HALF-FULL REPORT 12/15/23
Looks like, as Skye noted yesterday, even the ACLU is figuring this out: “Beyond Shocking”: ACLU Will Represent NRA In Free Speech Supreme Court Case.
More likely, though, is the ACLU libs are worried that DemWoke attacks on the 1st A will be used against them if the GOP gains control of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue in 2024 – so they are being preemptive. Smart, not woketard. They may be “woke” and go back to attacking guns as Cain’s rock, but they’re not “tard”.
Moving right along… Now let’s talk about an empty room.
************
An empty courtroom. That’s what famed constitutional lawyer Jonathan Turley surmises Special Counsel Jack Smith may be facing in his kangaroo prosecution of Donald Trump: What If Jack Smith Held A Trial And No One Came?
Smith is frantically anxious to get a conviction of Trump before Super Tuesday, March 4, so he stupidly asked SCOTUS for an accelerated ruling on whether Trump could be prosecuted at all under presidential immunity. That was Monday (12/11). On Wednesday (12/13), that prompted Presiding Judge Pauses Indefinitely Jan. 6 Case Against Trump Amid Former President’s Appeal To Dismiss. Smith can kiss his March dream goodbye.
Coincidentally – or not at all – also on Wednesday: Supreme Court Agrees To Hear Jan. 6 Case That Could Affect Trump Prosecution. Actually, it could affect a lot more.
As Turley explains, Jonathan Fischer was charged under U.S.C. Section 1512(c)(2) for ”corruptly obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding, or attempting to do so” – and based solely on his trespass in the Capitol. One of Smith’s four charges against Trump is the same, albeit not involving trespass, while the second is under Section 1512(k) which substitutes “conspiracy” instead of “corrupting.”
Section 1512(c)(2) involves what “corruptly” means and is very hard to apply to the more than 327 Jan6 protestors charged with violating it, similarly for the 57 under 1512(k). So if SCOTUS rules for Fischer, those 327 others get to go free too – and makes a good case for the other 57. (Those Justice Dept. numbers are here.)
And Trump? Easiest would be for SCOTUS to tell Smith, yes, Trump does have presidential immunity for his actions on or regarding January 6. Say goodnight, Mr. Smith.
************
Two weeks ago (12/01), Jerome Powell warned sternly no interest rate cuts were on the horizon:
“The FOMC is strongly committed to bringing inflation down to 2 percent over time, and to keeping policy restrictive until we are confident that inflation is on a path to that objective. It would be premature to conclude with confidence that we have achieved a sufficiently restrictive stance, or to speculate on when policy might ease. We are prepared to tighten policy further if it becomes appropriate to do so.”
What a difference two weeks (actually 13 days) make – for on Wednesday (12/13) he performed the “Powell Pivot” announcing:
“The question of when will it become appropriate to begin dialing back the amount of policy restraint in place — that begins to come into view, and is clearly a topic of discussion out in the world and also a discussion for us at our meeting today,”
The markets exploded, with the DOW hitting a record high and other indexes rocketing skyward. Breitbart poked this fun at it:
Breitbart suspects Powell was threatened in some way by FJB, who’s collapsing in the polls against Trump because of his hated Bidenomics inflation and thinks the only solution is a huge increase in the money supply – which would reignite inflation to the moon but not until after the election 11 months from now.
Plus the high rates are bankrupting the federalie big spenders. Interest on the $31T of federal debt took up 35% of federal tax income for FY2023 that ended Oct 31. These Breitbart commenters agree:
“The trajectory of the Debt is the major problem, and it is accelerating. Two Trillion Dollars just in the last 100 days and rolling along at $250 Billion Dollars a month at this time added to debt.”
“Gotta get rates lower before the election to favor Biden.”
So, as ZeroHedge says, Now It All Makes Sense:
“Powell decided not to “call the shot as he saw it” just two weeks ago, and instead of being shoved against the wall by Biden’s thugs, to instead capitulate what little credibility the Fed had just so Biden’s odds of getting reelected in 2024 were ever so fractionally higher.”
************
On Tuesday (12/12), the Pentagon announced $200 million in military weaponry and equipment for Ukraine (weapons list in link). On Thursday (12/14), the House went on its Christmas Break just after passing the $886 billion FY24 NDAA defense authorization which now goes to Biden’s desk. It includes $300M for Ukraine, viewed together with the $200M as stop-gaps until the $105 billion Biden wants for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan is passed.
Understandably, the GOP says no way until it’s a package deal including real actual border reform with walls, clampdowns on asylum claims, deportation, no welfare for illegals et al. That’s the last things the Dems want as all those illegals are to them “undocumented Democrat voters.”
Yesterday (12/14), up popped a surprise argument for the package deal – surprise as it’s from the lefties at Vox: Why Biden May Give In To Republican Demands On Immigration.
Yes, it’s a quid pro quo re Ukraine, but also, Vox argues, it’s dawning on Dems that their open borders will cause their electoral demise next November. Too many blue and swing state mayors and governors are telling them that. Besides, with 13 million illegals already in the US, the Dems have all the illegal-but-still-counted votes they need (note that Vox doesn’t mention this, however).
So come January, expect the deal to pass. Ukraine is saved, Israel and Taiwan protected, and our borders finally closed. Dems and FJB will claim all the credit.
************
It’s critically important for Putin supporters in Congress and elsewhere like Tucker that Putin has no normal values that you can placate. He’s not even a normal sociopath as are so many politicians. Like Peter the Great, Tamerlane, Genghis Khan, Catherine the Great, Stalin, Hitler or Mao, he has a lust for power more than money, a pathological urge to be a Great Conqueror as they were.
By 2021 he had it “made in the shade,” all the money and subservient praise he could ever want with Europe dependent on Russian gas and oil. And he threw it all away on a lunatic desire to conquer Ukraine no matter what the cost in human lives, Russian lives.
On Wednesday (12/13), The Daily Mail reported: Putin Has Lost Nearly 90 Per Cent Of His Pre-Invasion Army With 315,000 Personnel Either Killed Or Injured Since War Began, Has Set Back Russian Military Modernization By 18 Years. Russia has also lost almost two-thirds of its tank force, or 2,200 out of its 3,500 pre-invasion stock.
The source is named simply as “US intelligence” and from the details it’s clear to see that it’s not the CIA or NSA but something separate that reports directly to the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency): the NRO, National Reconnaissance Office that operates America’s spy satellites. The resolution of those sats can count individual graves in Russia; accounting for loss of lives or weaponry is a basic NRO skill.
On Tuesday (12/12) in TTP, you read Resurgent Dreams Of Independence From Russia In The North Caucasus. Moscow has been putting down revolts and secession movements in this region for over 200 years, and now you can see on https://www.caucasusfree.com how the peoples of the North Caucasus are uniting in an effort to succeed in freeing themselves.
They see their chance because Putin’s loss in Ukraine will so weaken Moscow’s rule they can make a break for it just like the peoples of the Middle Volga (see Tatarstan Capitalizes On China’s Expanding Role In Middle Volga, TTP, 9/27/23). China’s Xi sees the same opportunity, waiting for the right moment to take back Chinese Siberia that Russia stole in the 1860s.
The odds are steadily increasing that Putin will go down in history as the leader who caused Russia to suffer the same fate as the Soviet Union, breaking apart starting by losing in Ukraine. Putin’s goal of course, is the opposite, to recreate the Soviet Union, starting by defeating Ukraine.
Which means, Putin will not stop with Ukraine if he wins there. His next move will be the Baltics.
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were not Eastern European “satellites” or Soviet colonies like Poland or Romania. They were incorporated into the Soviet Union itself just like Ukraine. Now not only are they free and independent like Ukraine, they are also members of NATO. Given his pathology, it will be impossible for Putin psychologically not to move to reincorporate them should he do so with Ukraine.
Which means all NATO members from Finland, Sweden, Poland, Denmark and Germany to us, the United States, are bound to militarily come to any Baltic state invaded by Russia. That’s what that cartoon above is saying: Money to defeat Russia in Ukraine, or American soldiers dying in whatever NATO country Putin next targets. It is an either/or, the choice is only Option A or B, the choice must be made.
Meanwhile, enjoy this. Yesterday (12/14) in Moscow, Putin held a nationally televised press conference during which he answered questions from the Russian audience, with their text questions flashed up on a huge screen. This is what happened:
************
Just when you thought the Global Warming loonies couldn’t get loonier, we learn: Study Says Human Breathing Contributing To Global Warming. This is actually marvelous news. Now we get to tell any insufferable Warmist that he or she must take personal responsibility for being a cause of our planet’s demise, and to save the planet must stop breathing! Start right now, now excuses, do you want the planet to die? Have all the fun with this you want.
************
And we close with good news: Ohio Bill to Ban ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ for Children Heads to Governor’s Desk. 20 other states have similar laws. Decency and rationality are returning to America, slowly, yes, but surely.