Quick Hits

LOL: Close friend of both Jeffrey Epstein and Queer Starmer, "Prince of Darkness" Peter Mandelson, has been arrested on suspicion of "public misconduct." This is almost certainly regarding his passing of confidential government information about the UK preparing to bail out the British banks to Epstein, who no doubt used that information for profit.

And it probably includes the payments of over $90,000 Epstein made to Mandelson and his husband. What was that money for?

British police on Monday arrested Peter Mandelson, a former U.K. ambassador to the United States, in a misconduct probe stemming from his ties to the late Jeffrey Epstein. It came days after a friendship with Epstein landed the former Prince Andrew in police custody.

Both men are suspected of improperly passing U.K. government information to the disgraced U.S. financier, and the high-profile British arrests are some of the most dramatic fallout from the trove of more than 3 million pages of Epstein-related documents released last month by the U.S. Justice Department.

In his dissent to Friday's tariff decision, Clarence Thomas ripped the anti-law majority.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas ripped the court's decision blocking President Donald Trump's use of an emergency law to impose sweeping tariffs on trading partners, calling it a fundamental misread of both the governing statute and the Constitution's separation of powers.

"As (Kavanaugh) explains, the Court's decision ... cannot be justified as a matter of statutory interpretation. Congress authorized the President to 'regulate ... importation,'" Thomas wrote in his dissent. "Throughout American history, the authority to 'regulate importation' has been understood to include the authority to impose duties on imports."

The court invalidated Trump's use of an emergency law to impose tariffs in a 6--3 decision Friday morning after weeks of Trump championing that the court should rule in his favor as part of his larger effort to boost the economy, jobs and bring down costs for Americans. Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito joined Justice Brett Kavanaugh in dissenting from the ruling, with Thomas also offering his own separate dissent.

The majority of the court ruled Friday that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the president, even after declaring a national emergency, to impose tariffs -- and that Congress did not speak clearly enough to transfer its tariff-and-tax power to the executive branch.

The International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) is a 1977 law that allows the president, after declaring a national emergency in response to foreign threats, to regulate or block certain economic transactions and property interests, such as by imposing sanctions.

"The president asserts the extraordinary power to unilaterally impose tariffs of unlimited amount, duration, and scope," Supreme Court Justice John Roberts wrote for the court. "In light of the breadth, history, and constitutional context of that asserted authority, he must identify clear congressional authorization to exercise it."

In his dissent, Thomas argued that nondelegation doctrine is a narrow constraint, saying a line is crossed only when Congress delegates "core" power to make rules triggering deprivations of "life, liberty, or property" -- not "from delegating other kinds of power," such as tariffs.

The nondelegation doctrine forbids Congress from delegating core legislative power to the president.

Alarmingly, the Court's two most reliable conservative justices may retire this summer.

At least so Josh Hammer speculates:

Justice Samuel Alito is 75 years old -- and will be 76 by the end of this term. Justice Clarence Thomas is 77 years old -- and will be 78 by term's end. Alito just celebrated 20 years of service on the high court, and Thomas would mark 35 years of service this October -- nice round numbers. Alito has a forthcoming book set for release this October, around the start of the next Supreme Court term. That isn't anywhere near dispositive -- Justice Amy Coney Barrett published a book last September, and Justice Neil Gorsuch has released two books since he was confirmed to the court in 2017 -- but it has certainly fed speculation.

Thomas and Alito are, by some order of magnitude, the two most principled conservative justices currently sitting on the high court. It stands to reason that they would like to be replaced by ideological fellow travelers -- something that likely requires a likeminded president and a likeminded U.S. Senate majority. As the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who was very much an ideological fellow traveler, told Chris Wallace in a 2012 interview, "I would not like to be replaced by someone who immediately sets about undoing what I've tried to do for 25-26 years. I mean, I shouldn't have to tell you that, unless you think I'm a fool."

It's better that these old guys retire when the Senate is safely in Republican hands.

But I have no earthly idea where Trump will find their equal. So far he's appointed one libertarian (Gorsuch), one soft-handed establishment RINO (Kavanaugh), and one flaky AWFUL (Coney-Barrett).

Judge Aileen Cannon has barred the fake Special Counsel Jack Smith from releasing his fake report on the fake classified documents scandal, because he's not a duly authorized special counsel and has no right or power to issue reports.

She points out that it is wrongful for a "prosecutor" who was unable to obtain any indictments to release a report smearing the very people he was unable to indict.

A federal judge on Monday permanently barred the release of special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into President Donald Trump's hoarding of classified documents that led to charges once seen as the most perilous of the four criminal cases the Republican faced.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, granted a request from the president to keep under wraps the report on an investigation alleging Trump stored sensitive documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after he left the White House following his first term and obstructed government efforts to get them back.

Smith and his team produced a two-volume report on the classified documents investigation and a separate probe into Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election after he lost to Joe Biden. Both investigations produced indictments that were abandoned by Smith's team after Trump's November 2024 election win in light of longstanding Justice Department legal opinions that say sitting presidents cannot face federal prosecution.

Attorney General Pam Bondi had already determined that the report was "an internal deliberative communication that is privileged and confidential and should not be released" outside the Justice Department, according to court papers. The Trump administration has characterized Smith's investigation as politically motivated and said in recent court papers that the report belongs in the "dustbin of history."

Cannon's order, however, blocking the release also applies to Bondi's successors at the Justice Department. Cannon, who in 2024 dismissed the case after concluding that Smith was unlawfully appointed after multiple other favorable rulings for Trump, said the release of the report would present a "manifest injustice" to the president and his two co-defendants.

"Special Counsel Smith, acting without lawful authority, obtained an indictment in this action and initiated proceedings that resulted in a final order of dismissal of all charges," she wrote. "As a result, the former defendants in this case, like any other defendant in this situation, still enjoy the presumption of innocence held sacrosanct in our constitutional order."

What AP hides from you, but Julie Kelly reports, is that Jack Smith continued ignoring Aileen Cannon's ruling that he was not a duly appointed special counsel and kept using his non-existent authority to subpoena documents -- and write this report!

Conversation Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 @julie_kelly2 · 6h I am certain Judge Cannon's legitimate and provable allegations that Special Counsel Jack Smith and his team repeatedly violated her court order dismissing the documents case in July 2024 after finding Smith had been unconstitutionally appointed with get NONE of the same coverage as phony, baseless accusations of Trump DOJ violating court orders.

As I noted in the Halligan dismissal order and threats by at least one judge to hold her in contempt for continuing to sign her name as "US Attorney" in court filings, Jack Smith continued to represent himself as "Special Counsel Jack Smith" for MONTHS after Cannon removed him as special counsel in the documents case.

She called him out again today in an order prohibiting the release of Smith's "report" on the docs investigation, which Smith prepared after he was disqualified. Smith used discovery in the dismissed case to prepare the report and, along with AG Garland, tried to publish the document before Trump was inaugurated. (Cannon denied that stunt as well.)

Cannon: "Despite the Court's holding in July 2024 that 'the actions of Special Counsel Smith in connection with this proceeding must be set aside' due to his unconstitutional appointment Special Counsel Smith and his team went ahead for months, undeterred, preparing Volume II using discovery collected in connection with this proceeding and expending government funds in the process. Defendants learned of this continued work in December 2024 through media reports and then timely raised their objections to Special Counsel Smith--but he continued unabated, offering defendants only the courtesy of brief review under strict conditions, including forced deletion of discovery materials in the custody of the defense."

She continued. "To say this chronology represents, at a minimum, a concerning breach of the spirit of the Dismissal Order is an understatement, IF NOT AN OUTRIGHT VIOLATION OF IT." (Emphasis added.)

So will the media offer the same level of performative outrage about Smith's ACTUAL contempt of court conduct for MONTHS that it has offered on a near-daily basis about baseless allegations Trump DOJ prosecutors are intentionally defying court orders?

Hm, maybe we do have someone to replace Alito or Thomas with. Though the faggy RINO Senators would of course balk. They want someone with a better pedigree who will reliably vote in favor of the leftwing Regime.

Mamdani prayed at a mosque which just so happens to be a front for Iran. After Mamdani's prayer, the imam called for the murders of all infidels.

Can you feel the Diversity Strengthening you?

Jon Levine @LevineJonathan

NEW from me

On Oct 9, 2023 -- two days after Hamas' Oct 7 massacre in Israel -- the Muslim Democratic Club of New York put out a statement blaming Israel for the attack, saying they stood "in solidarity with the besieged Palestinian people"

Today, the founders of this group occupy top posts in City Hall under NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani

I've asked this before, but you all remember when the Democrat/soft-hand establishment wet themselves over Trump occasionally using profanity at rallies?

Well, it turns out that Leftists Once Again Believe None of the Things They Say They Believe. Because the moment they thought (incorrectly) that Profanity = Perceived Authenticity -- no, authenticity is authenticity, it just so happens that Trump's authentic self is given to profanity -- they started cursing like sailors.

Wait, sailors don't curse as much as AWFUL Wine-Mom Karens. Well, they started cursing like AWFUL Wine-Mom Karens.

This toad is the latest and greatest (in terms of girth):

She and Eric Fartwell are the two leading of the very unpopular, incompetent Democrat candidates for governor in California.

I haven't mentioned this before, because it seems wacky and unrealistic, but the two current leaders in the gubernatorial race are Republicans Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco are among the top three candidates. (Eric Fartwell slipped into second.)

Because California has a "jungle primary" in which all candidates compete in a single primary, it is possible that Hilton and Bianco take both slots for the general election campaign.

posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 06:40 PM

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