Howdy All, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy –
In this issue –
1. Epstein
2. Rescission
3. Schiff
4. Plantation
5. Land Thieves
6. Mine
7. UCIDA
1. Epstein. The Epstein boomlet petered out over the course of last week, as the orchestrated hysteria and attempt to divide MAGA lost steam. By week’s end, it was overwhelmed by the Next Big Thing, DNI Gabbard’s release of a trove of information related to the Russia Hoax. More on this next week as the dust in the air settles down a bit and the rubble stops bouncing. The two events were the entrance of Epstein’s criminal lawyer into the festivities and AG Bondi’s firing of James Comey’s daughter as a federal prosecutor. Yes, these were related, and yes, they could make things interesting for the conspiracy mongers.
- Alan Derschowitz was Epstein’s criminal lawyer in 2008. He wrote an extended piece in the WSJ Tuesday entitled The Inside Scoop on Jeffrey Epstein. While the piece is behind a WSJ paywall, enough was published to tamp down the controversy a bit. First and most importantly, a pair of federal judges in NYC have prohibited release of grand jury and other supportive documentation at the request of federal prosecutors in the Southern District of NY. Comey’s daughter was one of those prosecutors. In addition, Bondi requested release of Grand Jury and other documentation from those two courts Friday. Second, there is conflicting information about a client list. Dershowitz claims to have seen one (them?) and there is nothing exciting on them. Other claims are that client lists simply don’t exist, though there are passenger manifests from the air traffic on Epstein Airlines that have been public for over a decade. Sorting out clients from passengers is the trick as the two Bills (Clinton and Gates) will attest to. Dershowitz claims that there was no Mossad connection with Epstein. He is comfortable with the conclusion that Epstein killed himself, though DoJ made a dog’s breakfast of the released video from the jail that was edited.
- All of this depends entirely on how much you want to believe Dershowitz. One of the reasons he is popular in Trump-land is that he has demonstrated himself to be an honest broker in the political wars. And make no mistake, the Epstein brouhaha is a political operation.
- Second incident that was announced and disappeared quickly was news that AG Bondi fired Maurene Comey, daughter of former FBI Director James Comey of Russia collusion fame. Comey was the lead prosecutor in the Epstein and Maxwell prosecutions. She was also a prosecutor in the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs case. The interesting point to me is that she was involved in requesting the presiding judges in the Epstein case to block the release of grand jury and other information from the general public. The judges willing complied, as there was no public outcry at the time. Bondi’s office is requesting grand jury testimony be released, an action that has yet to make it in front of a judge. The timing gets me thinking (always a dangerous activity) about how far the apple falls from the tree. We know that her father was involved up to his ears in at least three attempts to overturn the results of the 2016 election (Russia collusion and the two impeachments). More than a few of us view the Epstein dustup as an artificial one, and once again the name ‘Comey” ends up in the middle of it. Why is that?
- As interest in the story dissolved, the WSJ weighed in with a 2003 birthday letter to Epstein, supposedly from Trump. The personal note included a crudely drawn woman surrounding several lines of typewritten text. The note was supposed to tie Trump directly to Epstein. As with all the rest of the hoaxes, this one was quickly debunked, almost as quickly as Dan Rather’s fraudulent hit piece on Bush 43 during the 2004 campaign. Note that the 2003 date on the note was a full five years before Trump banned Epstein from Mar a Lago. In true Trump form, this poorly manufactured fraud, is going to be answered with a lawsuit, $10 billion as of this writing. I hope it was worth it, guys.
- Final question, is given the waning of interest in Epstein, and the very real possibility that additional information will be released, why are the democrats mostly uninterested. after making a couple abortive attempts to force the House to take a position in support of document release? Is this yet another Trump trap that is about to spring shut on them? Who knows. Ought to be highly entertaining whatever happens.
2. Rescission. The senate voted out the $9.2 billion rescission bill on a 51-50 vote with VP Vance breaking the tie in the affirmative. They managed to add back $200 million. The house quickly passed the revised legislation which was signed into law by President Trump at week’s end. This legislation was a test case, with the two easiest spending clawbacks – PBS / NPR and USAID. In the senate, the usual trio of malcontents including Lisa Murkowski (R, AK), Susan Collins (R, ME) and Mitch McConnell (R, KY) voted against its passage. Murkowski spent a lot of time on the senate floor bewailing NPR / PBS cuts as attacks on public safety in Bush Alaska. She was blasted for this in several local articles. This legislation was largely a test run, one that the senate barely passed and one that the house with its tiny majority did quite well with. Speaker Johnson and Majority Leader Thune are doing pretty well in the budget wars so far. Both have been pleasant surprises so far. Rescissions are the process that the Trump administration and congress are going to lock in the DOGE cuts. It is the part of the process that Musk either did not pay attention to or didn’t understand, leading to his public break with Trump. Yeah, I do agree with Musk that the budget process is broken. Expect the next rescission package to start making its way through congress a week or two into August, making its way to the senate before September. This package need not pass, for if authorized money is not spent before the end of the fiscal year Sept 30, it does not roll over to the following year, though there will be Biden, O’Bama and Clinton judges that will most certainly disagree and attempt to force the spending after congressional inaction.
3. Schiff. Trump congressional nemesis now US Senator Adam Schiff (D, CA) is in a spot of trouble, identical to Letitia James. It appears Schiff has two homes that he called his primary residence on his mortgage loan paperwork in order to get more favorable rates. Claiming two primary residences is once again financial fraud. It is ironic that two of the most aggressive anti-Trump lawfare practitioners both committed this sort of fraud. Kind of makes you wonder how many more have done the same thing.
4. Plantation. What is it with democrats and plantations? A pair of raids on Glass House marijuana farms in Camarillo and Carpinteria led to arrest of over 360 illegals and rescue of over 14 minors, yes, child labor. Protestors were tipped, with over 500 showing up during the raids. The expected melee ensued. One of them took a shot at ICE officers. Rocks were thrown and no small number of people were sent to local hospitals. A democrat congress critter, Salud Carbajal reportedly coordinated the action, something that should get him some time with his new BFFs in Club Fed. Cali democrats were suitably outraged, trotting out some of their best outraged Theater Kids performances for the cameras. Among other things, the arrestees included illegals already tried and convicted of labor trafficking, rape, child molestation, kidnapping, terrorist threats, possession and selling drugs, indecent exposure, felony possession of firearms, and various assaults. Nice group of people you democrats are protecting.
5. Land Thieves. One of the great fears by burned out residents of Malibu and the Palisades was that the state of California would simply grab their land after years of refusal to let them rebuild. That is coming to pass with passage of SB 549 that would establish a housing authority that would collect taxes to purchase undeveloped land and dedicate that land for high density public housing. The sponsor represents Santa Monico which has been transformed into a vertical slum by these sorts of policies, one he aims to spread to the newly burned areas. Outrage by the residents was palpable, with the legislation being put on hold temporarily until the heat dies down. Make no mistake, the land thieves will be back. Like the terminator, they will not stop. They will not change their minds until a few of them hang. An example of the propaganda in support of the theft follows.
6. Mine. The first US rare earths mine in over 70 years opened between Ranchester and Sheridan WY, July 11. It was also the first coal mine opened in the state in 50 years. The plan is to mine coal and extract the rare earths from the coal. Everyone involved was quite pleased, including their congressional delegation. Contrast that wide support for mining with the foolishness we are enduring here in Alaska, where one of the largest gold and copper finds in the US (Pebble) west of the Alaska Peninsula is still being targeted by both the greens and our senior US Senator Lisa Murkowski. Pebble was initially sold as a gold mine, but the area is an even better copper find, and anything that has copper and gold also has rare earths. Ironic that Lisa, who has been prattling on about renewables, solar and wind for nearly 30 years will not do everything in her meager power to get the metals needed in that industry mined right here in Alaska by Alaskans. Congratulations on the Trump Department of Energy, Interior, the State of Wyoming and its congressional delegation for making the right decisions for the right reasons. We will see if some of that common sense rubs off up here.
7. UCIDA. The United Cook Inlet Drift Association (UCIDA), a group of 200 commercial fishermen using drift nets for salmon in Cook Inlet, is a long-time lawfare practitioner here in Alaska. In what is locally referred to as the fish wars between commercial fishermen (commfish) and all other user groups, UCIDA has long attempted to use the federal courts to get what they are unable to get legislatively – first and exclusive access to all catchable salmon in Cook Inlet. They have won a few battles but are losing the long war, mostly by infuriating other people who put the occasional hook, line or net into the water around or in the Inlet. Their latest attempt was to use the federal courts to force the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council (NPFMC) to take over management of all fish in the inlet. In the Inlet, feds get to control everything farther than 3 NM offshore. The State of Alaska controls everything closer. As the state is responsible for fish in the actual streams, NPFMC wants the state to be responsible for everything. The state is quite friendly and supportive of commfish. The Kenai – Soldotna ADF&G offices are co-located with UCIDA’s office. No conflict there, I’m sure (/sarc). But apparently not supportive enough which led to the lawsuit. Sometimes, even O’Bama appointed federal judges do the right thing. This one, Sharon Gleason, who has never met a green plaintiff she didn’t like just slapped the UCIDA lawsuit away like the overripe garbage that it is. Not only did she side with the state, but she also took a swipe at one of commfish’s favorite strawman arguments, the notion that over escapement, more spawning fish in the stream than necessary to generate the desired return, is somehow a problem. Over escapement is used as an argument to allow commfish nets in the waters far longer than necessary. And when the nets are in the water, salmon don’t make it into the fresh water and nobody else gets a chance to catch them. Pretty convenient argument, which is why they use it. Gleason told UCIDA she would rather listen to the ADG&G fisheries biologists than rule based on whatever UCIDA claimed to be feeling that particular day. All in all, a nice ruling. Will it put an end to the lawfare? Hardly, as that lawfare will continue as long as there are fish in the water. But it will blunt the current festivities for at least a little while.
More later –
- AG