News of the Week for February 11th<\/sup>, 2024<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Trikki Nikki?<\/a> Conventional wisdom said Trump couldn’t win in 2016. This historian’s ‘keys’ said he would. What are those keys telling us today?<\/a> Appeals Court Affirms the Denial of Trump’s Presidential Immunity Claim in D.C. Election Interference Case<\/a> Confusion Reigns as Nevada Readies for GOP Presidential Primary \u2013 and Caucuses<\/a> Nevada Republicans’ caucus adds chaos and confusion to the state’s presidential primary<\/a> ‘None of These Candidates’ Beats Nikki Haley in Nevada Primary<\/a> ‘Civil War’ After Donald Trump Win May Be ‘Worth It’: Evangelical Preacher<\/a> Evangelicals’ Trump Worship Looks More Like QAnon Every Day<\/a> Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan is running for the US Senate<\/a> Republican Businessman Eric Hovde Staffs Up Ahead of Looming Wisconsin Senate Campaign<\/a> Both Parties Blew the Lessons of 2022<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Republican effort to restore abortion rights in Missouri folds<\/a> <\/p>\n Hawaii’s Supreme Court Attempts to Sidestep the 2nd Amendment<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A Bitterly Disappointing Verdict<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Self-Starvation to Qualify for Assisted Suicide<\/a> <\/p>\n Putin readies 40k troops & 500 tanks for massive new onslaught on Ukraine as he sets deadline for do or die breakthrough<\/a> Venezuela Deploys Military to Oil-Rich Guyana’s Border<\/a> U.S.-China Tensions Have a New Front: A Naval Base in Africa<\/a> The Senate Weighs an America-First Defense Bill<\/a> What Tucker Carlson Didn’t Ask Putin<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n “Woke Kindergarten” Founded by Anti-Israel and Anti-American Activist Resulted In Lower Test Scores ‘Unexpectedly’<\/a> CUNY anti-racism conference promoted panel titled ‘Globalize the Intifada!’<\/a> New Jersey Bill Would Allow Teachers to Give Obscene Material to Minors<\/a> Kari Lake’s leaked recording is causing trust issues in the Arizona GOP<\/a> Dartmouth becomes first in Ivy League to reinstate SAT\/ACT requirement, says research finds it increases diversity<\/a> NY School District Sued For Allegedly Secretly Transitioning 12-Year-Old Student<\/a> Nikki Haley: Second to “None”<\/a> All Glory to Independent Texas, Comrade!<\/a> Hur’s report: Biden ready for Memory Care<\/a> Transgender Daycare Worker Avoids Prison After Sexually Abusing A Baby During Diaper Change<\/a> Teacher Critical of ‘Woke Kindergarten’ Training Gets Suspended<\/a> Bud Light Becoming Popular With MAGA All of a Sudden?<\/a> The Bird That Took a Human Mate<\/a> Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n China’s Stock Market Has Fallen and It Can’t Get Up<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Meet Me in the Eternal City<\/a> Turns Out Mexico’s President Might Well Be Cartel-Corrupted<\/a> Ecuadorian politician executed in broad daylight as narco war rages out of control<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A Hawkish Bill Meets a Dovish GOP<\/a> There’s No Defending Woodrow Wilson<\/a> The Self-Defeating Republican Party<\/a> Trump Gets Bought Out of the Culture Wars<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Newsboy.jpg\" "\\"News")
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<\/a>Election 2024<\/h1>\n
\nLots of chatter and criticism this morning for Nikki Haley going on Saturday Night Live for the cold open last night, as it is taken as an indicator that she’s part of the hated liberal establishment, since SNL does not have good wishes for Republicans. The riposte is that Trump hosted SNL back in 2015 after he had entered the race (even doing a great Oval Office sketch about Mexico paying for the wall), but that was before SNL and the media realized Trump was a real threat to win. Take that as perhaps a sign that they don’t think Haley is a real threat to anything.<\/p>\n
\nBiden holds an edge this November based on American University professor Allan Lichtman’s analysis of 13 historical predictors<\/p>\n
\nNot a surprise. It will likely head to the Supreme Court now.<\/p>\n
\nNevada Republicans will caucus to decide how to apportion their delegates for president. But their caucus comes two days after a primary. And that’s only the start of the confusion.<\/p>\n
\nThe party’s decision to host a competing contest to the Feb. 6 primary election has angered GOP voters<\/p>\n
\nTrump responded: “A bad night for Nikki Haley. Losing by almost 30 points in Nevada to ‘None of These Candidates.’ Watch, she’ll soon claim Victory!”<\/p>\n
\nEvangelical preacher Andrew Wommack said that a “civil war” would be “worth it” if it meant getting former President Donald Trump back into the White House<\/p>\n
\nI have watched every Donald Trump rally, interview, and speech since he left the White House in Jan. 2021.<\/p>\n
\nFormer Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced Friday that he will run for U.S. Senate, giving Republicans a prominent candidate who is well-positioned to run a competitive campaign for the GOP in a state that hasn\u2019t had a Republican U.S. senator in 37 years.<\/p>\n
\nRepublican businessman Eric Hovde has begun hiring campaign staffers as he lays the groundwork for his soon-to-launch 2024 Senate campaign against Democratic senator Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin, sources close to him confirm to National Review. Hovde is expected to formally announce his statewide campaign in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
\nNobody likes losing elections. A successful political party, however, should know how to learn and benefit from its losses. A missed opportunity to get something out of losing can be just as bad as a failure to capitalize on victory. Somehow, both parties wound up not only losing valuable ground in the 2022 midterms, but also failing to learn anything from their setbacks.<\/p>\n<\/a>Abortion<\/h1>\n
Dobbs Decision<\/h2>\n
\nA Republican-led group trying to restore abortion rights in Missouri is ending its campaign<\/p>\n<\/a>Gun Rights<\/h1>\n
\nWhy do this? It’s not going to accomplish anything except maybe to reinforce that the 2nd Amendment cannot be sidestepped by state courts. Is this literally virtue signaling? Whatever the case, this is just embarrassing.<\/p>\n<\/a>Hide the Decline<\/h1>\n
Environment &<\/a>“Green Energy”<\/h2>\n
\nToday the jury returned its verdict in the defamation trial of Michael Mann v. Rand Simberg and Mark Steyn. The verdict was disappointing to those of us who followed the case and thought that Michael Mann presented a pathetically inadequate case. The jury actually agreed: it found that the defendants had defamed Mann, but awarded only a token $1 in damages, since Mann had failed to prove any. But it found that both Simberg and Steyn acted with actual malice\u2013they didn\u2019t actually believe what they said about Mann\u2013and awarded punitive damages in the amount of $1,000 against Simberg, and $1 million against Steyn<\/p>\n<\/a>Obamacare<\/h1>\n
Government in Healthcare<\/h2>\n
\nThere are never enough assisted suicides for the euthanasia movement. So, while they will promise “strict guidelines to protect against abuse,” they don’t mean it \u2014 and are ever on the hunt to liberalize laws to make it easier for people to get help becoming dead.<\/p>\n<\/a>War & Terror<\/h1>\n
\nUkraine could be going up against a force that doubles theirs – but ammunition shortages are the big worry<\/p>\n
\nThe Maduro government is ratcheting up his leverage over Guyana to get access to its newfound energy wealth<\/p>\n
\nAmerican officials urge leaders in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea to reject Beijing’s overtures for a military presence on their Atlantic coastline<\/p>\n
\nWhen Republicans control just one chamber of Congress against a Democratic White House and Senate, it can be difficult to secure viable wins. But the Senate GOP has a superb opportunity to extract major conservative victories out of both.<\/p>\n
\nIt should be evident to anyone who watched it that there was some news value to Tucker Carlson’s interview of Vladimir Putin. The former Fox host might even have moved the ball forward on the unjust detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, whom the Russian government is transparently holding hostage. Carlson pressed the Russian president on this case several times, and Putin implied during the exchange that he wants to trade Gershkovich for a Russian assassin who was jailed for killing a Chechen man in Germany five years ago.<\/p>\n<\/a>National<\/h1>\n
\n“Gross has also called for police to be defunded and abolished, condemned capitalism, said the government should ‘free them all’ from prisons and accused the former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang of supporting genocide.”<\/p>\n
\nOne now-deleted panel at an upcoming City University of New York anti-racism conference was titled ‘Globalize the Intifada!’<\/p>\n
\nRepublicans nationwide have been fighting hard to protect the innocence and lives of children from the dangerous groomers who seek to sexualize them. It’s no small victory when Republicans successfully restrict schools or public libraries from making pornographic materials available to kids. <\/p>\n
\nWhen Kari Lake speaks to the Republican Party faithful, shes accustomed to cheers and adulation.<\/p>\n
\nDartmouth College plans to reinstate a requirement that applicants submit SAT or ACT scores.<\/p>\n
\nSchool counselors don’t just give career advice anymore.<\/p>\n
\nWell, as you surely already know, Nikki Haley lost the Nevada Presidential Preference Primary to “None of These Candidates” last night. As it stands right now \u2013 with late mail-in ballots still to be counted \u2013 Haley lost 63-31%.<\/p>\n
\nFormer Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev \u2014 remember “I vill transmit this to Vladimir”? \u2014 apparently fervently believes that the U.S. is on the brink of a second civil war, and declares, “establishing a People’s Republic of Texas is getting more and more real.”<\/p>\n
\nWe knew that special counsel Robert Hur was never going to bring charges against President Biden for his mishandling of classified documents, but we didn’t see this coming <\/p>\n
\nA trans-identified male in Kentucky has reached a plea deal after being charged with sexually abusing a baby and will avoid prison so long as he meets certain conditions. Maria Childers, a former daycare worker, hired a prominent trans activist lawyer to represent him in the sickening case.<\/p>\n
\nGlassbrook Elementary is located in Hayward, California which is south of Oakland on the east side of the San Francisco Bay. The school has just under 500 students and lately it has been struggling with falling test scores. But that didn’t stop the school from signing a $250,000, three-year contract with a company called “Woke Kindergarden” which, as the name suggests, provides training to teachers (but not to students in this case) on how to fight white supremacy.<\/p>\n
\nYesterday I wrote about Bud Light’s umpteenth attempt to refurbish its reputation, and I casually noted that Donald Trump–seemingly out of the blue–endorsed the idea of ending the Bud Light boycott and getting back to the important business of drinking piss water. <\/p>\n
\nThe early 2000s were an excellent time for romance. J. Lo married Marc Anthony. Vanessa Carlton vowed to walk a thousand miles for love. Ryan Gosling kissed Rachel McAdams in the pouring rain. And in Front Royal, Virginia, Chris Crowe flapped his arms to woo Walnut, a five-foot-tall white-naped crane.<\/p>\n
\nCitizen Trump, political chalking, and rough business.<\/p>\n<\/a>Economy & Taxes<\/h1>\n
\nChina’s troubled property market continues to get a lot of the headlines but China’s stock market is also in terrible shape right now. The total losses since 2021 are roughly $7 trillion dollars.<\/p>\n<\/a>International<\/h1>\n
\nThe international airport serving the capital of Montenegro has only two arrival gates, and last spring they were busier than usual. I was there for the same reason many others were: The tiny Balkan state had become the unlikely center of a mostly American social and political movement.<\/p>\n
\nOn the menu today: Get ready to start your week with some major dot-connecting, as a new report contends that the president of Mexico, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador, has been cozy with the notorious Sinaloa Cartel for a long time, while the record of the cartel’s extensive and lucrative ties to China \u2014 in production of fentanyl and methamphetamine \u2014 is growing clearer and clearer. There’s a lot of money to be made from ruining Americans’ lives \u2014 and the trail of drug-trafficking profits leads back to one particularly infamous city. Meanwhile, the Biden campaign team wants to put the president on TikTok.<\/p>\n
\nPolice said two male suspects approached the councilwoman on a motorcycle and shot her in the head before fleeing as Ecuador is ravaged by extreme gang violence.<\/p>\n<\/a>Opinion<\/h1>\n
\nRepublican opposition to the Senate border deal is bad politics and bad policy.<\/p>\n
\nDavid Frum’s effort to defend our worst two-term president says more about Frum than about Wilson.<\/p>\n
\nOn the menu today: The Democrats wake up every morning wanting to beat the Republicans, but they’ll never be as good at beating the Republicans as the Republicans are at beating themselves.<\/p>\n
\nLike a bolt from the blue, Donald Trump signaled his intention to negotiate a cease-fire between conservative culture warriors and Bud Light on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n