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Hillary & Co: Illusionists. Why Were Important Documents in an FBI Burn Bag? Sickos Rejoice in One Massacre Victim’s Death. Palestine Chic & More

Even fully paid-up members of the let sleeping dogs lie club must sit up and take notice.

When respected George Washington University law professor and Fox Contributor Jonathan Turley writes a column like this, you know Russia collusion-gate has legs. Here’s Turley’s headline:

Democrats pulled the greatest political con job ever on Americans. It’s finally unraveling

Turley writes:

This week, Washington was rocked by new releases in the declassification of material related to the origins of the Russian investigation. The material shows further evidence of a secret plan by the Clinton campaign to use the FBI and media to spread a false claim that Donald Trump was a Russian asset. With this material, the public is finally seeing how officials and reporters set into motion what may be the greatest hoax ever perpetrated in American politics. 

What is emerging in these documents is a political illusion carefully constructed by government officials and a willing media. The brilliance of the trick was getting reporters to buy into the illusion; to own it like members of an audience called to the stage by an illusionist.

Similarly sober-minded is Douglas Murray, who argues that “it’s important to get answers to Hillary’s RussiaGate plot.” The latest cache of documents to be declassified were the “annex” to the Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation. You’ll never guess where they apparently were:

Alas, the day is here: the annex to the Durham report, the investigation into the origins of the Russian collusion hoax that former Attorney General William Barr initiated, has been declassified and released. It was discovered in the FBI burn bags by Director Kash Patel.

It wasn’t just this file—thousands of documents related to the Russian interference investigation that the Obama DOJ, or lack thereof, conducted. The annex is clear about a few things, some of which you’ve already read about from Katie. 

The annex material is two things: extremely juicy and deeply troubling. Shawn Fleetwood of The Federalist examines Soros executive, who predicted that the FBI would “put more oil into the fire” to help the hoax along. The Federalist’s Margot Cleveland says the legacy media hasn’t woken up to the Russia hoax but the public has. Meanwhile, investigative reporter John Solomon says the annex is the “smoking gun.”

The Democrats have been “rending their garments and screaming their hatred for Donald Trump” since before 2016, but it’s not working says Liberal Patriot Ruy Teixeira. Teixeira advises them too “give up on #Resistance 2.0.” Teixeira writes:

In short, voters get that Democrats hate Trump; they’ve already priced that in. Endlessly reminding voters of that fact and how Trump must be #Resisted! does nothing to change Democrats’ fundamental problem: voters neither like nor trust them and therefore do not find them an obvious choice over their opponents.

Not everybody got the memo, as a frail old man who emerged from somewhere to deliver an incoherent address last night obviously didn’t. Also unemployed, Kamala Harris was on Stephen Colbert (ditto employment status) last night, where she peddled her new book—“107 Days”—you should go on Amazon just to read the summary–hilarious.       

The New York Post cover this morning is the sea of blue at the funeral of hero NYPD Officer Didarul Islam, who was murdered in the Midtown Manhattan rampage. “The Most New York Story There Is” is the headline, a reference to the fallen Officer as the son of both New York and Bangladesh.  Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch delivered an emotional eulogy.

“She Was Murdered in Midtown. The Internet Celebrated It” is The Free Press headline on a story about another casualty of the Midtown murders (I prefer “casualty to victim;”they fell in a war against civilization), Wesley LePatner. The TFP subhead:

Wesley LePatner was a mother, a wife, and a beloved boss. But to a growing number of people, she was a symbol of everything they hate.

Ms. LePatner was an executive at Blackstone, known as a mentor to young women.

The New York Post has published a disturbing picture of the face of Holly, the woman brutally beaten in the viral Cincinnati beatdown:

The woman viciously pummeled in a viral Cincinnati brawl has returned home to Russia — as relatives of one of the attackers claim the brutal beatdown is only drawing national outrage because the victim is white, according to reports.

The female victim — identified as Holly by a US senator from Ohio — was left with a gruesome black eye, busted lip, and bruises covering her face and neck after being knocked out during the horrifying melee that erupted in the city’s downtown early Saturday, shocking footage and photos showed.

Holly is also a casualty in a war against civilization.

A Cincinnati City Counsel member, you might recall, gloated that Holly and other casualties deserved the beatings because of their race. Victor Davis Hanson writes about the “the Cincinnati copouts.” Hanson cites four oddities in the attacks:

Three, there was neither a police presence nor any timely Good Samaritan interventions.

Instead, what ended the attacks was simply the fact that at least two of the targets appeared nearly comatose. So their assailants apparently concluded that their agenda of beating whites into unconsciousness was mostly complete.

Four, oddly few of the usual black spokespeople who habitually comment on interracial violence were to be seen.

Fox viewers will know about the Cincinnati brawl, but the three major broadcast networks did not cover it.

And now for some non-violent, good news.

Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel writes this morning “The Rise of the Climate Right.” The headline is a big misleading. You imagine RINOs protesting in favor of stringent net zero regulations. But that’s not what it is:

Something important happened this week, if the fuming response is anything to go by. The country is witnessing the rise—finally—of a scientifically armed and debate-ready climate right. The “consensus” gatekeepers don’t like it one bit.

The Energy Department issued a report whose title might glaze eyes: “A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate.” The New York Times, foaming with indignation, rolled out every shame word to denounce the report’s authors as “skeptics” who “misrepresent” and “cherry-pick” as they “undermine” and “attack” the “consensus.” This fury was at striking odds with the smug “we’ve won” tone of recent climate journalism.

First Democrats said President Trump would crash the economy and when that didn’t happen, they said the Trump economy is a mirage, according to a column by Examiner Chief Political Correspondent Byron York. Byron writes:

First of all, there’s no doubt that an annual GDP growth of 3.0% is a good report. But, just as the first quarter figure was low because of tariff-related increased imports, so the second quarter figure was high because of tariff-related decreased imports. So you can mentally take a little off the top. But remember that, even taking into account a drop in imports, the prediction for second quarter GDP was 2.3% — and then it came in at 3.0%. So it is good news. 

And it is not a mirage. And it is not crashing the economy. Obviously, Democrats want to diminish President Trump’s accomplishments in any way they can. That includes talking down the economy. But when they say the president is crashing the economy, or that economic growth is a mirage, they only make themselves look less credible.

President Trump unleashed new tariffs yesterday and that and the new jobs report brought the market futures down early this morning. The Canada deal is in jeopardy because Canada backs a Palestinian State.  You know what a Palestinian State is (to go back to a Byronic word)? A mirage. It doesn’t currently exist.

Canada is not the only country given to fantasy. “Diplomatic Terrorism?: France’s Recognition of an Imaginary Palestinian State” is a Gatestone headline. You can read the definition of a state.  A Jerusalem Post editorial asks, “Why Is Europe Rewarding Hamas Terror with a Palestinian State?”

And closing with some good, clean fun—Don’t miss Jeffrey Blehar’s delightful “Jasmine Crockett, Genuine Counterfeit.”

Bombs Aweigh Friday: CNN Bombs & Misses! Mamdani Hits NYC’s Dem Establishment Hard. Biden’s Debate Bomb Anniversary Is Today & More   

What was wrong with the CNN “report” that U.S. air strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites had—so to speak—bombed? Aren’t intrepid journalists supposed to pursue the truth wherever it takes them, regardless of whether they offend people in high places?

Well, yeah. But the Free Beacon explains why CNN, which relied on a faulty document from an agency that is not held in high regard to discredit the Trump-ordered air strikes, likely was duped. By the Iranians. Talk about bombing! The Free Beacon reports:

The U.S. intelligence community deemed that initial assessment “low-confidence,” a fact CNN omitted from its original piece, and based it solely on satellite imagery and intercepted communications—known as signals intelligence, or SIGINT—from Iranian officials. Shortly after the assessment leaked, Axios reported that communications intercepted by Israel “suggest Iranian military officials have been giving false situation reports to the country’s political leadership—downplaying the extent of the damage.” Such communications likely made their way into the DIA report, according to three former U.S. intelligence operatives, a current U.S. official, and other veteran national security insiders who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon both on and off the record. Some of them referred to the DIA as the “discount intelligence agency.”

“It’s basically messaging by the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps], messaging by Tehran,” said Michael Pregent, a former intelligence officer with U.S. Central Command who operated in the Middle East for nearly 30 years. “DIA is taking a SIGINT report from the National Security Agency … and putting together an assessment to leak. I know it’s messaging, the Iranians know it’s messaging, and for some reason, NSA believes it’s actual f—ing intelligence.”

A current U.S. official familiar with the ongoing damage assessment process said that the DIA’s findings—as well as “the partisan hit job published by CNN”—have been “completely debunked” over the past 24 hours, including by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

“Trump Bombs the Leak Machine” is the headline on Kimberley Strassel’s Wall Street Journal this morning. There is a good reason for the Trump administration to act decisively:

The Trump team went all-in this week countering the DIA report, with updates and briefings laying out the damage from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, military officials, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and the White House press team. The president pressed his claims of success in 21 posts on Truth Social on Wednesday alone and piled on news outlets. The administration also opened an investigation into the leak and suggested it might limit some classified information-sharing with Congress.

This has put much of the media on the back foot, engaged in a lot of throat-clearing about the “fog” of intelligence and the precise definition of “obliteration.” CNN, hilariously, continues to refuse to take the loss, and instead ran a piece suggesting the administration’s “hyperemotional” response to “honest questioning” only makes it “look defensive.” Sure.

The White House has good reason to move quickly in correcting the record and sending a message. The leaks are designed to do political damage, and the administration knows from the first term how real that damage can be.

The CNN reporter who broke the Iran story was Natasha Bertrand, dubbed a “CIA stenographer” by Miranda Devine. Ms. Bertrand’s most illustrious scoop previously concerned the 51 former intelligence agents who claimed that Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation. It was not. (Poignant Aside: Hunter is once again having trouble keeping current on his debts.)

Meanwhile, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview with Fox’s Brett Baier that the Iran air strikes were “a hot in the arm” for American credibility. Rice, who served in the George W. administration, did mention any President or former President by name, but she did dwell on the Afghanistan withdrawal as catastrophic for American prestige. Amazing interview. Is Brett Baier inheriting the world’s greatest interviewer mantle of Oriana Fallaci?

Will the One Big Beautiful Bill be ready in time to land on President Trump’s desk on July 4? The Senate Parliamentarian has rejected key proposals regarding Medicaid.  A Yahoo story crows that “she’s unelected, unknown and has the power to veto Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill.” In “About Those ‘Millions’ Losing Medicaid,” Wall Street Journal explains that they fall into two categories: able-bodied recipients who won’t work even part-time, and illegal aliens.

Who put socialist Zohran Mamdani over the top and made him New York’s likely next Mayor? Veteran political sage Michael Barone characterizes Mamdani’s support:

Mamdani won by huge margins from the same constituency that cast the critical votes for [Mayor Brandon] Johnson in Chicago. It’s the same constituency that in 2021 in New York was the base of Maya Wiley, who won slightly more first-choice votes than Kathryn Garcia, whose base was affluent Manhattan, but fewer than the winner, incumbent New York City Mayor Eric Adams, whose base was Blacks in Brooklyn and Queens.

I have called this constituency the “barista proletariat,” made up of people with temporary jobs in service industries, nonprofit organizations or media, perpetual grad students or adjunct lecturers who supplement their incomes often by gaming welfare systems and working off the books. You could see them as economic parasites on Manhattan’s rich finance and media wealth. They prefer to see themselves as cultural rebels against the larger society’s complacency and intolerance.

In a similar vein, Ms. Must’s favorite demographer Joel Kotkin explains at Spiked Online why Mamdani’s “progressive intifada” will be a disaster for New York:  

By roughly four to one, Americans favour much higher taxes on the rich, longer holidays and government-imposed cuts to pharmaceutical prices. Rising inequality and the fear of downward mobility drive support for expanded government and wealth redistribution.

Yet it would be a mistake to see Mamdani’s success in New York as a precursor to left-wing victories at the national level. The problem for such candidates is that most middle- and working-class Americans don’t protest, much less riot, when their cities and states go downhill – they just move somewhere less stressed and more promising, mostly to the suburbs. Those who remain in the cities are now totally unrepresentative of America as a whole.

Former Governor Andrew Cuomo, despite having been walloped by Mamdani, so far plans to stay in the race. Current New York Mayor Eric Adams, whose term was hijacked by the illegal migrant crisis, is running as an Independent. Republican Curtis Sliwa is refusing pleas to drop out so the anti-Mamdani vote can coalesce. City Journal’s Jesse Arm has suggestions for NYC powerbrokers, including the tantalizing notion of persuading NYPD  Commissioner Jessica Tisch to run.

“Everything Conservatives Said about Joe Biden Got Exposed One Year Ago Today” is the headline on Matt Vesta’s reminiscence of then-sorta President Joe Biden’s catastrophic debate. The House Oversight Committee is valiantly trying to figure out who the real President was back then. Alas, the Committee had to subpoena Doctor Biden’s suddenly shy “work husband” Anthony Bernal to come and testify.

I can’t end without mentioning “Alligator Alcatraz,” a proposed detention center for illegal aliens with criminal histories in Florida’s scenic Everglades. The BBC notes:

The facility, in the middle of a Miami swamp, was proposed by state lawmakers to support US President Donald Trump’s deportation agenda.

“You don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter. If people get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons,” explains the state’s attorney general, James Uthmeier, a Republican, in a video set to rock music and posted on social media.

It’s not a sure thing—environmentalist and tribal leaders are fighting it tooth and nail. But I do look forward to feigning innocence and saying to my liberal friends, “Goodness gracious, they’ll be perfectly unharmed unless they get naughty and try to escape.” Just kidding. Or not.

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Today, first son Hunter Biden will appear in an Arkansas courtroom to face the mother of Navy Joan, his four year old daughter. Hunter is fighting to ...

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During the 1980 Presidential election, Ronald Reagan asked the question, "Are you better off today than you were four years ago". That question is ee...

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Why would 51 presumably intelligent people bet their professional reputations on Hunter Biden? That's exactly what 51 former intelligence officials d...

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