Happy Monday and welcome to June.

Today’s Brew is served in a shatter-proof mug for those who even after the weekend still feel like tossing things at the TV. (Not that we’d suggest you do such a thing.)

In fact, the past three-plus days since a New York jury found former President Donald Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of something that never was made clear during weeks of testimony have been a testament to the strength of conservatives of faith. The so-called dangerous, terroristic, insurrectionist MAGA Republicans did not riot. There was no burning of courthouses for this lot. Instead, they got focused and got busy. How much did former President Donald Trump’s campaign raise in 24 hours? A record $52.8 million dollars from small money donors, with about one-third of that coming from first-time donors. The president’s son, Eric Trump, confirmed yesterday on Sunday Morning Futures that number is now over $71 million. 

Let’s compare the peaceful, determined response to the Left’s reaction should the U.S. Supreme Court recognize Trump’s presidential immunity. But first, a word from Shakespeare: “That one may smile and smile, and be a villain.” 

The Smile

There’s one good thing about Joe Biden’s deteriorating mental facility. The carefully crafted veneer of friendly Scranton Joe is gone. He reveals his true self with nearly every appearance now.

On Friday, in his first public comments on Trump’s “hush-money” trial verdict, Biden reveled and railed — and in a single, sinister moment, revealed all.

As he was shuffling away from the podium, a reporter shouted, “Donald Trump refers to himself a political prisoner and blames you directly. How do you respond?”

Biden stopped, turned, and for several unnerving seconds, offered a smile that exposed his soul.

The Cheshire cat? The Grinch? Raymond Arroyo likened it to the disturbing demonic baby in The Passion of the Christ.

What’s your interpretation? 

Joe Biden is asked a question about Donald Trump being a political prisoner by his government.

He grins for a few seconds before walking out of the room without saying anything. pic.twitter.com/00ttZKSMBZ

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) May 31, 2024

The Hypocrisy: No One Is Above the Law

Before the malevolent grin that spoke a thousand words, Biden said a couple things that bear scrutiny. He uttered the predictable line that “no one is above the law.” Did you also chuckle at that? Here’s a man who has sold his political office to the highest bidder and foreign interests for decades and so far gotten away with it at every turn.

Thanks to his protection, his son and brother (and he) have been banking millions, while their partners in many of those schemes are being sent to prison. This very day, his son, Hunter – who would have been imprisoned years ago for his drug crimes and sex crimes were his name not Biden — is set to go on trial for gun charges only because the sweetheart deal worked out by Biden’s Department of Justice fell apart.

Speaking of which: Is the trial going to delve into how Secret Service agents scrambled to try to clean up Hunter’s mess by harassing the gun shop owner for his paperwork when Hunter wasn’t even under Secret Service protection at the time the alleged crime was committed? Quoting from Politico in 2021: “The gun store owner refused to supply the paperwork, suspecting that the Secret Service officers wanted to hide Hunter’s ownership of the missing gun in case it were to be involved in a crime, the two people said.” What strings did Joe Biden pull to get agents involved? Do you think the average criminal who illegally purchases a weapon gets to have the Secret Service try to bury the evidence?

As for Biden himself, a Special Counsel found that he illegally stored and shared and left classified documents from his Senate and VP days lying around several locations that he had no right to have. Was he recommended for prosecution? No. He was recommended for assisted living. Joe Biden walked free of those acts — the same ones for which a raid was conducted on Trump’s private estate by armed federal agents who’d been licensed to kill — because the Special Counsel said he wasn’t mentally competent to stand trial.

The Hypocrisy: “It’s Reckless, It’s Dangerous.”

Which gets to the next thing Biden said. The Big Guy angrily bellowed, “It’s reckless, it’s dangerous, it’s irresponsible for anyone to say this was ‘rigged’ just because they don’t like the verdict.”

Put aside for a second how Joe Biden — the president of the United States — openly boasts about how he ignored the Supreme Court when it ruled against his efforts to pay off student loans with money from hard-working Americans and is now pushing through a second unconstitutional vote-buying scheme just like it.

Remember his late night press conference when Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on his mental health was released? Biden stood in the White House and shredded Hur’s conclusion about his diminished mental capacity — the result of an official Department of Justice criminal investigation. He had the vice president and other White House officials do it as well, and then he buried the audio tapes that prove Hur is right, invoking “executive privilege.” 

Mr. “No One Is Above the Law” is ensuring  that We, the People, don’t get to hear the audio of Hur’s interview that lays bare how far Biden’s brain has deteriorated. And you won’t believe the DOJ’s latest excuse: Artificial Intelligence. In a new 49-page filing, DOJ officials wrote:  

The passage of time and advancements in audio, artificial intelligence, and ‘deep fake’ technologies only amplify concerns about malicious manipulation of audio files. If the audio recording is released here, it is easy to foresee that it could be improperly altered, and that the altered file could be passed off as an authentic recording and widely distributed. 

They think we’re idiots. Obviously, if somebody did mess with the audio, the White House and its media allies would expose it in a second. Want to talk about what’s “dangerous”? Jonathan Turley outlined Sunday just how dangerous the DOJ’s argument for withholding the audio is.

The Sycophants: Politico Calls Alvin Bragg a “Reluctant Prosecutor”

Pravda had nothing on these people. Politico actually posted a story with this headline: “This reluctant prosecutor just made Donald Trump a felon.”

Donald Trump Jr. noted the gaslighting.

Politico is really calling Alvin Bragg a reluctant prosecutor???

He literally ran for office campaigning on indicting my father.

The Fake News is truly the enemy of the people! pic.twitter.com/967o9ekcGq

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) June 1, 2024

Sure. Bragg was about as reluctant a prosecutor as Willie Sutton was a reluctant bank robber. 

The Absurdity: Trump, Convicted by the Testimony of People Who Stole From Him, Is Not A Victim

Why do I call America a “bananas republic”? Because we are now a banana republic with an extra layer of absurdity.

Here’s a realization that hit me earlier today: State media and the Democrats are sniping about Trump acting like he is the victim.

The chief witness against him in his “hush-money” trial admitted on the stand to stealing tens of thousands of dollars from Trump, and the second most important witness has cheated him out of hundreds of thousands of court-ordered dollars after an earlier lawfare effort failed.

And it gets better: The same state in which Trump got robbed (where the thief is paying no consequences) is trying to force him to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for defrauding nobody of a single penny.

Yup. Bananas republic. 

The Questions

We close today’s Brew with so many questions: Will Judge Juan Merchan sentence Trump to prison or house arrest on July 11 to keep him off the campaign trail? Why wouldn’t he do either one?

Will New York hear an expedited appeal? Will the U.S. Supreme Court hear an expedited appeal, given the massive constitutional violations by Merchan and the 315 million Americans who have a stake in this case?

Will the U.S. House of Representatives dig deep into the relationship between Merchan, his daughter, and Democratic leaders? Kash Patel, who helped expose the Trump-Russia hoax while working for House Republicans, suggests the House immediately start issuing subpoenas. 

 

Who will be the first state prosecutor to file criminal charges against Biden? Why shouldn’t Texas indict Biden for child trafficking over all the illegal immigration taking place near Eagle Pass? Why shouldn’t the state of Georgia indict Biden for being an accessory to Laken Riley’s murder, since it was an illegal immigrant who committed it? For that matter, why shouldn’t Arkansas launch murder investigations into Bill and Hillary Clinton for all the suspicious deaths connected to them in the South over the years?

Why shouldn’t Biden be sued by those whose child died from the fentanyl he has allowed the cartels to bring across the border?

How does Trump put up with all this without tossing a tantrum? Why did Biden seem angrier talking about the case than Trump did? 

Is America as we know it dead? Or just knocked unconscious? What do we do to revive Uncle Sam?

You can bet you’ll be hearing a lot about that on The Stream.

Along The Stream

Nancy Flory writes on the “Christian Lifeguard Threatened with Dismissal Because He Refused to Raise LGBTQ Flag.” 

Former Streamer Rachel Alexander reviews John Zmirak’s’s new book in “How the Second Amendment Came from Our Biblical Heritage.” 

And we’re already in the kitchen preparing Al’s Afternoon Tea with the other news that’s been going on. 

 

Al Perrotta is The Stream’s Washington bureau chief, coauthor with John Zmirak of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration, and coauthor of the counterterrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.