Tag Archives: Legal Insurrection

A Very Good Question

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On Saturday, Legal Insurrection posted the following headline:

If Illegals Aren’t Receiving Federal Medicaid Benefits, Why Are Blue States Suing to Protect Their Data?

The article reports:

Democrats have consistently maintained that while some illegal immigrants receive state-level Medicaid benefits, they do not receive federal Medicaid benefits. If that’s true, then why are Democratic attorneys general from blue states suing the federal government to prevent Medicaid data from being used for immigration enforcement? Are they genuinely concerned about potential violations of privacy laws, or more likely, are they attempting to protect those undocumented immigrants who may, in fact, be enrolled in federal Medicaid programs?

Led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, 20 blue states have filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleging that the Trump administration “violated federal privacy laws when it turned over Medicaid data on millions of enrollees to deportation officials last month.”

Among the plaintiffs in the case are Illinois, New York, Minnesota, and Massachusetts, along with fifteen other states. Defendants include Health and Human Services Department Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

The article quotes an article at Hot Air:

HotAir’s David Strom states it plainly:

Democrats are playing a verbal shell game, pointing to federal law to say that Medicaid dollars can’t legally go to illegal aliens, so there is no money to be saved by cutting those funds off. At the same time, they are suing to hide the legal status of recipients to prevent them from facing ICE deportations–in other words, they are illegally spending Medicaid dollars for illegals and want to hide them from the feds.

The narratives don’t have to be consistent, right?

If you were to sit down and analyze what Democrats say to make their arguments on various issues, you would see narrative fails like this all the time. But because the issues are discussed in different contexts, the contradictions don’t stand out to many people.

Viewed from another perspective, if Medicaid benefits for undocumented immigrants are truly only a state issue, then why did this become a matter for the Senate Parliamentarian during consideration of a major federal spending bill? And why was it included in the Senate’s vote-a-rama on Monday, as I discussed here?

As Strom concludes, “The story is always changing to fit the desired result.”

It doesn’t have to make sense. Because they’re Democrats.

Whatever happens with this lawsuit, deportations of illegal criminals will save American taxpayers money.

As Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman once stated, “It’s just obvious you can’t have free immigration and a welfare state.”

New York City’s Future Depends On The Mayoral Election

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On Saturday, Legal Insurrection posted an article about the recent Democrat primary election in New York City. New York City at various times has been a wonderful city to visit. I went to school there back in the age of dinosaurs, and I really enjoyed the art, the museums, the concerts, and the great places to eat. It was a wonderful place in the 1960’s and the late 1990’s. Right now the city is headed in a really scary direction.

New York Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani has won the Democrat primary in the Mayor’s race. He is a socialist calling for a global intifada.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines intifada as follows:

A protracted grassroots campaign of protest and sometimes violent resistance against perceived oppression or military occupation, especially either of two uprisings among Palestinian Arabs in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, the first beginning in 1987 and the second in 2000, in protest against Israeli occupation of these territories.

Is that really what New Yorkers want?

The election was held using ranked-choice voting, which may be part of the problem.

The article notes that former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo has decided to stay in the race. Eric Adams has also decided to stay in the race. Obviously, both of these men staying in the race will split the opposition against Zohran Mamdani. Curtis Sliwa is running for Mayor on the Republican ticket, but New York City has not had a Republican Mayor since Rudy Giuliani was elected in 1994.

The article at Legal Insurrection concludes:

While it’s hard to predict with any degree of certainty how this ultimately will play out, the first post-mayoral primary poll is out and shows Cuomo and Mamdani both with equal levels of support, and Adams trailing badly:

As speculation swirls over whether former [governor] Cuomo will continue his campaign as an independent after conceding the Democratic primary to Mamdani, a new poll shows the two candidates in a statistical tie heading into November’s general election.

The polling, conducted independently by the Honan Strategy Group 48 hours after Mamdani’s stunning victory, showed both Mamdani and Cuomo garnering 39% support among likely general election voters in a five-way race between them, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, independent candidate Jim Walden and incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who trailed at 13%.

…In the scenario that Cuomo does not appear on the ballot, pollsters found that Mamdani would lead Adams by 15 points.

But if Adams were to drop out, Cuomo appears to pick up the support of likely Adams voters and gains a slight edge, leading Mamdani by 4 points — just outside the poll’s margin of error of ±3.4%.

Adams officially kicked off his general election campaign Thursday.

Meanwhile–posted on Facebook by a friend:

Who Gets To Wear A Mask?

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On Thursday, Legal Insurrection posted an article about the recent practice by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) agents of wearing masks. The are not protecting themselves from Covid–they are protecting themselves from doxing. 

The article reports:

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and other Democratic figures are calling for the exposure of ICE agents, demanding that their masks be removed so they can be identified. Members of ICE wear masks because they are facing death threats against them and their families. Democrats are putting their lives at risk over this.

Of course, Democrats have never called for members of Antifa or the anti-Israel campus radicals to be unmasked. Curious, isn’t it?

From The Daily Wire:

Jeffries seemed unconcerned with the real reason that ICE agents had opted to cover their faces, and instead claimed that their efforts to enforce federal immigration law were “engaged in … aggressive overreach” and suggested the masks were simply an effort to avoid being held accountable for that.

“Every single ICE agent who’s engaged in this aggressive overreach and are trying to hide their identities from the American people will be unsuccessful in doing that,” Jeffries said. “This is America. This is not the Soviet Union. We’re not behind the Iron Curtain. This is not the 1930s. And every single one of them, no matter what it takes, no matter how long it takes, will, of course, be identified.”

The Democrats in Congress are siding with violent protestors who broke the law and desiring to put the the people who are asked to enforce the law in danger. How does that make any sense?

When did the Democrat party become a party that advocates lawlessness?

A Welcome Change In Policy

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On Wednesday, Legal Insurrection reported that the HHS has discontinued the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations that children, teenagers, and pregnant women receive routine COVID-19 vaccinations. On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Novavax Covid-19 vaccine with the unprecedented demand that Novavax conduct a new clinical trial of its shot after approval,

The article reports:

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., may be pulling ahead in the race to be the most active agency head during President Donald J. Trump’s second term.

Last week, Kennedy appeared before both the House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee and gave a masterclass in how to answer inane Democratic narrative-based questioning. He also ordered a review of abortion pill safety data, worried that the real statistics indicated more adverse effects than originally advertised.

Now, the HHS has discontinued the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations that children, teenagers, and pregnant women receive routine COVID-19 vaccinations.

The article notes:

This marks a significant shift in federal health policy, moving away from the universal vaccination guidance that has been in place since September 2023. The new rules also promote a new framework for the testing of annual vaccines.

According to a report published Tuesday morning by The Associated Press, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would recommend annual booster shots for adults over the age of 65 in addition to younger adults and children whose pre-existing conditions or health concerns put them at greater risk of hospitalization or death from contracting COVID-19.

An article published on Tuesday by the New England Journal of Medicine provides a framework for developing and testing annual vaccines that might eventually be offered to generally healthy people who don’t fall into the currently recommended age and risk categories.

“For all healthy persons — those with no risk factors for severe Covid-19 — between the ages of 6 months and 64 years, the FDA anticipates the need for randomized, controlled trial data evaluating clinical outcomes before Biologics License Applications can be granted,” the article read. “Insofar as possible, when approving a Covid-19 vaccine for high-risk groups, the FDA will encourage manufacturers to conduct randomized, controlled trials in the population of healthy adults as part of their postmarketing commitment.”

These are welcome changes. Let’s go back to the day when parents decided what shots they or their children would receive.

Creating A Gaza Strip In Texas

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Anyone who has read the Koran has encountered verses that instruct Muslims to kill the infidels (non-Muslims). The Koran instructs its followers to take control of the lands they enter and place the inhabitants of those lands under Sharia Law. Coexistence is not part of the platform.

On Monday, Legal Insurrection posted an article about EPIC City, a city being constructed near Dallas, Texas, to house the Muslim community. There will be Mosques, Muslim schools, and an infrastructure that will make it possible for the Muslims who live there never to have to mingle with non-Muslims.

The article reports:

There is no construction taking place.

The state of Texas has launched about a half dozen investigations into this project.

That includes criminal investigations.

And, the US Department of justice is also investigating.

This matter, and similar matters, are taken very seriously, and actions are being taken to address all concerns.

…The EPIC City is the brainchild of the East Plano Islamic Center. From KERA News:

The 402-acre development would be in unincorporated Collin and Hunt counties roughly 40 miles northeast of Dallas near the city of Josephine, and would include a new mosque, more than 1,000 single and multi-family homes, a K-12 faith-based school, senior housing, an outreach center, commercial developments, sports facilities, and a community college.

In an interview in December, Yasir Qadhi, a resident scholar at the Plano mosque, said the idea for EPIC City came as the Muslim population continues to grow in the region.

“We need more space, and there are people coming from across the country,” Qadhi said. “Dallas is now known to be a hub of people of our faith, coming not just to the city, but specifically to our mosque.”

The first 450 plots sold out within days of its announcements on the mosque’s website, Qadhi said.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) demanded that the DOJ investigate the city for possible First and Fourteenth Amendment violations by preventing those of other faiths from living there.

Community Capital Partners claimed the community would be for “people of every background, faith, and culture” who “can live together in harmony.”

The company admitted, though, that “Islam will be at the center of the development.”

This is not like Baptists building a community. Baptists do not murder non-Baptists. This has the potential to become something like what the Gaza Strip devolved into. Muslims need to be encouraged to assimilate. If they choose not to assimilate, they might consider living elsewhere. There is nothing wrong with keeping the traditions of the place you lived before you came to America. However, if you live here, you need to swear allegiance to our Constitution and follow our customs. If you are not willing to do that, please move to someplace that has rules you like.

Why The Palestinians Cannot Have Their Own State

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On Thursday, Legal Insurrection posted an article about a recent poll taken in the “West Bank.” The poll is disturbing to say the least.

The article reports:

Most Palestinians in West Bank support mass-murder, rape and kidnapping of innocent Israelis by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023, a latest poll shows.

“59% of Palestinians polled in the “West Bank” still think that Hamas’ made the “correct decision” to torture, rape, burn alive, murder, and kidnap hundreds of hostages—even including children,” the media watchdog Israel-based Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) observed, citing the poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.

Having learned nothing from the October 7 massacre and its aftermath, nearly 80 percent of all Palestinians were opposed to the dismantling of Hamas as a terrorist fighting force, poll numbers show. “77% of Palestinians overall (and 85% of Palestinians in the PA-controlled “West Bank”!) “oppose the disarmament of Hamas in the Gaza Strip in order to stop the war on Gaza,” the media watchdog added.

…The poll results should not come as a surprise if one recalls how thousands of Palestinians flocked to greet Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023 as they rode back on their pick-up trucks after massacring and raping Israeli men, women and children —  brandishing their weapons and parading their captives.

The macabre display was not limited to Hamas-ruled Gaza; the Palestinian Authority-run West Bank witnessed hideous celebrations on the streets and in schools over the mass-murder of around 1,200 Israelis.

The article concludes:

The poll also showed that nearly half of Gaza’s residents would prefer to leave the Hamas-infested enclave. The mainstream media was outraged when President Donald Trump in February suggested relocating large number of Gazans to neighboring Arab states for the post-war reconsecration of the enclave to take place.

“Almost half of Gazans may be willing to apply to Israel to help them leave to other countries, according to a survey released Tuesday,” The Times of Israel reported. “The poll (…) showed that for the first time since the Gaza war was sparked by the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, more Gazans thought Israel rather than Hamas would emerge victorious, though a plurality thought the war would end in a stalemate.”

Why would you form a nation of people who have so little regard for human life and the rules of civilization?

This Seems A Little Uneven

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Recently I posted an article about a Minneapolis man who vandalized at least six Teslas. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office decided not to seek criminal charges against the man and instead chose to “seek diversion.” (Article here)

However, on Friday, Legal Insurrection posted an article about how the County Attorney’s Office handled a similar case.

The article reports:

On Monday, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office announced that it would not seek criminal charges against Dylan Adams, 33, a fiscal policy analyst for Minnesota’s Department of Human Services, who allegedly keyed six Teslas and caused more than $20,000 in damage. According to HCAO, because Adams was a first-time offender, he would instead be placed into a diversion program. He would pay for the cost of the repairs and still be able to keep his job.

At the time of Adams’ arrest, FOX 9 reported that police considered each of the six incidents a felony, noting that the damage to each Tesla exceeded $1,000, meeting the threshold for felony vandalism in every case. (I wrote about this story here.)

…County Attorney Mary Moriarty’s decision to let Adams escape criminal charges sparked shock and indignation among fair-minded Americans.

But when news broke on the very same day that she had charged a 19-year-old woman with a felony for keying a coworker’s car, that indignation turned to outrage. Understandably, the Soros-backed prosecutor now finds herself at the center of a firestorm.

…Like Adams, this young woman has no previous criminal record. The Minnesota Star Tribune reported:

She was charged with first-degree felony property damage on Monday after she allegedly keyed her coworker’s car at the White Castle in Brooklyn Park. The damage to the car was estimated at $7,000. She is due to make her first court appearance in two weeks.

Attorney Mary Moriarty is an elected official. As much as I think she is a totally biased attorney who is not correctly doing the job she was elected to, that decision is up to the voters. Her current term ends in January 2027. It is up to the voters to decide if she will serve another term.

The Center Of Fraud

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On Saturday, Legal Insurrection posted an article about the location of a large part of the fraud found in unemployment claims.

The article reports:

On Thursday, the Department of Government Efficiency revealed that three deep-blue states—California, New York, and Massachusetts—were responsible for $305 million, or 80%, of the $382 million in fraudulent unemployment payments issued since 2020.

DOGE also reported that 68% of unemployment benefits paid to parolees flagged by Customs and Border Protection as being on the terrorist watchlist or having criminal records were issued in California.

The DOGE team found that $59 million in unemployment benefits was paid to 24,500 people listed as over 115 years old. Another $254 million went to 28,000 people between the ages of 1 and 5, while $69 million was distributed to 9,700 people with birthdates more than 15 years in the future.

It is interesting that California, New York, and Massachusetts were responsible for 80 percent of the fraud. Slightly less than one-third of Americans live in California, Texas, Florida or New York. Having a large population makes it more difficult to track every case and makes fraud easier.

The article also notes:

DOGE also reported this week that since 2023, the U.S. Border Patrol (under the Biden administration) has paroled over 6,300 individuals flagged on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist or with criminal records into the country with “minimal screening.” Though their paroles have now been revoked, all received Social Security numbers and could access federal benefits. Among them:

    • 905 received Medicaid, including 4 on the terrorist watchlist ($276K paid out)
    • 41 collected Unemployment Insurance ($42K total)
    • 22 received federal student loans ($280K)
    • 409 got tax refunds in 2024 ($751K)
    • An undisclosed number received SNAP (food stamps)

I believe in helping people, but I also believe that charity begins at home and ideally does not involve the government. If I want to help my neighbor, good for me. However, for the government to take what I have earned and give it to someone who didn’t earn it is not a viable business plan for a nation. As Margaret Thatcher once stated, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”

Where Your Taxpayer Dollars Go

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On Thursday, Legal Insurrection posted an article based on information from The College Fix.

The article reports:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture granted Southern University Agricultural & Mechanical College in Louisiana $600,000 to study menstrual cycles in “transgender men,” according to a new database compiled by the American Principles Project.

The database, “Funding Insanity: Federal Spending on Gender Ideology under Biden-Harris,” states the school “will Study Menstrual Cycles in ‘Transgender Men And People With Masculine Gender Identities, Intersex, And Non-Binary Persons.’”

“The first occurrence of menstruation occurs at approximately 12 years of age and ends with menopause at roughly 51 years of age,” the grant description states. “A woman will have a monthly menstrual cycle for about 40 years of her life, averaging to about 450 periods over the course of her lifetime.”

“It is also important to recognize that transgender men and people with masculine gender identities, intersex and non-binary persons may also menstruate,” it states. “At any given moment about 26% of the world’s population is menstruating.”

So what? Why do I care about men pretending to be women menstruating?

The article concludes:

Reached by The Fix, an APP spokesman said the grant and others listed in the database are “the tip of the iceberg.”

“We know that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Our project looked only at grants and contracts that specifically pertained to gender ideology in some way. But there is far more spending out there relating to DEI, critical race theory, and other left-wing ideologies that we did not capture here,” Paul Dupont told The Fix via email.

“There is a great deal of work that still needs to be done to identify and hopefully eliminate this graft. DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency] is going to have some busy weeks and months ahead,” Dupont said.

Let’s do more research on things like cancer and less on this foolishness.

This May Change Quickly

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On Saturday, Manhattan-based District Judge Paul Engelmayer issued a sweeping emergency injunction essentially removing the authority of Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessett over the Treasury Department. The injunction blocks the Secretary and any political appointees from accessing records within the Treasury Department. The injunction also blocks any ‘special appointee’ of President Trump from having access records within the Treasury Department and demands that all information previously extracted be destroyed. What the judge is essentially saying is that the Treasury Secretary is not allow to look at the Treasury records nor is he or the President allowed to hire anyone to look at those records. This is an amazing combination of chutzpah, arrogance, ignorance of the U.S. Constitution, and stupid. I expect the ruling to be overturned quickly.

On Saturday, Legal Insurrection reported:

It was an unusual procedural context. I’ve reviewed the court’s electronic docket, and it appears to have been ex parte. There’s no indication of notice to the government and opportunity to be heard before the Judge ruled. The procedure was a Proposed Order To Show Cause including a Temporary Restraining Order. It’s the type of procedure used in only the most extreme emergencies (the OSC is not unusual, but including an ex parte TRO is unusual).

What was the emergency that couldn’t wait until the next day for the government to have a chance to be heard?

It was a Friday night move to deny access that, by the papers submitted, had been going on for over two weeks. The 60 page Complaint, and 40 Page Memorandum (plus a short Affirmation) obviously took a long time to prepare, arguing against an emergency so dire and time sensitive on a Friday night the court couldn’t even wait until the next morning for the government to be heard. It also reeks of judge shopping, because plaintiffs would have known who was the emergency duty judge so by going in on a Friday night they evaded the normal random assignment system for this purpose.

Whatever the ultimate merits, depriving the Secretary of Treasury of the ability to run the Department of Treasury as he deems proper is not something that should have been decided this way, even temporarily. I understand that litigants play these games, but it’s a bad look that damages faith in the judiciary when a court allows it.

The short version of the complaint and claims is that Secretary Bessent violated various procedural requirements and that there is a threat that sensitive private information could be exposed. Considering that the Chinese government thoroughly hacked the Treasury computer systems under Biden, it’s odd that the mere possibility that DOGE might mishandle the information required a Friday night court intervention. I think there are serious ‘standing’ issues with the states bringing the case as well as the harm being speculative.

The article also notes:

I can’t really assess the underlying merits on such short notice, other than it seems like what it is, a political objection in search of a legal theory. The Executive Branch gets to run the Executive Branch, and this seems like an overstep by a different branch of government.

This seems to be a repeat of 2017, where the Resistance had good luck with District Court Judges, less luck with Appeals Court Judges, and very little luck with Supreme Court Justices. But that’s besides the point, this is all about slowing down the Trump agenda, and wasting months or years before a final resolution is reached. Democrats don’t have to win in the end to achieve Democrats’ goals.

It is telling that there was less fuss when the Chinese hacked into the system.

When The Punishment Doesn’t Fit The Crime

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On Saturday, Legal Insurrection posted an article about Asif Rahman, a former CIA officer, who has been arrested and has pleaded guilty to sharing classified documents about Israel’s plans to launch a missile strike on Iran.

The article reports:

A former CIA analyst arrested in November and charged with leaking highly classified records showing Israeli plans to launch a retaliatory strike on Iran pleaded guilty Friday in a federal court in Virginia.

Asif Rahman, 34, pleaded guilty to two counts of transmission of national defense information, according to court records.

Rahman faces up to 10 years in prison for the first count and up to three years for the second count. His sentencing was set for May 15.

Rahman admitted to accessing and printing out two documents regarding Israel’s retaliatory strike plans on Oct. 17 and transporting them to his residence, where he later uploaded images of them and provided them to “multiple individuals he knew were not entitled to receive them,” according to the plea agreement.

He later took various steps to try and conceal his involvement in the leak, even as authorities were able to track him down remarkably quickly given he was the only individual found to have printed out the documents, according to logs reviewed by investigators.

On Friday, Ynet news noted:

Rahman, a Yale University graduate, faces up to 20 years in prison under the Espionage Act. However, a plea deal under negotiation could limit his sentence to six and a half years. Federal prosecutors reportedly agreed to the reduced penalty after Rahman took responsibility for his actions and expressed a desire to resolve the case.

Rahman’s sentencing is scheduled for May 15. Prosecutors indicated they might recommend further leniency if Rahman continues cooperating with authorities.

I don’t care if he took responsibility for his actions, there needs to be a much longer prison sentence.

The Biggest Lie Of 2024

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On December 31st, Legal Insurrection posted an article about what they considered the biggest lie of 2024.

The article reported:

All politicians lie from time to time, but the Democrats have elevated it to an art form. They understand that if a lie is repeated often enough, it gains traction, and most people will eventually believe it. They’ve also learned that the most effective lies are the ones that are the most difficult to disprove, such as their insistence in 2016 that President-elect Donald Trump was an agent of Russia.

The Russian collusion narrative was a stunning success for the Democrats, creating endless challenges for candidate and eventually President Trump. Buoyed by its effectiveness, party operatives felt emboldened, pushing them to concoct even bigger and bolder lies.

When former Vice President Joe Biden entered the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, the party quickly rallied behind him, convinced he was their best chance to defeat Trump. It was evident, however, that Biden had changed during his time out of the spotlight. He had slowed down, struggled to speak without a teleprompter, slurred his words, and frequently lost his train of thought. While Republicans and foreigners recognized the early signs of cognitive decline, Biden’s handlers worked tirelessly to cover it up.

Unfortunately, Americans are the ones paying the price for that lie. The staff surrounding President Biden included a number of people who were in the Obama administration. I don’t think that is a coincidence. The last four years were President Obama’s third term. We got to see the soul of the Obama Democrat Party–bad economic policy, bad foreign policy, bad energy policy, and suffering everyday Americans. In 2024, the American voters decided that they were done with bad polices and changed course.

The article concludes:

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) sums up the Democrats’ hypocrisy perfectly in the tweet below:

They blamed it on a “Stutter.”
They blamed it on “Russian Disinfo.”
They blamed it on “Cheap-Fakes.”
They hid him at every opportunity.
They scripted every public event.
They denied the Hur Report findings.
They sent him on vacation for 570 days.
They brazenly lied to you FOR… pic.twitter.com/ovnQtFsX8t

— Byron Donalds (@ByronDonalds) December 30, 2024

I am looking forward to a great 2025.

What Have We Been Teaching Our Children?

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On Tuesday, Legal Insurrection posted an article about the reaction to the killing of the CEO or UnitedHealthcare.

The article includes the following chart:

The article reports:

  • Most voters (68%) think the actions of the killer against Thompson were unacceptable, while 17% found them acceptable, an Emerson College poll out this week found.
  • Young voters were far more split: 41% found the killer’s actions acceptable, while 40% found them unacceptable, per the poll. About 24% found them “somewhat acceptable” and 17% “completely acceptable.” ….
  • Even before Mangione was arrested, posters hailed him as a folk hero and posted jokes and memes celebrating the suspect and his purported cause, Axios’ Ivana Saric reported.
  • TikTok, a top social media app for young people, was awash with comedy over the killing.
  • Online storefronts also began selling merchandise, including sweatshirts, wine tumblers and hats emblazoned with words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” — industry parlance found on shell casings at the crime scene….
  • 22% of Democrats found the killer’s actions acceptable, while 59% found them unacceptable. Among Republicans, 12% found the actions acceptable while 16% of independents said the same.
  • Men (19%) found the killer’s actions slightly more acceptable than women (14%).

This is frightening.

The article quotes an interview with William A. Jacobson, who wrote the article:

And so I think that’s what you’re seeing is a destruction of the values in the younger generation via the education system on the rule of law, of the notion that you just don’t get to kill people you don’t like. And so I think that’s a problem, I think, that this should be the reaction from the younger generation to this assassination, this premeditated assassination, which has resulted in a very rare first degree murder charge in New York State, because it’s an act, was an act considered an act of terrorism, which pushes it up from second degree murder to first degree murder. You’re seeing that reaction is something that is very frightening for our society, and I think you may see play out in other cases that people think it’s okay to kill somebody you disagree with or you think has a bad capitalist job.

If we continue to teach our young adults that capitalism is evil, where will the next generation of entrepreneurs come from?

 

In Today’s America, Privacy Is An Illusion

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On Tuesday, Legal Insurrection posted an article explaining how the government spies on Americans without the inconvenience of getting a warrant.

The article reports:

A report from the House Judiciary Committee and Government Weaponization Subcommittee exposed the FBI for abusing the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) to spy on Americans’ bank accounts without a warrant.

“Documents show that federal law enforcement increasingly works hand-in-glove with financial institutions, obtaining virtually unchecked access to private financial data and testing out new methods and new technology to continue the financial surveillance of American citizens,” according to the report.

The article notes:

However, the law prohibits federal law enforcement from asking about a bank’s customer information without a legal process.

“All Americans should be disturbed by how their financial data is collected, made accessible to, and searched by federal and state officials, including law enforcement and regulatory agencies,” the committees added. “With the rise in e-commerce and the widespread adoption of cash alternatives like credit cards or peer-to-peer payment services, the future leaves very little financial activity beyond the purview of modern financial institutions or the government’s prying eyes.”

Here’s a mic drop (emphasis mine): “This is because, as a condition of participating in the modern economy, Americans are forced to disclose details of their private lives to a financial industry that has been too eager to pass this information along to federal law enforcement.”

Yup. Our financial institutions had no problem cooperating with the FBI. It seems a few even helped formulate ideas to spy on us.

The article concludes:

The institutions and FinCEN have been working together to develop new ways to spy on Americans with the Bank Secrecy Act Advisory Group (BSAAG). The new plans include requiring “Americans to have a digital identification to access financial services, testing artificial intelligence to surveil Americans’ financial activity, and working towards even closer coordination between financial institutions and federal law enforcement.”

“As promoted by the BSAAG, this surveillance will be catalyzed by even greater government entanglement with financial institutions as they begin to integrate new technology to more effectively track their customers’ financial habits,” concluded the committees. “Absent renewed safeguards, the federal government and financial institutions will continue to siphon off Americans’ sensitive financial data, place it into the hands of bureaucrats, and erode any remaining semblance of financial privacy in the United States.”

After January 6th, 2021, Bank of America was asked to hand over records of anyone who used a Bank of America credit or debit card in the Washington, D.C., area between January 5th and January 7th of 2021. Those records were used as one method of identifying people who were at the Trump rally or at the Capitol building. There was no warrant involved.

A New Level Of Chutzpah

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President Biden has pardoned his son Hunter of all crimes committed between 2014 and 2024. In his statement regarding the pardon, President Biden cited the fact that he felt the charges against Hunter Biden were politically motivated and that he feared that the incoming administration would use the Justice Department politically. Wow. You mean like he has done for the past four years? It is telling that Baron Trump’s bedroom was searched by the FBI, but Hunter’s residence was never searched. Looking at the dates mentioned, I wonder if there is a statute of limitations involved here. There have been valid charges of child pornography on Hunter’s laptop. Is he now immune from those charges? President Biden was Vice-President from 2008 through 2016. When did the selling influence operations begin? Is there a statue of limitations on peddling influence? Are we about to find out?

On Sunday, Legal Insurrection posted an article about President Biden’s pardon of Hunter Biden.

The article includes the following statement from President Biden:

From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted. Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form. Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently.

The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election. Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the court room – with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases.

The reason for the pardon is simple–it is an attempt (it may or may not be successful) to end any further investigation into influence peddling by the Biden family. I am hoping investigations will continue and that the guilty will be held accountable for their actions.

The End Of The Scam?

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On Monday, Legal Insurrection posted an article about a two-day climate conference in Prague on November 12-13, 2024. At that conference, climate scientists declared that the “climate emergency” is over.

The article reports:

The declaration has 18 different point referencing climate science and facts that counter the narratives being pushed by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and those who want to push their green agendas. I have listed the first six below (which should be familiar to Legal Insurrection readers); there remainder can be found in the copy of the declaration.

1 The modest increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide that has taken place since the end of the Little Ice Age has been net-beneficial to humanity.
2. Foreseeable future increases in greenhouse gases in the air will probably also prove net-beneficial.
3. The rate and amplitude of global warming have been and will continue to be appreciably less than climate scientists have long predicted.
4. The Sun, and not greenhouse gases, has contributed and will continue to contribute the overwhelming majority of global temperature.
5. Geological evidence compellingly suggests that the rate and amplitude of global warming during the industrial era are neither unprecedented nor unusual.
6. Climate models are inherently incapable of telling us anything about how much global warming there will be or about whether or to what extent the warming has a natural or anthropogenic cause.

Though I have to say, #17 is a favorite of mine:

Since wind and solar power are costly, intermittent and more environmentally destructive per TWh generated than any other energy source, governments should cease to subsidize or to prioritize them, and should instead expand coal, gas and, above, all nuclear generation.

But, perhaps most importantly, the conference attendees demand the end of persecution of those researchers doing real science who struggle to share their reasonable and reliable findings whenever the data counters the political narratives.

As I have reported multiple times (article here):

Christiana Figueres, one-time executive secretary of United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change, admitted that the climate activists’ agenda is not to protect the environment but to break capitalism. The task ahead, she said in 2015, is “to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the Industrial Revolution.”

It was never really about the climate.

Wisdom From Someone Who Executed Successful Middle East Policy

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On Sunday, Legal Insurrection posted an article about the recent events in the Middle East.

The article reports:

Former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and advisor, Jared Kushner, had some wise words yesterday about Israel.

Israel has to finish the job. Now. She cannot stop.

People have responded, “I don’t agree with you politically at all, but this is true!”

Kushner wrote:

September 27th is the most important day in the Middle East since the Abraham Accords breakthrough.

I have spent countless hours studying Hezbollah and there is not an expert on earth who thought that what Israel has done to decapitate and degrade them was possible.

This is significant because Iran is now fully exposed. The reason why their nuclear facilities have not been destroyed, despite weak air defense systems, is because Hezbollah has been a loaded gun pointed at Israel. Iran spent the last forty years building this capability as its deterrent.

President Trump would often say, “Iran has never won a war but never lost a negotiation.” The Islamic Republic’s regime is much tougher when risking Hamas, Hezbollah, Syrian and Houthi lives than when risking their own. Their foolish efforts to assassinate President Trump and hack his campaign reek of desperation and are hardening a large coalition against them.

Iranian leadership is stuck in the old Middle East, while their neighbors in the GCC are sprinting toward the future by investing in their populations and infrastructure. They are becoming dynamic magnets for talent and investment while Iran falls further behind. As the Iranian proxies and threats dissipate, regional security and prosperity will rise for Christians, Muslims and Jews alike

The article concludes with more of Jared Kushner’s statement:

The philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy wrote on X, “I keep reading everywhere that Lebanon is ‘on the brink of collapse.’ No. It is on the brink of relief and deliverance.”
Moments like this come once in a generation, if they even come at all.

The Middle East is too often a solid where little changes. Today, it is a liquid and the ability to reshape is unlimited. Do not squander this moment.

Let’s all pray for success, for peace and for the good judgement of our leaders.

Lebanon used to be the garden spot of the Middle East. I pray that someday it will again be the beautiful, free land it once was.

 

I Hope This Gets To The Supreme Court Quickly

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On Monday, Legal Insurrection reported:

A policy that allows school staff to keep a child’s transgender status a secret does not violate a parent’s fundamental rights under the New Hampshire constitution, the state’s Supreme Court has held.

The policy was challenged by a New Hampshire mother who sued the Manchester school district after finding out from a teacher that her minor child (identified as M.C.) had asked school staff and students to be called by a name typically associated with the opposite sex.

According to the lawsuit, when the mother first asked the school to continue using her child’s given name and sex-appropriate pronouns, two teachers wrote to her saying they were willing to comply.

After the teachers stated that they were willing to comply, the mother got an email from the school principal that stated:

Good Morning [Jane Doe]. While I respect and understand your concern, we are held by the District policy as a staff. I have quoted our district policy below, which outlines the fact that we cannot disclose a student’s choice to parents if asked not to. If [M.C.] insists on being called [M.C.’s desired name] as a staff we have to respect that according to the policy or unfortunately we can be held accountable despite parents’ wishes.

The principal was reiterating district policy that, absent the child’s consent, “[s]chool personnel should not disclose information that may reveal a student’s transgender status or gender nonconforming presentation to others.” The school justified the policy as recognizing transgender students’ “rights” to privacy.

The article continues:

But that policy violated her fundamental parental rights, the mother alleged, among other claims, by encouraging school officials to affirmatively conceal her child’s “open and public” gender identity transition in school from her.

After all, if the whole school knows the child is transitioning, why shouldn’t the parent?

Notwithstanding these arguments, the trial court found the policy did not infinge a fundamental parenting right so as to warrant the application of strict scrutiny. And because the policy was rationally related to legitimate governmental interests, it was not unconstitutional, the court held, dismissing her claim.

In a 3-1 decision on appeal, the New Hampshire Supreme Court agreed.

I may take a village to raise a child, but that is a problem if the village is inhabited by villagers trying to take away parents’ rights.

What Happened On July 13th?

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On Tuesday, Legal Insurrection posted an article containing more information on the shooting of President Trump on July 13th. The information comes from Senator Josh Hawley who appeared on the Jesse Watters show on Monday night.

The article reports:

It turns out that the security lapses that day were even worse than previously thought. Hawley also stressed that this information was being shared with him because these whistleblowers are worried that this could happen again.

…The incident has led both Republicans and Democrats to intensely scrutinize the Secret Service in recent weeks. On “Jesse Watters Primetime,” Hawley claimed that the lead site agent was known to be inexperienced and “incompetent.”

“The site agent, the lead agent, was known to the Trump campaign to be inexperienced, to be ineffectual, to be, frankly, incompetent at their job,” Hawley said. “I’m also told by whistleblowers that on that day, she was not enforcing the normal security protocols.”

“She was not checking people’s IDs. She did not use Secret Service agents,” Hawley added. “Most of the agents there that day were not Secret Service agents. They were Homeland Security agents.”…

“Whistleblowers are coming forward from the Secret Service because they can’t believe what leadership is doing,” Hawley said. “They cannot believe that Secret Service is not taking action to clear out the rot.”

The fact that most of the agents were Homeland Security agents rather than Secret Service agents is troubling. No one wants to view this as an inside job, but the level of incompetence is stunning.

Clean Up Your Own Back Yard

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The Biden administration is doing some serious meddling in both the internal and external affairs of Israel. Internally they are trying to bring down the Netanyahu administration, externally they are trying to give Hamas a victory in Gaza. Both of these things will create more instability in the Middle East.

To understand the reason behind the Biden administration’s horrible foreign policy, we need to go back to the Obama administration. The Obama administration, for whatever reason, sought to stabilize the Middle East by strengthening Iran and weakening Israel. The foreign policy personnel of the Obama administration are the people dictating the foreign policy of the Biden administration.

On Monday, Legal Insurrection posted an article about the  Biden administration’s latest Middle East peace proposal. The goal of the Biden administration is to pressure Prime Minister Netanyahu into agreeing to this proposal. The proposal would be a death warrant for Israel.

The article reports:

I smelled a rat as soon as Biden announced it: “This has all the appearances of Team Biden trying to box Israel into something it did not propose and does not agree to – and dropping it just before the Sabbath so we can’t get a full Israeli response for 24 hrs as Biden continues to build pressure.”

We previously posted about Biden’s publicized statement on Friday, May 31, as Israel was entering a quiet period for the Sabbath, that purported to present a new Israeli ceasefire proposal, Biden Presented Supposed Israeli Ceasefire Proposal Leaving Hamas In Power, But It Was His Own.

The timing was suspicious, as was the substance. Per Biden, Israel had proposed what amounted to a permanent ceasefire not even subject to all hostages (alive and dead) being returned and subject to indefinite negotiations.

The article includes a screenshot of a tweet:

The article notes:

But Israel stopped short of saying Biden lied. In remarks over the weekend, Netanyahu came pretty close to using the “L” word, as Times of Israel reports:

Israeli officials pushed back on Monday on elements of the hostage deal proposal presented by US President Joe Biden over the weekend as an Israeli offer, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that there were gaps between that proposal and Israel’s stance.

“The claim that we agreed to a ceasefire without our conditions being met is incorrect,” the prime minister reportedly told lawmakers.

Netanyahu said in a Knesset meeting that Israel will not end the war in Gaza until it achieves its three war aims, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel: destroying Hamas’s military and civil governance capabilities, securing the release of all hostages, and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel.

“The proposal that Biden presented is incomplete,” the premier told MKs at a closed-door meeting of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, according to media reports.

He also reportedly said that there are “gaps” between the Israeli version and Biden’s recounting of it.

If we want peace in the Middle East, we are going to have to deal with Iran. That is the head of the snake. The other countries involved in funding terrorism might reconsider if bad things happen to Iran.

Even If We Lose, We Are Going To Control Things

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The realists in the Democrat party realize that President Biden is a weak candidate. It will take a massive amount of cheating to push him over the finish line. There have rumors of a candidate switch at the convention, but as of now those are simply rumors. So how can the Democrat party continue to control the government if they lose the presidency? They already have a plan.

On April 5th, Legal Insurrection posted an article explaining how the Biden administration plans to limit the power of President Trump if he takes office. I am not sure this is legal, but they are going to try it.

The article reports:

One of the things that frustrated me about Trump’s (first?) term was his seeming complete indifference to #TheResistance that manifested before he even took office. Unelected bureaucrats working in the ridiculously invasive executive branch’s many agencies, publicly declared war on him, and he . . . well, he did nothing.

Until the final year of his presidency when he seemed to finally take aim at the problem in his own branch of government–we can call it the deep state, the resistance, the entrenched bureaucrats who oversee far too much policy in America and who are, apparently, answerable to no one. Not the voter, not the president.

So then-president Trump launched Schedule F in late October 2020, a new rule that would allow the sitting and duly-elected president to have a say in who ran and worked in his own (overly large, sprawling, and ridiculously intrusive) branch of the federal government.

…And now we have Biden (or whomever is animating him) issue new rules to ensure that Democrats remain in their deep state positions, no matter who is actually elected by the people to run the executive branch as he sees fit.

…President Joe Biden’s administration announced its plan on Thursday to protect bureaucrats from being fired by a potential second Trump administration.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) finalized a rule that protects employees in the civil service by preventing the removal of their status and protections involuntarily, according to a press release. Under the new rule, an administration wishing to shift federal employees to a new category making them easier to fire would have to go through an elongated process, a move meant to be more time-consuming for a future president, Politico reported.

Hopefully this rule can be overturned either by a functioning Congress or an Executive Order. The Federal Government needs to shrink, regardless of who is in charge!

Taking Pre-Emptive Action

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As I reported in a previous article, America is about to experience an epidemic of ‘squatters.’ There have already been cases in New York, and I am sure other states are also experiencing people with no right to a property deciding to live there rent-free. Well, at least one state is prepared to take action.

On Thursday, Legal Insurrection reported the following:

For some inexplicable reason, squatters’ rights laws are commonplace throughout these United States. In many states, a person or persons can enter and inhabit another person’s vacant property, set up house, and after—in most cases—a mere 30 days claim some form of bizarre “right” to inhabit the home in which they did not pay a day’s rent nor a single mortgage payment: a home they do not own, did not buy, and have no right to occupy.

But states, including red states, have an array of “squatters’ rights” rules and laws that will offend—nay, even assault—the senses of all normal, law-abiding Americans.

The article cites a few examples. This is only one of many:

A Georgia man claims he returned home from caring for his sick wife to find that squatters had changed the locks on his home and moved in — and now local laws are blocking him from evicting the alleged freeloaders.

“Basically, these people came in Friday, broke into my house and had a U-Haul move all their stuff in. It’s frustrating. It’s very frustrating. I can’t even sleep,” DeKalb man Paul Callins told WSB-TV.

Callins had sunk thousands of dollars into the home and renovated it with his own hands after he inherited it from his late father, but since squatters moved in, he’s found himself facing nothing but obstacles to evicting the alleged intruders.

. . . . Rather than forcibly evicting the squatters, Georgia law requires homeowners file an “Affidavit of Intruder,” which then needs to work its way through the court system before police can act, Callins explained.

Situations like Callins’ have become all too common in Georgia.

About 1,200 homes across DeKalb County are occupied by squatters, according to the National Rental Home Council trade group.

There is a solution:

Fox Business reports (archive link):

The Florida Legislature unanimously passed a bill that would allow police to immediately remove squatters — a departure from the lengthy court cases required in most states.

“It gives me a real feeling of positive hope that we still have the ability to discuss challenges in our society and work with our legislatures in a bipartisan way,” Patti Peeples, a Sunshine State property owner who was barred from her own home after squatters refused to leave, told News4Jax.

The legislation, which passed both chambers earlier this month, would allow police to remove squatters without a lease authorized by the property owner and adds criminal penalties.

And that, my friends, is how it’s done.

Using Your Tax Dollars To Influence An Election

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This is an election year. When you consider everything that has gone on for the past four years, you realize that things were bound to get a little crazy. However, the craziness and dishonestly has reached levels very few of us ever realized they would reach.

On Thursday, Legal Insurrection posted the following headline:

Biden Admin to Use Tax Dollars to Pay College Students to Register Voters Ahead of 2024 Election

Does anyone want to guess the political leanings of college students?

The article reports:

The Biden administration is already facing accusations of trying to buy the votes of college student aged voters by ‘cancelling’ billions in student loan debt. Now they have announced that they will pay college students to register voters, and they’re doing this with tax dollars.

The corruption is right out in the open, for all to see.

The article quotes The Daily Caller:

Vice President Kamala Harris announced Tuesday that college students would be able to collect federally-funded work study for registering voters.

Harris’s announcement of the new policy was posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. The federal work-study program is intended to allow students to earn money for day-to-day expenses while at college, according to the Department of Education.

“We have been doing work to promote voter participation for students,” Harris said. “For example, we have under the Federal Work-Study program now allow students to get paid through Federal Work-Study to register people and to be non-partisan poll workers. As we know, this is important for a number of reasons. One, to engage our young leaders in this process and activate them in terms of their ability to strengthen our communities.”

Do you really think that college students are interested in registering conservative voters? Conservatives and patriots are going to have to come out to vote in very large numbers to overcome the cheating that the Democrats are already planning.

The Truth Is Too Gruesome To Watch

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On Monday, William A. Jacobson posted an article at Legal Insurrection about the atrocities of October 7.

The article states:

“I just saw indescribable, raw footage of Hamas’ massacre along with 100 other international journalists”

We reported yesterday that Israel was planning on providing a viewing of raw footage from Hamas and other terrorist bodycams, Israeli dashcams, and security cameras, in light of the denialism being spread about Hamas butchery.

That showing took place today:
These are some of the things shown:

The footage was collected from call recordings, security cameras, Hamas terrorists’ body cameras, victim dashboard cameras, Hamas and victims’ social media accounts, and cellphone videos taken by terrorists, victims and first responders. Over 1,000 civilians were slaughtered by the terrorists, and at least 224 people were abducted.

In one pair of videos that were screened, Hamas terrorists are seen dressed in IDF uniforms, flagging down passing cars and then shooting their occupants.

In another video, first responders are seen pouring bottled water over still-smoldering bodies, hoping to snuff out the remaining embers.

In another, a man writhes on the ground, bleeding from his stomach, as a terrorist tries repeatedly to decapitate him with farming equipment. The man appears to be southeast Asian, possibly one of Israel’s foreign agricultural workers.

In another clip, from after the assault, an Israeli woman is seen trying to work out if a partially burned woman’s corpse, with a mutilated head, is that of a family member. The dead woman’s dress is pulled up to her waist and her underpants have been removed.

Major Gen. Mickey Edelstein, who briefed reporters after the viewing, said that “we have evidence” of rape but “we cannot share it,” declining to elaborate further….

In the second segment, captured through a call recording application on a victim’s phone, a different son reaches out to a different father. “Dad, I killed 10 with my bare hands,” the terrorist excitedly tells his father in Gaza. “Their blood is on my hands, let me speak to Mom.”

“Please be proud of me, Dad,” he adds.

There is no way anyone can justify this. The article continues, but it is very difficult to read. Follow the link at your own risk.

When Reality Shows Up

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Green energy is a wonderful theory. So is the perpetual motion machine. However, both are limited by the laws of physics, and the first is limited by practicalities regarding cost.

On Saturday, Legal Insurrection posted an article about some of the current problems being encountered by wind farms.

The article reports:

A couple of weeks ago, Sweden’s government ditched plans to go all-in on “green energy,” green-lighting the construction of new nuclear power plants. Shortly afterward, fossil fuel giant Shell announced it was scaling back its energy transition plans to focus on . . . gas and oil!

Now it looks like specific wind farm projects are beginning to topple due to strong economic headwinds. Recent, Rhode Island’s leading utility decided to nix a project called Revolution Wind 2 because the cost of the electricity was deemed too high.

…In Europe, Swedish energy firm Vattenfall will stop the development of a major wind project in the United Kingdom after a surge in costs (Hat-tip Hot Air’s Beege Welborne). Once again, the issue was related to surges in energy costs.

The economic headwinds associated with wind farms are beginning to be noticed.

…. Even as the White House is welcoming it with open arms and the Democrats’ climate law is channeling money in its direction, strong economic headwinds are blowing in the opposite direction – inflation and rising interest rates have hit the industry hard.

And then there’s the whales: Some citizen groups and conservative media have blamed a rise in whale strandings and deaths this year on the nascent wind farm projects – a connection scientists have so far found no evidence for.

The combination has made it a precarious time for offshore wind, said Jason Grumet, CEO of the American Clean Power Association, the trade group representing US clean energy.

“This is the vulnerable moment where the benefits are on the horizon,” Grumet told reporters this spring. “Because we don’t have the benefits of it on the table. We don’t have massive facilities producing energy, lowering prices in those states.”

Currently, green energy is not the answer to anything. The climate-change fear mongering is simply a way to eliminate the middle class and gain more control over the world’s population.

In February 2019, I posted an article that included the following:

In March 2016, I posted an article with the following:

…Then listen to the words of former United Nations climate official Ottmar Edenhofer:

“One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. This has almost nothing to do with the environmental policy anymore, with problems such as deforestation or the ozone hole,” said Edenhofer, who co-chaired the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change working group on Mitigation of Climate Change from 2008 to 2015.

So what is the goal of environmental policy?

“We redistribute de facto the world’s wealth by climate policy,” said Edenhofer.

I can’t post this quote often enough. It needs to engraved in the minds of every American.