Hunt them down as wild dogs. DOJ Conspirators.
The Gateway Pundit got it right when they said the hunter has become the hunted. Those lawyers and staff from the DOJ are now sitting their pants. Crying that they are going to be sued or even jailed for criminal acts.
Some have sent out resumes and others have already hired outside lawyers. Some were even stupid enough to ask AG Garland for advice. Interesting to see what Jack Smith does.
Judge orders the selling of the wall to stop. This ended Biden’s attempt to make it easier for the Progressive criminals to cross.
A court has ordered the Biden administration to stop selling off border wall materials.
On Friday, the Biden administration said it has agreed to the court order and will not sell off any more materials over the next 30 days. President Biden had allowed for the border wall pieces to be sold on auction marketplaces since at least 2023 and wanted to get rid of as much as possible ahead of the incoming Trump administration.
Liberals (really, the “Progressive Left”) cannot be satisfied unless government — their preferred instrument of exerting power — is in a position of complete supremacy over private business, i.e., the free economy. But the prospect of a new Trump administration next month threatens to reverse the Left’s gains of the past several decades, so their new buzzword is “oligarchy,” suggesting a handful of super-rich villains are on the verge of taking over.
Never mind that Donald Trump won re-election in November thanks to the votes of 77,301,997 Americans, extremely few of whom are billionaires (or even millionaires). Watching MSNBC the past few days, you’d have heard a cacophony of journalists insisting that democracy was already being supplanted by “oligarchy” as successful businessmen like Elon Musk are on the ascent.
“This is basically the new Gilded Age that we are living in,” MSNBC legal analyst Melissa Murray fretted on Friday’s Alex Wagner Tonight. “It’s not a surprise that the administrative state is under assault. It’s a real problem for these oligarchs and corporations,” she added.
“This is what we are headed for. It’s not dictatorship. It’s oligarchy, government by the rich,” former longtime Newsweek writer Jonathan Alter warned on Saturday’s Velshi.
An hour later, Slate senior writer Mark Joseph Stern agreed: “It really seems like this coterie of billionaires and benefactors all sort of entrenching and reinforcing each other’s power and privilege. And if that isn’t an oligarchy, Katie, I’m really not sure what is.”
Earlier (on Monday, December 23), occasional host Rachel Maddow suggested Musk’s success in blocking a massive government spending bill was a dangerous sign that billionaires were about to have the upper hand. She approvingly quoted from The American Prospect’s David Dayan: “This is going to be a constant theme of the next four years. Personal business interests are going to constantly take precedence over governance in the Trump/Musk White House. The word for this is oligarchy, and oligarchs do not think about the country first.”
And on Tuesday’s The ReidOut, David Corn of Mother Jones magazine blasted Republicans for their “acquiescence” when it comes to Trump’s nominations: “They’ve accepted this clown car cavalcade of cranks, oligarchs and cronies for his appointments to very important positions that will threaten our health and safety.”
Of course, one way to avoid the power of a dangerous “oligarchy” is to reduce government’s authority over economic activity — with less power at stake, there would be less for the super-rich to gain from buying up compliant pols. But a less powerful federal government would also be a less powerful tool for the Left, so don’t expect them to discover their inner Libertarian.
Here are short transcripts of MSNBC’s liberals on Friday and Saturday wailing about the coming “oligarchy,” each followed by a video showing the context of each remark.
# Alex Wagner Tonight
December 27, 9:20pm ET
Host ALEX WAGNER: It says something as we look towards the broader landscape of the incoming Trump administration about the power of billionaires, right? It’s largely unchecked. This is what Dick Durbin had to say — he’s the outgoing chair of the Judiciary Committee — he says, “Whether failing to disclose lavish gifts or failing to recuse from cases with apparent conflicts of interest, it’s clear that the Justices are losing the trust of the American people at the hands of a gaggle of fawning billionaires.” I mean, you have Elon Musk in the executive branch, you have Harlan Crow in the judicial branch, you have untold billionaires working their way into the legislative branch. I mean, just give me your opinion on this sort of, I’m not going to call it, officially, ‘kleptocracy,’ but man, Melissa, this is deeply problematic on a number of levels when you looking at the amount of money and the outsized influence it could buy.
MSNBC legal analyst MELISSA MURRAY: Wouldn’t we call it a kleptocracy? Maybe an — certainly an oligarchy gone amok, for sure, Alex. This is basically the new Gilded Age that we are living in, and we’ve seen the effects of it. The Supreme Court overturned the Chevron Doctrine last year, and there’s been reporting from the New York Times that has made clear that that was a multi-year project funded by the conservative legal movement and the Koch brothers network, which has a true interest in corporate deregulation, in hobbling the administrative state. Because administrative agencies issue regulations that often make it more costly for corporations to run because those regulations make it safer for consumers but more expensive for corporations to make their products. It’s not a surprise that the administrative state is under assault. It’s a real problem for these oligarchs and corporations, and so it’s no surprise the American people are losing faith in the Court when they see these cozy relationships between the Supreme Court justices and these oligarchs who sometimes function, apparently, as emotional-support billionaires….
# Velshi
December 28, 11:07am ET
Former Newsweek writer JONATHAN ALTER: He [Trump] becomes a lame duck on January 20th. I know people talk about him getting around the 22nd Amendment and being in office forever. That’s not going to happen. So he, his political power will start to ooze out of him, and a lot of the accountability will be reflected in the — first in the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial elections this coming year, and then in the 2026 midterms. But if he ends up governing with a billionaires boys club — you know, he’s already appointed 12 billionaires — that’s not what he promised. He promised to look out for middle class working families. And if his policies include, you know, deep cuts to very popular programs, or other things that don’t really seem to resemble the populist promises that he made during the campaign, his popularity is going to suffer….
There are a lot of ways of fighting back, but it depends on ordinary people to organize against oligarchy. This is what we are headed for. It’s not dictatorship. It’s oligarchy, government by the rich. And we need to get a sense in the days ahead of whether Democrats, independents and even some anti-Trump Republicans are willing to organize against this. This doesn’t mean, like, massive resistance. You have to pick your battles, but Democrats have a lot of tools available to them, and it’s on. This is going to be a struggle between his critics and the administration for the next four years.
# The Katie Phang Show
December 28, 12:26pm ET
Slate’s MARK JOSEPH STERN: [Supreme Court Justice] Clarence Thomas has devoted his career to destroying campaign finance laws and granting billionaires a First Amendment right to purchase elections. Elon Musk, the richest man on the planet took advantage of those decisions to essentially buy Trump the presidency, to bail him out and to put Trump back in the White House. And because of Musk’s work now, [Justice Thomas’s wife] Ginny Thomas is going to have access to the Oval Office, Ginny Thomas is going to have meetings with Donald Trump, pushing her preferred policies, and there is no real chance that the President will approve of any kind of accountability for Clarence Thomas’s violation of the law. Come on! We know Trump is not going to approve court reform, he’s not going to impose a code of ethics, or sign one if Congress happens to pass it. His Attorney General is certainly not going to bring the civil or criminal penalties that could be on the table because of Thomas’s law-breaking here. And so it really seems like this coterie of billionaires and benefactors all sort of entrenching and reinforcing each other’s power and privilege. And if that isn’t an oligarchy, Katie, I’m really not sure what is.
This article originally appeared on WND.com
New images add to the documentation of the family’s close financial ties to Chinese interests.
For several years already, there’s been significant evidence of a Biden family influence peddling scheme.
Congressional investigators have confirmed that foreign interests paid Hunter Biden and his business associates $27 million from 2014 to 2019, when Joe Biden was vice president.
Hunter Biden used official trips with his father to facilitate some of those deals, and there’s been a startling lack of evidence of any services or products provided to obtain those millions.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden repeatedly claimed he had no knowledge of Hunter’s business schemes and profits, despite testimony that he was on speakerphone with Hunter’s clients, attended dinners with them, and took pictures with them.
Now there’s another piece of evidence that has surfaced. According to Fox News,“President Biden is seen in newly uncovered photos meeting with Hunter Biden’s Chinese business associates in China while he served as vice president, bringing further scrutiny to his claim he ‘never’ discussed business with his son. The photos, obtained by conservative-leaning America First Legal through litigation against the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), appear to show then-Vice President Biden introducing his son to Chinese President Xi Jinping and then-Vice President Li Yuanchao. Other photos show Joe Biden posing with Hunter’s business associates from BHR Partners, including Jonathan Li and Ming Xue.”
In fact, America First Legal said, “These images shed light on the connections between then-Vice President Biden, Hunter and his Chinese business associates, and Chinese government officials including President Xi Jinping. Lawyers and representatives for President Biden and President Obama delayed NARA’s release of these photographs, as they did with other records, until after Election Day.”
But don’t expect the revelations to have a significant impact, warned constitutional expert Jonathan Turley, who has both testified before Congress on the Constitution, and represented members in court.
“After years of ignoring the influence-peddling scandal, the media is not likely to suddenly pursue the story. In the meantime, Democrats have praised or rationalized Biden for pardoning his son despite the fact that it covered possible crimes that might implicate not just Hunter but his father in corruption,” Turley explained.
He cited what’s already been in evidence: “There were diamonds as gifts, lavish expense accounts, and a sports car, in addition to massive payments that Hunter claimed were ‘loans.’ There are messages like the one to a Chinese businessman openly threatening the displeasure of Joe Biden if money is not sent to them immediately. In the WhatsApp message.”
In that situation, Hunter threatened his Chinese money source: “I am sitting here with my father, and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the Chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.”
Turley noted the “pronounced lack of interest” by media organizations in America “into the alleged multimillion dollar influence-peddling scheme.”
He said those “House and conservative” groups that have pursued the story have found “overwhelming evidence that the president has repeatedly lied about his interactions with foreign clients.”
The newest image “Further contradicts” Biden’s claims, Turley said.
Fox reported the newly accessed images, according to America First Legal, “corroborate the House Oversight Committee’s investigative findings that Hunter Biden arranged for his father to meet with Jonathan Li and other BHR executives during the 2013 China trip, where ‘Mr. Li sought— and received — access to Vice President Biden’s political power, including, for example, preferential access to then-U.S. Ambassador to China Max Baucus … a condition of Hunter Biden and his associates participating in the BHR deal.’”
Congressional investigators also have concluded the Bidens benefited from their business dealings with BHR.
Campaigning in 2019, Joe Biden claimed, “I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.”
But, Fox reported, “emails sent to and from Hunter Biden have cast doubt on that, including a 2017 email obtained by Fox News that shows Hunter requesting keys for Joe and Jill Biden, along with his uncle, Jim Biden, for space he planned to share with an ’emissary’ to the chairman of a now-bankrupt Chinese energy company.”
The report detailed, “In another 2017 email also obtained by Fox News, Biden wrote to the same Chinese energy company’s chairman extending ‘best wishes from the entire Biden family,’ and urging the chairman to ‘quickly’ send a $10 million wire to ‘properly fund and operate’ the Biden joint venture with the company.”
“The Biden Crime Family Christmas card just dropped,” GOP Rep. Eric Burlison explained on social media.
Whatever is revealed now about that time period no longer will threaten Hunter Biden, as Joe Biden granted him a pardon for a decade-long time period covering virtually all of the circumstances that have been uncovered that raise questions.
Joe Biden claimed his son was being “unfairly” prosecuted, even though a jury convicted him of multiple gun felonies, and he pleaded guilty to several tax felonies.
Guest post by Bob Unruh — Copyright 2024 WND News Center
Santa Claus came early for Newsmax as ratings for Tuesday showed Newsmax beat competitor CNN for four consecutive hours.
On Christmas Eve Nielsen reported Newsmax scored decisive wins against CNN from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. ET.
Newsmax shows went head-to-head with CNN and their special holiday programming winning each time in “P2” or total audience for all viewers.
Here were Tuesday’s Nielsen’s:
The recent Newsmax ratings wins are not unusual.
“Rob Schmitt Tonight” has been winning against CNN during prime access regularly, with other Newsmax shows winning or coming close.
CNN is in about 10 million more homes than Newsmax, making the network ratings wins even more impressive on a proportionate basis.
Nielsen said Newsmax’s audience Tuesday in prime access was so large it beat the combined ratings of Fox Business, CNBC, and liberal NewsNation.
Newsmax continues to take a big chunk of Fox News’ audience, pulling nearly 20% of the network’s total audience number for total day.
Between its non-rated streaming channel, N2, and its cable channel, Newsmax estimates it draws about 30% of Fox’s total audience.
“Newsmax had a remarkable ratings year in 2024 and we’re excited about 2025,” Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy said.
In June, the Reuters Institute said Newsmax was one of the top 12 U.S. news brands.
And a recent Pew study found Newsmax was a top source of news for Americans during the 2024 election, ranking with CBS, NBC, The New York Times, AP, and X, among others.
By Naveen Athrappully for The Epoch Times
She alleged that this amounted to an “unlawful, unfair or fraudulent business” practice as per California’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL) and violated the state’s Consumers Legal Remedies Act (CLRA).
The case went to a trial court and the appeals court, both of which rejected the plaintiff’s claims. The Supreme Court of California then took up the case.
According to a Dec. 23 court opinion, the Supreme Court dismissed Capito’s claims on Monday, agreeing with the two courts.
“Hospitals do not have a duty under the UCL or CLRA, beyond their obligations under the relevant statutory and regulatory scheme, to disclose EMS fees prior to treating emergency room patients,” it said.
“The California Legislature, the United States Congress, and numerous rulemaking bodies have already decided what pricing information to make available in a hospital’s emergency room. Just as importantly, they have decided what not to include in those requirements.”
The reason authorities have avoided mandating the inclusion of certain fees is to prevent patients from getting dissuaded by seeing prices and opting out of potentially life-saving care, the court wrote.
Forcing hospitals to show EMS costs would lead to patients weighing the price against the necessity of such procedures. Insisting that such prices be shown assumes that patients in emergency rooms are capable of diagnosing “whether their ailment is relatively minor.”
In the lawsuit, the plaintiff did not accuse Regional Medical Center of failing to comply with the mandated disclosure requirements. Capito also did not allege that she was charged fees for services not provided or that the fees were excessive.
The California Hospital Association (CHA) has argued against the push for notifying patients about fees in emergency treatment conditions.
Allowing such a policy would impose “an unreasonable duty” on hospitals, said the association.
“Hospitals cannot determine the costs of patient care prior to treatment, especially emergency care. The treatment necessary for a particular patient depends on the severity of the patient’s condition, which is impossible for either the patient or the hospital to know in advance,” the association said.
“Besides, a patient’s financial responsibility for treatment costs depends on his or her insurance status and coverage. Even assuming a patient has insurance, the hospital cannot foresee whether, and to what extent, the insurer will provide coverage for the services ultimately rendered to the patient.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) is looking into the potential impact of private equity-run emergency care services provided to hospital patients.
According to an April 1 statement, he sent letters to private equity companies and physician staffing companies asking for information on patient care and other matters.
The letters followed multiple interviews conducted by his office with more than 40 emergency medicine physicians across the United States.
“I am concerned that our nation’s largest emergency medicine staffing companies may be engaging in cost-saving measures at the expense of patient safety and care, which could put our nation’s emergency preparedness at risk,” Peters said. “I am pressing these companies and their private equity owners for needed transparency.”
California is starting to lock up White and Black Progressives again.
California Progressives were shocked to learn that they were going to jail for the crimes they commit on a regular basis. Recently three of them found out what happens when you leave the hood and show up in descent neighborhoods.
Police in California released a video of a trio of alleged shoplifters who were shocked to find out that the penalty for their crime had recently changed. California Gov. Gavin Newsom remained adamantly opposed to the effort to undo portions of Proposition 47, saying it “takes us back to the 1980s, mass incarceration.”
The alleged thieves were shocked to learn that they could be charged with a felony for stealing. (Seal Beach Police Department)
So why so Surprised? California businesses are now shouldering the state’s federal unemployment debt with higher payroll taxes.
Business owners are acting like they’re shocked that the taxes went up. Why? This is California, why not? You get the government that you voted for, so live with it. From our friends at KCRA3.
The state failed to repay on time its $20 billion loan from the federal government that helped with California’s unemployment costs during the pandemic. The state forced businesses to close during COVID-19, leaving many jobless and in need of unemployment pay. State officials have said California ended up paying more than $200 billion in benefits. More than $32 billion of was the subject of fraud, according to nationally recognized fraud experts. Officials for California’s Employment Development Department have disputed this, stating the amount of fraud was $20 billion with $6 billion of it recovered.
Now will the business owners wake up and work to get a government for the people? Or will they leave the state or shut up and pay the taxes they voted for?
Hey the state is trillions in debt so the politicians just pass along that debt to you. But not to worry. The undocumented will have a very Merry Christmas.
President Joe Biden has proudly referenced his roots in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on countless occasions.
But after he pardoned a judge involved in a cash-for-kids program that jailed thousands of juveniles in northeastern Pennsylvania, the Electric City is no longer feeling that spark of love.
The newly elected Pennsylvania Republican State Rep. Brenda Pugh called on officials in Scranton to remove Biden’s name from expressways labeled in his honor after he pardoned former Luzerne County Judge Michael Conahan.
That now-disgraced official was convicted after taking kickbacks in exchange for sending juveniles to jail for committing minor crimes, or committing no crime whatsoever, according to PAHomepage.
Pugh said the fact that Biden pardoned Conahan was a disgrace that merits renaming the “President Joe Biden Expressway,” originally named for the commander-in-chief by the Scranton City Council in 2021.
“Conahan’s conduct is forever a blight on Pennsylvania and is a slap in the face to the victims and their families who deserve justice to be served for his atrocious crimes,” Pugh wrote, per PAHomepage.
“His clemency places complicity and a stamp of approval on his behavior,” she continued. “Children are among the most vulnerable Pennsylvanians. This decision is nothing short of a travesty and his clemency is a miscarriage of justice.”
Pugh is far from the only Pennsylvania official to express concern over the presidential pardon.
Even Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro cringed at the pardon of the corrupt official.
“I’ll offer these thoughts as an outsider, not privy to all the information he looked at, but I do feel strongly that President Biden got it absolutely wrong and created a lot of pain here in northeastern Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said last week, per the Pennsylvania Capital-Star.
“Some children took their lives because of this. Families were torn apart,” Shapiro said of the original scandal. “There was all kinds of mental health issues and anguish that came as a result of these corrupt judges deciding they wanted to make a buck off a kid’s back.”
It is indeed rather difficult to see why Biden deserves to have any highways named in his honor.
This cash-for-kids scheme was clearly the last straw for at least some in Scranton.
But there are plenty of reasons to remove his name from that highway and other infrastructure in the city named for him.
Even beyond his mismanagement of the economy, his overseeing of several new wars around the globe, and his clear mental decline covered up by staffers over the past four years, Biden and his family are themselves likely corrupt, as their foreign business dealings in places like Ukraine and China would indicate.
Given the sheer number of pardons and commutations Biden made — and his obvious cognition problems — it’s quite obvious that he didn’t know what he was signing. (So who drew up that list?) –TPR
Short and sweet. Biden declares that Hard core criminals must live, but babies must die. According to the White House fact sheet about the move, the recipients of the commutations will have their sentences “reclassified from execution to life without the possibility of parole.”
I’m sure you’ve heard by now that Joey said that Progressive criminals on death row have a right to live. But when it comes to babies they must be aborted, killed. Makes sense tot he left.
The White House fact sheet said that the move was an effort to prevent President-elect Donald Trump from “carrying out the execution sentences that would not be handed down under current policy and practice.”