Howdy All, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy –
In this issue –
1. Bond
2. IPO
3. Rona
4. Smithsonian
5. Emissions
6. Red Flag
7. Mob
8. Deportations
1. Bond. Two pieces of great news for the ongoing lawfare being waged against President Trump this week, partial resolution of his fraud fine and his Truth Social Initial Public Offering (IPO). From one perspective, it almost seems like Trump has one of his supporters inserted high into the democrat brain trust, as every single dirty trick they have attempted to pull on him has only increased his popularity and support, particularly the lawfare effort. Last Monday, Trump was supposed to put up a $468 million (or so) bond covering the full amount of the fine imposed based on his fraud conviction plus interest before he had the right to appeal the conviction. He reportedly was unable to post the bond for a variety of reasons. Democrats gleefully jumped on the difficulty, attempting to get into the name calling game. Broke Don and Deadbeat Don were most popular. That blew up nicely with the success of his Truth Social IPO. More on that later. A NY Appeals Court reduced the bond to $175 million. Trump laid it on pretty thick afterwards, effusively thanking the brilliant members of the Appeals Court for their opinion. Over the course of the last couple weeks, NY Attorney General Letitia James made a big show of measuring various Trump properties for the drapes she was planning to hang after state seized them, something she may not be able to do. Depending on whom you believe, Trump has 10 – 20 days to write the check and appeal Engoron’s verdict, although the notion that having to ante up $175 million still grates. A Mar 26 piece in American Thinker by Frank Friday entitled The Great Trumpdini strikes again summarized the festivities nicely. In the piece, he reported that the Chubb Group wanted to cover the bond but was warned off by threats by NY insurance regulators. Gangster government is alive and well in NY these days. Nice little insurance company you have there. Would be a shame if anything happened to it. One other commenter last week claimed that the same Appeals Court ordered Engoron to limit his fine to a similar amount 6 months ago. I am not sufficiently familiar with the twists and turns of this particular case to verify that claim. If true, both Engoron and James could be in a spot of trouble. Final observation is that both James and the judge are making this up as they go, as the law they used to convict and fine Trump and the Trump Organization is a simple consumer protection law formerly used in consumer sale of refrigerators. In this case, nobody was harmed. No customer, bank or insurance agent was upset, making it a victimless crime. Indeed, everyone involved made money, including the State of NY, and wanted to do business with Trump again, something they still want to do.
2. IPO. The long-delayed IPO of Trump’s Truth Social finally hit NASDAQ Monday. It was a smashing success, making Trump an immediate $3+ billion. So much for Broke Don / Deadbeat Don. Former congress critter Devin Nunez, who Trump hired to head the new corporation was on the Hannity radio show midweek and alluded to federal regulators slow-rolling the approval. Given the fully weaponized Dementia Hitler regime, this wouldn’t surprise. The underlying financial maneuver was a merger between Digital World Acquisitions Corp and Truth Social with the new company hitting the IPO. The precursor to Truth Social, Trump Media and Technology Group reported $3.4 million in revenues the first 9 months of 2023, and losses of $49 million. Tech companies are notorious for awful profit – loss lines when they start. Amazon was founded in 1994 and didn’t turn a profit until 2003. Do I think Truth Social will be a winner in the social media world? Maybe. If it joins X/Twitter as a haven for free speech, very likely. I suspect that most of the support it has been seeing in the market today are Trump supporters sticking a sharp stick in the collective eye of democrat owned, controlled, maintained and operated social media companies and the larger Dementia Hitler led Censorship Industrial Complex. What was it that the left told us when they started censoring those of us on the right? Build one of your own? Looks like we have.
3. Rona. A final, though tangentially related Trump story is the fate of one Rona McDaniel, former RNC Chairman under Trump. Rona was a loser, presiding over multiple losses during her time as party Chair. Trump always publicly supporter her. While she never publicly came out against Trump, she was not viewed as a personal supporter or in any way friendly to Trump’s MAGA supporters. As Mitt Romney’s niece, she was always suspected of not doing her best, something her results all but scream out loud to us. Rona stepped down as RNC Chair a couple weeks ago, replaced by Trump daughter in law Lara Trump. Lara and her co-chair did a swift housecleaning as they positioned the RNC to actually start winning elections. It didn’t take Rona long to go to where many of us thought she would end up, somewhere in the leftist media, the same place we expect Nikki Haley to eventually surface. She was hired Monday as the designated Republican on MSNBC, someone who will smile sweetly, shake her head discretely at the pathological ravings of MSNBC and their guests. Even this was too much for MSNBC talent, who went into full-fledged insurrection mode (like that term? This time it actually fits) demanding she be instantly fired for lying and being an insurrectionist. The fact that NBC / MSNBC management hired her tells you that they know that what happened on Jan 6 2021 and how it was reported afterwards wasn’t any way, shape or form an insurrection, a message that apparently didn’t make its way to their talent. Rona is reportedly considering her legal options. I hope the contract was signed by both sides and properly executed, so that NBC / MSNBC will have to pay it off in full. She is reportedly considering a libel lawsuit. The brainwashed left is no longer even capable of allowing anyone to say something that doesn’t lockstep agree with whatever it is they claim to believe. We have entered a political Janis Joplin world, where freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.
4. Smithsonian. Gratuitous anti-Christon bigotry is running wild in Dementia Hitler’s Washington DC. One example happened Jan 2023, when 9 students were kicked out of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum following the annual March for Life for wearing hats with the inscription “Rosary Pro-Life.” They were targeted by security and thrown out. Security reportedly enjoyed it. At the time, the reason given was that the Smithsonian was neutral ground in the culture wars. Yeah, right, as the wokeness mind virus has been creeping through multiple Smithsonian museums and exhibits on a daily basis. The ejection reflects the groupthink running rampant in DC these days, where those on the political right can be singled out, targeted and harshly dealt with based on little more than their political beliefs. In this case, pro-life embroidery on hats were sufficient to remove parents, students and chaperones from a public space. Jay Sekulow’s American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) took up the case, filed a complaint, and ended up with a settlement announced last week. The Smithsonian agreed to pay the group $50,000, provide a private tour led by the Director, and have the museum leadership apologize to the group. Security will undergo reeducation on the error of their ways in dealing with visitors wearing hats.
5. Emissions. The EPA announced long-dreaded revisions to their tailpipe emissions standards for vehicles. The revisions are designed to support the regime’s demand that two thirds (66%) of all vehicle sales to be electric (EVs) by 2032. The proposal was initially released a year ago and goes into effect immediately. The new rule applies to sedan, crossover, SUV and light trucks. 50% of bus and garbage truck sales, 35% of short haul freight tractors, and 25% of long-haul freight sales will be electric by 2032. The EPA claims that the new rule will cut oil imports by 20 billion barrels in 2032. Of course, if the regime weren’t actively obstructing oil exploration and production, we would be a net exporter of oil and natural gas like we were under Trump. Note that this rule is completely a cramdown, inflicted at a time when the general public is rejecting EVs, and auto manufacturers are scaling back production and distribution in response to cratering sales. The only manufacturer ramping up EV production is the CCP, building cheap EVs in Mexico for sale in the US (Trump’s bloodbath for US auto manufacturers). A cynic could comfortably assume that this rule is simply another Biden Crime Family payoff to their CCP business partners in China. Expect an explosion of new rules and regulations out of Dementia Hitler’s Executive Branch bureaucracy as they are ridden out of town on a rail. Congress has their work cut out for them rolling these exercises in wishful thinking back via the Congressional Review Act.
6. Red Flag. One of the brown floaters in the recently passed $1.2 trillion omnibus legislation passed to keep the government open is $750 million in funding for more red flag laws, the laws that allow a snitch to SWAT someone they don’t like and get their firearms seized, The money was originally designed to be made available via grants to states and local governments to pass red flag laws. Merrick Garland’s Department of (In)Justice (DoInJ) took the legislation one more step, creating what they call the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center, essentially a clearing house that will coordinate nationwide gun grabbing. I’m sure they already have the BATFE’s illegal list of firearm owners on their servers. House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan announced an investigation into what he appears to believe is an unconstitutional effort to nationalize Red Flag laws, something I expect him to do should Republicans hold their one seat majority for more than another 15 minutes.
7. Mob. The BLM mob came after Kyle Rittenhouse once again, this time at the University of Memphis. Happily, he didn’t have to shoot any of them. Rittenhouse was scheduled to speak at a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) event on campus. Tickets were issued well before the event. The university got themselves involved by forcing a new batch of tickets to be issued the day of the event. They also stood idly by while a BLM / AntiFa rent-a-mob including no small number of shrieking students managed to shout Rittenhouse down, end the event early, and harass attendees on their way to their vehicles afterwards. As usual, campus security stood idly by and watched the festivities. There are some reports that they steered the attendees into the teeth of the mob. Campus officials involved in forcing reticketing included the University legal counsel and VP for Student Affairs, both women. Also involved was the University Director of Conference and Event Services who laughed while warning the TPUSA Chapter President away from the event. Attendees were notified the morning of the event that their tickets were no longer valid and were redirected to a re-ticketing link. Private information on the reticketing was leaked to protesters 30 minutes before the link went live. Essentially, the University of Memphis administration coordinated with the mob and orchestrated the protest. I think the university is going to write a large check to Rittenhouse and TPUSA.
8. Deportations. Today’s lesson in lawlessness comes courtesy DHS, which saw 200,000 deportations dismissed because they failed to file paperwork with Immigration Courts in a timely manner. These cases were discarded because of a “mistake”, failure to file Notice to Appear (NTA). DHS claimed this was an oopsie, a mistake. Too bad, so sad, we promise to do better. Looks like the open borders crowd at DHS came up with a new technique to obstruct deportations, simply failing to file required paperwork. This started early on in 2021, with failure to file NTAs accounting for over 50% of all cases thrown out of Immigration Courts. Of course, DHS never goes back to correct their “mistake” or refile the dismissed cases. This works because the courts are slammed with deportation cases. The judge acts and is quickly on to the next event. This is yet another reason to impeach DHS Secretary Mayorkas (done) and remove his sorry carcass from the office he infests. Sooner would be better than later.
More later
- AG