The Brew: Mother’s Day and a Mother of a Mess at the Border
A happy Friday to you.
Let’s see if we can whip up a zesty Brew to end the week.
But first, a Happy Mother’s Day! We hope it’s a glorious day for all the moms out there, or ma’s.
No One Like Helen
If I may take a sec to honor my own ma, Helen. Nearly seven decades away from the Garden State didn’t get the Jersey Girl out of my mother. The accent had (mostly) disappeared. But not the attitude. Ma was honest, blunt and fearless. She not only went to the beat of her own drum, she’d create her own whole percussion section. A curmudgeon of the best sort. A trip.
At around the age of 60, after a heart attack (she had to be dragged to the hospital three days later for) and bypass, she gave up smoking and got into exercising. A decision that bought her nearly three more decades, and towards the end a peace and happiness she had not known since my father’s awful death.
To see her light up when talking about the newly adopted family member Dominic was like watching a life reborn. She was more alive at age 87 with stage 4 cancer than she was at 57.
My family would say I am far more like my dad than I am my mom. But I know some of her courage and spirit rubbed off on me. Her contempt for the unjust. And yeah, some of the sharp comebacks.
Certainly I was wise enough to find myself a Jersey Girl who also overflows with honesty and courage and wit.
Ma would hate me or anyone making a fuss over her on Mother’s Day. “Same as any other day,” she’d declare. And gifts? “If I can’t eat it, wear it or spend it, I don’t want it!” But guess who’s not here to stop me from fussing.
Ma, you were one of a kind … and a hero to me. Happy Mother’s Day …
God Help Our Border Agents. God Help Us
And so it begins. The end of Title 42 and the start of a “tidal wave” of illegal immigrants overwhelming our border. For the three days before the end of Title 42, CBP reported over 10,000 encounters a day. That number is expected to rise beyond belief.
And the White House is waving the crowd on through. DCNF has secured documents showing how border agents have been instructed to release people into the country without notice to appear in court. There are exceptions, according to DCNF: “Border agents are not permitted to parole illegal migrants that are determined to be ‘unmitigable’ flight risks, national security risks, public safety threats or unaccompanied children, according to the instructions.”
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Florida’s Attorney General sued the Biden Administration Thursday, asking for a temporary restraining order to stop the Admin from this mass release of migrants. They argue DHS’s plan to release illegal immigrants into the streets if CBP and private NGOs are overcapacity is little different from the “Parole and ATD’ policy blocked by a federal judge in March.
While his people insist the border is secure and remains secure, Biden admitted Wednesday that it will be “chaotic for a while” at the border. Is he trying to distance himself from the impending doom? The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Biden has blown up on staffers several times over inaction on the border.
A former official, who remained anonymous, told the WaPo, “When Biden would have explosions, and he did have a bunch of them, he’d say: ‘D*** it! You haven’t told me anything different from what you told me last week.”
Former Obama defense secretary and CIA director Leon Panetta admitted, “I’m not sure we’re ready for the consequences” of removing Title 42. How much time have they had to get ready? And since Panetta is one of the 51 former intelligence officials who signed the letter calling Hunter’s laptop Russian misinformation in order to get Biden elected, should he not now admit the consequences of pushing that lie onto the American people?
FBI Refuses to Hand Over File Republicans Say Points to Biden Corruption
An FBI whistleblower claims the FBI has a file, a confidential source report, laying out in detail a foreign bribery scheme where Joe Biden was paid for particular policy action while VP. House Oversight Chairman Rep. James Comer subpoenaed the document, requesting the FBI hand it over by noon Wednesday. The FBI told Congress, “Sorry, Charlie.”
They don’t deny the document exists. Only that they won’t let Oversight see it to protect the confidential source. Comer isn’t accepting the FBI explanation.
“We’ve asked the FBI to not only provide this record, but to also inform us what it did to investigate these allegations,” he said. “The FBI has failed to do both. The FBI’s position is ‘trust, but you aren’t allowed to verify.’ That is unacceptable. We plan to follow up with the FBI and expect compliance with the subpoena.”
Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Thursday called the FBI’s dismissal of the subpoena “unacceptable” and he was going to call FBI Director Christopher Wray about it.
The FBI isn’t the only one running interference for Joe Biden.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Misled Viewers During Trump Town Hall Re: Documents in Chinatown
During Wednesday night’s town hall, when moderator Kaitlan Collins was nagging Trump about why he brought classified documents to Mar-a-Lago, Trump responded, basically, “Because I could.” He then reminded Collins that Biden had boxes of documents including classified ones scattered all over the place, including Chinatown. Collins insisted this was not true. Collins was dead wrong.
Biden’s former executive assistant Kathy Chung testified to House Oversight that there were, indeed, documents stored at “an office near the White House, an office in Chinatown, and eventually the Biden Center.”
Collins also repeatedly misstated former Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller’s position in order to rebuff Trump’s argument he offered to send National Guard troops to Capitol J6. Rep. Bryan Donald reminds us that Miller testified under oath that Trump did offer the troops. And that offer was rebuffed, as Trump said, by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.
What @kaitlancollins just said is a LIE.
Christopher Miller said UNDER OATH that President Trump did approve the national guard, and the DC Mayor refused the order.
I’ll have more to say after the Town Hall on CNN.
REMINDER 👇🏿 https://t.co/sWitSXLFq0
— Congressman Byron Donalds (@RepDonaldsPress) May 11, 2023
Why does it matter? Because CNN viewers and American voters deserve better. When getting Trump is still more important than getting truth, we’ve got a problem.
For example, on Thursday morning, CNN.com had nothing on its webpage about the revelation of 20 business entities created by Biden Inc. to funnel 10 million foreign dollars into Biden coffers while he was VP.
Sure, I as much as anybody want to know “the spicy hotdog sausage fueling French protests” and “Sesame Street welcomes its first Filipino muppet” has me wondering, “what took so long?” But, c’mon. Nothing?!
Newsbusters reports ABC News, NBC News, and CBS News also ignored the new House memorandum on the Biden network of companies and the $10 million.
And breaking Thursday night from Fox News, divorce lawyers for Hunter and his ex-wife knew all about the “Romania deal.” Emails show them haggling over the $120,000 deposited “into Hunter’s TD account, as funds from the ‘Romania deal.'” The House Oversight Committee says a cool million went to the Biden family out of the deal. What did the Romanian oligarch who sent the dough get in return?
Meanwhile, liberals keep roasting CNN for hosting the town hall, which included an audience that ended up laughing at the woman CNN is apparently set to offer their 9 p.m. prime time spot. And we’re still trying to find out why a 90-minute town hall lasted only 69 minutes.
Steve Bannon had an explanation.
First Time Ever ‘Mercy Rule’ Invoked…
@DylanByers pic.twitter.com/EEnfsJawaJ
— Grace Chong 🇺🇸 (@gc22gc) May 11, 2023
Second Thoughts on the Town Hall
Still, liberals aren’t the only ones giving the town hall a thumbs down. We’re hearing from some conservatives who thought Trump was a dud too. (Before you ask, these are real conservatives, with a grasp on reality.) So I wondered, did my article go too easy on Trump? (My verdict? Perhaps a little.) What did you think of the town hall?
We posted a Stream survey on Twitter
What’s your assesment of last night’s CNN town hall?
— The Stream (@Streamdotorg) May 11, 2023
We actually have some thoughts about how much Trump should talk about 2020 at this point and his opportunities missed. But let’s save that for a rainy day.
But we will add one note. The one reason SNL’s current impersonation of Trump is so spot-on hilarious is Trump appearances never fail to entertain. Always a constant pinball between meaningful, maddening and mirth. Then, just when you’re about to pull out your hair or cringe, he throws in a human moment.
During the town hall an army vet stood up. He’d barely gotten a sentence out about managing a private aviation company when Trump blurts, “You wanna a job?”
Trump to a veteran in the audience: “Do you want a job?” pic.twitter.com/fmYJf5GCsC
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) May 11, 2023
There will be plenty of debate over whether Donald Trump should return to the White House. But, especially with the Hollywood writer’s strike, he remains one of the best shows on the dial. (Dial? Whose TV has a dial anymore? Best show on the remote.)
Happy Mother’s Day Weekend!
