Quick Hits

A liberal grand jury has refused to indict Big Tish James for her obvious, blatant mortgage fraud.

A leftwing judge dismissed the first indictment, claiming that the prosecutor was illegally appointed.

Another prosecutor brought the charges to a new grand jury.

Now that the left has made Big Tish a cause celebré, they're determined that she should go unpunished.

A federal grand jury in Virginia refused Thursday to bring charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James, shutting down -- at least for now -- the Justice Department's revived attempt to prosecute her over mortgage fraud allegations. According to sources familiar with the closed-door proceedings, prosecutors empaneled a new jury to review revised charges, only to have them tossed a second time.

James, 67, had previously been hit with two felony counts for alleged bank fraud and submitting false statements tied to a six-figure loan she secured in 2020 to buy a second home in Norfolk. She has repeatedly dismissed the accusations as political and baseless. In a Thursday statement, James thanked the jurors, adding she was "humbled by the support I have received from across the country" and would continue "standing up for the rule of law and the people of New York."

The first indictment -- returned Oct. 9 in Alexandria -- never got off the ground. On Nov. 24, U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie threw it out entirely, ruling that acting U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan was improperly appointed and had "no lawful authority" to bring charges in the first place. The decision blindsided DOJ leadership, prompting Attorney General Pam Bondi to announce that the department would pursue "all available legal action, including an immediate appeal." Bondi also vowed to challenge separate lying-to-Congress and obstruction counts against former FBI Director James Comey, which prosecutors have six months to revise or refile.

That six-month window applies here as well. Because the judge dismissed James's case without prejudice, prosecutors could return with yet another indictment -- though Thursday's outcome makes that path steeper. Abbe Lowell, the high-profile Democrat attorney representing James, told CNN the decision "should be the end of this case," claiming that continued pursuit after a judge's ruling and a grand jury's rejection would be a "shocking assault on the rule of law and a devastating blow to the integrity of our justice system."

Note that no one is reporting the grand jury is liberal. I make this assertion based on the fact that it sits in one of the most liberal areas of the country -- northern coastal Virginia, where all the leftwing federal bureaucrats live, the reason that former Confederate state Virginia is now as blue as Brian Stelter's withered balls -- and that they rejected a slam-dunk indictment. Only a political jury nullification can explain this.

In better legal news, an appeals court has reversed a Lowly Lawless District Court judge who blocked Trump's firing of an "independent" board member, claiming the Executive cannot fire Executive branch employees. By 2-1, the three judge appeals panel asserted that yes, the Executive, get this, has power over the employees of the Executive Branch.

The Supreme Court will probably finally overrule the bad decision in the Humprhey's Executor case that claimed the President cannot fire his subordinates. The Supreme Court has largely hollowed that ruling out by finding exceptions her and exceptions there; they may now take the necessary step of just wiping this bad precedent off the books.

Warner Bros. has been up for sale for a while. Skydance/Paramount tried to buy it, but their offer was rejected.

Now Netflix has bought Warner Bros., further consolodating the media into a few left-wing hands.

Netflix @netflix

4h

Today, Netflix announced our acquisition of Warner Bros. Together, we'll define the next century of storytelling, creating an extraordinary entertainment offering for audiences everywhere.

On Black Friday, there was an offer for 12 months of HBO Max for $3/month. I said "what the heck" and signed up, mostly for the very big library of older movies that HBO offers. Those are all (or mostly) Warner Bros. movies. I wonder if this deal will wind up taking those older movies off of HBO's servers to save them for Netflix.

Amusing... but Warner Bros. was already doing this. In their very unnecessary Harry Potter remake series -- commissioned purely to exploit Warner Bros' existing IP and get Warner/Discovery a little bit closer to solvent -- they already announced that Hermoine and Snape would be black.

Under pressure from the FCC, AT&T says it's abandoning illegal DEI race discrimination.

The move follows years of controversy, much of it fueled by revelations that AT&T's internal training materials pushed the notion that racism was a "uniquely white trait" and urged white employees to accept blame as part of a broader critical-race-theory framework. Those claims first surfaced in 2021 through documents obtained by researcher Christopher Rufo, who reported that the company's curriculum told white staffers they "are the problem." The backlash never fully subsided -- and with Carr signaling that companies seeking key FCC licenses would need to demonstrate they are not running discriminatory programs, the pressure point became impossible for AT&T to ignore.

In a letter sent Monday to Carr, AT&T Senior Executive Vice President and General Counsel David McAtee said the company has overhauled its employment and business practices "to ensure compliance with all applicable laws," emphasizing that the changes would be substantive, not cosmetic. According to AT&T, that means no hiring quotas, no supplier-contract quotas, no race-based training, and no positions devoted to policing identity-based metrics. DEI courses have been stripped from employee requirements, and the company says it will not resurrect them.

We'll see if they just continue the illegal race and sex discrimination under a different name.

Eric S. Raymond
@esrtweet

I'm coining a term today: "bludgeonspeak".

Bludgeonspeak is the use of invented terminology, or historical terminology that has been hijacked and corrupted, and then emptied of all meaning except as an attempt at moral blackmail.

Here are some notable bludgeonspeak items in 2025: "racist", "fascist", "homophobe", "transphobe", "islamophobe", "far-right". Also, the term "genocide" might not be quite there yet, but it's being pushed in that direction pretty hard.

Some bludgeonspeak terms, like "fascist" and "racist" and "genocide", used to have substantive meanings which have been destroyed by persistent abuse. It may be appropriate to recognize and use those meanings if you are reading or writing or speaking about history.

Others, like "homophobe", "transphobe", and "islamophobe", were bludgeonspeak from birth. There are no circumstances in which these have substantive meaning, and it is unwise to treat them as though they do.

The only way to win is not to play. When somebody throws bludgeonspeak at you, call it out. State that you will not be controlled by their language, and you refuse to be assigned to a category you reject.

The key thing that people who employ bludgeonspeak don't want you to grasp is that these words only have the power over you that you allow them.

Once a term has been generally recognized as bludgeonspeak, it not only loses its power as direct moral blackmail, it can no longer be used as a social attack.

So: learn to recognize bludgeonspeak. Shut down the people who use it by refusing to give it power. And educate other people about this manipulation tactic, so that they too can reject it.

You can prevent semantic manipulation. All it takes is the will to do so.

This must hurt: Because Trump pardoned a pair of J6 non-insurrectionists, they're entitled to have the money they paid for restitution and fines given back to them.

The judge forced to order their restoration of funds is the corrupt, highly-impeachable rogue Judge Boasberg.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg has ordered that a couple pardoned by President Trump for their convictions regarding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot be refunded their restitution payments and fines, reversing his earlier decision.

On Wednesday, Boasberg ruled that because of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision, Cynthia Ballenger and her husband, Christopher Price, are to be refunded the $570 each in restitution payments and other fees paid as a part of their convictions, Fox News reported.

Gavin Newsom is shielding the killer of an 11-year-old boy from deportation.

ICE announced Tuesday that it lodged an immigration detainer with the San Diego Sheriff's Office for 44-year-old criminal Mexican national Hector Balderas-Aheelor after he was arrested for a felony hit-and-run that killed 11-year-old Aiden Antonio Torres De Paz a day before Thanksgiving. The DHS' press release said the arrest detainer would not be honored because California is a sanctuary state.
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Newsom's press office responded in a post calling the allegation a "complete lie."

"As we have repeatedly said: The state coordinates with ICE on the deportation of convicted criminals. California honors federal criminal warrants. Nothing prohibits the federal government from doing its job in this case," the post states.

Just over an hour later, DHS responded in a follow-up tweet claiming the governor's office was "playing word games to keep an illegal alien murderer in America."

"California REJECTED the ICE detainer for an illegal alien charged with killing an 11-year-old boy. Gavin Newsom says he'll only cooperate with ICE if the criminal illegal alien is CONVICTED, meaning California will let him roam free even though he's been arrested for FELONY hit-and-run," the department wrote.

Along with its criticism, DHS included a cropped picture of an immigration detainer's rejection on Sunday, with a note reading, "No qualifying criminal history, however current charge would qualify upon conviction with a new 1247 from ICE."

Following publication, the department provided the Daily Caller News Foundation with the full filing, with Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin issuing a statement calling out Newsom and the state's politicians.

"The sanctuary politicians of California and Governor Newsom once again REFUSED to protect the safety and security of American families," McLaughlin told the DCNF. "It's despicable that our ICE arrest detainer of a criminal illegal alien who killed an 11-year-old boy would be rejected. When will Governor Newsom and his fellow sanctuary politicians stop releasing criminals into our neighborhoods and putting American lives at risk?"

The left has new book out about the sacrament of killing an unborn child: Abortion is Everything.

The book isn't intended for 21 year old women already on their third abortion.

It's intended for 5-to-8 year olds.

Get 'em while they're young.

If you had any doubt, the book is hardcore pro-abortion propaganda designed to appeal to little children in ways designed to appeal to child-like mind.

The official book description proudly states:

"Abortion Is Everything speaks directly to five to eight-year-olds about what abortion is, how it might feel, and why people have abortions. With accessible, inclusive language, Abortion Is Everything frames abortion as the actualization of a uniquely human superpower: our capacity to imagine the future and make choices that lead us towards the life we envision. Abortion is a tool that allows human beings to shape our destinies, and which has shaped the entire world around us."

posted by Ace at 04:30 PM

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