Judge Merchan tries to defend himself after Trump sentencing — but he and Bragg are responsible for this monster

On Friday, the sentencing of President-elect Donald Trump saw one of the most impassioned defense arguments given at such a hearing in years … from the judge himself.

Acting Justice Juan Merchan admitted that the case was “unique and remarkable” but insisted that “once the courtroom doors were closed, the trial itself was no more special, unique, and extraordinary than the other 32 cases in this courthouse.”

If so, that is a damning indictment of the entire New York court system. Merchan allowed a dead misdemeanor to be resuscitated by allowing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to effectively prosecute declined federal offenses.

He allowed a jury to convict Trump without any agreement, let alone unanimity, on what actually occurred in the case.

Merchan ruled that the jury did not have to agree on why Trump committed an alleged offense in describing settlement costs as legal costs.

Neither the defendant nor the public will ever know what the jury ultimately found in its verdict.

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Podcaster Sam Harris spreads hoax that President-elect Trump wasn’t actually shot

Disgraced public intellectual and author Sam Harris appeared on Bill Maher’s podcast, where he told the Club Random host he believes Trump could have been struck by a piece of shrapnel from a teleprompter at Butler, Pennsylvania rally rather than a bullet.

“I’m surprised that a rifle round making any degree on contact with an ear wouldn’t do more damage. I think a shattered piece of shrapnel from a teleprompter is far more likely to do that to his ear than a rifle round,” Harris says, before Maher interjects by saying that this theory is “silly.”

“If it just hit it by the slightest possible degree, it makes much more sense,” Maher replied.

“There’s no question that rifle rounds went flying. Someone was killed,” Harris replied, referring to firefighter Corey Comperatore. “I’m not debating that at all. Just, if in fact, a teleprompter was hit by a rifle round and we know there was shattered glass, that makes more sense to me.”

“Oh, that he didn’t get hit at all. It was the teleprompter… But that doesn’t change the basic narrative,” replied Maher, who then agrees that the shooter could have “missed him completely.”

Harris goes on to say that this does not change the fact that Trump survived an assassination attempt. 

A photo posted by X user Brick_Suit, who attended the Butler rally that day, shows that no teleprompter was hit.

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Gavin Newsom Gives an Appalling Answer When Asked About Public’s Anger Regarding the State Wildfires – Team Trump Delivers Explosive Reply to Newsom

California Governor Gavin Newsom has finally spoken out in-depth regarding his and other state officials’ handling of the wildfires which are destroying the southern part of the state and it should disgust everyone.

The Gateway Pundit previously reported that a massive 3,000-acre wildfire raged out of control and engulfed homes in Pacific Palisades, California, on Tuesday afternoon. Shocking and heartbreaking footage has emerged showing people abandoning their cars and running for their lives.

Residents have lost their homes, entire livelihoods, and even their lives over the past several days as fires have spread all across Southern California and show no signs of abating. Meanwhile, firefighters are having issues with water pressure, thanks to politicians.

The fires would not have been so severe had California politicians led by Newsom utilized common-sense solutions such as clearing out the dead brush in the woods and filling the state’s depleted reservoirs with water.

As Fox News reported, Newsom appeared on the liberal podcast “Pod Save America” yesterday to respond to the rightful criticisms regarding his and other Democrat leaders’ failed leadership.

Right off the bat, Newsom sought to make himself look like a ‘hero.’

“So, I’m the governor of California and wanna know the answer. I’ve got that question, I can’t tell you, by how many people, ‘What happened?’ – on my own team, ‘What happened?’,” Newsom claimed to “Pod Save America” co-host Jon Favreau. “I’ll be candid with you, I wasn’t getting straight answers.”

According to Fox News, Favreau surprisingly pushed back against Newsom. He revealed that a friend of his lost his home in The Palisades and suggested that Newsom was trying to pass the buck.

Undeterred, Newsom continued his narcissistic screed.

“We had my team start talking to local leaders, saying, ‘What’s going on?’” Newsom fired back. “I was getting different answers.”

“And so, for me, when you start getting different answers, then I’m not getting the actual story,” he added.

The New York Post reported that Newsom next boasted about his government’s response to the crisis. He bragged about how many helicopters, prepositioned engines, personnel, and dozers they obtained over the weekend.

Newsom then smeared Trump, who has been extremely critical of the disgraced governor’s ‘leadership’ during the crisis, by once again falsely accusing him of politicizing the tragedy and spreading ‘misinformation.’

“It’s words. It’s a salad. It’s the form and substance of fog. It’s made up,” Newsom whined. “It’s delusional and it’s a consistent mantra from Trump going back years and years and years, and it’s reinforced over and over and over within the right wing.”

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Homeland Security Inspector General Confirms Audit Of FEMA Over Trump Sign Controversy

The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general this week confirmed it is auditing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) over concerns that its employees avoided homes that displayed signs supporting then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in the aftermath of several hurricanes.

In a letter dated Jan. 6, the office told Reps. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) and Scott Perry (R-Pa.) that an audit of the disaster relief agency was initiated on Dec. 17, 2024, to “determine how well FEMA followed its policies and procedures when addressing safety concerns and determining community trends that impact disaster survivor assistance in response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton.”

Two months ago, a now-terminated FEMA employee, Marn’i Washington, allegedly told a FEMA team in Florida to bypass homes that display Trump signs. After reports surfaced that FEMA workers were told to avoid those homes, FEMA Director Deanne Criswell announced that the employee, Washington, was fired.

“I want to be clear to all of my employees and the American people, this type of behavior and action will not be tolerated at FEMA, and we will hold people accountable if they violate these standards of conduct,” Criswell said in a statement at the time.

But Washington later said in several media interviews that the policy was systemic and that she was being scapegoated. FEMA officials “were already avoiding these homes, based on community trends, from hostile political encounters,” she told Fox News at the time, adding that the policy had “nothing to do with the campaign sign, it just so happened to be a part of the community trend.”

“Firstly, I’m being framed,” she told NewsNation in mid-November 2024.

“There’s no violation of the Hatch Act. I was simply following orders.”

On Dec. 3, 2024, Graves and Perry, two lawmakers who sit on the House Transportation Committee, called for an investigation into the claims made by Washington and other reports “of the deliberate avoidance of homes with Trump campaign or political signs” during FEMA’s response to the two hurricanes.

“The actions taken by FEMA supervisors in directing employees to avoid homes that displayed Trump campaign signs or flags are disturbing and raise serious questions about the culture and political bias that permeates FEMA leadership,” they wrote, adding that the committee is also concerned about whether the practice was “more widespread than reported” and could have harmed hurricane victims.

In November 2024, Criswell testified before a House subcommittee and said that not providing aid to people due to political beliefs is “completely at odds with FEMA’s mission,” stressing that the incident wasn’t part of a broader FEMA trend.

FEMA had faced criticism late last year after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Criswell suggested the relief agency would run out of funding needed to last the remainder of the 2024 hurricane season.

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Guess Who Is Already Talking About Impeaching Trump Again

Donald Trump is set to make history on January 20, becoming the 47th president of the United States. After winning both the Electoral College and the popular vote, he enters this term with a stronger mandate than his first. Yet as sure as the sun rises, Democrats are gearing up for their favorite pastime: impeaching Trump.

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) has already signaled as much. During an interview on CNN, Dana Bash pressed him on balancing governance with his previous focus on investigations into Trump’s conduct, and Schiff vowed to “push back” against Trump for any perceived “abuse of power.” 

Schiff responded hesitantly, initially stumbling over his words. “Well, I — look, I think we hope for the best. We keep a focus on trying to get positive, affirmative things done for the country,” he said. However, he quickly pivoted, adding, “But a lot will depend on how he chooses to govern. If he violates the law, if he violates the Constitution, if he abuses his office, we will vigorously push back, fight back, stand up to him, as we had to do during his first term in office.”

Schiff added, “My priority is to try to get things done for my California constituents.” Still, he noted that his constituents also “expect me to stand up to him when he attacks the Constitution or their freedom.”

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Leftist Media Claims Trump Is About To INVADE Greenland, Canada, Denmark, Panama

The leftist media, which for years has whinged that President Trump is an isolationist, is now hilariously complaining that Trump has become an ‘expansionist’, even claiming that he’s about to use the military to invade Greenland, Canada and other countries.

CNN’s TDS suffering hater at large Dana Bash asserted Tuesday that Trump is preparing “a military invasion to conquer Greenland, the Panama Canal and perhaps the annexation of the country of Canada.”

Of course, this is absolute horse cack.

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Conspiracies Too Awful To Imagine?

Over the decade of Donald Trump’s political career, the left – as exemplified by Democratic politicos, the media, academics, the Washington military hierarchy, and the permeant bureaucratic state – illustrated a level of furor, venom, and near madness unprecedented in modern American history.

Yet stranger still about such visceral, indeed lunatic hatred, despite Trump’s eccentricities and lack of a traditional political resume, his administration between 2017-21 was successful by traditional economic, military, security, and diplomatic standards. It was certainly not characterized by weaponizing the DOJ, Pentagon, CIA, or FBI, get-even vendettas, the use of lawfare, corruption, optional wars, open borders, hyperinflation, or a war on the environment—as predicted and alleged. Nevertheless, the idea of Trump as president justified to the left the greatest assault on our civil liberties, justice system, and free expression in modern history.

Indeed, at times the frenzy has ranged the gamut of an unprecedented two impeachments, a first Senate impeachment trial of a private citizen ex-president, and a coordinated effort to deplatform the major Republican presidential candidate from state ballots.

But at other times, the efforts were more sinister—and conspiratorial—to the point that the attempt to destroy the purported threat of candidate, president, and two-time candidate Trump apparently justified any means necessary.

In retrospect, what is the legacy of these unmatched efforts? They have established precedents, if ever again followed, will destroy the republic as we have known it.

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Sen. Chuck Schumer Boasts Biden-Appointed Judges Will Be ‘Strongest’ Obstacle Blocking Trump’s Plan to Make America Great Again

“I don’t know exactly what [Trump will] do. But I can tell you this: The judiciary will be one of our strongest — if not our strongest — barrier against what he does,” current Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told Politico last week about his plan to thwart President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda.

Insisting to his senators that making federal judgeships a priority would help protect the legislation Democrats have passed during their last four years in power, Schumer touted, “We got 235 — more than a quarter of the federal judiciary was appointed by our Senate and by the president,” and “more than Trump had done” during his first administration.

Schumer’s words also came days after Joe Biden vetoed a bill that would have added 66 federal judgeships, a goal that proponents said would relieve the significant delays in resolving some cases.

Biden said the bill was a “hurried action” that “seeks to hastily add judgeships with just a few weeks left in the 118th Congress.”

The Associated Press (AP) described the bipartisan nature of the bill:

The legislation would have spread the establishment of the new trial court judgeships over more than a decade to give three presidential administrations and six Congresses the chance to appoint the new judges. The bipartisan effort was carefully designed so that lawmakers would not knowingly give an advantage to either political party in shaping the federal judiciary.

“The Democratic-controlled Senate passed the measure unanimously in August,” AP added. “But the Republican-led House brought it to the floor only after Republican Donald Trump was reelected to a second term in November, adding the veneer of political gamesmanship to the process.”

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Lockdown Fanatic Leana Wen Pushing Bird Flu Jabs Before Trump Takes Office

Leana Wen – the former Baltimore Health Commissioner who burst onto the scene during the Boston Marathon Bombing – only to recommend forcing the unvaccinated to remain indoors during the COVID pandemic – is now pushing the Biden administration to expedite the approval of a bird flu vaccine before Donald Trump’s inauguration.

During a Sunday interview with CBS News‘s “Face the Nation,” Wen said “There are two main things they should be doing in the days that they have left,” adding “The first is to get testing out there… we should have learned out lesson from Covid that just because we are not testing, it doesn’t mean the virus isn’t there.”

Wen then said that the “second very important thing” is that the Biden administration work to secure FDA authorization for the widespread use of bird flu vaccine, adding that Trump has “people coming in with anti-vaccine stance.”

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No, The Truth Is Not Just Another Story

“The Democrats are self-immolating on the altar of their own tenuous relationship with common decency.”

– Tom Luongo

It must be obvious that the incoming government under Mr. Trump has one primary duty overall: sorting out truth from lies so the nation can reestablish a baseline reality to function upon. America is so punch-drunk from official lying that many intelligent people who ought to know better now proclaim that reality is unknowable, which is just a surrender to nihilism — the rejection of moral principle, a belief that the human project is meaningless.

This awful condition has led to the point where you know for sure that “Joe Biden” cannot possibly discharge his duties as chief executive, and yet nobody cares enough to investigate who is running things behind the front he puts up. That would generally be the job of the news media, which is supposed to function as the public’s auditor. Now, of course, you are persuaded that this was never really their job, that it was a sham, but that is just another lie.

The news was not flawless, but neither was it presented as nothing more than opinion. The news existed to register what happened day-to-day. It was not so much concerned with why things happened, which was much more difficult to establish, and usually reserved for the pages labeled “opinion,” so that you knew it was somebody’s conjecture. I know this because I worked as a newspaper reporter in the 1970s. I actually found out what was going on about this-and-that, wrote it up, and saw it in print hours later. The facts.

Journalism had some simple rules for reporting the facts about anything — and it’s hilarious that anyone thought it required a graduate degree from some credentialing mill like the Columbia U. School of Journalism. The news was often meddled-with by interested parties, government and business, but they did not completely overwhelm the ant-like labors of x-thousands of reporters in the field, and the stream of fact they circulated.

Not all of it was subject to dispute, meddling, or opinion because it was self-evident: Joe Blow got shot. . . a helicopter crashed in Ohio. . . a volcano erupted in Peru. . . .

Only over time, the past thirty years especially, our government grew and grew and one of the things that grew out of it was the nefarious “blob” dedicated to protecting the self-enlarging perquisites and interests of that government. Blobs will absorb things they encounter, and in a predatory way, the US government blob absorbed the US news media. The blob transformed the news into an engine for suppressing the facts or spinning them narratively when they could not be suppressed, in order to maximize the advantage of the government and to protect the operations of the blob itself.

It is also a fact that this blob is aligned mostly with Democratic Party, because that party is most avid for the continuing growth of government, and its members overwhelmingly dominate in the officialdom that dwells inside the DC Beltway.

The numbers speak for themselves on the DC voter rolls.

So, a new government under Mr. Trump is feared cringingly by the news media.

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