Biden’s speech
Last night, President Biden finally made the speech that Americans have actually been looking forward to hearing: his farewell address.
Photo credit: MSNBC
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Daily Bible Verse
“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”
Revelation 3:20 KJV
Coming Up Today:
Senate confirmation hearings for EPA nominee Lee Zeldin, HUD nominee Scott Turner, Interior Secretary pick Doug Burgum, and Treasury nominee Scott Bessent, as well as character witnesses for AG nominee Pam Bondi. Here’s a link to Fox News’ page of live updates on all those hearings, and we’ll have more on them tomorrow.
https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/donald-trump-cabinet-picks-senate-hearing-january-16-2025
Breaking News:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has named state Attorney General Ashley Moody to replace Marco Rubio in the Senate. More at the link:
Expert: “They’re handing Trump a ticking time bomb.”
Joe Biden claimed he inherited an economy in free fall from Trump, despite the fact that it was already roaring back from the pandemic. But he truly is handing back an economic mess to Trump. The Labor Department just reported that in December, the consumer price index rose 0.4% from November. That’s the fastest monthly rise in CPI inflation since last February, driven largely by the prices of groceries, eggs and a 4.4% hike in gas prices.
https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2025/01/15/bidens-parting-gift-inflation-accelerated-in-december/
But if you think that’s bad, take a look at some of the other economic numbers. As economist E.J. Antoni warns, “They’re handing Trump a ticking time bomb.”
https://instapundit.com/696306/
Squad goals
What progressives are fighting for: To work less and have the federal government pay them for it…
Progressive Hill staff group pitches lighter workweek - Live Updates - POLITICO
Here’s Fox News’ page of the latest news on the Los Angeles wildfires:
https://www.foxnews.com/category/us/la-fires
Please keep praying for the victims and the firefighters. And for those who think this disaster will finally convince Californians to stop voting for far-left incompetents, read this Rasmussen poll on the political fallout from the tragic failure of L.A. Mayor Karen Bass.
The headline is that her approval rating is underwater. But the real takeaway is that even though the city was engulfed in flames while she was hosting a cocktail party in Ghana after slashing the fire department budget, she still has a 42% approval rating and only a 44% disapproval rating. What does she have to do to get her disapproval rating above 50%? Go personally pour gasoline on the fires? And only 35% say it would have been better if her opponent Rick Caruso had won. He’s the competent businessman who hired private firefighters and prevented his shopping mall from being burned down.
RELATED: Some might think this a rare instance of positive fire news, but it’s been reported that a trove of nearly 200 artworks by Hunter Biden were burned to ashes in a Pacific Palisades storage facility. We will refrain from commenting on whether that improved them.
The “artworks” were described as being worth millions of dollars, but we suspect that was about to drop precipitously on January 20th. If they were insured for millions, the insurer might want to investigate for possible arson.
The Peace Deal
Wednesday, the Biden Administration announced that Israel and Hamas had agreed to a ceasefire and the return of all of Hamas’ hostages. While it was certainly good news, some critics voiced concerns that Israel had been pressured into a bad agreement that would force them to reciprocate for the release of nine Israeli hostages by releasing 110 Palestinian prisoners, including convicted terrorists who would likely go right back to it (see: Biden’s release of 11 Gitmo detainees.)
There was also audible eye-rolling across the nation when Biden tried to give himself and his Secretary of State and other officials full credit for the deal, saying it had come after months of their negotiations. When a reporter asked if Trump had anything to do with it, Biden dismissively replied, “Is that a joke?” Yet his own State Department apparently hadn’t gotten the memo and said that Trump’s team was “absolutely critical” in securing the ceasefire deal.
We suspect that even more critical was the calendar, which shows we’re now four days away from Trump’s inauguration. He had warned Hamas that if the hostages weren’t released by the day he took office, there would be “hell to pay.” The attempts to give Biden credit for this suspiciously coincidental timing remind us of the attempts by liberal historians to give Jimmy Carter credit for the release of the Iranian hostages, who were held for 444 days under him before being coincidentally released on the day Reagan took office.
Here's a Breitbart.com “fact-check” on Biden’s attempt to take full credit…
However, Biden might have been too quick to attempt to grab the credit. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu delayed a Cabinet vote on the agreement, saying that Hamas was trying to add more conditions so it had not been finalized.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/israels-netanyahu-accuses-hamas-trying-back-out-cease-fire-deal
Our advice to Hamas: Get it finalized before Monday, or you will be finalized.
Here’s Fox News’ link to real-time updates on this story:
https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/israel-hamas-cease-fire-hostage-release-live-updates-1-16-2025
An Experience you don’t want to miss
Learn more about this trip of a lifetime: The Mediterranean Experience
Wednesday Senate Confirmation Hearing Wrap-up
By “Huckabee” writer Pat Reeder
One of the ways in which Senate Democrats repeatedly disgraced themselves during Pam Bondi’s confirmation hearing for Attorney General was by constantly haranguing her to vow not to prosecute Trump’s political opponents. You can tell they’re terrified of facing accountability for their perversions of the justice system to go after their political opponents, so they really and truly want the lawfare they started to cease before it turns around and bites them.
To do this, they’re pushing the false premise that all prosecutions of politicians are politically motivated. In truth, some, like holding a guns-drawn raid on a former President’s home because he possessed his own Administration’s documents, clearly are politically motivated. Others, like the prosecution of former Sen. Robert Menendez for allegedly being so on the take that his pockets are full of gold bars, could be legitimate (and by the way, his prosecutors are pressing for 15 years in the slammer - he’d better pray for a last-minute Biden pardon):
Manufacturing charges against someone just because he’s your boss’s political opponent is clearly an abuse of power. But declining to prosecute someone who committed blatant criminal acts – like tampering with witnesses or destroying federal evidence – just because they're a political opponent and it might "look bad" would be a dereliction of duty. If we’re all clear on that, it will save us a lot of volume-induced headaches at these hearings.
RELATED: Commentators noted that the confirmation hearings for Marco Rubio (Secretary of State), John Ratcliffe (CIA Director) and Sean Duffy (Transportation Secretary) were reasonably smooth. Here are some recaps of those hearings, including opening statements and some of the most newsworthy moments:
https://redstate.com/terichristoph/2025/01/15/marco-rubio-hearing-n2184373
And here are six important takeaways from Rubio’s confirmation hearing, about the changes we’re about to see in US foreign policy.
Those hearings mostly lacked the embarrassing histrionics of the Democrats during the Pete Hegseth and Pam Bondi hearings. As that last link suggests, Duffy is a “done deal” for Transportation Secretary after his hearing. To be fair, what could the Democrats have done? Claim he’s less qualified than Pete Buttigieg?
On a side note, can you imagine what the liberal media outlets would be saying if a bunch of Republican white men tried to bully and talk over a female Democrat nominee the way this bunch did to Pam Bondi? But she didn’t treat it as an offensive act of sexism but as what it was: a political attack by loudmouth partisan morons, and she reacted appropriately and professionally by using her superior intellect to slice and dice them like cucumbers (her rejoinder to Adam Schiff was especially delicious. It was like watching Mike Tyson take on Barney Fife. We’re amazed Schiff didn’t accuse her of being a Russian spy, since that’s all he has left.)
https://pjmedia.com/lincolnbrown/2025/01/15/up-schiffs-creek-n4936031
Biden’s speech
Last night, President Biden finally made the speech that Americans have actually been looking forward to hearing: his farewell address. There wasn’t much that wasn’t in his open letter we told you about yesterday. It was mostly a lot of self-aggrandizing banana oil about all the sterling accomplishments of his Administration that only he and his staffers are clever enough to see, plus dark warnings about assaults on democracy and the rule of law that his Administration has actually been committing for the past four years. And of course, the obligatory teleprompter fumble…
https://www.westernjournal.com/biden-ends-presidency-big-mistake-farewell-address/
Scott Pinsker at PJ Media has a video of the full speech as part of a write-up entitled “Your Favorite Moment of the Biden Presidency Has Finally Arrived!” but we have to disagree. That moment won’t arrive until next Monday when Trump officially takes over. Until then, we’ll remain on pins and needles, waiting to see what last minute abuses of power are still to come.
As Pinsker points out, it was “vintage Joe.” Taking credit for things others actually did, plus “plenty of self-aggrandizing nonsense, some assorted gibberish, and an absolutely astounding absence of shame.” Biden warned against politicians who abuse their power (without mentioning that he weaponized the government against his political opponents and pardoned his own son for crimes that allegedly benefited himself.) He also slammed social media for spreading lies and firing fact-checkers (without mentioning that the “fact-checkers” were actually political partisans who were censoring personal opinions and objective truth, like his own son’s laptop.)
And in an obvious swipe at Elon Musk, Biden warned against America becoming an oligarchy where billionaires wield too much political power. This from a guy whose election was financed by Mark Zuckerberg and other Silicon Valley and Hollywood plutocrats and who just gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to George Soros.
Elon Musk didn’t buy Twitter so it could disseminate only his political views. That’s what it was doing when he bought it. Musk opened it back up to free speech by all users, which is what really terrifies the Democrats. If Biden cared about oligarchs having too much power, why did his Administration okay a Soros group buying a chain of conservative radio stations?
Actually, we’re not too concerned about that because leftists always believe Americans are sheep who will believe whatever they’re told. In fact, the people are smart enough to know when they’re being snowed. Every media outlet that leftist billionaires have tried to turn into a propaganda tool has crashed and burned: from the old “Air America” liberal talk radio network to the nightly network newscasts to MSNBC and CNN to late night “comedy shows” to DEI-infested Hollywood blockbusters and TV shows. All have withered under the disease of leftism, costing their owners billions in lost revenues. Americans even stopped drinking Bud Light!
If Soros turns those conservative radio stations liberal, listeners will simply tune out in droves and go listen to the former hosts’ new podcasts. If you think you can simply buy power in the modern age by buying some big media outlet, then compare the ratings for Joe Rogan to those of Jimmy Kimmel. It’s like comparing apples to molecules.
In case you missed it:
Terrified of blind justice
Here's yet another reason why Democrats seem so terrified that blind justice is making a comeback and political affiliations will no longer result in prosecutions nor save someone from them.
The pro-life group 40 Days For Life has filed an official complaint with the IRS against Planned Parenthood in Florida. They say during their vigils at abortion clinics, they personally witnessed PP staffers handing out flyers promoting Harris-Walz campaign events and even providing their spaces for those events. That type of partisan political activity is forbidden when you are a 501(c)3 nonprofit and can cost you your tax exempt status. Let’s see if the IRS enforces that law equally now that Trump is their boss.
If you’d like to learn more about 40 Days For Life, their president and CEO Shawn Carney was recently the Governor’s guest on “Huckabee” on TBN. You can see that interview here:
https://www.huckabee.tv/guests/shawn-carney
RELATED: Stephen Kruiser at PJ Media on how the Democrats’ plans to assault Trump’s nominees have blown up in their faces and revealed their top Senators to anyone paying attention as being even worse at their jobs than California Democrats are at fire prevention. As he puts it, they are “criminally unserious people.”
Bondi confirmation hearing is proud moment for Trump supporters
by Laura Ainsworth
Perhaps the most important thing for incoming President Trump to do right away is the cleaning out of the “Justice” Department, just so we can finally take the quotations marks off the word “Justice” and get back to having some semblance of actual justice.
It’ll never be perfect, but we have a long way to go before it’s even anywhere near acceptable. I made the point earlier this week that all January 6 defendants need to be pardoned, as the DC court system that convicted them was boundlessly corrupt. (If someone was found guilty of committing an egregiously violent act, then AT LEAST grant that person a new trial, starting from scratch and with a change of venue from DC.) Civil rights attorney Alan Dershowitz has even been considering getting the Innocence Project involved in overturning these convictions.
Today, Kurt Schlichter makes the same case, in harsher and more pointed language than I used. (I do like his use of the term “human eggplant” to describe our current on-the-way-out President. Not just a vegetable, but a nightshade vegetable.) Here’s my favorite part, the meat, of his must-read column: “To accept the validity of any J6 judicial proceeding is to accept that these biased, tyrannical prosecutions could ever generate a just result. A two-tier justice system targeting our people in a biased venue in front of biased judges via misapplied statutes can never deliver a just result. None of the proceedings undertaken against these J6 defendants could ever be just. Every single prosecution was and is absolutely corrupt. Every single trial verdict was fatally tainted. Every guilty plea was presumptively coerced.”
Indeed, we know many defendants pleaded guilty simply because they saw how the deck had been stacked against them in these DC courts and chose not to take their chances there.
That’s why it does no good to bring up cliches such as “the rule of law,” as, in Schlichter’s words, “these prosecutions themselves are a direct assault on the rule of law.”
Trump’s pardons should be immediate because going through the cases one by one will just take too much time, and these victims of the legal system have already lost too much of it. Where do they go to get it back? (I would add, this doesn’t even address those who committed suicide.) Schlichter makes the case that “it is better that ten allegedly undeserving defendants be pardoned than one undeserving defendant spend one single additional day in jail or be burdened by an unjust conviction.” He also believes that all these defendants should be paid “compensation for the gross violations of their civil rights.”
Sounds good to me --- especially since many of these political prisoners (and make no mistake, that is what they are) have endured literal torture. One of these cases was detailed in the newsletter not long ago, in which the inmate was chained for up to 18 hours at a stretch while being transported from prison to prison to prison, presumably to keep him away from journalists who wanted to interview him, and kept in solitary for weeks at a time. Conditions being what they were, he lost 40 pounds and was described as looking like the Tom Hanks character in CASTAWAY. This man deserves to be paid a huge amount with a long string of zeroes after it, and even that won’t be enough to make up for what he has endured.
Schlichter also makes a good point about strategy that I hadn’t thought of: a mass J6 pardoning will have the Democrats shrieking so loudly, it “will draw attention away from the dozens of other vital, but potentially controversial, things that he will do that first day. As his enemies focus their fire on the pardons, all the other important stuff will slip through the cracks.” Quite conceivably so.
The vital issue here, according to Schlichter, “is not whether someone went too far on January 6. This is about a systemic persecution of American citizens not resulting from an individualized consideration of their exact circumstances but simply because they were affiliated with the out-of-power party. You can’t tolerate this in a free society. If you do tolerate this, it stops being a free society.”
If Trump is going to run the rats out of the DOJ, his most critical appointment is that of U.S. Attorney General. His nominee, former Florida AG Pam Bondi, made it clear in her Wednesday Senate confirmation hearing that the weaponization of government will end under President Trump. She showed that she’s a fine choice --- in part because she stood in such cool contrast with the Democrat senators who still don’t even realize that they were humiliating themselves in that hearing room.
Adam Schiff, especially, made himself look foolish with his question to Bondi about whether she’d pay attention to someone who “beat a police officer.” As Jason Chaffetz told FOX NEWS’ Trace Gallagher Wednesday night, “How about Joe Biden offering a pardon to 37 murderers --- people who are on Death Row? Did he say anything about that?” (Note: it was actually commutations to life sentences, not pardons.)
“If I am attorney general,” Bondi said during the hearing, “I will not politicize that office; I will not target people simply because of their political affiliation. Justice will be administered even-handedly throughout this country...We’ve got to bring this country back together --- we’ve got to move forward, or we’re gonna lose our country.”
The left is so alarmed now about Trump’s weaponization of government, this fear can only be understood as projection on their part, since weaponizing the government against Trump and his supporters is what THEY’VE been doing since before he was even elected.
That was exactly the impression Brandon Morse of REDSTATE got. “I had the distinct feeling this was going to be the one person they feared the most,” he wrote, “because a Trump attorney general would be the one that hurt Democrats the most when it came to draining the swamp.” But she won’t have to abuse power to do it, because, as he said, “There’s a laundry list of things Democrats did that are worth investigating, and I have a feeling Bondi will be spoiled for choice in terms of threads she can start pulling on.”
The Democrats treated Bondi with contempt, but it seemed to be contempt arising out of fear. I think they’re terrified of her. They know they can’t really stop her confirmation, so their treatment of her now is meant to set up the narrative that she is GOING to abuse power, even though she isn’t (and they were the ones who did).
Morse, like many, noticed that Adam Schiff seemed particularly concerned about whether she saw a “factual predicate” to investigate “Special Counsel” Jack Smith, and pushed hard to get her to commit, one way or the other --- which, of course, she couldn’t do, as she hasn’t looked at the case documents. “What I see on the news is horrible,” she told him as he tried to talk over her. “Do I know if he committed a crime? I have not looked at that.”
Ashley Hayek, former Trump National Coalitions director, described Trump’s nomination process this time as “an organized, well-oiled machine,” saying on FOX NEWS Wednesday night that “we’ve been terrorized by the Biden administration for the past three-and-a-half years, and it’s time for putting America first again.” I’d say Bondi’s nomination also shows that it’s time to put AMERICANS first again, the rights of individual Americans.
RELATED: While Bondi was in her Senate hearing, John Ratcliffe was in his, as Trump’s nominee for CIA director, another critical position.
Ratcliffe’s message in his opening statement was spot-on, similar to Bondi’s in that he made it clear that the politicization of the CIA would stop under his leadership. “We will produce insightful, objective, all-source analysis, never allowing political or personal biases to cloud our judgment or infect our products,” he said.
He had a message for the agents as well: “To the brave CIA officers listening around the world, if all this sounds like what you signed up for, then buckle up and get ready to make a difference! If it doesn’t, then it’s time to find a new line of work.”
Bonchie at REDSTATE looks at something masterful Ratcliffe did during his hearing that, yes, also involved Adam Schiff. Without mentioning Schiff’s name (he didn’t have to), Ratcliffe mentioned “a chairman of an intelligence committee” misrepresenting a laptop owned by Biden’s son as “a Russian intelligence operation.” This is GREAT --- the gold you pan for whenever you force yourself to sit through hearings like these. Don’t miss…
Laura Ainsworth is a HUCKABEE Writer and Researcher.
Thank you for reading my newsletter.
So proud of Ms. Pam Bondi from Florida - great choice! Be afraid, Adam, be VERY afraid. OK, Ms. Laura is not from Florida, but VERY proud of her, too! Inside Inauguration- YES! T minus four - can't come soon enough.
And, yes, Laura, you are a very good journalist.