The Patriot Post® · Wednesday: Below the Fold
- Clinton judge rules against Trump’s LA crackdown: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” That’s the maxim activist judges have been employing to hamstring Donald Trump’s second term in office. Judge Charles Breyer, who had an emergency ruling overturned in June that would have handed power of California’s National Guard back to Governor Gavin Newsom, has now ruled that Trump’s use of the National Guard in Los Angeles violated the Posse Comitatus Act. Breyer warned that Trump’s actions amount to “creating a national police force with the President as its chief.” The order will take effect on September 12, though the Trump administration is expected to appeal the decision.
Venezuelan terrorists receive aid from judicial activists: The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a 2-1 decision Tuesday that Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act for deportations was improper because the Venezuelan government encouraging its citizens to immigrate to the U.S., traffic drugs, and commit acts of violence does not constitute an invasion. The evolving and ever-changing tactics of warfare were apparently not considered. Meanwhile, Trump is acting where he can, ordering a kinetic strike on a speedboat carrying 11 Tren de Aragua terrorists. The boat had departed Venezuela and was positively identified en route to the U.S. The strike was conducted in international waters. The U.S. has recently moved forces to the southern Caribbean near Venezuela, including seven Naval vessels, a nuclear submarine, and more than 4,500 Marines. Trump said the strike serves as a notice to those bringing drugs into America: “BEWARE.”
Epstein’s missing minute: The infamous missing minute from Jeffrey Epstein’s jail surveillance video has been located and released by the House Oversight Committee. Attorney General Pam Bondi had previously claimed, “We learned from the Bureau of Prisons that every night the video is reset, and every night should have the same minute missing.” It turns out that her explanation was erroneous. The Committee discovered that the minute of footage in question was not, in fact, missing. The footage exists, collected from consecutive video data. Unfortunately for conspiracy theorists, the footage reveals no nefarious activity outside Epstein’s jail cell and, therefore, does not undercut the DOJ’s determination that Epstein’s death was due to suicide. However, that doesn’t mean all questions are answered.
Appeals court reinstates FTC commissioner Trump fired: On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a 2-1 ruling ordering the reinstatement of a Federal Trade Commissioner whom Donald Trump had fired. The court directed that Rebecca Slaughter be returned to her post on the FTC five-member board. The two judges who ruled against the Trump administration, Cornelia Pillard and Patricia Millett, are both Obama appointees, while the dissenting judge, Neomi Rao, is a Trump appointee. Pillard and Millett pointed to the FTC’s independent agency status, asserting that Slaughter’s firing was illegal. Meanwhile, Rao noted that “an injunction ordering reinstatement of an officer removed by the president likely exceeds the Article III judicial power and encroaches on the president’s exercise of the Article II executive power." This issue will now likely be headed to the Supreme Court.
Bowser welcomes National Guard: With President Trump’s executive order directing the takeover of Washington, DC’s police force set to expire next week, Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser is apparently loath to see this effective crime crackdown end. On Tuesday, Bowser issued her own executive order directing the Metropolitan Police Department to continue its coordination with federal law enforcement "to the maximum extent allowable by law within the District.” Bowser explained that this would “provide the pathway forward beyond the Presidential emergency.” The White House praised Bowser’s action, stating, “The Mayor’s fellow Democrats should take note, working with President Trump means safer communities and less crime — no one in their right mind could seriously oppose that.”
World leaders conspire: The despotic leaders of Russia, China, and North Korea attended a military parade together in China on Tuesday, celebrating the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. The U.S., South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, and Australia did not attend the parade. President Trump wrote to Xi Jinping on Truth Social, “Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America.” The parade took place during Putin’s ongoing trip to China, where he has met with world leaders from Pakistan to Serbia — seemingly everyone except the person Western leaders are desperate for him to meet: Volodymyr Zelensky. French President Emmanuel Macron said that Putin’s failure to set up a meeting with Zelensky meant the Russian leader had “once again played President Trump.”
Google’s monopoly survives, with a caveat: U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta’s Tuesday decision is most notable for what it doesn’t do. The question before the court was whether Google’s control of the Android operating system, Chrome browser, and deals with companies like Apple to be the default search option constituted an illegal monopoly. The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division was hoping for a decision as significant as forcing the sale of Android or Chrome, but Judge Mehta stopped short of that. Mehta decided that, in the rapidly changing tech landscape, his decision amounted to foretelling the future, which judges are ill-suited to do. In the end, Mehta attempted to split the difference, allowing Google to retain its default search deals and ownership of Chrome and Android, but forcing it to share the search engine data that has kept Google ahead of competitors like DuckDuckGo for decades.
Almost 50% of FEMA employees on social media at work: One of the main reasons the Trump administration has been keen to cut the size of the federal government is that so much of the federal workforce is simply not doing the work. A recent report from Homeland Security found that “almost half” of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employees “regularly log into social media platforms while performing their taxpayer funded duties.” Furthermore, a number of them were accessing porn. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem explained, “These individuals had access to critical information and intelligence and were entrusted to safeguard Americans from emergencies— and instead they were consuming pornography.” She noted that one employee had accessed the popular social media platform Reddit 578 times over a 30-day period, wherein he engaged in a number of explicit chats on his government computer.
Headlines
Appeals court rules for EPA, allowing cancellation of environmental grants (Just the News)
600 military lawyers are being deployed to serve as temporary immigration judges (Not the Bee)
Fed Gov. Lisa Cook’s Ann Arbor pad is allegedly a rental too (Blaze Media)
Democrat Jerrold Nadler, who led Trump impeachment effort, to bow out of Congress (Daily Wire)
Former FBI Director Robert Mueller has Parkinson’s disease (Fox News)
Study delivers good news for Arctic ice trends, bad news for climate hucksters (Blaze Media)
Humor: 10 irrefutable signs Trump’s health is declining (Babylon Bee)
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