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national politics & policies scandal

Walz Won’t Run Cuz Trump Mean

Tim Walz, Minnesota, Somalia, scandal

Didja hear? Omigod. Minnesota’s Tim Walz, everyone’s favorite Failed Vice Presidential Candidate and sympathizer with the Chinese Communist Party, is not running for reelection — he no longer seeks to serve as one of the top three worst governors ever. 

In his whiny announcement, Governor Walz verged on apoplexy. “Those bumbling Somali fraudsters screwed everything up! The optics have gone to @#$%&!; citizen journalist, my  [insert alternative grawlix here]! And Trump is mean!” Look, if you don’t believe me, I’ll fax you the transcript.

OK. I may be paraphrasing. 

But I’m close. Associated Press reports his bitter comments on why the jig is up. Walz is waltzing out of the campaign because he can’t give it “my all” because of the “extraordinarily difficult year for our state” because of the latest revelations of how crappily and dishonestly he functioned as governor. 

Walz said: “Donald Trump and his allies — in Washington, in St. Paul, and online — want to make our state a colder, meaner place.” These baddies “want to poison our people against each other by attacking our neighbors … want to take away much of what makes Minnesota the best place in America to raise a family.”

All very elusively allusive. What could Senor Real Man possibly be talking about? Why would any Minnesotan — say, an honest taxpayer — want to attack another Minnesotan — say, someone living high off the hog on the taxpayer dime, effectively taking money from the mouths of babes? Or a dishonest politician cooperating with and benefiting from just such massive taxpayer-​funded fraud? 

Don’t run, Walz. Don’t run. Stay right where you are.

So that prosecutors can find you.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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crime and punishment insider corruption scandal

One Dares Call It Treason

Tulsi Gabbard

Directly in the wake of the president calling the Epstein scandal “a hoax,” another hoax came to the fore: Russiagate.

Many of us suspected the wild allegations were a hoax from the get-​go in 2016, which was clarified by the Mueller Report in 2019.

Now Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has taken the next step in revealing the perfidious nature of the “Russiagate” accusations made against Donald Trump. “Over a hundred documents that we released, on Friday,” she told Fox News, “detail and provide evidence of how this treasonous conspiracy was directed by President Obama, just weeks before he was due to leave office after President Trump had already gotten elected.”

A treasonous conspiracy?

Strong words. But remember, Ms. Gabbard is not an attorney. When she uses the word “treason,” the actual Attorney General is not required to follow along.

Indeed, how likely is AG Pam Bondi — to whom Gabbard has given the case files — to indict former President Barack Obama on a capitol charge?

“This is not a Democrat or Republican issue,” continued Gabbard, “this is an issue that is so serious it should concern every single American, because it has to do with the integrity of our democratic republic.”

The trouble is, the basic deal of democracy depends on bi-​partisan restraint. That restraint has been broken. Shattered. Actually prosecuting the former directors of the CIA and FBI (Brennan and Comey, named co-​conspirators) might be feasible in our system — but truly unprecedented. 

Arresting and prosecuting a former president? When all facts are known, accountability may demand it. 

But when do we get off this road?

Remember, the initial breaking of the democratic deal was done by Democrats protesting Trump’s supposed breaking of democratic norms!

It is hard to imagine justice being found here.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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insider corruption partisanship scandal

The Salience of the Switch

Jeffrey Epstein, blackmail, Epstein Island, corruption, power

From the moment the Jeffrey Epstein story appeared, an outrageous quality attached itself to it, like slug-​slime on the heel of your naked foot.

Now, as the case is allegedly closing, it’s only getting weirder.

It’s needless to run through the arc of the story again: the rumors, the financing, the arrests, the trials, the documentaries, the books and articles, the “suicide.” Most people are aware. And most know that it was MAGA folks who were most exercised about the issue. 

“Epstein didn’t kill himself” was not a meme of the left.

The idea that Mr. Epstein had fronted a honey-​pot blackmail ring to exert control over politics and science and culture was a story that even the mainstream didn’t pooh-​pooh much, because, in part, there was so much circumstantial evidence.

Then came the switch, when Dan Bongino and Kash Patel assured us that Epstein did indeed commit suicide. When I commented a week ago, it was Trump switching sides — after years milking MAGA anger over it — that stood out. 

And now it got bigger. In two ways. Trump’s switch got bigger. And the evidence for Epstein’s self-​offing got shakier.

The latter is explosive evidence that our leaders may have lied to us. And done a lousy job of it.  The taped evidence said to prove that no one had been to visit Epstein in his cell was first shown to have been clumsily edited, and then all-​the-​sudden more footage came out!

Meanwhile, Trump took to calling the Epstein File issue a “hoax” perpetrated by Democrats — Comey, Obama and Biden specifically!

Do they think we’re stupid?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Accountability national politics & policies scandal

The Autopen Question

Joe Biden, autopen, auto-pen

When the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project offered its report on the Biden Administration’s use of the presidential “autopen,” in March, the legality of many of President Joe Biden’s signatures were placed in jeopardy.

Since then, Republicans in Congress and Trump in the White House have been pushing the case that White House staff often used the autopen sometimes without the presidential awareness.

Since then, Republicans in Congress and President Trump have been pushing the case that White House staff often used the autopen and sometimes without presidential awareness.

If so, with the non-​stroke of a non-​pen, could much of what came out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for four years be un-done?

“The full picture of what Mr. Biden did on pardon and clemency decisions,” the New York Times explains, “and how much he directed those decisions and the actions of his staff, including the use of the autopen, may come down to tens of thousands of Biden White House emails that the National Archives has turned over as part of the investigation by the Trump White House and the Justice Department.”

Times reporters investigated some of the emails, offering a tentative-​if-​predictable conclusion: “the Biden White House had a process to establish that Mr. Biden had orally made decisions in meetings before the staff secretary, Stefanie Feldman, who managed use of the autopen, would have clemency records put through the signing device.”

And of course Biden himself defends the integrity of his administration: “Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency.

“I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation and proclamations.” 

Trust him!

The Times has been working to encourage us to trust the ex-​president. Its March article, “How an Autopen Conspiracy Theory About Biden Went Viral,” clearly shows its bias — a context piece before any real investigation.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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insider corruption scandal

The Devil and the Deep Blue Dress

Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, blue dress, Israel, Washington D.C.

There is a slim possibility that Jeffrey Epstein did actually kill himself, but what possibility is there that he wasn’t running an elaborate blackmail/​spy endeavor — a “honey pot” scam — for major Deep State outfits, foreign or domestic?

Or both.

So when Axios scooped everybody, Monday, with the story that the FBI had closed the Epstein case, most rolled their eyes. Not that they didn’t believe Axios. They didn’t believe the aptness of judgment in closing the case.

Even if Epstein did actually commit suicide, it was still a huge criminal justice failure for that act to not have been prevented. And for the notorious Epstein files (remember that the Attorney General had said she had them on her desk) to suddenly go poof! … does not inspire confidence. 

Frankly, there’s no reason to trust the government. Especially on this.

Why? We all pretty much believe the initial reports. We remember the image of Bill Clinton — it is surely seared into many a brain, alas for those brains — posing in a blue dress, portrait hung up prominently in Epstein’s trap, I mean, townhouse.

The ties to Israeli intelligence and politics and U.S. spymasters has been fairly well established — at least Whitney Webb’s readers seem certain — and that brings us to the bottom line:

Donald Trump is not shining light upon the Stygian Deep State here, nor “draining the swamp.”

“I can’t believe you’re asking a question on Epstein,” the president said, interposing himself between a reporter and Attorney General Pam Bondi. Trump eagerly added context: all the “successes” and “tragedies” of the current day. Videos? Computer files? Victims? Lolita Island? Brushed aside.

As if unimportant.

Thus America’s unexpected encounter with the dark, Deep State. They insist we blithely accept that there is nothing to see here.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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government transparency insider corruption scandal

Managing the President: 2021 – 2024

Joe Biden, deep state, lizard people

Yesterday, we considered the farce of Congresswoman Kay Granger (R‑Tex.), serving out her term from an assisted living home — suffering, her family says, from “dementia issues.”

So, today, let’s discuss the donkey in the room: the president of these United States, one Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. 

“Throughout his presidency, a small group of aides stuck close to Biden to assist him, especially when traveling or speaking to the public,” explains a major exposé in the Wall Street Journal.

How “throughout”? Almost from day one: “a sign that the bruising presidential schedule needed to be adjusted for Biden’s advanced age had arisen early on,” notes The Journal, “in just the first few months of his term.”

The reportage confirms what we suspected. “The protective culture inside the White House was intensified because Biden started his presidency at the height of the Covid pandemic. His staff took great care to prevent him from catching the virus by limiting in-​person interactions with him. But the shell constructed for the pandemic was never fully taken down, and his advanced age hardened it.”

This structure also served to cover for Biden’s most characteristic failing, “foot-​in-​mouth”: his hand-​holders sought “to prevent Biden, an undisciplined public speaker throughout his half-​century political career, from making gaffes or missteps that could damage his image, create political headaches or upset the world order.”

Not a morning person, the staff concocted an elaborate schedule of afternoon meetings which they tried to keep very short. “If the president was having an off day, meetings could be scrapped altogether.”

Perhaps most importantly, “[t]he strategies to protect Biden largely worked,” the report reminds, “until June 27, when Biden stood on an Atlanta debate stage with Trump.”

Luckily, the Washington cabal has not quite figured out a way to have a president as figure-​head only and keep the deception from the American electorate. 

But too close for comfort.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Disaster Relief Pass-Over

FEMA, Trump, Homeland Security, disaster, Hurricane Milton

It’s the kind of scandal that makes you wonder, briefly, whether somebody made it up.

But nobody made it up. 

In the wake of Hurricane Milton, a sub-​boss of the Federal Emergency Management Agency named Marn’i Washington told FEMA workers who had the job of assessing storm damage in Lake Placid, Florida, to skip any houses with Trump signs.

A Microsoft Teams memo outlining “best practices” for performing the work included injunctions like “not one goes anywhere alone” and “avoid homes advertising Trump.” No one can peruse the latter instruction and not know the kind of animus informing Washington’s memo.

Thanks to whistleblowers distressed by these orders, which were delivered both in writing and verbally, the Daily Wire obtained the revealing internal communications.

At least twenty Trump-​advertising homes were passed over by FEMA workers who complied with the memo.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and others have announced investigations of the incident.

Regarding what went down in this one Florida town, at least, there is currently no cover-​up by FEMA. We don’t know whether similar orders were given to damage assessors in other hurricane-​hit regions. But had there been, let’s hope that somebody would have spoken up.

A FEMA spokesman admitted that the agency is “deeply disturbed” by Washington’s actions. According to a Daily Wire update, the agency has now fired her.

“This employee has been terminated and we have referred the matter to the Office of Special Counsel,” says FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell.

This is how to handle partisanship in federal bureaucracies.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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crime and punishment government transparency scandal

So Horrible?

government institutions, secrets, conspiracy, UFO, UAP

Talking to Joe Rogan about the JFK assassination,Tucker Carlson argued that Trump’s and Biden’s withholding of information runs counter to American law. “There’s clearly something worth protecting,” he says, and he doesn’t mean the people involved — they’re all dead.

What’s being protected are, presumably, institutions.

According to Judge Andrew Napolitano, Trump told him that “if they showed you what they showed me, you wouldn’t have released it either.” According to Roger Stone, Trump explained that what he saw was “so horrible you wouldn’t believe it” … and thus Trump withheld 20 percent of the documents that had been scheduled to be released.

So horrible? Many of us can imagine quite a lot of horror coming from the dark corridors of the federal Leviathan.

But there’s another generational secret that Trump and Biden share, and Tucker mentioned it too: UFOs.

Indeed, he and Rogan started out the podcast in a freewheeling discussion of what our government now calls “the UAP issue,” for “unidentified anomalous phenomena.” But Tucker focused on a “dark” and “spiritual” element to the story, giving little evidence except for the scientist’s name who had contacted him about the study of UFO injuries of military personnel.

Tucker also mentioned strangely behaving objects that traverse the oceans as if water were no matter. A few days earlier, a Yahoo News “Futurism” article explained that “Tim Gallaudet, an oceanographer and former Naval rear admiral who served as the author of a March white paper about so-​called ‘unidentified submerged objects’ or USOs, told Fox News this week that he considers it both ‘scientifically valid’ and critical to national security to study these phenomena.”

A lot of effort has been made in the recent disclosure talk to frame UAPs as potential threats. But what kind of threat? A “spiritual” one — “so horrible”? 

All we really know is that regarding assassinations and mysterious airborne and oceanic objects, the government would prefer to keep us guessing.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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education and schooling ideological culture scandal

The “Racial Animus” Gambit

race card, Harvard

Among the deflections littering former Harvard President Claudine Gay’s resignation letter is the claim that major criticisms of her conduct are “fueled by racial animus.”

The controversies have made Gay, a black woman, very visible. She may have been subjected to racial attacks in emails or on somebody’s blog. I haven’t seen reports of such. It’s possible.

But her letter makes it seem as if she feels all of it, all the criticisms of her understanding of policies regarding the treatment of Jews on campus and criticisms of her own treatment of the words of others in her published work, were “fueled by racial animus.”

If only blacks alone were ever charged with ambiguity about antisemitism or committing plagiarism, the implication might be at least superficially plausible. 

But it’s not.

Yesterday, I discussed the considerations that properly affect campus speech policies (“The Resignation”).

Here let me note, first, that scholars of all hues and sexes have been plausibly accused of plagiarism. Example: historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, white woman. Male example: Steven Ambrose.

And, second, that Harvard’s backing and filling and own animus in response to documented charges of plagiarism have converted the matter from a problem mostly for Claudine Gay personally to a problem for Harvard as an institution. By violating its own policies for dealing with the charges and by attacking the messenger, Harvard seemed to be saying that standards of scholarship like “Don’t plagiarize” don’t matter.

But they do.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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education and schooling First Amendment rights scandal

The Resignation

woke campus culture

The fall of Harvard President Claudine Gay is not exactly the triumph we were looking for. 

Her resignation letter focused on the recent congressional hearings in which she found herself in the uncomfortable position of selectively defending free speech against a Republican politician slinging charges of “genocide” and “racism.” 

It was all very … the opposite … the upside-​down … of how Democrats and Republicans had been dealing with free speech these last few years.

And that is the most important context. Her letter’s evasion of discreditable cases of academic plagiarism — at Harvard, no less! — while not honorable, was at least politically apt. One administrator’s fraudulent academic history is no match for the issue of freedom of speech.

Which, as a legal matter, is as Ms. Gay said it was, a matter of context. You have the right to advocate genocide or say racist things on your property or on hired property. You do not have the right to shout such things just anywhere.

But college campuses aren’t just anywhere. They are allegedly places for intellectual debate. The practice of academic freedom means that the property and customs of universities and institutions of higher learning allow differing opinions to be aired. 

In classrooms; in papers; in auditoriums. 

Still, these student academic free-​speech norms don’t extend anywhere and everywhere, in all campus contexts. No student may hide behind “free speech” or “academic freedom” to corner and scream hatred of Israel at every Jew on the quad. That’s where Ms. Gay’s answers in congressional hearings were so unsatisfactory. Especially since Harvard and other major higher education institutions have been disallowing some speech from academic contexts and celebrating other quite threatening speech in the university’s public places.

Gay’s resignation reminds us of Al Capone’s imprisonment for tax evasion: a work-​around at best. The underlying issues remain unresolved.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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