As jury selection was beginning in Hunter Biden's federal tax evasion trial in downtown Los Angeles Thursday, Hunter's defense attorney, Abbe Lowell, announced in court that Hunter intends to change his plea from not guilty to guilty. //

At a pre-trial motions hearing on August 21, it became clear that as the evidence was presented, it would be quite embarrassing for the First Family, as prosecutors would be forced to call witnesses and introduce documentation to prove that millions of dollars in expenses were business expenses and not personal. That meant that women Hunter had allegedly paid for sex would testify, and receipts from an online dating site would be brought before the jury and the American public. //

anon-vxao
an hour ago
Confirmation for sure that he's expecting a full pardon at the end of 2024. //

CarlFromCanton
an hour ago
If my dad were going to pardon me before he resigns, why would I sit through all that bummer crap first?

DKnight CarlFromCanton
an hour ago
Bingo. This also speeds up the court case so that it is finished before Biden leaves office, so his pardon can include everything instead of just the cases that have finished and sentencing started. //

Laocoön of Troy
an hour ago
This is likely a prelude to the issuance of Presidential pardons for the players in the Biden Junta. Get ready...they're cleaning up loose ends. And after being dumped by the Dem brain trust in favor of Harris, 'ol Joe ain't in a mood to do much to help Obama in the 2024 end-game. He's gonna take care of the family and his ill-gotten gains instead of the Democrat Party.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will not give up the Philadelphi Corridor. On Tuesday, the U.S. says it will.

The White House has announced that its new ceasefire proposal is backed by Israel and would include withdrawing from densely populated areas along the Philadelphi corridor. . //

The fine print, of course, is from "parts" of the Philadelphi corridor. //

It's just a little odd that, again, the news isn't coming from Israel itself, and it actually directly contradicts what Prime Minister Netanyahu said only yesterday.

"...Netanyahu declared that Israel’s war goals are “to destroy Hamas, to bring back all of our hostages, to ensure that Gaza will no longer present a threat to Israel, and to safely return the residents of the northern border,” and asserted that “three of those war goals go through one place: the Philadelphi Corridor. That is Hamas’s pipeline for oxygen and rearmament.” //

While Netanyahu is accused of abandoning the hostages, he has actually been quite stoic in his efforts since Oct. 7th. It was when Biden started to buckle and flip that Hamas became emboldened. We will never know now how many live hostages could have been returned and how early this war could have ended had we stayed firm and unified.

RNC Research

@RNCResearch
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REPORTER: "Do you have any plans to speak to Prime Minister Netanyahu?"

BIDEN: "Eventually."

REPORTER: "This week? Tomorrow? Wednesday?"

BIDEN: "Eventually."

(Yesterday, Biden was blaming Netanyahu for not doing enough)

9:07 AM · Sep 3, 2024

How is he working on anything if he isn't even talking to our ally? You would think by the way he handles it that Israel was the enemy. //

RNC Research

@RNCResearch
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BIDEN: "I'm not able to go out in the crowds anymore. The Secret Service doesn't let me."

REPORTER: "Why not?"

BIDEN (who has a proclivity for tripping): "They say it's too dangerous."

9:10 AM · Sep 3, 2024

Are the powers that be not letting him out in crowds because they think he's going to trip and fall all over himself or because his cognitive decline is going to become more apparent? Are they hiding Biden --because that's what it sounds like. We've already seen that since he was swept to the side in a coup, he's been mostly on vacation. Is he even in charge of anything anymore? //

Ace
10 minutes ago
Netanyahu has had more wounds in actual combat than everyone in the Obama Three Cabinet Combined. Getting lectured by a phony like Biden/Obama must make his blood boil.

He went on to remind the world that the Hamas murderers executed the hostages in the midst of negotiation talks, and pressure needs to be put on them, not Israel:

"These murderers executed 6 of our hostages. They shot them in the back of the head. That's what's changed. And now after this, we're asked to show seriousness. We're asked to make concessions.What message does this send Hamas? It says, kill more hostages, murder more hostages. You'll get more concessions. The pressure internationally must be directed at these killers, at Hamas, not at Israel. We say yes. They say no all the time, but they also murdered these people. And now we need maximum pressure on Hamas."

The barbarians known as Hamas are not only killing hostages, but they are now taunting the families of those hostages by releasing videos of the slain taken prior to their deaths. The terror organization is also promising more to come.

Israel recently went into Rafah and recovered the bodies of several hostages. If you'll recall, the Democrats were furious that Israel was planning to launch strikes into the region. As it turns out, Israel was right to focus on the area and the Democrats were wrong to push the Biden administration to withhold armaments.

Biden's response to the situation has been nothing short of incompetent, demanding that Benjamin Netanyahu do more to get to an agreement with Hamas.

But demanding Israel cut a deal with Hamas only rewards Hamas for its behavior, as Netanyahu rightly noted.

Matt Whitlock @mattdizwhitlock
·
I had completely forgotten about the “I’ve studied the maps” line from Kamala Harris demanding Israel not go into Rafah - which is where these latest murdered hostages were found.

She has been dangerously wrong about every aspect of this conflict.

8:54 PM · Sep 1, 2024 //

"What the Biden-Harris administration should have done from the beginning is not pressure Israel to restrain its response, but let Israel win from the very outset," Cotton said, saying Biden and Harris put more pressure on Israel than on Hamas, Iran, or the other Iranian proxies. They've tried to hamstring them at every turn. A lot of the problem is that Hamas has known they can keep holding out because of such actions and comments by the Biden-Harris team. You can't keep handing them leverage and hope like that. But that's what Biden and Harris did.

Hamas Atrocities @HamasAtrocities
·
It's worth remembering that in March Kamala Harris pressured Israel to not enter Rafah after she "studied the maps"!
Could more hostages, some of them Americans, have been saved if the USA hadn't blocked Israel?

5:46 AM · Sep 2, 2024 //

Even now, their first response to the murders isn't "we need to wipe out Hamas," it's that we have to "focus on a deal." So Hamas knows they can ask for anything at this point and probably get it, at least from Biden and Harris.

It's also just not that relevant and ignores the bigger issue at play. Harris couldn't even be bothered to show up for the dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base despite taking credit for the withdrawal that got the service members in question killed. She was never going to show up for this wreath-laying ceremony and everyone knows it. It's also been established that she won't return the calls of the families anyway so Harris not receiving a formal invite isn't surprising. You'd need to pick up the phone for that.

I have no idea why Harris continues to lean into this. The right move from the beginning was to shut up about the issue and just let it fade. By attacking Trump (and by proxy, the Gold Star families who wanted the pictures taken), the vice president has pumped new life into a story that does not play in her favor. Going after Gold Star families is never a good look, and using the biased press to do it via anonymous sources (in this case, an aide) looks even worse.

Harris has had the opportunity to do the right thing for years. She hasn't done so. She has no moral authority to criticize others over respecting America's war dead when she clearly doesn't do so herself. //

Outerlimitsfan
2 hours ago
Trump is a good guy. Apparently he has been in contact with the families for years, and even hosted them before at a private event. He is actually friends with them now. Which is exactly why they invited him to this.

He didn't just show up to Arlington for 10 minutes either, but was with them for over 4 hours.

Yeah, I'm shocked the Gold Star families support the guy who actually cares about them and the fact their children needlessly died. //

anon-608f Bluepillprofessor
an hour ago
You beat me to it. This is intentional. She and her staff despise, they HATE, these families because they put the lie to the Afghan "success" story...and have been quite vocal about it.

It's just that simple. These families never targeted her for any attacks or lies, and they didn't need to. All they needed to do was tell the truth, show some grief, and Heelz Up let that hatred flow!

The claim that Trump made "campaign content" at Arlington National Cemetery is simply false. None of the pictures with the family have been used in ads or placed in a political context by the Trump campaign. He was there at the behest of the Gold Star families. Given their children died defending this country, I think they have a right to snap a few pictures if they'd like.

This game has long been played left and the federal bureaucracy. When John McCain took some video of him walking among the gravestones, the press attacked him for it. When Barack Obama and Joe Biden did the same thing (including Biden being pictured in Section 60), no one said a word. No ANC official came running out telling them to put the cameras away while accusing them of breaking the rules. Let a Republican show up to honor the fallen though, and suddenly it's a scandal. The entire thing is so transparent.

Israel must be returned to a reasonable routine... We must reach a deal. A deal is more important than anything else. We are getting body bags instead of a deal. //

Shoo
2 hours ago
What deal do they think could be made?

JCsGIRL70 Shoo
2 hours ago
That Hamas would keep? //

JCsGIRL70
2 hours ago
Even the Israeli's don't understand Hamas - they are without honor & any deal would be broken as soon as they had rebuilt their terrorist ranks.

Ed in North Texas JCsGIRL70
an hour ago
Honorable people are usually "taken in" by evil people with no conscience. The honorable people think a deal can be made with the Devil. //

Samuel Ross
2 hours ago
I cry for the dead, but to trade a nation's safety for one life is not wise. Gilad Shalit was traded for 1000+ Hamas terrorists, one of whom was Yahya Sin War, who killed 1200 Jews after he was unwisely freed. //

anon-7iuo
2 hours ago
Mike, be clear: This agitation comes from the suspiciously funded left in Israel. It is not what most Israelis think.

Bibi Derangement Syndrome is a close variant of TDS. Don't fall for it.

“President Trump has called. President Trump shows up. President Trump takes the time to hear our loved ones’ stories, why won’t you do the same?”

Former President Donald Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, as August 26 marked three years since President Joe Biden’s absolutely disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan that left 13 American servicemen dead.

Unlike Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who were nowhere to be found, Trump’s visited the important site in-person — but the media still found a way to court controversy.

Many in the establishment media took turns criticizing Trump’s team for photographing and videoing the occasion at Section 60 — the eastern part of the cemetery — old footage of Biden has resurfaced of him doing the same thing. //

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1264936762570407936

Joe Biden @JoeBiden
·
To all the members of our military and our military families, especially those who have lost their service member, thank you. We owe you. We can never lessen the magnitude of your loss, but this I can promise you: we will never forget. #MemorialDay
[embedded video]
11:10 AM · May 25, 2020 //

At the one-minute mark, the ad shows Biden at Arlington Cemetery as he was photographed there on May 31, 2010, while vice president to former President Barack Obama.

This is all to say, the very thing the Trump is being bashed for, the Biden campaign did in 2020.

It is undeniable this is a campaign ad.

The clip ends with a message saying, “Text Joe to 30330” while “PAID FOR BY BIDEN FOR PRESIDENT” runs across the bottom of the screen. //

To note, the Gold Star families issued an official statement expressing their support for Trump and stating their approval for filming and photography on Monday.

What should be angering to the public, and what should be covered by the media, is Biden’s and Harris’ complete no-show.

They are responsible for the catastrophe that took place three years ago that saw American lives lost and billions of dollars in military hardware left behind for the Taliban.

Whatever feelings there are about Trump and his upcoming election bid, the Gold Star families wanted him there and he showed up.

That’s far more than the current White House occupants can say.

Taxpayer-subsidized National Public Radio shouldn’t be a starting place for aggressively biased coverage against either Democrats or Republicans. But you can ask Clarence Thomas how the machine works.

On Aug. 27, NPR veterans affairs reporter Quil Lawrence lit into former President Donald Trump for bringing cameras to a section of Arlington National Cemetery with some families of soldiers killed during President Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The entire manufactured controversy is perverse. It’s obvious NPR is exploiting the cemetery for a political goal, and it then spread to the rest of the national media. Trump is showing support for grieving Gold Star families, while Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris would not appear. They were MIA. But Trump was singled out as the one with grotesque political optics, not the no-shows whose negligence cost American lives.

They weren’t seriously considering the Biden-Harris disaster on “All Things Considered.” They could call it “All Democrats Defended.” Conservatives quickly found snapshots from private photographers of Biden in the same sacred section of the Arlington cemetery. That thing cannot be “considered.”

There are a lot of reasons why Kamala Harris does not deserve to be president, but perhaps the most important one is her unwillingness to level with the American people about Joe Biden's health. She could have done it in a way that showed respect to her boss but that still got the point across and didn't make her look like a complete shill and tool.

But she didn't. And my guess is that because in doing so she would have exposed her own complicity in the sham and troublesome cover-up.

Kamala Harris will always put personal ambition and politics ahead of country. If the American people didn't learn anything else about her from the CNN interview, let's hope they learned that much. //

Sargon of Cincinnati Granny Heartful
18 hours ago
A side effect of an anti anxiety medication is that it can result in a loss of focus, and continued returning to a point the speaker wants to make. As this happens the speaker uses key remembered phrases to gain time to regain the intended message. Resulting in long winding sentences that have little success in communicating the speaker’s thought.

Anti anxiety drugs are not intended for stress reduction before a speaking engagement. Usually they are used for stress inducing events like flying. Or, if a patient is anxious in large crowds. Not intended for interviews. //

It’s a dry heat
15 hours ago
"I have served with President Biden for almost four years now. And I’ll tell ya it’s one of the greatest honors of my career, truly. He cares so deeply about the American people. He is so smart and — and loyal to the American people. And I have spent hours upon hours with him, be it in the Oval Office or the Situation Room. "

But she is not "tethered" to Biden in any way LOL

“Just an FYI – Kamala Harris’s campaign reached out. They’d like to pay us about $1,000 for access to the email list,” Alcorn wrote in a December 30 email to Hunter and Hallie Biden, Beau’s widow.

The money would go to the [Beau Biden] campaign, then be transferred to the foundation,” explained Alcorn, who ran the Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children from January 2016 to June 2021, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Now, here's the onion:

Three former members of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) told The Post that donor list swaps are common and legal among campaigns, as long as each pays fair market rate.

But funneling the Harris payment to the foundation in exchange for the donor list — after the Biden family made clear months earlier that Beau’s campaign funds would be donated to the foundation — would have been a different matter.

“Charitable organizations are not supposed to be involved in transactions with partisan campaign committees,” said Michael Toner, who served as FEC chairman in 2006 and as a commissioner between 2002 and 2007.

The first layer to peel off here is the status of the Beau Biden "campaign." The money paid — and sure, a grand isn't all that much in the grand scheme of things, but the amount doesn't matter, the law does — the money appears to have been funneled through the campaign and into the Beau Biden Foundation, a 501(c)(3) corporation. Non-profits of this kind are not supposed to be involved in partisan politics, and according to Mr. Christenson, the Beau Biden Foundation, on a Form 990 filing, had denied “...engag(ing) in direct or indirect political campaign activities on behalf of or in opposition to candidates for public office.”

The second layer here is that the Beau Biden Foundation later offered Kamala Harris a seat on their board of directors. That's an unpaid position, but one that carries some influence, and could also run afoul of election finance law.

Speaker Johnson had to intervene to get Trump into Arlington National Cemetery for the anniversary of the withdrawal from Afghanistan with Gold Star families. //

The Gold Star families, who lost their children during the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, invited Trump to Arlington National Cemetery. He laid a wreath there for the 13 servicemembers who were killed serving their country in Afghanistan. However, a Gold Star family told the Caller that Arlington National Cemetery was trying to make it difficult for the former President to appear for the ceremony to honor their children, something the families requested.

Arlington National Cemetery told Gold Star families that they could only be there for a specific time that did not work for everyone’s schedule and were also told the president could not join them at their children’s gravesites, the family told the Caller. //

Republican California Rep. Darrell Issa has called on Biden to meet with these Gold Star families on multiple occasions, his office told the Caller. He was present for the ceremonies on Monday and had been in contact with Arlington National Cemetery leading up to the anniversary, his office said.

“This administration absolutely interfered with the tributes to the 13 fallen. In its war on Trump, it made the Gold Star families collateral damage,” Issa told the Caller. //

“Arlington Cemetery officials claimed the families didn’t want any media, photography, or videography at Section 60, contradicting what the families had actually requested. The families were fine with the media, designated by the Trump team, but Arlington kept pushing back, obstructing the process,” the source continued. “This would have not happened without Speaker Johnson.”

Hoover told the Caller in an emotional phone call that he and other Gold Star family members were the ones who called Trump and asked for him to show up. He also criticized the Biden administration for not contacting them for the past three years.

The New York Times published a piece essentially trashing the Gold Star families who invited Donald Trump to Arlington National Cemetery on Monday.

As RedState reported, the president appeared at a ceremony honoring the 13 murdered American service members who died during the Abbey Gate Bombing. The devastating event unfolded in August of 2021 amid the Biden-Harris administration's incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris neither showed up for the ceremony nor gave live statements commemorating the third anniversary of the deaths. Instead, the president vacationed on the beach while Harris continued campaigning. That did nothing but underscore the complete lack of accountability stemming from their decision-making. //

What makes this even more ridiculous is that Joe Biden used shots of Arlington National Cemetery and flag-draped caskets in a political ad back in June. You can even see the names on the gravestones in the video with the caption by Biden reading "Donald Trump doesn’t know a damn thing about service to his country." //

Did Maggie Haberman and the Times mention that? Did they suggest it broke the rules of politicizing Arlington National Cemetery and the deaths of American service members? Did any reporters call up the families of those whose gravestones were shown? Of course, not.

The moment the Gold Star families said they wanted the cameras there and asked to take pictures with the former president, that should have been the end of it. //

Haberman, the Times, and the rest have now spent more time freaking out over Trump showing up to honor the fallen than they have critiquing those who got them killed. It's deranged. //

bk
4 minutes ago
For Memorial Day three months ago, Biden visited Arlington and talked about all the things his administration had done for the military and for vets. (Of course Beau was mentioned too.) Nothing political at all about that from the man who was running for reelection.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/05/27/remarks-by-president-biden-at-the-156th-national-memorial-day-observance-arlington-va/

"Zero for one, Jamal? Jamal, my brother and colleague, zero for – He literally ran a man who'd been in politics for 52 years out of his chosen profession over a debate. I mean, look, I understand what you're arguing that you all traded in for a better candidate, but Trump won the debate. [Laughter] He is not zero for one. Are you saying he actually did so well, that he did badly?"

Well, let's check in with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo who was asked about this at the DNC on ABC. She was asked if she thought these new numbers could be a "potential liability for this [the Harris-Walz] campaign."

Greg Price @greg_price11
·
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Reporter: Nearly a million jobs "created" since Kamala took office do not exist.

Raimondo: “I don’t believe it because I’ve never heard Trump say anything truthful.”

Reporter: "It is from the Bureau of Labor."

Raimondo: "I'm not familiar with that."

5:57 PM · Aug 21, 2024

Jeff Carlson @themarketswork
·
Follow
Replying to @greg_price11
I mean, holy crap...

This is the current US Secretary of Commerce.

To be unaware of this report that rewrote very jobs report the Biden Administration has trumpeted over the last year... speechless

If she's lying in such a bald face manner... also speechless
6:27 PM · Aug 21, 2024

US Oil & Gas Association @US_OGA
·
We are basically being governed by a High School Student Council who think they are in charge....

Alaska is also rich in resources, not least of which are crude oil and natural gas, those two commodities that are so vital to our economy. Much of that gas and oil flows through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez. This Alaska pipeline is a vital piece of American infrastructure. Running 800 miles across the Great Land, much of it through the wilderness, TAPS brings 450,000 barrels a day of crude oil to American consumers; that's about 3.5 percent of American production.

The Biden-Harris administration is considering further restricting oil development in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve (NPR-A), the nation’s largest swath of public land. The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will be soliciting public comment on whether to expand or designate new “special areas” in the 23-million-acre reserve. //

This June, these environmental groups filed a legal petition to the U.S. Department of Interior to phase-out and decommission TAPS: the Center for Biological Diversity; Pacific Environment; Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic; Alaska Community Action on Toxics; Fairbanks Climate Action Coalition; and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (also see here).

“[TAPS] is approaching the end of its useful life due to mounting climate change-driven damages to both the aging pipeline infrastructure and the entire Arctic ecosystem,” the six petitioners state, also citing “the imperative for the United States to rapidly transition away from fossil fuel-based energy.” //

This, in turn, conflicts with federal law by preventing the fulfillment of the Alaska’s statehood entitlement; economic development, including responsible resource development, to assure Alaska’s future prosperity; and the long-term settlement of land ownership across the state. //

anon-eoij
20 hours ago
Correction: the daily volume is 450,000 bpd, not 45,000. Best job in my life was as an engineer on TAPS from 1980-1995. A wonderful adventure for a young man.

While JPMorgan Chase & Co. forecasters see a decline of about 360,000, Goldman Sachs indicates it could be as large as a million.

BREAKING: 818,000 jobs that the Harris-Biden administration claimed to have “created” aren’t actually there, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

This is the largest downward revision to employment in 15 years. pic.twitter.com/6ryjKs5kbK

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 21, 2024