on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, which drew fierce criticism from the former president and his fellow Republicans.
Over two days, 19,358 readers cast their votes. Only 28 percent said they approved of the search, while a large majority — 72 percent — objected. There is still time to have your say by voting in the box below. This week's raid prompted outrage from Trump, his Republican colleagues and supporters who rallied near the estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Thursday announced a program to help U.S. veterans to become teachers in the Sunshine State, explaining that it is fitting to have those “who took an oath and put his or her life on the line to preserve, protect, and defend our flag and the freedom it represents” to teach the next generation.
“We begin the new school year. Florida’s leading the way by bringing some of the best, the brightest, and the bravest among us into our classrooms through a new program that helps military veterans become teachers,” DeSantis announced.
In the past few weeks, I have received numerous inquiries about ten-year Navy veteran William Henry Teele III. After years of quietly providing information to me and other investigators into the July 1996 destruction of TWA Flight 800 off the coast of Long Island, Teele has gone public and is naming names.
After considerable public pressure, missing-in-action U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland finally addressed the media yesterday, saying he “personally approved the decision” for the FBI to execute a search warrant at President Trump's residence at Mar-a-Lago. Garland declined to provide details about the investigation, such as what the documents retrieved by the FBI were.
Reading from his text Garland piously intoned:
"Faithful adherence to the rule of law is the bedrock principle of the Justice Department and of our democracy.
President Donald Trump on Friday ridiculed a report suggesting he had classified documents about nuclear weapons at his home at Mar-a-Lago, which prompted the FBI raid on Monday.
“Nuclear weapons issue is a Hoax, just like Russia, Russia, Russia was a Hoax, two Impeachments were a Hoax, the Mueller investigation was a Hoax, and much more,” Trump wrote on social media.
The Washington Post cited “people familiar with the investigation,” who claimed the FBI was searching Trump’s home for “classified documents relating to nuclear weapons.”
No other details were provided.
Donald Trump claims it is a 'hoax' to suggest FBI agents were looking for documents related to nuclear weapons when they searched Mar-a-Lago on Monday, while a new report suggested dozens of boxes with top secret files were found scattered over the property.
The former president took to Truth Social on Friday morning to compare the latest allegations to 'Russia, Russia, Russia', impeachment and the Steele Dossier, and again suggested that law enforcement could have 'planted' evidence.
A report from News Nation then claimed that agents discovered 'boxes everywhere', including some papers labeled top secrets, from two areas including a 'storage room near a pool' and his 'personal office above a ballroom'.
“I honestly feel we should not play the national anthem during our season,” WNBA superstar Brittney Griner said in a 2020 interview with the Arizona Republic. “I think we should take that much of a stand.”
Griner is now serving nine years in a Russian penal colony for drug possession.
One might now ask what kind of a “stand” was Griner wanting to take? More importantly, what kind of “stand” should we take regarding a pro athlete who enjoyed her oppression in America so much that she became fabulously wealthy and had the freedom to marry a female spouse — something that she might be arrested for in Russia?
For a party that is desperately trying to retain Latino voters who are fleeing to Republicans ahead of midterms, let's just paraphrase President Trump a bit about Democrat outreach efforts to these voters with "they are not sending their best."
Actually, it's one blunder after another from the Democrats in their Latino outreach, each of which amounts to an insult more likely to repel than attract Latino voters to the Democrats.
The latest was in Arizona, as reported by the Washington Free Beacon:
A new Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ad aimed at wooing Latinos says Democrats
Susan Arnold, writing at Townhall, August 11, reported that Republican support for Donald J. Trump to seek a second term as president increased, significantly, in the aftermath of the FBI swoop-down on his Mar-a-Lago home, August 8. What if this is just as Democrat Machiavellians figured? What if the Democrat political masterminds (definitely not including our hapless president) believe that their best chance to hold the presidency in 2025 would be if Donald J. Trump is the GOP candidate in 2024?
Think about it. The Democrats, by now — those who direct party strategy — know Mr. Trump inside-out.
A Washington Post report claiming that FBI agents were searching for classified documents related to nuclear weapons during their raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, was met with extreme skepticism and derision on social media Thursday night.
The report comes as the Biden Department of Justice weathers massive political fallout due to the raid, which looked to many Americans like a weaponized DOJ going after Joe Biden’s primary political opponent.
“The FBI and DOJ look corrupt and stupid after the presser so they immediately leak some unfalsifiable nonsense to The Washington Post, and people just lap it up,” said a RedState reporter on Twitter.
The irony has been remarkable from the moment the Brittney Griner Saga began in February. Griner, the multimillionaire professional women’s basketball player who became phenomenally wealthy in America, showed complete disdain for her homeland when she was living here. She refused to even enter sporting arenas until after our National Anthem was played.
Griner, who is both black and lesbian, objected to the imaginary systemic racism that Democrats and their media fed her. She was vocal in her defiance and suggested that we shouldn’t even be playing the National Anthem before sporting events.
Former President Donald Trump has once again done the improbable: He has turned a possible federal criminal investigation into a political positive.
In the days since the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago, Trump has rallied the Republican Party behind him to a degree not seen since he was in the White House, once again sucking all the oxygen out of the room for other Republicans who might want to run for president in 2024 or are on the ballot in other races this year.
The big question is whether Trump can sustain this momentum as more information about the FBI search is made public, including what exactly the bureau was looking for,
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said Thursday she is “ashamed” that Republicans are questioning the FBI’s credibility after it raided former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.
“I have been ashamed to hear members of my party attacking the integrity of the FBI agents involved with the recent Mar-a-Lago search,” she claimed. “These are sickening comments that put the lives of patriotic public servants at risk.” Cheney’s remarks follow multiple investigations into Trump, including the Russia hoax and two impeachment trials. Before that, the FBI looked the other way in 2016 regarding Hillary Clinton’s 33,000 acid-washed emails.
FBI, R.I.P?
replies
The FBI is dissolving before our eyes into a rogue security service akin to those in Eastern Europe during the Cold War.
Take the FBI's deliberately asymmetrical application of the law. This week the bureau surprise-raided the home of former President Donald Trump -- an historical first.
A massive phalanx of FBI agents swooped into the Trump residence while he was not home, to confiscate his personal property, safe, and records. All of this was over an archival dispute of presidential papers common to many former presidents. Agents swarmed the entire house, including the wardrobe closet of the former first lady.
Note we are less than 90 days out from a midterm election
President Trump released a statement late Thursday night calling for the release of the “documents” involved in the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago Monday. Trump was responding to Attorney General Merrick Garland saying earlier the Justice Department was filing in court to unseal the search warrant and inventory of seized items but not the supporting affidavits for the search warrant. – August 11, 2022 –
Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America
Not only will I not oppose the release of documents related to the unAmerican, unwarranted, and unnecessary raid and break-in of my home in Palm Beach, Florida, Mar-a-Lago, I am going a step further
President Biden’s popularity is sagging even further in blue-leaning New York, according to a new poll that also has Republican Lee Zeldin in striking distance of Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.
The same survey shows more voters prefer someone else to re-electing Democratic incumbent Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
The survey of 600 likely voters conducted from Aug. 7-9 and commissioned by GOP businessman John Jordan and consultant Dick Morris shows that just 44% approve of Biden’s performance and 52% disapprove
Defund The FBI!
replies
No, that headline’s not a joke. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, once so popular it had its own TV show solely dedicated to its heroics, has become a hyper-politicized, jackbooted bully that no longer serves the American people or the U.S. Constitution, which its employees are sworn to protect. It has become, instead, the intelligence arm and domestic enforcer of the far left.
Did we say defund? Yes. But we don’t mean simply to cut its funding, as leftists have disastrously proposed for police forces across the country. We mean tear down the entire rotting edifice of the FBI and replacing it with a new agency that respects the Constitution
The Democrats’ new reconciliation bill isn’t just going to be the largest-ever expansion of a government agency. It’s going to be the largest expansion of the domestic police state in American history. Only a statist could believe that a federal government, which already collects $4.1 trillion every year — or $12,300 for every citizen — supposedly needs 80 battalions of new IRS cops. The average American has less reason to be concerned about cops with guns — though the IRS is looking for special agents who can “carry a firearm and be willing to use deadly force, if necessary” — than they do bureaucrats armed with
Anne Heche is “not expected to survive” her horrific car crash.
The actress’ rep told Page Six Thursday night that she “suffered a severe anoxic brain injury” due to the accident and “remains in a coma” at the Grossman Burn Center at West Hills Hospital and Medical Center in California. “It has long been her choice to donate her organs,” her spokesperson shared, adding that she “is being kept on life support to determine if any are viable.”
Heche’s rep thanked the actress’ fans “for their kind wishes and prayers” as well as “the dedicated staff and wonderful nurses” who have cared for her since the Aug. 5 wreck.
Former President Trump said late Thursday he would not oppose the release of a warrant authorizing the FBI to search his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
Driving the news: Responding to Attorney General Merrick Garland's request to a federal court earlier Thursday to unseal parts of the warrant that he confirmed he "personally approved," Trump said a statement: "Release the documents now!"
What he's saying: "Not only will I not oppose the release of documents related to the unAmerican, unwarranted, and unnecessary raid … I am going a step further by ENCOURAGING the immediate release of those documents," Trump said.
Washington - Former President Donald Trump called late Thursday for the “immediate” release of the federal warrant the FBI used to search his Florida estate, hours after the Justice Department had asked a court to unseal the warrant, with Attorney General Merrick Garland citing the “substantial public interest in this matter.” In messages posted on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote, “Not only will I not oppose the release of documents … I am going a step further by ENCOURAGING the immediate release of those documents.” He continued to assail the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago as “unAmerican, unwarranted and unnecessary.”
“Release the documents now!” he wrote.
A plurality of Americans say immigration is making the country “Worse off.”
The polling data reveals a large 28-point shift since late 2019 in public judgment about the value of the government’s decades-long policy of pulling economic migrants into Americans’ society. Thirty-five percent of the respondents said immigration makes the United States “Worse off,” while 31 percent said immigration makes the U.S. “Better off,” according to the July 23-26 poll of 1,500 citizens. “The number of Americans who believe that immigration has made the United States worse off has nearly doubled in less than three years, while the percentage who thought it made America better off dropped by nearly a quarter,”
Multiple polls show that vulnerable Democrats across the country are in danger of losing reelection three months from the midterm elections.
The poll for Nevada’s Third Congressional District showed that the incumbent, Rep. Susie Lee (D), would lose to her Republican challenger, April Becker, according to an RMG Research poll of 400 likely midterm voters in the district from July 23 to 29. The poll’s margin of error was plus or minus 5.7 percent. April Becker: 44 percentSusie Lee: 41 percentWould not vote: 4 percentNot sure: 11 percent
The poll for Iowa’s Third Congressional District showed that the incumbent, Rep. Cindy Axne (D), would lose to her Republican challenger, Iowa state Sen. Zach Nunn, according to an RMG Research
I wrote earlier about how outraged Americans have been by the FBI raid on President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. It was a grievous mistake that awakened the sleeping giant. The new Trafalgar/COSProject poll shows that it has increased the desire of Republicans and independents to vote and the majority of those people believe this is an action against Trump by his political enemies. That was also a poll weighted toward Democrats, so it was all the more significant. As the president of Convention of States Action Mark Meckler explained in a statement about the poll, “This gestapo-style injustice has created a voting surge that is so significant, the polling doesn’t
There is much to be said about the FBI’s raid on Donald Trump’s home. I won’t try to say it all here. These are a few observations, based on what we know currently:
* To get a search warrant, you have to identify a crime that has been committed, and explain how evidence you are looking for is relevant to that crime. At this point, we don’t know what purported crime was the basis for the Mar-a-Lago search warrant.
* Earlier today, Attorney General Merrick Garland delivered a brief statement to the press, and declined to take questions. He looked remarkably nervous and said hardly anything. Only two points
Democrats may be chortling about Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Largo home being searched by the FBI, but you have to wonder how happy they’ll be in January 2023 when the new Republican House majority uses the full scope of its power to investigate Hunter Biden’s influence-peddling and his father’s furthering his son’s crooked business interests. My guess is that there won’t be a lot of jolliness from Democrats once Hunter and Joe’s dirty laundry is aired.
Democrats will claim that the GOP’s sudden interest in Hunter Biden is hypocritical because they never bothered to investigate Trump’s kids when he was in office. The difference is simple: Trump’s kids weren’t trying to sell access
New York - The nation’s top public health agency relaxed its COVID-19 guidelines Thursday, dropping the recommendation that Americans quarantine themselves if they come into close contact with an infected person.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also said people no longer need to stay at least 6 feet away from others.
The changes, which come more than 2 1/2 years after the start of the pandemic, are driven by a recognition that an estimated 95% of Americans 16 and older have acquired some level of immunity, either from being vaccinated or infected, agency officials said.
“The current conditions of this pandemic are very different from those of the last two years,”