Daily News Roundup

Estimated Reading Time: 16 minutes

NOTABLE QUOTES

Mollie Hemingway X post: Just left oral arguments over Colorado’s partisan court attempt to remove popular Republican candidate from presidential ballot. Based on questioning and response, legal observers I spoke with said this could be 7-2, 8-1, even 9-0.

Techno Fog Threadreader post: Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report has been released. “Biden willfully retained” marked and unmarked classified documents at his home. This “risked serious damage to America’s national security”. Yet Biden will not be charged.

Donald Trump Jr. X post: So Joe Biden is old & cognitively impaired (8 yrs ago) according to special prosecutor Hur, that’s why he won’t be charged for leaving classified documents all over the place. However, he’s still 100% ok to lead the free world & hold the nuclear football! Totally makes sense!

Matthew Continetti contributor to Washington Free Beacon: Americans aren’t the only ones who read Hur’s report or watched Biden’s televised meltdown. America’s enemies did too. The world was a dangerous place before this afternoon. It has grown more dangerous since. There’s another reason for concern. Who is running the White House?

Monica Showalter contributor to American Thinker: So, the question is: what was Biden’s staff thinking, letting him speak to the nation at a time past his known bedtime, when he was clearly agitated, angry, defensive and obviously disoriented. He called the president of Mexico El-Sisi; El-Sisi is the president of Egypt. There were other obvious and serious lapses of sentience in his short, befuddled talk. One has to wonder if his staff, seeing the writing on the wall, meant to expose his dementia to the nation at this time. Isn’t it possible that they know he is non compos mentis and want to speed up the process of removing him from office? They had to know he would behave exactly as he did. No matter how many drugs he is given when he must appear in public, they are no longer working; they cannot fix or conceal his palpable dementia.

Chris J. Krisinger contributor to American Thinker: It’s Super Bowl week, and one of many hyped events now surrounding the game has become the customary media interview with the sitting American president. But President Joe Biden — or, maybe more correctly, his handlers — has passed for the second year in a row on this prime opportunity, this time in an election year, to plug his agenda and record. Before these two years, the annual Super Bowl interview with the president was watched by tens of millions of viewers.

Yuval Noah Harari World Economic Forum acolyte: “If [Donald Trump is elected again], it is likely to be the kind of, like, the death blow to what remains of the global order. And he says it openly. Now, again, it should be clear that many of these politicians, they present a false dichotomy, a false binary vision of the world as if you have to choose between patriotism and globalism, between being loyal to your nation and being loyal to some kind of, I don’t know, global government or whatever.”

Katya Sedgwick contributor to The American Mind: No doubt many Somalians experienced horrible hardship and appreciate the sense of stability and every opportunity America has to offer. But American citizenship is neither a right to be claimed by foreign nationals nor a reward for suffering. We owe it to ourselves to let refugees from far-flung lands whose culture we understand poorly to settle elsewhere.

BIDEN CRIME FAMILY

Richards: Special prosecutor gives scathing assessment of Biden’s mental acuity

Though the special counsel investigating Joe Biden’s possession of classified documents ultimately did not recommend charges after finding he “willfully” kept and shared some of the memos, the prosecutor gave a scathing assessment of the President’s mental acuity months before the presidential election. Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report cited several factors contributing to his decision to decline filing any charges against Biden. One reason Hur provided: Biden’s poor memory.

Read the full special counsel report on Biden’s handling of classified materials: https://justthenews.com/sites/default/files/2024-02/report-from-special-counsel-robert-k-hur-february-2024.pdf

BIDEN’S DEMOCRAT PARTY MARXIST PLAYBOOK: PERSECUTE YOUR OPPOSITION, PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP & HIS FORMER TRUMP EMPLOYEES, SUPPORTERS & WH STAFF

Newsmax: Judge Denies Peter Navarro’s Release Amid Conviction Appeal

A federal judge on Thursday denied a bid by Peter Navarro, an adviser in the Trump administration, to remain out of prison while he appeals his contempt of Congress conviction for refusing to cooperate with an investigation into the events of Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol. Navarro, a trade adviser under President Donald Trump, was sentenced last month to four months in prison after being convicted of defying a subpoena for documents and a deposition from the Democrat-run House select committee investigating the events of Jan. 6.

Molon: Jeff Clark: The Fight of His Life

Jeff Clark, U.S. Assistant Attorney General from 2018 to 2021, is a key target — alongside Donald Trump and others — of intense political persecution and lawfare, due to his efforts to uphold election integrity and remedy well-documented election fraud across states like Georgia in the wake of the 2020 election. […]

Clark met with President Trump in the Oval Office on January 3rd, 2021, as Trump strongly considered appointing Clark as acting attorney general over then-newly appointed acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, who had assumed that role following William Barr’s resignation. For the alleged “crime” of drafting a letter — which was submitted for review and approval within the DoJ — that rightfully points out rampant election irregularities and details how to work toward rectifying them, Clark is outrageously being charged with violation of the Georgia RICO Act and criminal attempt to commit false statements and writings. […] Clark spoke at August 2023 event at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, which began with a prayer for “anyone who is caught up in the dangerous web of lawfare and, really, I think, a revolution designed to take the country down.”

U.S. SUPREME COURT: TRUMP VS ANDERSON

War Room: Mike Davis: “This Is Backfiring Badly On The Democrats”

Davis was present at the SCOTUS hearing.

Watch the 5 minute interview: https://rumble.com/v4c99fw-mike-davis-this-is-backfiring-badly-on-the-democrats.html

Cohen: ‘Parade Of Horribles’: Jonathan Turley Skewers Colorado Lawyer After SCOTUS Ballot Hearing

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley on Thursday criticized Colorado lawyer Jason Murray’s performance in his argument to remove former President Donald Trump from the ballot in front of the Supreme Court. “It was a very interesting argument to listen to. It was a very difficult argument for Jason Murray who took the brunt of the questions, and he was running the gauntlet,” Turley said. “Justices were lining up to hit him with very tough questions. But what was fascinating was how many of them came from the left of the court. The most interesting was Justice [Ketanji Brown] Jackson.” “What was really surprising is that Murray did not have much of an answer for this parade of horribles as they pushed him to the edges,” he added later in the discussion. “They pushed him towards the end of the map. He had a real hard time and in some cases he made some small concessions that I think will be repeated in the opinion.”

Read more/Listen to the 7:50 minute video: https://dailycaller.com/2024/02/08/jonathan-turley-skewers-colorado-lawyer-scotus-ballot-hearing/

Newsmax: Supreme Court Appears Skeptical of Colorado’s Trump Ballot Block

The nine justices heard arguments in Trump’s appeal of a Dec. 19 ruling by Colorado’s top court to disqualify him from the state’s Republican primary ballot under the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment after finding that he participated in an insurrection. […] Conservative and liberal justices expressed concern about states having the power on their own to take sweeping actions that impact a presidential election nationwide. […] Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh focused on the impact to democracy in trying to figure out what Section 3 means. “Think about the right of the people to elect candidates of their choice, of letting the people decide, because your position has the effect of disenfranchising voters to a significant degree,” Kavanaugh told Murray.

Jacobson: ‘Uncle Leo Defense’ Works For Biden in Special Counsel Report: No Charges For An “Elderly Man With a Poor Memory”

Didn’t work for him in the bookstore, but it worked for Joe Biden in the Special Counsel investigation into his deliberate retention of classified documents.

Watch the 2:80 minute Jerry Seinfeld video: https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/02/uncle-leo-defense-works-for-biden-in-special-counsel-report-no-charges-for-an-elderly-man-with-a-poor-memory/

THE CORRUPT & DANGEROUS U.S. INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES & THE ADMINISTRATIVE STATE APPARATUS

Whedon: GOP Rep. Tenney urges Garland either to charge Biden or oust him under 25th Amendment

New York Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney on Thursday urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to explore using the 25th Amendment to remove President Joe Biden from office in the wake of a report from special counsel Robert Hur calling attention to Biden’s lapses in memory during his interview.

The 25th Amendment to the Constitution provides for the scenario in which the cabinet may determine the president unable to serve and remove him from office. “After concluding that President Biden knowingly and willfully removed, mishandled, and disclosed classified documents repeatedly over a period of decades, Mr. Hur nevertheless recommended that charges not be brought against him,” she wrote. “Special Counsel’s reasoning was alarming. He recited numerous instances in which President Biden exhibited dramatically compromised mental faculties and conclude that a jury would be likely to perceive President Biden as a sympathetic and forgetful old man.”

Greenfield: Leaked Iranian Gov Docs Show Soros Group Acted as Foreign Agent

In 2014, the International Crisis Group began conducting negotiations with an arm of the Iranian government. The ICG, whose launch was funded by George Soros and whose board of trustees currently includes both Soros and his son, was dealing with the Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS), an arm of the Iranian Foreign Ministry, whose leader had hailed the Hamas massacres, rapes and kidnappings of Oct 7 as a “glorious victory”. IPIS has been linked to compromising a future Pentagon Chief of Staff, and other key figures around Robert Malley, Biden’s Iran envoy, and a former president of the Soros organization, who had been removed from the Obama campaign for his contacts with Hamas for the ICG, and who is currently under FBI investigation for allegedly mishandling classified materials.

JANUARY 6

Hoft: BREAKING VIDEO: Congressional Candidate Derrick Evans Releases Exclusive Footage of Infiltrator Shooting Gun on January 6 – Just Now Being Released, Why Is That? (VIDEO)

West Virginia state lawmaker Derrick Evans was sentenced to 90 days in prison for walking into the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 and fist-bumping a police officer at the door who let him in. Evans filmed himself in the building, did not commit any violence and left the building without causing any damage. Evans told fellow protesters not to damage any property when he entered the building. Here are the original charges against him: […] In June 2023, Derrick Evans announced he was running for a US Congressional seat. On Thursday, Derrick Evans released exclusive footage of a shooter on January 6, 2021. […] The Gateway Pundit has obtained additional information. The police started shooting on the crowd an hour before this incident. This footage though has never been released. Why have they been hiding this?

TYRANNY IN THE NAME OF CLIMATE DOOM MYTH: GLOBALIST POLITICIANS & BIG BUSINESS ACCUMULATE MORE POWER & CONTROL

Catenacci: Biden’s latest climate rules crack down on manufacturing, ignoring industry warnings of economic devastation

Biden admin’s actions will ‘grind permits to a halt for a large portion of our country’ The Biden administration finalized regulations severely tightening restrictions on fine particulate matter that the manufacturing and energy sectors are legally allowed to emit, an action that industry said would have devastating economic consequences. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled the regulations Wednesday morning in a joint announcement with environmental activists, saying limiting particulate matter known as PM2.5 or soot would have health benefits for Americans nationwide. The rulemaking lowers the annual PM2.5 standard from a level of 12 micrograms per cubic meter to a level of 9 micrograms per cubic meter. […] “Tightening the NAAQS PM2.5 standard will grind permits to a halt for a large portion of our country,” Marty Durbin, the senior vice president for policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said Wednesday. “EPA’s new rule is expected to put 569 counties out of compliance and push many others close to the limit, which threatens economic growth.”

Eastman: New Report: “Net-Zero Climate-Control Policies Will Fail the Farm”

A few months ago, Dutch Farmer’s advocate Eva Vlaadingerbroek gave an address about her experiences pushing back the “Net-Zero” agenda the government of the Netherlands was foisting on its farms and ranches. Her entire speech, which was given in Rapid City, SD, is compelling and intended to sound the alarm for American farmers and ranchers. […] [T]he agenda is global and it’s a matter of time before it arrives in the US too. The globalists have money, time and power. If there is one thing you American farmers should know from our experience in the Netherlands, it is that the globalists are waging a war of attrition.

They start with hitting you with new rules and regulations forcing you to adapt your business. Then they hit you with […] The American agricultural industry is beginning to mount a counter-offensive to “net zero” inanity. Agriculture officials in 12 states are challenging ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) investing policies at big banks. Now a new report shared with demonstrates that Net Zero policies (promoted heavily under ESG) will have an outsized negative impact on the U.S. agriculture industry, based on data obtained looking at the European model.

REPUBLICAN U.S. MAJORITY

Vought: House Votes To Nuke Federal Health Metrics That Deem People With Disabilities Less Valuable Than People Without

As the mother of a daughter with special needs, I’m grateful the House passed this important legislation this week, and I hope the Senate will follow suit in short order. The bill is H.R. 485, the Protecting Health Care for All Patients Act. The legislation would prohibit all federal health programs from using the Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY) metric, or any similar measure, to determine the cost or coverage of health care treatments. The QALY cost-effectiveness metric values an additional year of life for a person with disabilities as less than an additional year of life for a person in “normal” health. In so doing, this metric discriminates against some of the most vulnerable in our society. The National Council on Disability, on which I have served, published a report indicating that “QALY-based programs have been found to violate the Americans with Disabilities Act.” Yet many countries use the QALY metric to determine the cost-effectiveness of prescription drugs or other treatments. For instance, . . .

DEMOCRAT U.S. SENATE MAJORITY

Kahn & Pecorin: Senate Republicans object to foreign aid and border bill moving forward

As expected, the Senate’s vote to advance a bipartisan foreign aid bill with major new border provisions failed on Wednesday. It’s the first of two votes that Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is forcing on the issue — the second of which removes the border provisions but maintains its overseas funding measures.

In the initial procedural vote, the Senate split 49-50 on proceeding with the full bill, which includes money for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan as well as the new border policy deal. Sixty votes were needed to advance the legislation.

Kight: Schumer gives Senate GOP “the night” to decide on Ukraine aid

The nasty GOP fight over Ukraine and the border has paralyzed the Senate. Why it matters: Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is a staunch supporter of Ukraine. But his caucus largely abandoned him on the border bill he backed, and he hasn’t found the votes to move forward. “We’re going to give Republicans the night to figure themselves out, and we’re going to vote tomorrow,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters Wednesday night. Catch up quick: Senate Republicans filibustered on Wednesday a $118 billion foreign aid package with a bipartisan border deal, which was aggressively attacked by former President Trump and House Republicans.

BIDEN/HARRIS/OBAMA’S AMERICA LAST REGIME: RADICAL TRANSFORMATION OF FOREIGN POLICY

MEMRI: Senior Saudi Journalists: U.S. Does Not Deter Iran, Which Is Destabilizing The Region

The Saudi press, however, did not ascribe much importance to this U.S. response, although it was unusually extensive in its scope. In fact, articles in the international Saudi press voiced harsh criticism of the U.S. policy and stated that its response had been feeble and reflected a lack of a decisive strategy for dealing with Iran and its proxies in the region. Articles in the London-based daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat argued that, judging by its response to the Iranian threats, the U.S. is unwilling to confront the Iranian regime and is even invested in its survival. One writer demanded that the U.S. act to cut Iran’s supply of weapons to its militias and take meaningful measures to stop Iran’s activity in the region.

The following are excerpts from some of these articles: Prominent Saudi Journalist: The U.S. Treated Iran Kindly, And Iran Repaid It With Wickedness. Prominent Saudi journalist Abdulrahman Al-Rashed, formerly the editor of the London-based daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat and the CEO of Al-Arabiya TV, wrote in a February 5, 2024 article in Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that the Carter Administration brought Iran’s Islamic regime to power and that the respective administrations of Obama and Biden treated Iran kindly – yet Iran repaid them by attacking U.S. forces, harming American interests and increasing its enrichment of uranium. Noting that Iran wants to avoid a direct war with the U.S. and is waging limited conflicts against it by means of proxies, with the goal of increasing Iranian influence in the region, he warned that the escalation of military conflict between Iran and the U.S. will lead to regional chaos. […]

Saudi Journalist: The U.S. Must Cut Off Iran’s Weapon Transfers From Iraq to Syria. In a February 5, 2024 article in Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, the daily’s former editor, senior Saudi journalist Tariq Al-Homayed, wrote that America’s strategy against the Iranian threats in the Middle East is not robust enough. The recent U.S. attacks against the Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria, he said, were relatively insignificant, and were in fact a message to Iran that America does not want war. He called on the U.S. leadership to put an end to Iran’s weapon transfers from Iraq to Syria, which will sever the lifeline of the Iran-backed militias in the region. […]

Saudi Journalist: U.S. Wants The Current Iranian Regime To Survive. Saudi journalist Abdallah bin Bjad Al-Otaibi wrote that the U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, just like its airstrikes against the Houthis in the Red Sea, are intended to signal to Iran that its threats are hollow and that it never had any intention of seriously confronting Iran. America’s policy toward Iran over the years, he added, actually indicates that it wants this regime to survive, and proof of this is the nuclear agreement that the Obama administration signed with Iran, which was “one of the worst political agreements in the history of the region.”

BIDEN/HARRIS/OBAMA’S AMERICA LAST REGIME: RADICAL TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICA

Margolis: Biden’s Unannounced Nighttime Speech an Absolute DISASTER

President Joe Biden took to the microphone for an unannounced address on Thursday night, following the release of the politically devastating Special Counsel report that said he “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen.” While the report stated that such actions “present serious risks to national security,” Biden will not face charges because he presents himself as an “elderly man with a poor memory” […] I can’t explain how or why Biden’s handlers felt it was a good idea to trot him out at night to talk about the special counsel report, but it did not go well. He was belligerent and defensive, and it was a terrible look. When he addressed the report claiming that he couldn’t remember when his son died, it really got bad.

Read more/Watch the videos by clicking watch on X in the top right corner of each video: https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2024/02/08/bidens-unannounced-nighttime-speech-an-absolute-disaster-n4926280

Hemingway: With Biden In Mental Decline, How Do You Solve A Problem Like Kamala Harris?

Now, there are a number of obvious reasons why Biden is flailing this time around. The NBC poll notes Trump has a 20-point advantage on the economy, a 30-point advantage on immigration and border security, and a 16-point advantage on “being competent and effective.” (Democrats are probably pretty despondent to consider he’s being walloped on that last metric by President Covfefe.) But when you look at Biden’s approval rating in the poll, something else jumps out. Biden’s approval rating – 36 percent approve, 54 percent disapprove of the job he’s doing as president – is absolutely terrible for an incumbent president during an election year. But the NBC poll offers up the approval ratings of all the major candidates, and it turns out Biden doesn’t have the lowest approval rating in the White House. That belongs to Kamala Harris, who is at 28 percent disapproval, 53 percent approval. WOOF.

Continetti: America Is in Deep Trouble

The 2024 election took another unpredictable turn on February 8 when Justice Department special counsel Robert Hur concluded that President Biden had willfully retained and disclosed classified information but did not deserve prosecution because a jury would see him as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” The special counsel report reinforced GOP criticisms of a two-tier system of justice while amplifying widespread doubts that Biden is up to the job of president. And how did Biden respond? With a defiant, combative statement and press conference where he read from notes, caustically dismissed the report’s findings that his memory is fading, insulted reporters, and then, in unscripted comments, confused the presidents of Egypt and Mexico and said that Israel’s response to the Hamas atrocities of October 7 has been “over the top.”

It may have been the worst Oval Office address in my recollection. […] Now we know why his staff has kept Biden under wraps. Why he won’t do a Super Bowl pregame interview—reaching the massive NFL audience on an unofficial holiday—for the second straight year. It’s not just that his aides worry he’ll confuse Travis and Taylor. They’re petrified he might cause a national security crisis. […] Here’s why America is in trouble. We are headed toward a general-election showdown that the public would prefer to avoid. And the Democratic incumbent’s condition is growing worse. Americans aren’t the only ones who read Hur’s report or watched Biden’s televised meltdown. America’s enemies did too. The world was a dangerous place before this afternoon. It has grown more dangerous since. There’s another reason for concern. Who is running the White House?

OTHER NEWS, COMMENTARY, OPINION

Godefridi: A Quick Look at the 21st Century So Far

If you add to this the European Union’s obsession with the environment, which has become little more than a machinery for imposing constraints, vexations, punishments and taxes in the name of “energy transition”, it appears that stagnation is a problem from which Europe might have the greatest difficulty in freeing itself.
China talks tough about Taiwan, but seems leery of using its considerable military force if it can count on the US failing to respond.
Above all, the Chinese regime is a ruthless dictatorship in which people and their property disappear, and there are no mechanisms for peaceful reform.
If there is a single element of the American system that Europe should replicate, it is this flexibility in the labor market.
Will that never happen? No, of course not. That is why Europe will continue to stagnate, while America, despite all its current difficulties, opens up the way of the future.
If the economic and geopolitical facts examined here are anything to go by, the 21^st century will be more American than ever.

Kiberatore: ‘Beyond our wildest dreams’: 2.34 BILLION metric tons of rare earth minerals discovered in Wyoming that could make US ‘world leader’

The US could soon surpass China as the world leader in rare earth minerals after more than 2.34 billion metric tons were discovered in Wyoming. American Rare Earths Inc announced that the reserves near Wheatland dramatically surpass the Asian nation’s 44 million metric tons, saying it ‘exceeded our wildest dreams’ after drilling only about 25 percent of the property. The company has a stake in 367 mining claims across 6,320 acres of land in the Halleck Creek Project, along with four Wyoming mineral leases on 1,844 acres on the same project now called Cowboy State Mine. The types of minerals at the site are used in smartphones, hybrid car motors and military technologies – among others. As much as 95 percent of processed rare earth minerals come from China – and the US imports 74 percent of its supply from the nation. [Note: Rep. Penn is a nurse.]

Wolfson: Wyoming Legislator Wants All COVID-Vaccinated Blood Labeled

Although the COVID-19 pandemic is over, that isn’t stopping certain Wyoming lawmakers like state Rep. Sarah Penn, R-Fort Washakie, from continuing to propose legislation reacting to its effects. Penn has sponsored a bill for the upcoming legislative session that would require all blood donated from a person who has received a COVID-19 vaccine to be specifically labeled. That would allow blood recipients who object to the COVID vaccine to reject the blood in non-emergency situations. “For various reasons, many people have purposefully strived to keep the mRNA therapies out of their bodies, even to the point that some lost their livelihoods,” Penn told Cowboy State Daily. “Their concerns are warranted.” Since the pandemic began, there has been a growing trend of people rejecting blood transfusions when their doctors can’t or won’t assure them the blood they are to receive would be from someone who hasn’t been vaccinated for the virus, no matter the risk of morbidity and mortality. […] Penn said issues continue to stem from COVID vaccines such as myocarditis, blood clots, strokes, Guillain Barre, tinnitus and autoimmunity.

INTERNATIONAL

Gomez: Transgender Social Media Star Pleads Guilty To Child Abuse: REPORT

Australian transgender TikToker Rachel Queen Burton pleaded guilty Tuesday to aggravated child abuse offenses, including producing and possessing child exploitation material, gross indecency and indecent assault. Burton appeared before the South Australia District Court, where victims of the transgender social media star read impact statements detailing how Burton had stalked two children and their families after abusing the kids before he began identifying as a woman, according to The Adelaide Advertiser. The TikToker was arrested by the Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team in Oct. 2022 and initially denied the charges, the outlet noted.

Greenfield: Iranian Muslim Shot After Taking 15 Hostages on Swiss Train

The motive, as usual, remains a mystery. Swiss police say a 32-year-old Iranian asylum seeker armed with an axe and a knife held 15 hostages on a train between Baulmes and Yverdon-les-Bains for almost four hours until police stormed the train and killed the man late on Thursday. “The hostages were all released unharmed,” police in the Vaud canton say in a statement. “The hostage taker was fatally wounded during the intervention.” No details regarding the perpetrator’s possible motives have been released. Asylum seekers who were denied have been responsible for violence in Europe in the past. And the gent in question apparently didn’t speak any of the local languages

Hinderaker: A BITTERLY DISAPPOINTING VERDICT

Today 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–they didn’t actually believe what they said about Mann–and awarded punitive damages in the amount of $1,000 against Simberg, and $1 million against Steyn. In a sane world, this case never would have gone to the jury. The legal standard is actual malice, which means the defendants must have thought, subjectively, that what they said wasn’t likely true. In this case, there was no evidence whatever that Steyn and Simberg didn’t sincerely believe that what they said was true. Indeed, as Mark pointed out in closing argument, he has been saying the same things about Mann’s hockey stick for something like 21 years, and even wrote a book about it.

The Prickly Pear’s TAKE ACTION focus this year is to help achieve a winning 2024 national and state November 5th election with the removal of the Biden/Obama leftist executive branch disaster, win one U.S. Senate seat, maintain and win strong majorities in all Arizona state offices on the ballot and to insure that unrestricted abortion is not constitutionally embedded in our laws and culture.

Please click the TAKE ACTION link to learn to do’s and don’ts for voting in 2024. Our state and national elections are at great risk from the very aggressive and radical leftist Democrat operatives with documented rigging, mail-in voter fraud and illegals voting across the country (yes, with illegals voting across the country) in the last several election cycles.

Read Part 1 and Part 2 of The Prickly Pear essays entitled How NOT to Vote in the November 5, 2024 Election in Arizona to be well informed of the above issues and to vote in a way to ensure the most likely chance your vote will be counted and counted as you intend.

Please click the following link to learn more.

TAKE ACTION