Howdy All, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy –
In this issue –
1. Arctic Frost
2. Disabled
3. SNAP
4. Authentic
5. Disney
6. Ballroom
1. Arctic Frost. Arctic Frost was a Wray-era FBI investigation that opened April 2022 ostensibly to investigate alleged false electors. The FBI used it as an excuse to gather dirt on hundreds of Republicans, their supporters and groups. It was handed to Special Prosecutor Jack Smith a few days after Trump announced his third run for President Nov 2022. Smith took the task with gusto, rippling off subpoenas like so many rounds of automatic weapons fire. Most of these went in front of DC Circuit Chief Justice Boasberg who approved them all without question. His lockstep, unquestioning support of the investigation, similar to what he with all FISA Court warrants may be enough to open him to a possible impeachment effort. Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley has been interested in the investigation since being tipped by FBI whistleblowers summer 2022. Smith issued 197 subpoenas to 34 individuals and 163 entities, including banks and political groups requesting information on more than 400 people and organizations connected to the Republican party. Included in the list was Turning Point USA and the Republican Attorneys General Association. This effort was at the heart of the greater anti-Trump, anti-Republican lawfare directed by the Biden Do(In)J. FBI Director Patel discovered hidden files documenting how Smith’s team tracked communications of sitting lawmakers including 8 Republican US Senators in 2023. Patel dismissed agents involved and opened internal reviews of the matter. Boasberg approved the subpoenas and signed orders allowing Smith’s team to obtain lawmaker’s cell data while prohibiting companies like AT&T from notifying their customers. For his part, Smith left the country as soon as he could after Trump’s election and criticized the investigation while proclaiming his innocence for all to hear last month in London. If he is so innocent, why run away? So far, we have at least two congressional committees investigating this, one in the Senate and one in the House. The FBI is going uncover everyone who participated in this witch hunt and terminate their employment. I predict a lot of newly opened positions in the FBI. Remember that Smith’s appointment as Special Prosecutor was ruled unconstitutional by a federal court leading to both cases brought against Trump being dropped. FBI Director Wray, Attorney General Garland, his deputy Lisa Monaco are going to get to tell their stories in front of the general public along with Jack Smith assuming he is ever extradited. There will be a lot “I don’t recall / remember” responses during that testimony. Happily, Grassley’s Committee along with Patel have been releasing documents just as fast as they get their hands on them. What a dirty piece of work was the Biden regime.
2. Disabled. Two weeks ago, SCOTUS heard oral arguments in a Louisiana redistricting case. For decades, democrats have managed to draw racially designed (generally black) legislative districts that are all but bulletproof wins for democrats of the correct race. The excuse for these districts was a provision of the Voting Rights Act. Provision 2 of the Act allows drawing districts that would allow minorities to select representatives of their choosing. The majority black and Latino districts are supposed to right representational wrongs since before the Act was passed 60 years ago in 1965. The problem is that recent SCOTUS opinions have really cut back on race being used as an excuse (or motivation) for drawing these districts. OTOH, drawing them for partisan political advantage is perfectly legal, which leads to the redrawing of district maps every time an election flips political control of a legislature or governor. One of the questions asked the NAA(L)CP lawyers arguing the case by Justice Kavanaugh was how long do we have to keep doing this to rectify past injustice? 60 years is pushing three generations. Also in play is the notion that the way to “… stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discrimination on the basis of race”, part of a 2007 SCOTUS opinion written by Chief Justice Roberts. The rest of the conservatives seemed to be in agreement. The liberals OTOH were apoplectic, trotting out every racialist trope possible. Most over the top once again was Justice Brown – Jackson, who went to the Americans With Disabilities Act with her claim that blacks who don’t have equal access to the voting system are the functional equivalent of being disabled. Disabled. Really? Tell that to any of the hundreds of world class athletes we watch for our sports entertainment or those like Thomas Sowell and the sadly departed Walter Williams who have been leaders in economics for decades. To be fair, Brown – Jackson was echoing a Fordham law professor who first made the idiotic and demeaning claim in 2018. This echoes Orwell’s observation that “some ideas are so stupid, only intellectuals believe them.” No prediction here about how this will end, though I wouldn’t be surprised at a 6-3 majority overturning that provision of the Voting Rights Act. Should that happen, we will see a wave of redistricting in red states that will open up as many as 19 safe democrat congressional districts for less racially based redistricting.
3. SNAP. As the government shutdown drags on into its fifth week, ongoing government programs are running out of money. Last week’s flash point was the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), aka food stamps. As the democrats and their media doppelgangers spun themselves into a fever pitch, we were finally treated to a little insight about the program today and why it is important. For example, there are over 42 million on SNAP. It pays roughly $8 billion per month. 89% of SNAP enrollees are American citizens, though recent immigrants are heavy users. Worst group of them are Afghans, with around 45% enrolled. The money spent on SNAP ran out Halloween. There is no more other than a $5 billion pot of emergency funds. This is where Our Good Friends in the federal courts got themselves involved last week, with two conflicting opinions, one verbal and one written. Democrats lawfare practitioners were ready with lawsuits anticipating the money running out. At least 24 were filed. 22 federal judges refused to participate in the drama, correctly noting that if congress didn’t authorize any more funding, the program was effectively dead. The two judges ordered the program to be fully funded, abrogating to themselves the job of congress to authorize spending. The Trump administration immediately appealed the written opinion and asked for more information for the verbal one. Expect the emergency fund to be expended in November for partial benefits. At rate of spending it would be gone in less than three weeks. Interesting that the crowd demanding no kings is now demanding Trump act like a king and make money appear out of nothingness and spend it without congressional involvement. It is good to be King, especially of the black-robed variety,
4. Authentic. Democrat Zohran Mamdami appears to be cruising to an easy victory in the NYC Mayoral election tomorrow. He is everything that the left demands, the right race (immigrant from Uganda), right religion (Muslim), right economics (socialist). He is young, glib, handsome, smart and engaging. The Arab Weekly July 8 wrote a puff piece about him leading off with the following:
Mamdani won because he was authentic and unflappable, comfortable in his own skin, unapologetic about his deeply-held beliefs, and able to be direct and honest with media and voters.
He has the full backing of the DeBlasio machine which is providing his institutional support. But like all Muslim Socialists, he has a few warts starting with his anti-Semitism, something Jewish voters in NYC apparently haven’t noticed. Maybe they will. He also lies at the drop of a hat, popping off with a story last week about an aunt in a Hijab being afraid to ride the subway after 9-11. Turns out that the so-called aunt was a distant cousin who has since passed away, which conveniently keeps her from answering any questions about the story. This is first of what is expected to be many, many future lies. If his armor is his supposed authenticity, then his kryptonite will end up being follow-ups on those stories. Sadly, history has shown us that it will take decades before a socialist is taken down this way, especially when backed by a major local political machine (DeBlasio and democrats). As of this writing, there are reports of over a million residents considering relocating should he be elected, joining property owners chased out of the state by Tish James’ creative interpretation of ownership and mortgage law for her prosecution of Trump. Enough people leave and NYC becomes Detroit under Coleman Young. NYC is about to get a guided tour of Mencken-land, where the voters vote for what they want and get it good and hard.
5. Disney. I am an unapologetic sports fan and used to take it a lot more seriously in my younger days (one of the advantages of old age), but still enjoy watching mainly football and basketball. Disney which now owns ESPN and ABC is in the third day of a wet drill with YouTube TV. Their contract expired Oct 30 and all the Disney owned stations disappeared from YouTube TV Friday, meaning I missed a bunch of college football Saturday and will miss Monday Night Football tonight. Both sides are doing the requisite finger pointing, though there is a small, but growing contingent that believes this is a Disney effort to shove YouTube TV customers over to a Disney-friendly streaming product. This is not the first time Disney has behaved in a predatory way, something that did not pass the notice of writers on South Park who started lambasting them in 2009. What follows is a compilation of South Park going after the Mouse:
South Park’s vehicle was to portray a predatory corporate Mickey Mouse similar to the studio head character Tom Cruze played in Tropic Thunder. The ridicule worked well enough that Disney eventually started returning fire in 2023. Disney is not the only billionaire-class corporation involved in this. Shutting down streaming for all the ESPN and ABC stations shut the Southeastern Conference (SEC) out of national viewership last weekend. Their current $3 billion, 10-year-long contract started last year. Details of YouTube TV’s most recent expired contract is undisclosed. Final piece of this is Monday Night Football which tonight features the Dallas Cowboys. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is one of the most influential owners in the league. Blacking out a broadcast of his team will have ramifications much farther than a simple wet drill between two corporate media giants. If this is not solved quickly, I predict there will be some very well-paid lawyers suing Disney for breach of contract.
6. Ballroom. The Ballroom wars heated up nicely last week with democrats threatening and MAGA trolling. Seems like an acceptable and predictable tradeoff. First to the democrats. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies threatened to start investigating donors to the construction of the ballroom if and when democrats take back a majority in the House. This would be a return to the lawfare endemic during the Pelosi years, particularly what we saw out of her Jan 6 Committee, where the process was the punishment and all records were destroyed as soon as democrats lost power. Jefferies was topped by CA congress critter, one of the designated liars, Eric Swalwell, who started demanding every singly democrat running for president promise to have the new building destroyed on day one in office. Swalwell continues to demonstrate the complete inability of democrats to understand both economics and the notion of cause and effect. The economics part of this is construction of a $250 million addition to the White House complex at no cost to the taxpayer, a gift, an addition that has been needed for years because larger events were all held under tents. The cause-and-effect piece of this is that if the public sees democrats knock this addition down out of simple spite, how many future improvements will be privately funded? And if the destruction is done on day one in office, how many months of video and photos of the debris field will be broadcast until the new administration replaces it with something else? My guess is that will be a non-zero number, opening the door for months of really funny memes trolling the democrat making the decision rather than accepting the gift and thanking the public.
More later –
- AG