Massive Storm Expected. Top Moments from the Jack Smith Hearing. The Five-Year-Old Boy. Not the Bee: LA Mayor Karen Bass Is Self-described Public Safety Leader. And More
Bundle up.
People in the roughly half of the nation (and here) that is expected to be hit by a “historic” storm are desperately trying to get ready.
Walmart shelves are stripped bare, and supermarkets are swamped as shoppers rush to stock up on emergency supplies:
The storm is forecast to bring heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain beginning Friday and lasting through Monday, raising concerns about widespread power outages, dangerous travel conditions and prolonged disruptions, according to National Weather Service Director Ken Graham.
“Prepare now,” Graham told FOX Weather Thursday. “If you think about power outages, you think about the cold, you need to be prepared to have what you need for a week.”
While you are cuddled up with TikTok during the snow (though Ms. Must hopes you’ll be reading good books instead!), you might be happy with the latest development concerning the controversial app:
TikTok said on Thursday that a deal to spin off its U.S. business to non-Chinese investors has been finalized, marking a new chapter for the popular short-form video app that has been a pawn for years in high-stakes U.S.-China negotiations.
The roster of investors in the deal to save TikTok for Americans is interesting. Hot Air has a post on the ins and outs of the deal. Not saved from the axe is the World Health Organization. President Trump has finalized the U.S. withdrawal from the WHO, and the AP is not pleased:
The withdrawal will hurt the global response to new outbreaks and will hobble the ability of U.S. scientists and pharmaceutical companies to develop vaccines and medicines against new threats, said Lawrence Gostin, a public health law expert at Georgetown University.
“In my opinion, it’s the most ruinous presidential decision in my lifetime,” he said.
If I were a fact checker (an honest one, that is), I would label this claim false. WHO’s abysmal performance in the COVID crisis was cited as a reason to withdraw, according to a Jerusalem Post story, which quotes this from Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Director of the National Institutes of Health:
“The Trump Admin is working to make sure that we have those bilateral agreements in place for that kind of health cooperation — but we don’t need the WHO as an intermediary essentially to push Chinese interests on the American people.”
Yes, I noticed that I had to find this in a paper halfway round the world. You know how the legacy media operates.
How zealous former Special Counsel Jack Smith operated in his quest to help then-candidate Trump add to his mugshot collection was the subject of a contentious hearing yesterday before the House Judiciary Committee. GOP Rep. Chip Roy was furious about phone records of Republican elected officials that piqued the former Special Counsel’s interest:
“Did you target my records and subpoena my phone?” Rep. Chip Roy fumed at Smith, brandishing a poster board behind him of at least 14 Republicans who also had their call logs subpoenaed.
“My understanding is your records were subpoenaed by prosecutors before I became special counsel,” Smith responded to Roy, while elsewhere in his testimony acknowledging that others, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), were targeted.
Few new details emerged from the ex-special counsel’s testimony, but the venue provided an opportunity for Judiciary Republicans to interrogate Smith about his decision to obtain sitting lawmakers’ phone metadata without their knowledge.
The Federalist highlights nine key moments from the Smith hearing, while Fox Digital contented itself with five top moments. George Washington University law professor and Fox Contributor Jonathan Turley, meanwhile, told Harris Faulkner of the eponymous current events show that Mr. Smith had a career-long habit of “stretching the law beyond the breaking point in case after case.” I heard several pundits predict that Smith’s performance and yesterday’s hearing will lead to the end of the Special Prosecutor’s office. Channeling Edith Piaf, Smith “regrets nothing.”
The Five-Year-Old Boy: The latest anti-ICE horror tale revolves around a five-year-old child, who is alleged to have been “arrested” and “used as bait” to capture his father, an illegal alien. “5-year-old asylum seeker detained as ICE expands enforcement in Minnesota,” says ABC News. Vice President J.D. Vance responded in his Minnesota speech yesterday, summarized by Townhall this way:
Yeah, the father ran away and abandoned his child, so what’s ICE supposed to do, let the kid freeze to death—a point the Vice President Vance made when he was questioned about this incident.
Powerline’s John Hinderaker characterizes the five-year-old boy story as an urban legend. There are so many reports of alleged transgressions by ICE agents that simply do not get fleshed out. My hunch is MSM reporters rely on the old “too good to check” rubric—they don’t want to see a story evaporate because of inconvenient facts. Meanwhile, “Minneapolis ICE Standoff Has Become the Political Issue CEOs Can’t Ignore,” a Wall Street Journal business story announces:
CEOs have tried their hardest to stay on the political sidelines since President Trump started his second term—and mostly succeeded. Now the pushback against the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis is pulling more of them in.
Some of the country’s biggest companies, including 3M, Medtronic, Ecolab, U.S. Bancorp and UnitedHealth, all have headquarters and thousands of employees in the Twin Cities. Though they have kept largely quiet in public, many of their leaders are trying to navigate the charged issue with employees and community members behind the scenes.
Target—Minneapolis’s best-known corporate brand—is a case in point. The hometown retailer hasn’t issued any public statements since the detention of two local store workers, both U.S. citizens, earlier this month. But its executives agreed to meet with a group of local clergy who protested in the lobby of the company’s headquarters last week.
The company also has circulated updated guidelines for how staff in stores and warehouses should respond to “unannounced immigration-related contacts,” according to documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
“How the Deep State Thwarted ICE Administrative Warrants” in the same publication is also recommended. “Bureaucrats falsely claimed the law didn’t allow officers into illegal aliens’ homes,” the piece argues:
Illegal aliens, however, don’t have the same rights as citizens. Under federal immigration law, officers may issue an administrative warrant, which means that the probable-cause finding is made by an executive-branch officer rather than a judicial officer. This is consistent with broad judicial recognition that illegal aliens aren’t entitled to the same Fourth Amendment protections as U.S. citizens. It is also consistent with the Supreme Court’s admonition that the touchstone of the Fourth Amendment is whether the search or seizure is “reasonable,” not whether it is supported by a judicial warrant.
We’ll Always Have Davos: For California Governor Gavin Newsom, the Examiner’s Byron York observes, trolling doesn’t stop at the water’s edge:
While this was going on, Newsom’s social media team in California — the governor’s official press office — was running in high gear. It posted at least 31 clips on X from his session with Smith alone. And other stuff, too. They posted a digitally manipulated photo that appeared to show Trump sitting with Nosferatu at the unveiling of Trump’s “Board of Peace.” It posted another manipulated photo that portrayed Newsom as the brilliant rising sun over the mountains at Davos. And an image that superimposed a golden toilet over the Board of Peace logo.
I see the sun outside my window, but there are still some things I wish to make sure you don’t miss: A National Education Association former employee blows the whistle, making the NEA sound more like a cult than a union. … Liberal Patriot Ruy Texeira says Dems can’t resist the siren song of culture denialism. … Some states play DOGE ball to fight waste, fraud, and abuse, says Steven Malanga. … Not the Babylon Bee: Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass writes in Newsweek about leading the country on the issue of public safety. What’s next? How To Run a Fire Department. … Liberals with guns might be dangerous.
Be warm.
