Maureen Comey Gets the Boot

The daughter of James Comey had a high-profile job as a US Attorney at the Southern District of New York, during which she prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislane Maxwell, and Sean “P Diddy” Combs. No longer. Her critics blamed her for her prosecutorial failures and the nepotism that got her there. She, on the other hand, blamed tyranny for her firing. New York Times: “If a career prosecutor can be fired without reason, fear may seep into the decisions of those who remain,” she wrote in an email that was circulated to her colleagues within the federal prosecutor’s office in Manhattan. “Do not let that happen.” She called fear “the tool of a tyrant, wielded to suppress independent thought.” Ms. Comey, who is the daughter of James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director and an adversary of President Trump, was also the lead prosecutor in the recent trial of Sean Combs, the hip-hop entrepreneur who was acquitted of the most serious charges he faced earlier this month. (New York Times). Her father, former FBI Director James Comey, is currently under investigation for his role in the Russia Collusion Hoax and illegal leaks of classified documents. Hunter Biden had no comment on accusations of nepotism.

Minnesota Government Fraud Cases Piling Up

Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota oversees a state where the public purse is vulnerable to numerous fraudsters. As federal prosecutors win case after case convicting the perpetrators of the largest COVID fraud scam in the country, two other multi-hundred-million-dollar scandals are yielding arrests by federal agents. One involves housing for addicts, and another fake autism treatment centers. CBS News: Federal agents are investigating a “massive scheme to defraud” Minnesota’s Housing Stabilization Services program, according to court documents. A search warrant filed with the U.S. District Court for Minnesota details the fraud investigation concerning the new Minnesota Medical Assistance benefit meant to help find and maintain homes for people with disabilities — including mental illnesses and substance use disorders — as well as the elderly. When the program started in 2020, it was estimated that it would cost taxpayers about $2.5 million a year. But by 2021, it cost $21 million. Last year, it ballooned to $104 million. (CBS News). David Strom: Minnesota has become a hub for fraud, and the national Democrats have taken notice–and exactly how you would expect. Tim Walz was rewarded for his role in these schemes–well known by then–by being nominated to be Vice President of the United States. Taxing people to do “good works” is not just an inefficient way to help people, it is little more than a scheme to make money. (David Strom at Hot Air).

Senate Axes NPR Funding

Liberals are howling in despair and anger, NPR’s President is insisting that NPR isn’t biased, and Democrats are complaining that defunding state-run media is destroying freedom. Republicans? They are celebrating as the Senate passed the president’s rescissions bill defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Slightly more than 10% of the spending cuts are aimed at the CPB, but nearly 100% of the news coverage is complaining or celebrating the stripping of funds for NPR. Award for most ridiculous defense of NPR goes to its President Katherine Maher. Curtis Houck: NPR CEO Katherine Maher argues rural America often has no other possible source of news or connection to the outside world EXCEPT through PBS and NPR: “Large rural communities, large tribal communities” don’t have “a lot of other options. Broadband service is not universal, and heck, even cell phone service is not universal. There’s a real understanding of the need there as well as for emergency alerting, in which public media plays an extraordinarily important role.” (X) Second best observation comes from T. Beckett Smith: NPR and PBS quit Twitter in 2023 after being labeled “government-funded media,” arguing the funding they receive is so trivial as to render such a designation unfair and inaccurate. Now, we’re told the potential loss of the allegedly trivial funding poses an existential threat. (X).

Epstein Anger Hasn’t Abated Yet

The Trump administration is anxious to put the Epstein debacle behind them, but neither the Democrats nor a fraction of MAGA is anxious to let them. While few ordinary Americans are much worried about the case, Democrats are upping the pressure and important figures such as Megyn Kelly, Matt Walsh, James O’Keefe, and many MAGA influencers are angry that nothing was released. Rasmussen Reports reports that most Americans believe there is a cover-up. Rasmussen Reports: The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that just 21% of Likely U.S. Voters believe the FBI and DOJ are telling the truth about Epstein, who was found hanged in his jail cell in 2019. A majority (56%) don’t think the FBI and Department of Justice are telling the truth, and 23% are not sure. (Rasmussen Reports). More through Miranda Devine: “Roughly two-thirds of every political category — 68% of Democrats, 66% of Republicans and 69% of unaffiliated voters — reject the idea that the Epstein case is closed and instead believe that there are dozens of powerful and wealthy offenders who need to face justice.” “Roughly two-thirds of every political category — 68% of Democrats, 66% of Republicans and 69% of unaffiliated voters — reject the idea that the Epstein case is closed and instead believe that there are dozens of powerful and wealthy offenders who need to face justice.” …Heads on pikes, nothing less. (New York Post). Trump has taken to calling the Epstein scandal a “hoax” and his MAGA critics “past supporters.” ABC: “It was a hoax. It’s all been a big hoax. It’s perpetrated by the Democrats and some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net. And so they try and do the Democrats work. The Democrats are good for nothing other than these hoaxes,” Trump told ABC’s Bruce. Many Republicans on Capitol Hill, however, said on Wednesday they still have lingering questions and are pushing for transparency. “I obviously don’t speak for the White House, but what I can tell you is I’m also hearing him ask for transparency on the topic, something that we’ve been very, very much so championing,” said Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican. (ABC News).

Zohran Mamdani Wants to Abolish Private Property

Will Zohran Mamdani be the gift that keeps on giving to Republicans, or is he an existential threat to New York City? Or both? After PolitiFact insisted that Donald Trump was lying when he called Mamdani a “communist,” he has been quoted as saying he believes in seizing the means of production and the elimination of private property. Mamdani on seizing the means of production. (X). On private property: (X). Mamdani: Each according to their need, each according to their ability. (X). PolitiFact: Trump said Mamdani is a communist. Mamdani’s mayoral platform proposes making New York City more affordable, including via free buses and day care, rent control and city-owned grocery stores. That is not akin to communism, a system in which the government controls the means of production and takes over private businesses. Mamdani has not called for the elimination of private ownership in his mayoral campaign. He also hasn’t called for eliminating democracy and political parties, another tenet of communism. We rate this statement False. (PolitiFact). Well, if it is not written down in his platform, it must not be true.

New York Times Appalled That Trump Criticizes Opponents

Peter Baker of The New York Times has a case of Biden administration amnesia. Peter Baker: “Evil” is a word getting a lot of airtime in the second Trump term. It is not enough anymore to dislike a journalistic inquiry or disagree with an opposing philosophy. Anyone viewed as critical of the president or insufficiently deferential is wicked. The Trump administration’s efforts to achieve its policy goals are not just an exercise in governance but a holy mission against forces of darkness. The characterization seeds the ground to justify all sorts of actions that would normally be considered extreme or out of bounds. If Mr. Trump’s adversaries are not just rivals but villains, then he can rationalize going further than any president has in modern times. Last month, he told a cabinet secretary to consider throwing her Biden administration predecessor in prison because of his immigration policy. Last weekend, Mr. Trump said he might strip Rosie O’Donnell’s citizenship for the crime of criticizing him. Demonization, of course, has been at the core of Mr. Trump’s politics since he took the national stage in 2015 to announce his first successful presidential campaign and disparaged many immigrants crossing the border without permission as “rapists” and vowed to block all Muslims from entering the country. (New York Times). After 10 years of the media and Democrats calling Trump a Nazi and an existential threat to democracy, it takes a special kind of self-unawareness to write a piece like this. Therefore, it is no surprise that it appeared in The New York Times.

Insane: CBS Correspondent Got PTSD After Trump Assassination Attempt Because He Was Afraid of the Crowd, Not the Shooter

CBS News Capitol Hill correspondent Scott MacFarlane says he got PTSD from covering the Butler, PA rally where Trump got shot. It was not the assassin or the bullets flying that traumatized him. It was being surrounded by Trump supporters. Fox News: Americans reeled in shock from the attempt on Trump’s life during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, but MacFarlane said he had personal trauma from the crowd’s immediate rage in response. “For those of us there, it was such a horror because you saw an emerging America,” MacFarlane told Todd on his podcast. “And it wasn’t the shooting, Chuck. This was – I got diagnosed with PTSD within 48 hours. I got put on trauma leave, not because, I think, of the shooting, but because you saw it in the eyes, the reaction of the people.” “They were coming for us,” he said in the clip flagged by The Daily Caller. “If [Trump] didn’t jump up with his fist, they were going to come kill us!” CBS News Capitol Hill correspondent Scott MacFarlane told podcaster Chuck Todd about his ongoing trauma from seeing the crowd’s rage on the day of the Trump rally shooting. (“The Chuck ToddCast”) “I know,” Todd agreed. (Fox News). Is it any wonder that nobody in Middle America trusts the media? They literally fear and hate us.

Democrats Hit All-Time Low in Latest Polling

In a new poll, the Democrats got some good news and some bad. First, the good: Democrats are angry and highly motivated to vote in next November’s elections. Now the bad: nobody likes the Democrats. CNN: Overall, 72% of Democrats and Democratic-aligned registered voters say they are extremely motivated to vote in next year’s congressional election, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. That outpaces by 10 points deep motivation among the same group just weeks before the 2024 presidential election and stands 22 points above the share of Republican and Republican-leaning voters who feel the same way now. But just 28% of Americans view the Democratic Party favorably, the lowest mark for Democrats in the history of CNN’s polling going back to 1992. Still, only 33% hold a favorable view of the Republican Party, which is the smallest share in CNN polling since just after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. The poll suggests Democrats have a major opportunity next year – especially since midterms often favor the party out of power – but also a perception problem within their own ranks, particularly among younger voters. Among voters younger than 45 who align with the Democrats, just 52% say most Democratic members of Congress deserve reelection, and 48% say they do not. Older Democratic voters, by contrast, say these elected officials deserve another term by a wide margin, 76% to 24%. (CNN). Younger Democrats are looking for more radical leaders. Older Democrats just hate Trump, so they will vote for anybody. 

Senate Advances Emil Bove Nomination

Emil Bove evinces strong opinions from supporters and detractors. Perhaps the most controversial Trump nominee since Pete Hegseth, Bove has taken a beating from opponents in the Senate. Still, after all the storm and strife, the Senate Judiciary Committee just recommended him for approval from the body after Democrats stormed out of the committee hearing. NBC News: Democrats walked out of a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Thursday that advanced senior Justice Department official Emil Bove’s nomination for a federal judgeship, alleging Republicans had improperly rushed the process. A spokesperson for the top Democrat on the panel, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, said that as a result, it is an open question whether the nominations of Bove, who was President Donald Trump’s personal defense lawyer, and former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, whom the president has picked for U.S. attorney of the District of Columbia, are moving forward. The spokesperson said the Republican majority broke several rules with its actions and Democrats would make their case to the Senate parliamentarian that the votes should be voided. A spokesperson for the committee’s chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said there is no dispute and both Bove’s nomination to the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Pirro’s nomination can move ahead to the full Senate. (NBC News).

Trump Administration Axes California’s No Speed Rail

Gavin Newsom may call it “High Speed Rail,” but the reality is that California has spent billions of dollars without laying a mile of track, so it should be dubbed the “Gravy Train.” First approved in 2009, so far California has spent $13 billion without much more to show than pretty pictures of what it might look like. Fox Business: California’s embattled high-speed rail project suffered a major setback after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the termination of $4 billion in unspent federal funding by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). Citing 16 years of failure, no completed high-speed track, and escalating costs, Duffy declared the project, dubbed the “train to nowhere,” a mismanaged and over-budget “boondoggle.” “This is California’s fault. Governor Newsom and the complicit Democrats have enabled this waste for years. Federal dollars are not a blank check – they come with a promise to deliver results,” Duffy said in a statement. (Fox Business). The train was scheduled to be running by now from San Francisco to Los Angeles at a cost of $33 billion. Current estimates indicate that the project will cost closer to $100 billion more than the original estimate and will not come online until sometime in the 2030s.