Maybe we still do live in the United States of America, and not some corrupt Banana Republic after all.

Hunter Biden Sweetheart Deal Stumbles in Court

Nobody could accuse me of undue optimism, but there is something uplifting about the collapse of Hunter Biden’s sweetheart deal with the Department of Justice. It was meant to sweep a wide array of crimes under the White House carpet, even granting Hunter immunity from future charges uncovered by prosecutors (perhaps of a Republican-led DoJ someday).

But an honest judge decided that the Biden bargain didn’t pass the smell test. As Townhall reports:

What was presumed to be a routine appearance before a judge by Hunter Biden on Wednesday — one set to finalize a plea deal reached between President Joe Biden’s son and the president’s Justice Department — turned into courtroom chaos when the proposed plea deal fell apart under scrutiny from U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika.

Due to issues with the way the sweetheart slap-on-the-wrist was “structured,” the judge refused to “accept or reject the plea agreement” on Wednesday, instead requesting briefs from the parties in order to gather more information about the terms of the deal and whether they’re even constitutional.

As a result of losing his plea deal — for now at least — Hunter Biden entered a “not guilty” plea on the tax and firearm charges he still faces.

Tammy Bruce of Fox News commented on reports that Biden’s defense attorney was recently seen on a public balcony smoking … a bong. Not a good look for a guy whose client faces drug charges:

BOOM — @HeyTammyBruce goes NUCLEAR against Hunter Biden and his legal team:

"I don't know if…Hunter Biden's lawyer put the bong down before he went into the courtroom today. It would be helpful to know that your lawyer is not on drugs!"@HARRISFAULKNER: "Wow! I don't know… pic.twitter.com/0b1uhEzAcs

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 26, 2023

I recently predicted that Hunter Biden would be his dad’s appointee should another Supreme Court slot open up. I guess I’ll have to retract that. Now I’m waiting to see if Joe Biden will pardon Michael Avenatti, so he can step up and serve.

Kidding, I guess. But I put nothing past these people, or rather the malicious spirits using them as sock puppets. Any sense of shame that leading Democrats once had died of neglect back in 2017.

On a more serious note: Mark Judge writes about how the Biden family’s enabling of Hunter’s addictions is dangerous for his soul. Maybe having to answer serious charges in court will actually force Hunter Biden to confront his inner demons and seek forgiveness from the only One who can actually grant it.

Body of Marine Killed in Biden’s Afghan Debacle Flown Home Finally … at Family’s Expense

Not every American gets the kid-glove treatment that Hunter Biden commands. Those who served their country on the front lines in uniform — rather than lining their pockets shaking down foreign businessmen with “my father in the room” — get the “kulak” treatment. I’ve already told the tragic tale of Jake Gardner, U.S. Army combat hero and George Floyd riot scapegoat. Now let’s pause to remember Nicole Gee, USMC. As The Daily Mail reports:

The family of a Marine who was killed during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 had to pay $60,000 to fly her body from California to Arlington to bury her.

Republican lawmaker and Army veteran Cory Mills last week met with the families of the 13 service members killed on duty and was told one was forced to pay to move the body of their loved one.

He claimed Marine Gee’s family were forced to find “a staggering $60,000” worth of funding to move her body to its final resting place.

Nicole Gee, 23, was one of 13 service members who died in a suicide blast at Kabul Airport in 2021 alongside 170 desperate Afghans seeking to leave the beleaguered country.

The terror attack, which ISIS claimed responsibility for, occurred in the early morning hours of August 26, during the frenzied evacuation near the US embassy.

Elections have consequences, people. So does election fraud, and the negligence of Republicans who won’t take the slightest political risks to prevent it.

Texas Attorney General Stands Against the Machine

Speaking of Republicans who don’t really seem to be playing for our team, The Federalist offers an update on the effort by Democrats and Bush-family aligned Texas Republicans to railroad that state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton — who single-handedly beat a raft of Soros-funded lawsuits meant to make Texas’s 2020 elections easy to steal. Our politicized FBI and Justice Department have kept open-ended investigations of Paxton going for years and years, never charging him or clearing him. Now Paxton has been impeached and faces a trial in the Texas state senate. The background behind this is grimly fascinating. The Federalist reports on

the ongoing campaign to remove from office conservative Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whom Texas voters overwhelmingly elected in 2014, and enthusiastically reelected in 2018 and 2022.

Paxton’s real “crime” is that he threw his hat into the GOP primary for the AG race in 2014 after the anointed establishment candidate, moderate Dan Branch, thought he had the Republican field to himself.

…

Branch had been endorsed by George W. Bush and other moderates. In Texas, as elsewhere, the moderate (or “RINO”) faction of the Republican Party loathes grassroots conservatives.

In retaliation for Paxton’s temerity, Branch’s establishment backers, who are supported by the state’s business community and control the Texas House of Representatives (where in 2010 then-House member Paxton unsuccessfully challenged establishment leader Joe Straus for speaker), unleashed a series of frivolous criminal charges against Paxton, which have been pending for eight years.

…

Paxton’s resounding GOP primary victory in 2022, against a crowded field that included George P. Bush (Jeb’s son and GWB’s nephew) and heavily-bankrolled former Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman, made the establishment apoplectic.

…

Under Texas law, the impeachment vote resulted in the immediate suspension of Paxton from his duties as AG, pending the outcome of his trial in the Texas Senate, scheduled to begin on Sept. 5. A two-thirds vote of the Senate — a more conservative body than the Texas House — is needed to convict Paxton. Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, a conservative stalwart who endorsed Paxton in the 2022 primary election, will serve as presiding officer at the impeachment trial. The Texas Republican Party supports Paxton.

Pray for Ken Paxton, and that justice is done in his case. As I’ve written here before, he’s one of the good ’uns.

Will Victims of Dead Baby Vax Side-Effects Come Forward?

This story caught my eye, and not just because it features my own cardiologist, whom I sought out during the COVID panic, the heroic Dr. Peter McCullough. As Gateway Pundit reveals:

America’s leading COVID-19 expert and critic of the experimental vaccines, Dr. Peter McCullough, has urged famous actor and comedian Jamie Foxx to reveal the truth about his recent medical ordeal, linking it to the adverse effects of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Jamie Foxx has been at the center of recent speculation regarding his health after reports emerged claiming he had a blood clot in his brain allegedly caused by the experimental COVID vaccine.

According to the details given by Hollywood journalist, A.J. Benza, Foxx allegedly suffered partial paralysis and blindness, among other complications, following his vaccine administration.

“Jamie had a blood clot in his brain after he got the shot. He did not want the shot, but the movie he was on, he was pressured to get it,” said Benza during an interview with Dr. Drew.

…

Dr. McCullough wrote in June about his conversations with Foxx about the vaccine and about his concern for Foxx’s future:

“As a public figure and practicing doctor, I get calls and questions from patients and family members every day all over the world. Without engaging in a doctor-patient relationship in the clinic or hospital, I cannot make a diagnosis, or give direct medical advice or care. However, I can help audiences develop an interpretive framework in public commentary.

“I was asked by Dan Ball on Real America, about the condition of beloved actor Jamie Foxx. I had met Foxx in 2021 and we had a personal conversation about the COVID-19 vaccines. While that remains confidential, I can tell you I am concerned that if indeed he has suffered a stroke or intracranial hemorrhage, the long-term prognosis may not be good.”

Remember when the CDC, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, leading evangelical “influencers,” and the pope were all telling us that we had a moral duty to get that vaccine, and silencing anyone who asked any awkward questions?

It turns out those “crazy” pro-lifers out there (like me) who refused to get the vax on principle were accidentally making the right decision for our own health, too. What’s tragic is that millions of Americans were left with no real choice by their employers, who collaborated gleefully with our public health dictatorship.

I’m grateful that I was working for The Stream, not some Hollywood studio, Catholic archdiocese, or evangelical church that took its marching orders from Dr. Francis Collins.

Along The Stream

Don’t miss this heartbreaking report from a Christian bishop in India about how radical Hindu nationalists linked to the governing party there are subjecting Christian women to rape and other sexual abuse. Pray and speak up for impoverished, scapegoated women targeted by pagans for their faith in Jesus Christ.

Check out the free-wheeling podcast I did with Stream contributor Jason Jones, on his show, where we break down what’s wrong with Mike Pence, what’s happening with Ukraine, and ask whether conservatives who oppose American confrontation with Russia are slipping into bootleg Putinism, and starting to sound like Jane Fonda in Hanoi.

 

John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream and author or co-author of ten books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. He is co-author with Jason Jones of “God, Guns, & the Government.”