Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Young French conservative women push back against the Islamization of their beloved Europe


When leftwing outlet Dazed Magazine published its Winter 2023 issue, the front cover depicted three young Muslim women in quasi-Islamic dress—one woman wore solid blue, the next wore solid white, and the last wore solid red for a sort of French flag mimicry stunt—with a caption that read “Togetherness: Resistance in France”. (Now I saw “quasi-Islamic” because I’m pretty sure 4-inch stilettos and head-to-toe red garb would warrant an honor killing in certain parts of the Islamic world.) See below:

And here is the lede for the feature article:

In France, where the secular state is a source of historical pride, Muslim women are being shut out from society by politicians who pander shamelessly to the far right. Now, they are taking the fight for bodily autonomy into their own hands…

The essay focused on the French government’s “abaya ban” and included a number of “glamor” shots of other young Muslim women in, again, quasi-Islamic dress: haute couture designers like Balenciaga, Gucci, and Saint Laurent aren’t your typical producers of abayas, and Prada heels and skintight spandex don’t exactly convey modesty.

As noted in the lede, the narrative pushed by Dazed is that the “far right” is driving a discriminatory agenda to “shut out” Muslim women from society—but the abaya ban came about thanks to a far-left government, and it’s something that Emmanuel Macron, France’s president and free-for-all migration advocate, explicitly supports. It’s inaccurate to describe any cultural pushback as emanating from the “far right” because in reality, those who support making France great again are just normal French people who don’t want to see a thriving Western culture obliterated by Sharia-loving jihadis. Islamization always ushers in cultural degradation; crime, violence, oppression, chaos always accompany the introduction of third-world mentality muslims into a Western society.

The girls who defied the ban are painted as “resistance” fighters standing up to oppression (the irony), but I’d like to introduce you to the women who actually deserve a round of applause for their resolute patriotism, via an articleat RAIR Foundation:

In a bold response to the recent front-page feature of Dazed, a left-wing fashion magazine promoting sharia clothing, the Némésis collective, a group of French female conservative activists, has voiced its strong opposition.

…

In response, the Némésis collective organized a photo shoot featuring three French women, each adorned in the national colors of France, symbolizing their love and respect for French culture and values. This move was intended to juxtapose their vision of French femininity and freedom against the backdrop of the Dazed feature, which glorifies a tool of submission under sharia law.

See the two covers, juxtaposed below:


I have to iterate, perhaps my favorite touch was the cured sausages (pork) displayed prominently across the table—bravo!



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X22, And we Know, and more- December 13

 




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As Trump Lead Widens, Prosecutors Step Up Pursuit


Two things are true: One, former President Donald Trump's polling -- nationally, in key swing states, and in the first-voting state of Iowa -- has never been better. And two, Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed by the Biden Justice Department to prosecute Trump, is taking self-described "extraordinary" measures in a rush to put Trump on trial before the 2024 presidential election. The two things are not unrelated. And nothing could more effectively illustrate the contrast between Trump's rising political fortunes and the administration's effort to imprison him before the election.

Start with the Iowa polling. The new Des Moines Register poll, considered quite reliable, showed Trump extending his lead to 32 points over second-place Ron DeSantis, with Nikki Haley in third place. The pollster called Trump's lead "commanding" and noted that the shrinking GOP field, which was supposed to help Trump's opposition, "may have made Donald Trump even stronger than he was." The Iowa caucuses are now a little less than five weeks away.

As far as the key swing states are concerned, CNN released a new general election poll showing Trump leading President Joe Biden in head-to-head matchups in Georgia and Michigan. Biden, of course, won both states in 2020, but the CNN pollsters found Trump with a five-point lead in Georgia, and a 10-point lead in Michigan. As for the national polling, the Wall Street Journal released a new survey showing that Trump not only leads Biden in a one-on-one contest -- 47% to 43%. It is safe to say that in the last year of campaigning, Trump has never been in a stronger position. If that wasn't clear before Monday, when the polls were released, it is certainly clear now.

Also on Monday, Jack Smith, the Justice Department-appointed special counsel who is prosecuting Trump on 40 felony counts in the classified documents case and four felony counts in the Jan. 6/2020 election case, filed what he acknowledged was an "extraordinary request" with the Supreme Court in the election matter. Smith asked the court to shortcut normal procedure and get involved immediately in adjudicating Trump's contention that as a former president, he is immune from prosecution for things he did as president, or at least immune because he was previously impeached and acquitted.

Trump originally made the argument before U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the Jan. 6/2020 election case. She rejected Trump's argument. Now, Trump has the right to appeal. Normally, he would appeal to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The case would be assigned to a three-judge panel which would rule on the matter. If Trump lost again, he might ask that all the judges on the court consider the case. If he lost again, he could appeal to the Supreme Court.

Trump is fully within his rights to ask for those appeals, especially since the question he is presenting -- immunity for a former president -- has never been decided by any court. But the process takes time. Months and months will go by. Chutkan has scheduled Trump's trial to begin on March 4. If Chutkan can stay on that schedule, she can keep Trump locked down in a courtroom for a significant part of the Republican primary process, and then perhaps, if he is convicted by an all-D.C. jury, jail the former president by the time the general election campaign's final leg begins on Labor Day.

From former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy: "Under federal law, Trump will have to attend his trial every day. Combined, the felony charges carry a statutory minimum prison term of 55 years. A conviction on even one count is likely to call for an incarceration sentence under the federal guidelines. Hence, if Trump is convicted, he faces the very real possibility of being ordered to begin serving a prison term during the campaign stretch run. (If Trump were convicted in May, he'd likely be sentenced in August. The presumption in federal law is against bail pending appeal.)"

As far as Smith is concerned, a normal Supreme Court appeals process would mess everything up. Trial could not start on March 4, there would be no verdict in May, and Trump would not be in jail by Labor Day. The whole thing might stretch into 2025. So Smith has asked the Supreme Court to jump in and take the appeal directly, skipping the whole court of appeals process. "The United States recognizes that this is an extraordinary request," Smith wrote. "This is an extraordinary case. The Court should [take the case] and set a briefing schedule that would permit this case to be argued and resolved as promptly as possible."

Why the rush? Although Smith says the case is of "paramount" and "imperative" public importance, he never says exactly why. Perhaps some will think that is obvious: Trump is a former president accused of crimes, and there has never been such a case before in U.S. history. But why does that mean the case must be speeded through the courts? Smith does not say, but the reason seems clear: Smith is in a hurry because he has very little time to try the case and imprison Trump before the 2024 election. He just can't come out and say it that way; if he did, he would highlight the fundamentally political nature of the prosecution.

Smith's Jan. 6/2020 election case is Trump's adversaries' best hope of finding Trump guilty of something before the election. If you are die-hard Resistance or Never Trumper hoping to see the former president behind bars before the 2024 election, your best hope is the Jan. 6/2020 case. But that won't happen unless the Supreme Court grants Smith his "extraordinary request" and speeds up the schedule.

And the day Smith hurried to the court just happened to be the day the public received all sorts of new indications of Trump's strength in the presidential race. National, swing state, early state -- he's doing very well in them all, against Republican primary opponents and against President Joe Biden.

It's always prudent to note that the election is still 11 1/2 months away and that everything could change between now and then. And what might change? Perhaps some Democrats and other Trump opponents won't say it so bluntly, but their hope is that convicting Trump of felonies, and actually putting him behind bars, will finally put an end to his bid for another term in the White House.

People get caught up in the details and sometimes lose sight of the big picture. But the big picture is this: The current administration is trying to imprison its chief political opponent before the next election. One side thinks this is entirely reasonable, and the other side thinks it is what Andrew McCarthy called "a dangerous, norm-breaking precedent." Whatever you think, that is what is happening.



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Is Joe Biden really just a loving father, or something else?


The public is supposed to get rid of common sense and disconnect all brain functions when they hear Joe Biden lie about his son Hunter and the family business.  

The media and other Democrats cover for him by regurgitating that there is no evidence he had knowledge of, participated in, or benefitted from Hunter's shady business dealings which was solely about collecting money because his name was Biden. 

We are supposed to believe that:

No matter how many trips Joe took Hunter on, on the taxpayer dime, to meet with and collect kickbacks from, that not once did Joe ever say a word to him about his business. 

No matter how many times Joe went to dinner with business associates, no matter how many times he played golf with the business associates, no matter how many times he ate dinner with them, no matter how many pictures he took with them, no matter how many times he talked on the phone with them, and no matter how many times he emailed them using an alias that not once did he ever discuss business with them.

Not once has Biden ever talked to Hunter about how he pays for his expensive house rentals, exotic cars, his drugs, his kids' education, his strip club trips and hookers, or his high-priced lawyers. His supposed lack of curiosity is astonishing. 

Not once has he asked how he gets so much time off from his law firm job. 

These companies or people in Russia, China, Ukraine, and elsewhere continued to pay millions to Hunter despite his admitting he had no service or product to sell, only the illusion of access. 

I believe the payments would have stopped long ago if all they got was an illusion. 

I believe I am a loving father and I talk to my children all the time about their and their spouse's jobs. It is not normal to have no curiosity about how your children are doing at work.

It appears that Hunter's law firm took in some of the payments from foreign sources. 

If they did nothing for the money that is pure money-laundering and they should be investigated.

From 2013 through 2018 Hunter Biden and his company brought in about $11 million via his roles as an attorney and a board member with a Ukrainian firm accused of bribery and his work with a Chinese businessman now accused of fraud, according to an NBC News analysis of a copy of Biden’s hard drive and iCloud account and documents released by Republicans on two Senate committees. 

The documents and the analysis, which don’t show what he did to earn millions from his Chinese partners, raise questions about national security, business ethics and potential legal exposure. 

Where is the investigation of this lawyer and where is the gift tax return?

Hunter Biden received a whopping $4.9 million from Hollywood lawyer Kevin Morris in a three-year period, according to an IRS agent who investigated the president’s son for alleged tax evasion.

Maybe Hunter and Joe thought they should get away with this since that is how the Clintons got rich. Her family got big speech fees and donations to their foundation while she was Secretary of State and no one cared.  

Now Hillary is supposedly going to be a big factor helping Joe get reelected. That is great when one career criminal who said Trump was an illegitimate president helping another career criminal who is an illegitimate president. 

I thought the media and other Democrats thought that election deniers have no place holding public office. 

Maybe Hunter saw now-former FBI Director Jim Comey list all of Hillary's crimes and say no one should prosecute her and then thought he was also entitled to be above the law because he is special. 

The IRS routinely sends letters to people who file tax returns when they don't get one the following year, so how could they miss Hunter not filing for 2014 and 2015? Didn't he get a W-2, K-1, or 1099 from anyone? What about the law firm or the shell companies?

I am a CPA who has practiced for 45 years and have always known that fraud has no statute of limitations, so why aren't the IRS and the Justice Department going after him? Not filing when you have millions in income is clear fraud. Why are we told the statute has run out?

As such, a taxpayer that commits a criminal offense such as tax evasion has to be prosecuted within 6 years. On the other hand, there is no statute of limitations for a taxpayer that has committed a civil offense such as tax fraud.

Not once have I ever thought of filing a fraudulent tax return for myself or anyone because I would lose my license and face huge fines and penalties. Where is the investigation of the lawyer or CPA who filed Hunter's returns with all the fraudulent deductions?

Is Hunter addicted to so many things because all of his monetary achievements have come because of his last name instead of skill or hard work?

Here is what this scheme of the Bidens looks like: Biden arranged the trips and invited Hunter to go. It was his powerful political position that was the product. He looks like the big guy or the crime boss and he used Hunter and Jim as the bagmen. They collected the kickbacks for doing nothing and then they laundered the money through shell companies and the law firm before distributing significant amounts to many members of their family. 

That description does not look like a loving father to me. It looks like someone who abuses his power and who uses people to do bad things. 

A loving father doesn't make his son face no consequences no matter what he does. He doesn't continue to lie that his son has done nothing wrong. 

Bribery is an impeachable offense and it absolutely does not matter if they can trace the money to Joe even though they already have. 

The federal bribery statute states, “whoever, being a public official or person selected to be a public official, directly or indirectly, corruptly demands, seeks, receives, accepts, or agrees to receive or accept anything of value personally or for any other person or entity, in return for being influenced in the ...

I see people saying Republicans, who won in a district that Biden won, are in jeopardy if they vote for an impeachment inquiry. That is bunk. 

All Republicans should be in trouble for not doing their jobs when Biden is clearly so corrupt and when his family has clearly received bribes. 

The biggest scandal is that the IRS, the Justice Department, the media, and other Democrats collude to protect the Democrats like the Bidens and the Clintons from prosecution no matter how many crimes they committing.



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Biden Throws Israel Under the Bus in a Big Way - Says Israel Has to Change Its Approach, Government


Nick Arama reporting for RedState 

What was it that Obama Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said about Joe Biden? 

That he's been wrong about foreign policy for 40 years? Well, all we have to do is amend that to 50 years, as, unfortunately, he's still predictably wrong on everything.

When it comes to the Israel-Hamas war, it was predictable that Biden would get weaker in his support as the war progressed and the left screamed louder about the "genocide" in Gaza. That was easy to foresee. 

Now, here it is officially. The guy who claimed he was 100 percent with Israel told donors at a Monday night campaign reception — receptions seem to be the majority of the "work" Biden is doing these days —  that Israel had to change its government and warned that support for the country’s military campaign is waning amid heavy bombardment of Gaza.

Biden supposedly said that Israel needed to change its conservative government and that support for Israel was waning. 

Speaking to Democratic donors in Washington, Biden said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a “tough decision to make.”

“This is the most conservative government in Israel’s history,” Biden said, adding that the Israeli government “doesn’t want a two-state solution.”

That's an incredibly bad take from Biden, right as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was saying that they had Hamas on the ropes, and it was the beginning of the end, with many in Hamas surrendering. 

Now, this will give Hamas hope that all they need to do is hang in there as their activist buddies throw more tantrums, and eventually, the U.S. will start undercutting the effort. This will make the leftists believe they have succeeded in getting Joe Biden to cave, so they will ramp up their actions even more. It will also make Israel realize they can't count on the U.S. under Joe Biden as an ally. 

On top of it all, it's Biden playing games, trying to undercut Netanyahu and the conservatives, and trying to change Israel's government. Gee, what direction does Biden want the government to go in? More to the left, of course. That's a truly vile thing to do in the middle of a war. 

He's also probably trying to help himself with the left in the election since they have been chanting "Genocide Joe," and that should not be entering into his foreign policy decisions here. That's also incredibly wrong.

Plus, because he's Joe Biden, he's wrong about support waning for Israel. Most Americans are supportive of their fight. What Joe likely means by this is "the people on the left who I need for votes" are "waning." Also, it's Hamas that is against a two-state solution, not Israel. Hamas is still agitating to completely eliminate Israel. 

If Taiwan and China are looking at this, once again, what will they see? 

Biden showing all kinds of weakness and not willing to stand up to terrorists.



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Biden Has Massively Overdrawn America’s Account With Blank Checks To Ukraine

Biden keeps advancing the delusion that Ukraine can achieve total victory against Russia. Congress is under no obligation to join in that delusion.



On “60 Minutes” in October, President Biden was asked if the United States was going to struggle to support two wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Biden responded by saying: “No. We’re the United States of America for God’s sake, the most powerful nation in the history — not in the world, in the history of the world. The history of the world. We can take care of both of these and still maintain our overall international defense.” 

Just a few days later, reality intervened when a shipment of American artillery shells destined for Ukraine was rerouted to Israel. This followed a decision by the Biden administration in early 2023 to ship 300,000 artillery shells from a U.S. stockpile in Israel that traditionally had been used to resupply the Jewish state in times of crisis. More recently, a Ukrainian official told ABC News that since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas War, deliveries of NATO-standard artillery ammunition and other munitions have plummeted by more than 30 percent. On top of all this, a multibillion-dollar backlog of arms orders to Taiwan persists as China continues to take actions that indicate it is preparing to forcibly seize control of the island nation. 

Even the most powerful nation in the history of the world cannot run the world without facing tradeoffs. But with the Biden administration dug in and unresponsive to criticism in a manner that evokes the Bush administration and Iraq in 2004, change will need to be forced on it.

The Biden administration’s latest demand from Congress is for another $61 billion for Ukraine, which would bring the total amount since 2022 to nearly $200 billion. With the war at a stalemate, the U.S. fiscal outlook increasingly bleak, and leaders in both Washington and Kyiv seemingly impervious to these facts, a different course is clearly necessary. Congress should use the most powerful tool at its disposal — the purse — to force the administration onto a different path in Ukraine. 

Congress should reject the latest funding request for two main reasons: First, the Biden administration does not have a plan for producing a Ukrainian victory — nor can they even articulate what a Ukrainian victory looks like. Second, the current U.S. fiscal position does not lend itself to continued blank checks for Ukraine or other foreign policy misadventures. 

There is little hope of a meaningful Ukrainian breakthrough against the Russians in the near term. As The Wall Street Journal reported, Ukraine may not even be able to launch another counteroffensive at all until 2025. At the same time, the Zelensky government has maintained its maximal war aims, its rejection of diplomacy, and its way of fighting the war that consumes munitions faster than Western nations can produce them. 

Add in rapid rates of expenditure of American-made ammunition in Israel’s war in Gaza, and the latter problem becomes even more pronounced. Even before the Middle East erupted, the commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe was warning that NATO weapons stockpiles were “dangerously low.” The reason Washington decided to give cluster munitions to Ukraine was because of what National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan referred to as Ukraine’s “dramatically high expenditure rates of artillery” in the conflict. The administration’s elusive theory of victory contrasts with the very real escalation risks that remain in Ukraine — whether due to an unintentional confrontation between Russian and NATO troops on Ukraine’s borders or reckless behavior by the Ukrainian government. Another $61 billion would be, at best, throwing good money after bad.

The second reason Congress should decline the request is that the U.S. fiscal position appears truly dire. Though overpredicted historically, the country may finally be approaching the precipice of fiscal ruin. Shortly after President Biden’s “60 Minutes” interview, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen declared that the United States can “certainly” afford to support two wars in Ukraine and Israel. But since Yellen’s interview, the U.S. Treasury has had several weak bond sales, forcing the United States to pay higher interest on its debt and demonstrating a diminishing confidence in the U.S. fiscal outlook among investors. Interest on the debt is now roughly $1 trillion per year, the national debt itself is at almost $34 trillion, and the budget deficit each year is some $1.5 trillion and expected to jump to almost $3 trillion by 2033. 

In light of the above, Congress would be foolish to rack up another $61 billion in debt to support a failing war in Ukraine. The Biden administration continues to publicly advance the delusion that Ukraine can achieve a total and decisive victory against Russia. Congress is under no obligation to join them in that delusion. The Constitution gives Congress the power to take the administration’s checkbook away. If Congress declines to use that power and once again co-signs the Biden administration’s Ukraine policy, they will likely share its place in history as coauthors of diplomatic and fiscal ruin. 



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Billions for Ukraine, Americans Left With Nuclear Waste


On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Washington, D.C., to do what he does best: ask for money. While there are plenty of House and Senate Republicans who say they will not vote to give Zelensky another dime, there are others who will vote once again to shovel another pile of cash into Ukraine. Of course, there are plenty of things that money could be used for right here at home. One cause, in particular, has been the pet project of Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), but money for that was recently stripped out of a federal defense bill. We know the story of Ukraine. This is the story of Coldwater Creek. As a life-long resident of St. Louis County, it's a personal one. 


If you grew up or lived in the northern part of St. Louis County, Missouri, Coldwater Creek was likely a part of your life. As a kid, if you lived within a bike ride's distance, you played in the creek. As an adult, if you bought a house nearby, you always kept an eye on the creek when it rained heavily. Coldwater Creek runs through the northern part of St. Louis County and empties into the Missouri River. But Coldwater Creek's history has come back to haunt the residents of North County in a big way. Mallinckrodt Chemical Works has been a fixture in St. Louis for over one hundred years, employing hundreds of people. In 1942, at the height of World War II, Mallinckrodt began processing the original Belgian Congo Uranium (U235) as part of the first atomic bomb. The processing took place at Mallinckrodt's location within the city of St. Louis. By the mid-1940s, space to store radioactive waste had run out, and they began to transport the waste to unpopulated parts of North St. Louis County. The waste was stored in bulk containers on the ground and exposed to the elements. It remained largely unattended until the 1970s.

Beginning in the 1950s and running through the 1970s, North St. Louis County saw a population boom. As in many places all over America, young families moved to the suburbs, and the area grew quickly. Because of a combination of wind, rain, flooding, groundwater, grading for new construction, and lax storage, Coldwater Creek rapidly became contaminated with radioactive material. There was an increase in the incidence of bone and lung cancer and leukemia for people exposed to the creek from the 1960s to the 1990s, and even some rare forms of cancer like appendix cancer. 

These are the people that Sen. Hawley's legislation would have helped. Instead, Congress will consider sending Volodymyr Zelensky home withanother $61 billion. Where has all the money he has received gone? Well, let's see. Ukraine has received $43 billion in security assistance, $23.8 billion in military equipment, $23 billion in humanitarian and economic assistance,and $20 billion in economic aid that strengthens Ukraine's industries, jobs, and exports. There has even been enough to pay Ukraine's civil servants like teachers, healthcare workers, and first responders. Do the math. How far would that money go to helping people who are getting sick and dying due to government radioactive waste, in some cases, literally in their own backyards? While the appropriations process isn't necessarily set up as an either-or proposition, and the decision as to funding for Coldwater Creek doesn't specifically hinge on what gets spent on Ukraine, it's worth noting where the priorities seem to lay with Congress. 


So, while the people of St. Louis County continue to get sick from radioactive waste, Volodymyr Zelensky may just head home with another pile of cash. After the removal of the compensation provision from the bill, Hawley took to social media, stating that he would not be voting for the defense bill unless the provision for St. Louis County was put back in. He also stated:

“Congressional leadership has chosen to abandon the people of Missouri and the nation poisoned by their own government. I’m not going to make it easy on them.”

I didn't play in the creek as a kid, though my friends did. But we lived nearby, and both of my parents were cancer patients. I am glad my senator is hopping mad about this, but once again, Congress has put the citizens of another nation ahead of its own. 





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How Weiss’s Sweetheart Plea Deal With Hunter Biden Could Doom The California Tax Case

A ruling in favor of Hunter Biden based on the pretrial diversion agreement could blow up the California tax case.



Hunter Biden’s lawyers filed four separate motions to dismiss with the Delaware federal court Monday, asking the judge to toss the three felony gun charges brought by Special Counsel David Weiss following the collapse of the sweetheart plea deal gifted to the president’s son. While the Delaware case is distinct from the nine-count indictment charging tax offenses, which was recently returned by a California federal grand jury, Hunter Biden’s motion to dismiss based on the pretrial diversion agreement could well doom the California tax charges too. Here’s why. 

In his motion to dismiss the three felony gun charges based on the pretrial diversion agreement, Hunter Biden argues that agreement contractually binds the government to the terms, as detailed in the agreement. According to Hunter’s lawyers, the pretrial diversion agreement was a wholly distinct contract from the plea agreement that fell apart when the president’s son appeared before federal Judge Maryellen Noreika in July of 2023 to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax offenses. Thus, Hunter posits in his Monday motion, the government is bound by the terms of the pretrial diversion agreement and specifically the government’s “agreement not to prosecute,” even though he never pleaded guilty to the tax offenses.

The pretrial diversion agreement focused solely on Hunter Biden’s knowing possession of a firearm as an unlawful user or addict of a controlled substance, with the government committing not to prosecute the president’s son if he complied with the terms of the agreement for 24 months, which basically required Hunter Biden to remain sober and drug-free and not to purchase any firearms. But the government’s agreement not to prosecute extended much beyond any potential gun charges, including “any federal crimes encompassed” in two attachments, one a statement of facts related to the gun charges and a second a statement of facts concerning Hunter Biden’s business operations and tax offenses.

Thus, if the pretrial diversion agreement is valid and enforceable, as Hunter Biden argues, then not only will Weiss be barred from prosecuting the gun charges in Delaware, but the tax charges in California will also be off-limits to the government. 

So will Judge Noreika hold that the pretrial diversion agreement is a valid and enforceable contract? That’s the $1 million question. 

Comments the federal judge made during the plea hearing suggest she will reach one of two conclusions. First, Noreika might conclude the pretrial diversion agreement is not a binding contract because the government and Hunter Biden never had a “meeting of the minds” concerning whether the pretrial diversion agreement and the plea agreement were each conditioned on the other agreement being executed. If Noreika reaches that conclusion, she will hold there is no contract and deny Hunter’s motion to dismiss based on the pretrial diversion agreement.

Alternatively, Judge Noreika might instead rule the pretrial diversion agreement is a valid contract but that the government exceeded its authority in promising not to prosecute Hunter Biden for crimes unrelated to the crime underlying that agreement. In other words, Noreika might hold Weiss to his commitment not to prosecute Hunter Biden so long as he stays clean and sober for 24 months, but rule that the promise not to prosecute, as a matter of law, applied only to the gun charges and could not be extended to other crimes, such as the tax offenses. 

While Noreika could also accept Hunter Biden’s argument and hold that the government is bound by the terms of the pretrial diversion agreement, that outcome seems unlikely given the concerns she expressed during the plea hearing. Unfortunately, case law provides little guidance in this case because the government concocted the unique plea agreement/pretrial diversion agreement combo just to placate the Biden family. No matter how she rules, though, rest assured the losing party will appeal to the Second Circuit and then try for the U.S. Supreme Court.

And those procedural machinations concern solely Hunter Biden’s motion based on the pretrial diversion agreement. On Monday, his attorneys filed three other motions to dismiss, including one that argued Weiss was not properly appointed. That motion is unlikely to go anywhere, though, as Weiss had authority, separately, as the Delaware U.S. attorney to charge Hunter Biden.

Hunter Biden also argues Special Counsel Weiss engaged in vindictive and selective prosecution by bringing charges only after right-wing backlash forced him to do so. That motion seems doomed as well given that the backlash resulted from the initial improper favoritism shown by Weiss and his team. 

Finally, Hunter Biden asserts that the gun charges fail as a matter of constitutional law because Congress could not criminalize the possession of a gun by an addict. And since Congress could not criminalize possession by an addict, it also could not make lying about being an addict a crime. Therefore, Hunter Biden argues the three gun charges fail. At least on the first claim here, Hunter Biden has a point, with controlling circuit precedent supporting the position. Whether the trial court agrees remains to be seen. 

However, even if the court holds Congress exceeded its Second Amendment authority by prohibiting addicts from possessing guns, that holding will not affect the California tax indictment. Conversely, a ruling in favor of Hunter Biden based on the pretrial diversion agreement could well doom the California tax case — meaning the president’s son would have his cake and eat it too.



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Signers of the Infamous Hunter Biden Intel Letter Are Back With an Infuriating Demand About Section 702


Bonchie reporting for RedState 

Remember when dozens of former intelligence officials signed a letter just before the 2020 election proclaiming the Hunter Biden laptop to be "Russian disinformation"? Well, some of the signers of that letter are back, and they've got a new and infuriating demand. 

That news comes via deep-state stenographer Jennifer Griffin, who will apparently report anything the intelligence community puts out without the slightest hint of context. In fact, you wouldn't even know some of the signers of this new letter also signed the now-debunked Hunter Biden laptop letter if it weren't for conservatives digging into it. 

I don't know, but if I were a reporter and I was handed a letter signed by "top former National Security officials" to publicize, I'd probably bother to mention that several of them have been completely discredited already. That would include James Clapper, who is one of the signers of this latest letter. 

Other names joining the crossover event include Michael Morell, Glenn Gerstell, and Richard Ledgett. I can't think of a worse endorsement for renewing Section 702 than having those four be in support of it. Can you? 

Does anything matter? What else does someone like Clapper have to do before Pentagon lackeys masquerading as reporters start asking questions instead of breathlessly parroting whatever they are told? The Hunter Biden laptop was not only not "Russian disinformation," it was obvious at the time that it wasn't. This isn't a case of Clapper and the company being duped due to a lack of information. The photos and emails were obviously real and had already been confirmed by The New York Post. 

Never mind that Section 702 has been completely abused by the intelligence community and federal law enforcement. Remember Carter Page? His life was largely destroyed because of a fraudulent FISA warrant, and no one even went to jail for it. But we are supposed to just hand the government that power back again?

I'm not sure what's worse. That some of the signers of the Hunter Biden intel letter are pushing this, or that some Republicans are. Giving up the right to privacy for a faux sense of security is not a trade anyone should want to make.



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Worldwide Chaos Courtesy President Crusty


In 2014, Robert Gates, who is not a conservative by any means, famously hailed our senile president as having been wrong on every single foreign policy question over the last 40 years. Well, the desiccated, corrupt old pervert is about to extend his losing streak to 50 years. Our problem is that instead of being a laughed-at Senate loudmouth or a feckless veep, this mutant is now allegedly our president. The only thing he’s worse at than foreign policy is being a dad. Sadly, it’s cringey shower time for America.

You can complain about a few things during the Trump administration, but not the most successful foreign policy since Reagan. What he did was amazing – the Abraham Accords, the movement of our embassy to Jerusalem, the ending of climate hoax nonsense, and the Iran deal were just the start. He also annihilated ISIS, capped Soleimani, got the deadbeats of NATO to pay up and solved the Kosovo situation. And what did not happen under Trump was equally important. China did not screw around. Russia did not invade anything. The North Koreans chilled. Oh, but he had some mean tweets so none of that matters.

Let’s look at today. Pretty different.

How about Ukraine? What’s the plan, guys? I like the Ukrainians – I trained them years ago – but that doesn’t mean we can keep going on like this. A hundred billion bucks to secure its border but not ours? How does that work? And the NATO freeloaders are all happy to let us do the heavy lifting since Biden’s brain trust cannot ever kiss enough Eurotush. So, now we are on the hook for the butcher bill of an endless bloodbath. I keep hearing about how we are depleting the Russians but guess what the Russians just opened? A brand new, modern tank factory. There’s this thing called history and I suggest they check it out. The Russians have a significant chance of ending up rebuilding their crappy, obsolete military into an experienced, modern one and launching a devastating offensive against Ukraine. And what will Ukraine fight it off with? Its military is now largely middle-aged men because the young ones are either lying dead or partying outside the country. Great work.

Hamas got uppity, meaning Iran got uppity, and it is getting more uppity. Does anyone think the semihumans of Hamas would have tried their murder spree with Trump in office? Biden initially got it right – for the benefit of much of the Democrat Party, trying to kill all the Jews in Israel is bad – but pretty soon he descended in ceasefire mode. Of course, the word “ceasefire” is simply code for “Let Hamas live to go on another murder spree, hopefully after we leave office.” Maybe giving Iran billions of dollars for hostages – instead of telling them you have 24 hours to pony up our people or your entire navy is going to be converted to involuntary submarines – was a bad idea. Biden seems to think that if sucking up to the mullahs doesn’t work, the answer is harder sucking. Iranian proxies in Iraq and Syria are hitting US installations with missiles and except for the occasional kabuki airstrike, we do nothing.

And thanks to the Mullah-tugging we now have a return to piracy. Freedom of the seas used to be a thing, but no more. The Iranian minion Houthis, whatever the hell they are, are using Yemen as a br to go grab ships passing through the Red Sea. Biden’s Navy uses a zillion dollar missile every few days to knock down a $20 drone, but he won’t hit these freaks back. Now, dumb people ask why we have ships in the Red Sea. Well, because, dummies, that’s where the Suez Canal is. And it’s kind of important.

Oh, speaking of canals, the Panama Canal that Democrat Jimmy Carter gave away decades ago is now working at half-capacity. And the Chinese have their mitts on it. Speaking of Latin America, Venezuela is about to invade and take over half of Guyana. Of course, thanks to the open border, Venezuela is already in the process of invading America. Where’s Biden? Slurping gruel and staring at his stories on the tee-vee.

In the Pacific, China has decided it owns a bunch of Philippine islands and is tussling with the Philippine Navy. It already insists it owns Taiwan. What are the chances that if it looks like Crusty will lose in November that the PRC just takes it? What will Biden do then? Send a strongly-worded diplomatic cable? And North Korea's Kim Jong Un is acting up again. You remember him from before Trump was president, which was the last time he caused serious trouble?

Yeah, Biden’s streak is unbroken. He’s failed so extensively that he’s Jimmy Carter with kid sniffing habit. His track record of consistency promises even worse to come in 2024. This guy is not going to see the light. He can barely see Air Force One’s stairs. He and that coterie of commie idiots he calls an administration are going to not double-down but triple-down on failure. They think America is the cause of the world’s problems, and the disaster unfolding around the world that threatens to turn us into a second tier regional player is not a bug to them. It is a feature. After all, it is hard to imagine that this kind of comprehensive foreign policy failure could be anything but intentional. But then, considering how transcendently stupid Biden was even before he slipped into dementia, maybe that does not give him enough credit.



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