x01 Archives

Blurb:

Explosive new court documents unsealed Tuesday detail the alleged judicial misconduct of the Wisconsin judge presiding over a politically-driven criminal case targeting the attorneys who represented the 2020 Trump campaign in the battleground Badger State. Dane County Circuit Court Judge John Hyland had outside help from a former judge with a “grudge,” according to the court filings.

Hyland, in so many words, told defendants to go pound sand. He will not remove himself from the case and the march to a perfectly-timed election-year trial will go on. To the people who feel more than ever that it will be impossible to get a fair trial in far-left Dane County, the judge effectively said, Trust me.

Earlier this week, attorneys for Jim Troupis, President Donald Trump’s Wisconsin recount counselor following the rigged 2020 presidential election, filed several motions not only asking Hyland and his staff to step aside, but to vacate the judge’s August order rejecting the defendants’ motion to dismiss the case. The omnibus motion and an appendix spelling out the allegations were sealed  — that is until Hyland opened them Tuesday afternoon.

Blurb:

Former Special Counsel Jack Smith is teaming up with other anti-Trump prosecutors to launch a new law firm. The hordes of Mordor might be forming again. Smith tried to ensnare President Trump in two investigations, one on the January 6 riot and the other concerning Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents, all of which were dismissed. The latter was part of the federal raid on Mar-a-Lago in August of 2022, which, in hindsight, sealed the Democrats’ fate regarding the 2024 election (via Yahoo! News):

Jack Smith, the former U.S. Justice Department special counsel who prosecuted Republican President Donald Trump following his first term in the White House, is teaming up with three other ex-prosecutors ‌to launch a new law firm.

Smith is starting the firm with Tim Heaphy, David Harbach and Thomas Windom, each ‌a former federal prosecutor with decades of public service.

Heaphy in a statement said the firm will launch in January and provide full-service legal work, including investigations and litigation. He said the team will design a legal practice focused on “integrity, commitment, and zealous advocacy” for public and private clients.

Blurb:

By handing out CDLs to ineligible drivers, the state “sent unsafe foreign drivers onto highways across America and put countless families in danger.”

Washington state says it accidentally issued nearly 700 commercial driver’s licenses over the past seven years to non-US citizens who did not qualify to have them. Washington is a so-called “sanctuary state” for illegal immigrants.

The revelation comes as the Evergreen State sits in the crosshairs of the Trump administration’s CDL crackdown following the case of Harjinder Singh, an illegal alien who allegedly made an illegal U-turn in a semi-truck and killed three people in Florida in August. Singh, who crossed the border illegally in 2018, failed the required tests and allegedly did not speak English.

Washington still issued him a commercial driver’s license, which he then used to obtain a California CDL. After the fatal crash, Florida’s attorney general asked the US Supreme Court to permanently bar Washington and California from issuing commercial licenses to noncitizens. Washington has until Jan. 27 to respond.

Blurb:

House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested Thursday that Republicans are preparing a broad healthcare package aimed at lowering premiums nationwide.

Senate Democrats and Republicans each rejected the other’s healthcare plan Thursday, as dueling votes on extending enhanced ACA subsidies and expanding Health Savings Accounts both failed amid leaders declaring the opposing plans “dead on arrival.” Johnson spoke briefly to reporters in the Capitol, saying that he and his conference are crafting a plan that goes beyond the Democrats’ push to extend enhanced Obamacare subsidies.

“I‘ve spoken to all my colleagues. We‘ve all worked around the clock to try to come up with a solution that satisfies the needs of all of our constituents,” Johnson said.

When CNN’s Manu Raju pressed Johnson on whether he would allow a vote on the Democrats’ subsidy-extension bill, he pointed to a forthcoming Republican plan.

Blurb:

CNN political commentator Scott Jennings had a stern warning for Republican lawmakers after the Republican-dominated Indiana State Senate overwhelmingly voted against a congressional map redraw that would have netted the party two seats in next year’s midterm elections, a move that significantly increases the odds of a Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives in 2026.

The proposed maps would have split the Democratic Party stronghold of Indianapolis four ways, effectively eliminating the districts currently controlled by Democrats to give the GOP a 9-0 sweep when it comes to U.S. House seats. After the Indiana House advanced the motion last week, the proposed map went to the Senate, where it was soundly defeated on Thursday.

The vote was not particularly close, as 21 Republicans voted against the measure while just 19 voted in favor.  President Donald Trump and a number of key allies were furious over the move, leading organizations like Turning Point USA and the president himself to vow primary challenges.

Blurb:

On Thursday, a suspected cartel smuggler was killed during an officer-involved shooting with Border Patrol.

Allegedly, the suspect crossed the river and attacked a Border Patrol, who then opened fire.

The shooting happened in Starr County, Texas — near the border.

Thankfully, no agents were injured during the shootout.

Bill Melugin of Fox News has the details:

Blurb:

California Gov. Gavin Newsom posted an AI-generated video depicting President Donald Trump, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller in handcuffs.

“It’s CUFFING Season,” reads the text that appears at the beginning of the video.

It shows Trump, Hegseth, and Miller sitting on a sidewalk with their hands behind their backs.

In the next scene, they are sitting in the back of a car with handcuffs on, and they raise their hands to their faces and begin to cry.

Finally, they are shown walking in front of a courthouse, still handcuffed.

Blurb:

While the Indiana legislature’s congressional redistricting efforts generate massive national attention, a weaker immigration enforcement bill is quietly moving faster than a stronger, “gold-standard” bill supported by Gov. Mike Braun and border czar Tom Homan.

The two immigration bills, Senate Bill 76 and House Bill 1039, include a lot of identical language. But SB 76 weakens and drops a number of HB 1039’s provisions.

SB 76 is sponsored by Sen. Liz Brown, R-Fort Wayne, who faces primary challenger Darren Vogt after she single-handedly blocked an immigration enforcement bill similar to HB 1039 earlier this year. SB 76 passed the judiciary committee Brown chairs Tuesday afternoon 6-2. In response to a Federalist query about whether she’d give HB 1039’s Senate companion sponsored by ranking member Sen. Eric Koch, R-Bedford, an equal hearing, Brown’s spokeswoman told The Federalist, “Sen. Brown is focused first on getting her bill through Committee and then she’ll see what the House does.”

Blurb:

One of the biggest whoppers Democrats told during the Schumer Shutdown was that they were not fighting for taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegals as part of the demands they wanted to be met to end the shutdown.

“Federal law prohibits the use of Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Affordable Care Act to provide health insurance in any way, shape, or form to undocumented immigrants—period, full stop. Democrats aren’t trying to change that,” Democrat House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08) proclaimed at the time.

Though that is exactly what Jeffries and his fellow Democrats were trying to do, it was clear that the subject of taxpayer funding of illegal immigrant healthcare was a sore spot and for good reason, considering the likelihood that Jeffries knew the longer the shutdown dragged out, the more frustrated the American people would get with Democrats holding up funding for the military and SNAP recipients just to get some assurances on healthcare for illegals.

Blurb:

A Kentucky Democratic lawmaker argued during a hearing that white people should feel guilt over their skin color, defending diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs just as Republicans in the state moved to eliminate them from public schools.

The Tuesday comments came as Republican state Sen. Lindsey Tichenor introduced legislation banning DEI initiatives in Kentucky’s K–12 system, according to the Paducah Sun.

Democratic state Rep. Sarah Stalker objected to the bill, insisting DEI gives students room to “reflect” on “historical privilege.”

Then Stalker went further.

“I’m going to be honest, I don’t feel good about being white every day for a lot of reasons,” Stalker said in a video shared on X by Libs of TikTok.

“Because it’s a point of privilege that I get to move through the world in a way that so many of my other colleagues and friends and family members and of the community don’t get the privilege to do, and I’m just a female, just a woman, just a white woman.”

Blurb:

Key Takeaways

  • Rapid enrollment in AI programs at universities like MIT and USF reflects a surge in employer demand, with MIT’s AI major growing from 37 to 328 students in just three years.
  • Experts stress the importance of teaching the foundational aspects of AI, not just generative AI, to prepare students for a workforce increasingly reliant on AI skills.
  • Concerns about AI’s societal impact are rising, prompting calls for curricula that address the ethical and safety challenges of AI technologies.

Students are rapidly enrolling in newly created AI programs and majors at schools such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California San Diego, and University of South Florida.

Educators and experts told The College Fix that the boom in the field of generative AI brings both benefits and risks.

Blurb:

The Democrats and their flying monkeys in the mainstream media have made it clear that their plan to win back voters who abandoned them last year involves only resistance to President Trump. No policy. No coherent sales pitches. Just tantrums.

I should clarify — the Democrats aren’t offering any policy ideas to attract American citizens who vote. They’re working overtime crafting policy designed to make the lives of illegal alien murderers, rapists, and child traffickers better. In the Dem dreamworld, all of these criminal bottom-feeders will be voting for them regardless of legal status.

This resistance mindset has the Democrats placing a high premium on elected officials and candidates who they perceive as “fighters.” At present, that applies to anyone who has dropped an f-bomb during a press conference when wailing about Trump. The occasional snarky post (TWEET) on  X also counts a little towards Dem fighter cred.

All of the posturing and potty-mouthing in front of friendly audiences has given the Democrats the mistaken impression that they actually are tough. It’s mostly amusing, especially given the fact that fey soy boy Gavin Newsom is their highest polling “fighter” right now.

Blurb:

The Trump administration’s new National Security Strategy was published last week, setting out the U.S.’s broad foreign policy direction for the remainder of his term. It focused on ending what it calls a “perpetually expanding NATO,” establishing “conditions of stability within Europe,” and encouraging European allies to “stand on [their] own feet” in security matters.

The document also warned that Europe faces “civilizational erasure,” citing migration, censorship of speech, declining birthrates, and what it described as a loss of national identity and self-confidence.

Days after the official release, however, the Defense One website reported that a longer, unreleased version of the NSS had circulated in Washington. According to the site, the unpublished version contained far more explicit political goals for reshaping Europe’s future and reducing the influence of the European Union. Defense One wrote that the extended draft urged the United States to “Make Europe Great Again,” proposing that Washington realign its attention toward a select group of governments ideologically closer to the Trump administration.

Blurb:

Artificial intelligence is putting the creative professions through a round of creative destruction. Generative tools such as ChatGPT, Midjourney, and Sora have handed millions of amateurs the means to produce competent art, prose and even studio-quality video at or next to nothing. Disney’s just-announced $1 billion investment in OpenAI, and its plan to let Sora users conjure up scenes featuring more than 200 Disney, Marvel and Star Wars characters, will push the trend further. A teenager with a smartphone may soon generate a convincing Pixar-style short without ever lifting a pencil.

But the same tools are unsettling the people who built careers around those once-scarce skills. If anyone can summon photorealistic imagery or Hollywood-grade effects on command, what happens to illustrators, designers, or voice actors who spent decades perfecting craft?

Blurb:

Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA did not reply to a request for comment. Venezuela’s government this week said the US seizure constituted a “theft.” The White House National Security Council did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The US has assembled a target list of several more sanctioned tankers for possible seizure, according to one of the people familiar with the matter.

The US Justice Department and Homeland Security had been planning the seizures for months, according to two of the people.

A reduction or halt in Venezuelan oil exports, the main generator of revenue for the Venezuelan government, would strain the Maduro government’s finances.

Blurb:

According to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, “we cannot incarcerate our way out of violence.” He justified this by claiming “we tried that and we ended up with the largest prison population in the world without solving the problems of crime and violence.” He added that this is “racist, immoral and unholy” and most certainly “is not the way to drive violence down.”

Now, if Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has a better idea, we would like to hear it, but I certainly hope he’s not advocating for the release of prisoners. Because if there is one thing you would assume we should agree on, it’s holding people accountable when they commit violence — but something tells me he believes otherwise.

Blurb:

Members of the Scottish Parliament, which is the latest Western legislative body to consider expanding assisted suicide, rejected efforts in committee to restrict the practice with young people, disabled people, and others.

Liam McArthur, a member of the body, introduced a bill last year that would “allow terminally ill adults in Scotland, who are eligible, to lawfully request, and be provided with, assistance by health professionals to end their own life.”

The legislation is moving through the committee process.

Some of his colleagues introduced a bill restricting the more shocking cases of assisted suicide, under which patients can legally opt to have a doctor take their lives.

Blurb:

There must have been a time in American history when six sitting lawmakers urging members of the military to defy the commander-in-chief would have been viewed as outright sedition — and those lawmakers would have quickly faced justice. In the age of Trump, however, those days are long gone.

Touting their prior military and intelligence service, Democratic Sens. Elissa Slotkin (MI), who organized the video, Mark Kelly (AZ), and Reps. Chris Deluzio (PA), Maggie Goodlander (NH), Chrissy Houlahan (PA), and Jason Crow CO), launched a surreal video on Tuesday in which they called on troops to refuse to carry out what they consider to be President Donald Trump’s “illegal” orders.

Here is their statement, which the lawmakers read to viewers in turns:

We want to speak directly to members of the military and the intelligence community who take risks each day to keep Americans safe.

We know you are under enormous stress and pressure right now.

Americans trust their military. But that trust is at risk.

This administration is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens. Like us, you all swore an oath to protect and defend this Constitution. Right now, the threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home.

Blurb:

US Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have provided Congress with new evidence detailing Clinton Foundation corruption.

The IRS began investigating the Clinton Foundation in 2019 but abruptly stopped and cut off whistleblowers, according to memos obtained by Just The News over the summer.

“Can’t talk about the CF [Clinton Foundation],” one of the memos stated as it cut off the two Clinton Foundation whistleblowers. On Tuesday, Just The News reported that Patel and Bondi have given Congress a new tranche of documents showing the Clinton Foundation took donor money from foreigners seeking influence.

Blurb:

No, this is not satire. But, I think this man handled those officers rather perfectly, don’t you?

Enoch Burke is an Irish teacher who refused to “call a boy a girl.” According to his father, “he was commanded.” Too bad for Irish authorities, but this teacher does not take orders when he is asked to lie to a student’s face. The left calls that compassion, while the other side does not believe it’s compassionate to affirm falsehood. Nonetheless, the police came to his house to arrest him over this dire offense.

According to MSN:

Gardaí were last night looking for teacher Enoch Burke after failing to find him at the family home.

A female family member filmed three gardaí arriving at the house in Co. Mayo to arrest him yesterday. She immediately remonstrated with them and maintained that Mr Burke was not allowed his constitutional rights.

Blurb:

Brain implant developer Paradromics has received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to test its device in an early-stage human trial, the company announced Thursday.

The Austin-based company is aiming to give a digital voice to people who have lost the ability to speak due to severe motor impairment. The trial will assess the long-term safety of the Paradromics device, as well as its ability to enable synthesized speech and text communication.

Paradromics is one of several companies—which include Neuralink, Synchron, Precision Neuroscience, and Cognixion—working on technology to control computers and other devices using brain waves. Known as brain-computer interfaces, or BCIs, these systems capture brain signals associated with movement intention and translate them into commands.

Blurb:

Yesterday, Townhall told you about two horrible crimes in Chicago that happened just this week. In one, a pregnant woman and her child were beaten by a mob of students outside a Chicago school. If that wasn’t bad enough, a 26-year-old woman was set on fire on Chicago’s Blue Line after reportedly getting into an argument with a career criminal named Lawrence Reed.

In the initial reporting, we believed Reed had 22 prior arrests. That’s inexcusable enough, but it turns out Reed had 49 prior arrests, including for arson, as well as ten felony convictions. And it seems Reed’s victim didn’t get into an argument with him at all. Reed just approached her, doused her with a flammable liquid, and set her on fire.

Blurb:

President Donald Trump’s administration announced that it will end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Burmese nationals.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has now concluded that conditions in Burma have stabilized enough for citizens to return.

The move continues the administration’s broader effort to scale back TPS programs that have been repeatedly extended under previous administrations.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the decision returns the program to its intended purpose.

Noem said Burma has made “notable progress in governance and stability,” pointing to the end of its state of emergency, plans for elections, ceasefire agreements, and improvements in local governance.

Burma, also known as Myanmar, was designated for TPS in May 2021 by then–Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.