Daily News Roundup - PRICKLY PEAR

Estimated Reading Time: 15 minutes

NOTABLE QUOTES

TJ Harker contributor to The American Mind: The object of the pending trials of Donald Trump is not to determine if he really believed his election fraud claims, or if he stole office paper, or if he lied about it. Their object is to demonstrate to 80,000,000 Americans that dissent will not be tolerated: that they should reconsider the next time they decide to assemble and complain. These trials will not sustain our form of government but replace it and, with it, our cherished way of life.

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey (R-WV) Tweeted: Donald Trump is not going to get a fair shake in DC, the home of the Swamp. If prosecutors insist on proceeding with this politicized case, they should move the venue to West Virginia. West Virginians believe in upholding the rule of law and don’t support a double-standard of justice.

Sundance contributor to The Last Refuge: . . . It does not go unnoticed that Mike Pence did not say a word about explosive emails that surfaced from Anthony Fauci while he was giving advice on the national response to the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak. Why is that detail significant? Because former VP Mike Pence was the appointed lead government official on the National COVID taskforce. If there was anyone with a vested interest about conflicting SARS-CoV-2 advice from Dr. Anthony Fauci, it should be the person who was in charge, Mike Pence – Yet crickets. Earworm!

V.P. Mike Pence in a recent interview: “Sadly, the president was surrounded by a group of crackpot lawyers that kept telling him what his itching ears wanted to hear.”

George Liebmann contributor to The American Conservative: For if there is a power more dangerous than the commerce power, or the taxing power, or even the conditional spending power, it is the power assumed by the executive in declared “emergencies.” As Friedrich Hayek observed, “‘Emergencies’ have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded—and once they are suspended it is not difficult for anyone who has acquired such emergency powers to see to it that the emergency persists.”

Justices Jackson, Frankfurter and Owen Roberts in a 1946 opinion wrote: “Evil men are not given power; they take it over from better men to whom it had been entrusted.”

Victor Davis Hanson contributor to Frontpage Magazine: So how does the government abort a conspiracy theory? Simple: Quit the chronic lying and for once tell the truth.

Mark Tapson contributor to Frontpage Magazine: Frankly, the reason these activists refused to answer the simple question about why they resort to tactics that alienate potential supporters is because they don’t care about winning people over to their side. Despite claiming that they want to open people’s eyes to a coming global disaster, and that they want masses of supporters to help them confront government offices and disrupt fossil fuel use, the truth of the matter is that they are uninterested in persuading people. They are uninterested in winning hearts and minds. Their aim is to steamroll right over what other people want and to force political change now.

BIDEN CRIME FAMILY

Solomon: Text messages given to FBI: Chinese wanted Biden family name to help acquire U.S. energy assets

Text messages provided to the FBI show that a Chinese energy conglomerate that struck a controversial deal in 2017 with Hunter Biden began its pursuit of a relationship with the future first family back in late 2015 when Joe Biden was still vice president, hoping to seize on the name of one of America’s most famous political dynasties to provide cover for its ambitious plan to buy up energy assets inside the United States. “There will be a deal between one of the most prominent families from US and them (China) constructed by me,” Hunter Biden’s business partner James Gilliar texted future partner Tony Bobulinski on Christmas Eve 2015, shortly after Hunter Biden had been alerted to CEFC China Energy’s overture and its wealthy leader Ye Jianming. […] Over the next two years, the Chinese energy deal would evolve into some of the most infamous moments of the Biden family scandals that were becoming publicly known from the Hunter’s abandoned laptop and the reporting of news organizations ranging from The Washington Post to the New York Post. Those include:

Ye would meet with Hunter Biden and gift him with a 3-carat diamond mto the future first son in February 2017.
Joe Biden also met with CEFC officials, according to an FBI interview report of Rob Walker made public by IRS whistleblowers in their testimony to Congress
Emails from Bobulinski would reference a deal involving “the big guy” and a possible 10 percent share of the deal for Joe Biden.
Hunter Biden would send a stinging message to a CEFC executive demanding payment in summer 2017, even suggesting that his father was standing beside him as he sent the angry message.
Hunter Biden would set up an office in Washington DC for the venture and ask that keys be made for his father, mother and uncle as well as one of the CEFC “emissaries” from China.

Hoft: JUST OUT: Part 2 of Tucker Carlson’s Interview with Devon Archer Released – Over Hour-long Interview – VIDEO

On Wednesday Tucker Carlson released the first part of his exclusive interview with Devon Archer, the former business associate and close personal friend of Hunter Biden. […] On Friday morning Tucker Carlson released the second part of his interview with Devon Archer. The current episode is over an hour long.

Watch: Ep. 13 Part 2. Devon Archer pic.twitter.com/R1sxSuPrKq — Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 4, 2023

Sundance: House Oversight Committee Releases Transcript of Devon Archer Testimony About Joe and Hunter Biden Business Deals

Hunter Biden’s business partner at Burisma, Devon Archer, testified about the nature of the business construct and the flow of payments to the Biden family. The House Oversight Committee has released the 141-page transcript [READ HERE]. Within the transcript, when Democrat representative and lawyer Daniel Goldman questioned Mr. Archer about the exact value of having the Biden family as part of the Burisma Holdings organization, Archer informed Goldman the intent of the partnership was for the Biden family to keep the legal inquiry about the business operation under control. Various foreign businesses contracted with Hunter Biden and Devon Archer, specifically because Joe Biden could address their interests and influence government, both in the USA and abroad. [House Link HERE]

Hoft: EXPLOSIVE VIDEO: Former Ukrainian Prosecutor Viktor Shokin Responds to Biden’s Corruption Accusations and Reveals Shocking Details about His Dismissal and Burisma Investigation

An old video of Viktor Shokin, the Ukrainian prosecutor who was removed from office under pressure from then-U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, is making the rounds online again following the damning testimony of Devon Archer. This video was removed on Youtube. In a detailed and extensive interview, Shokin has responded to allegations from the Biden regime, laying out his side of the story regarding the investigations into Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company that once employed Hunter. It is unclear when this video was recorded or published but includes his reaction to Biden’s accusations. At the time of Hunter Biden’s appointment, Viktor Shokin was Ukraine’s Prosecutor General, and there were investigations into Burisma’s owner.

Read more/Watch the 10:41 minute Viktor Shokin video: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/08/explosive-video-ukrainian-prosecutor-viktor-shokin-responds-bidens/

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

Mittlestadt: Five 2020 election irregularities, illegalities that collide with Jack Smith’s Trump indictment

Former President Donald Trump has been arraigned on four felony counts alleging he conspired to spread claims of 2020 election fraud that he knew to be untrue to stop certification of the vote. Federal prosecutors bringing the case, however, will have to contend with at least five high-profile cases of confirmed irregularities or illegalities from the 2020 contest ranging from Iranian interference to unlawful voting procedures. […] The indictment alleges that “The purpose of the conspiracy was to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by using knowingly false claims of election fraud to obstruct the federal government function by which those results are collected, counted, and certified. Since the 2020 election, Trump has claimed that fraud occurred. At least five high-profile cases of irregularities, deceit or illegalities have since been confirmed, though none have been unequivocally shown to have changed the outcome of Joe Biden’s victory. 1. Illegal ballot drop boxes — The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled last year that the 570 drop boxes used during the 2020 election were unlawfully approved by the Wisconsin Election Commission. “Only the legislature may permit absentee voting via ballot drop boxes,” the court declared. “WEC cannot. Ballot drop boxes appear nowhere in the detailed statutory system for absentee voting. WEC’s authorization of ballot drop boxes was unlawful.” State Rep. Janel Brandtjen told Just the News that hundreds of thousands of votes were cast in the illegal drop boxes in the 2020 race, in which Joe Biden was certified the winner over Donald Trump by fewer than 21,000 votes. 2. A foreign intrusion –

CFP: Remember when Kamala Harris and Stacey Abrams were election deniers and were criminally charged with lying. That doesn’t happen to Democrats.

Watch the 45 second video: https://twitter.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1686988121173356544

REPUBLICAN U.S. HOUSE MAJORITY

Matt Gaetz Gives Republicans a PLAN to FIGHT BACK Against Jack Smith!

Congressman Matt Gaetz joined “Carl Higbie Frontline” on Newsmax, where he laid out a plan that he believes House Republicans should launch against Special Counsel Jack Smith for his indictment of President Trump.

Watch the 6:01 minute Newsmax interview: https://gaetz.house.gov/media/videos/matt-gaetz-gives-republicans-plan-fight-back-against-jack-smith

Whedon: (Updated) Republicans introduce plan to let citizens sue government for online censorship

Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt and North Carolina GOP Rep. Dan Bishop have introduced a bill that would permit citizens to sue specific federal employees for unlawfully censoring them online. The Censorship Accountability Act, Schmitt stated “is designed to deter censorship in the first place, but if officials violate the First Amendment again, the Act gives the American people recourse.” […] “The Biden Administration’s brazen collusion with social media companies to censor speech should frighten every American regardless of their political affiliation,” Schmitt said. “When I served as Missouri’s Attorney General, I filed the landmark Missouri v. Biden lawsuit, which exposed all of this censorship.” “Now, I’m taking action to ensure that it never happens again.

REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY CANDIDATES

Revolver.news: Vivek won against WEF! He just beat Klaus at his own game…

Oe major criticism folks on the right have lodged against 2024 candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is that he’s a “globalist puppet.” You may wonder how that can be, since Vivek sounds a lot like an America First populist. Well, it stems from an unwanted “award” that the World Economic Forum (WEF) issued to him back in 2020 and plastered all over their website. […] Since then, Vivek has been demanding to have his name removed from the list – which is the kiss of death in conservative circles. However, WEF didn’t budge. Undeterred, Vivek decided to escalate the matter and took legal action, suing the WEF to have his name removed. After a hard-fought battle, Vivek emerged victorious. Here’s what Vivek said in his celebratory post on X.

Knowles: DeSantis calls for ‘slitting throats’ in government, escalating rhetoric

The two largest federal employee unions on Thursday denounced Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s recent vow that as president he would “start slitting throats” in the federal bureaucracy — the latest escalation in intensifying Republican attacks on government operations they want to slash or eliminate.

DeSantis, whose campaign for the GOP nomination has included promises to downsize agencies and fire bureaucrats, made the comments this weekend in New Hampshire while criticizing the “deep state,” echoing a term regularly used by former president Donald Trump to deride Washington.

Bade: Tim Scott’s Senate record doesn’t match his tough talk on China

Sen. Tim Scott — like every Republican presidential candidate — loves to talk tough on China. His record in Washington tells a different story. Since taking the top Republican slot on the powerful Senate Banking Committee this year, the South Carolina lawmaker has been one of the biggest roadblocks to new rules restricting U.S.-China trade — everything from TikTok bans to reviews of high-tech investment. GOP national security hawks in Washington say that work doesn’t match the rhetoric in Scott’s recent presidential campaign ads in Iowa and New Hampshire, where the long-shot candidate slams “Joe Biden’s weakness” and promises to “keep China out of our homeland, and out of our data.”

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

Ludwig: The USA’s Turn toward Communism

A truly evil cabal has taken control of the Democrats. It took effect when the pact between the Sen. Joe Biden camp and the Sen. Bernie Sanders camp was signed in July 2020. The pact was a 110-page position paper on many national issues of concern to both men. Although Bernie had caucused with Democrats in the Senate for years, he was elected to office in Vermont under the rubric of “Democratic Socialist.” He usually justified that rubric as not being “communist” because he said he was a “non-authoritarian socialist” (sic). This clever manipulation of language could not, however, hide the reality that his lifelong views were derived from Marxist critiques of capitalism. His bombastic rhetoric was largely taken from the Marxist playbook of criticisms of capitalistic Western culture. And, in fact, when Sen. Sanders married in the 1980s, he and his wife honeymooned in the USSR. […] The Biden-Sanders pact is overwhelmingly negative in its positions. Page after page states all the horrible things that must be fixed in the United States. No successes are included in their 110-page document — no successes that one could build upon. This is the hallmark of communist criticism — reasonable, constructive language is not used. The system as we live in it and know it is failing. Vastly enlarged government control is the key feature of the communist program.

DEMOCRAT PARTY MARXIST PLAYBOOK: CHILDREN ARE THE TARGET OF THE DARKNESS AFFECTING OUR NATION

{From 2017) ABC News: Ashton Kutcher Speech on Human Trafficking Before Congress | ABC News

Watch Kutcher’s 15:34 minute hearing statement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUmfsvegMRo&t=7s

SELF-REFLECTION: SORT OF

Revolver.news: New York Times writer David Brooks finally wonders, “what if we’re actually the bad guys?”…

The unrelenting popularity of President Trump, even after three sham indictments from the corrupt Biden regime, has a one very prominent writer at The New York Times rethinking things. David Brooks is now pondering if progressives really are the “good guys” after all. Wait, you mean the political movement that’s grooming children, censoring Americans, and arresting political opponents “KGB-style,” might not be the heroes, after all? Insert big ol’ eye roll here…The New York Times: […] David goes on to point out how the once scrappy, working class liberals have turned into uber elite Ivy League snobs:

The meritocracy isn’t only a system of exclusion; it’s an ethos. During his presidency Barack Obama used the word “smart” in the context of his policies over 900 times. The implication was that anybody who disagreed with his policies (and perhaps didn’t go to Harvard Law) must be stupid.

Over the last decades we’ve taken over whole professions and locked everybody else out. When I began my journalism career in Chicago in the 1980s, there were still some old crusty working-class guys around the newsroom. Now we’re not only a college-dominated profession, we’re an elite-college-dominated profession. Only 0.8 percent of all college students graduate from the super elite 12 schools (the Ivy League colleges, plus Stanford, M.I.T., Duke and the University of Chicago). A 2018 study found that more than 50 percent of the staff writers at the beloved New York Times and The Wall Street Journal attended one of the 29 most elite universities in the nation. David points out the progressive hive mentality of coastal elites who live in a clueless bubble of their own making: . . . […] David acknowledges that once the elites amassed all their power, they used it for themselves, rather than for the greater good. Armed with all kinds of economic, cultural and political power, we support policies that help ourselves. Free trade makes the products we buy cheaper, and our jobs are unlikely to be moved to China. Open immigration makes our service staff cheaper, but new, less-educated immigrants aren’t likely to put downward pressure on our wages. Like all elites, we use language and mores as tools to recognize one another and exclude others. Using words like . . .

OTHER NEWS, COMMENTARY OPINION

VDH: How To Create Conspiracy Theories

And how to shut them down. It is easy to birth conspiracy theories. All that is required is chronic government stonewalling of reasonable requests for transparency. Then add in high officials serially lying under oath, along with the blatantly unequal application of the law. Institutionalize arguments from authority of politicians and bureaucrats who refuse to adjudicate arguments empirically. Include the weaponization of investigatory and intelligence bureaucracies. Finish with the transformation of an obsequious media into a mouthpiece of the state. And presto, you end up with a skeptical, cynical public that learns to believe the very opposite from what it is told by elites.

(Liberal hypocrisy) Botello, Schneider & Swanson: Director of Bronx anti-gun violence org busted for drug trafficking scheme, gun possession

Investigators found that Bronx anti-gun violence activist Michael Rodriguez was hiding “in plain sight” when they seized illegal guns and drugs from his Yonkers apartment. Orange County New York law enforcement officials announced the arrests of 15 people for an alleged interstate drug trafficking conspiracy on Tuesday. Said to be the main supplier of the drug network was 48-year-old Michael Rodriguez — a Yonkers resident and the director of the nonprofit Good Shepherd Services’ program Bronx Rises Against Gun Violence, known as B.R.A.G.

Sundance: Too Funny – MSNBC Panel Watches Al Sharpton Say: “Can You Imagine if Madison or Jefferson Tried to Overthrow the Government?”

During an MSNBC pundit round panel, the ever smart Al Sharpton has thunk up just the right metaphor for the moment, as he turns deliberately to his fellow panelists and declares, “can you imagine our reading that James Madison or Thomas Jefferson tried to overthrow the government?”

lolol… And he’s looking so pleased with himself. The funniest part is no one on the panel had the nerve to say, “um, Al, they did”! Oh, it’s too funny… [Note: The panelists likely didn’t know themselves.]

Watch the 53 second video: https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/08/03/too-funny-msnbc-panel-watches-al-sharpton-say-can-you-imagine-if-madison-or-jefferson-tried-to-overthrow-the-government/

Whedon: Two Navy service members arrested on suspicion of sending military secrets to China

Authorities detained Jinchao Wei, aka Patrick Wei, on Wednesday and charged him with “conspiracy to send national defense information to an intelligence officer working for the People’s Republic of China,” according to a press release from the Department of Justice. Wei allegedly began communicating with a Chinese intelligence officer in February 2022. That official tasked Wei with providing information related to U.S. Navy ships. At the time, Wei was stationed about the U.S.S. Essex. He allegedly provided the Chinese official with information on the weapons systems of the vessel and also disclosed the locations of other U.S. ships. […] In a separate case, the DOJ charged Wenheng Zhao, aka Thomas Zhao, for receiving bribes in exchanging for sending information to a Chinese intelligence officer, who had masqueraded as a maritime economic researcher. Zhao’s passing of materials to the Chinese official began in August of 2021 and ran through at least May of this year.

INTERNATIONAL

Tawil: A Cry for Help from Palestinians

The two events — in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon — received little attention from the international community and media, most likely because Israel was not involved. Needless to say, the United Nations Security Council was not asked to hold an emergency session to discuss the crimes committed by Palestinians against Palestinians.
A statement issued by a group, the Unified Command of the Intifada in the Gaza Strip, noted in response to the protests that “the time of silence over oppression and the exploitation of religion to kill has ended.” The group was referring to Hamas’s continued repressive measures against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including a crackdown on journalists, political rivals, and human rights activists. It was also referring to Hamas’s use of Islam to justify its policies and measures against the residents of the Gaza Strip.
Among those arrested by Hamas security officers was Batoul Abu Salimeh, a 14-year-old girl from Jabalya. A 15-year-old boy from Rafah, who asked not to be identified, said Hamas thugs beat him in the leg and that he is afraid to go to hospital for treatment.
The protests in the Gaza Strip were organized by local Palestinian youth movements to put pressure on Hamas to solve the problems of poverty and unemployment. The protesters also demanded an end to the shortage of electricity and gas supplies.

(April 2023) 18-Year-Old Boy Died After Doctors Tried To Create A Vagina From Part Of His Colon

Our culture keeps trying to convince us that it’s perfectly normal for minors to receive puberty blockers at a young age if they know deep down that they’re transgender and don’t identify with the gender they were “assigned at birth.” Anyone who dares to speak out against the idea that minors should be given hormone therapy or even surgery to affirm they gender identity is called a bigot, transphobe, or worse. Author J.K. Rowling has been on the receiving end of threats and attacks after she declared that children’s transgender procedures are “one of the worst medical scandals” in the last century. But a story that emerged from the UK only proves how right Rowling was. […] A 2016 medical article reveals details about an 18-year-old boy’s death due to complications that arose from a gender-affirming surgery, as reported by The Post Millennial. […] The patient was described as a “healthy” teenager, but within 24 hours of the surgery, he experienced necrotising fascitis, a rare bacterial infection that can spread quickly in the body and result in death. Doctors attempted to save him by administering intravenous antibiotics and “repeated surgical debridement” (which removes dead or infected tissue), but multiple of his organs went into failure and he died. Further investigation showed that the patient suffered a deadly strain of E-Coli that likely originated from his own intestines.

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