In The Shadow Of Mt Hollywood

"How'd that work out?" President Trump on weaponizing the government against him. 🤣 pic.twitter.com/rMQVbKVChw — Turning Point Action (@TPAction_) March 5, 2025 I was expecting a very different address to Congress from the one I saw last night. For one thing, if we watch a State of the Union at all, my wife and I put extra wine in reserve, expecting it will be needed to make it through the whole tedious experience. Last night, even though Trump spoke at record length, we didn't need the extra wine. But also, we were both expecting a more usual Trump stream-of-consciousness speech, but this one was structured and focused. In Mark Halperin's words at 9:10, [H]e just gave an extraordinary performance, and you can hate Donald Trump and still have to acknowledge it was an extraordinary performance, talking for a hundred minutes, not boring, high energy, and really used the luxury he had of an opposition which came in saying the focus was going to be on the r...

On Friday, I posted that something like this was goinmg to have to happen if Bondi and Patel were going to have any credibility. Bondi wrote to Patel, By 8:00 a.m. tomorrow, February 28, the FBI will deliver the full and complete Epstein files to my office, including all records, documents, audio and video recordings, and materials related to Jeffrey Epstein and his clients, regardless of how such information was obtained. I said, But as of yesterday morning, there was no indication that any of those allegedly missing Epstein items had been delivered -- or, alternatively, that any recalcitrant FBI officials had been fired. And where was Director Patel? If the allegation was that the New York office was sitting on those files, wouldn't you expect Patel to be up there, commandeering a conference room, and asking hard questions? Apparently not. I was willing to grant that the Oval Office confrontation with Zelensky would soak up the weekend news cycle, and as of last ni...

Is Zelensky his own man? Almost certainly not. Recent Ukrainian history, especially the Maidan Revolution of 2014 , which has been frequently characterized as a coup, is marked by a series of questionable elections, with either Russian-aligned or Western-aligned forces pulling the strings. Volodymyr Zelensky, elected president in 2019, ran on an anti-establishment and anti-corruption platform, but has had questionable connections with the Bidens and is clearly aligned with corrupt factions in Ukraine. According to Wikipedia , although Zelensky initially said he would serve only a single term, he walked back this promise in May 2021, saying he had not yet made up his mind. and he has subsequently suspended elections following the 2022 Russian invasion. One reason frequently cited for his opposition to a peace agreement is the fact that it woulld result in new elections. So far, even as events have turned against Ukraine, someone thinks he's doing well enough to stay, even th...

Before Zelensky showed up in Washington Friday, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived the day before carrying an invitation from King Charles for a state visit. Now, Charles is also hosting Zelensky for his own state visit. According to the UK Independent , King Charles is to meet Volodymyr Zelensky at Sandringham on Sunday in a rare and dramatic sign of royal support. The King’s invitation to the Ukraine president came a day after Donald Trump sparked worldwide outrage by insulting and abusing Mr Zelensky at the White House. And it is only two days after Mr Trump accepted an invitation from the King for an unprecedented second state visit to Britain – delivered to him personally by Sir Keir Starmer. The king, of course, has no direct power over much of anything in the UK or anywhere else, and his utterances are normally limited to anodyne remarks on topics like the weather. Apparently Starmer feels Charles's prestige alone will mevertheless be sufficient to carry his pro...

The fact that the Epstein files haven’t yet been released demonstrates that the President doesn’t yet have operational control of the DOJ and FBI. It could take a while to establish, or as with his first term, it might never be established. — Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) February 28, 2025 Opinions are divided on Attorney General Bondi, but the Epstein Files fiasco isn't turning out well. Sundance at Conservative Treehouse has never been a fan of either Bondi or Patel: AS PREDICTED, don’t expect the DOJ/FBI silos to be anything except a hot mess. The appointed leaders have all the support needed, but the nominated heads generally do not seem to have any idea how to get their “arms around” the problems. The DOJ/FBI reform agenda is not likely to go anywhere. Celebrate all the success in the areas where serious people are operating strategically. But be practical in looking for DOJ/FBI structural silo changes; that really is unlikely to happen. The Bondi/Patel partner...

Information about Peter Strzok, best known for his thousands of e-mails to his FBI office girlfriend Lisa Page , has come out piecemeal over the years, with little overall context. The e-mails and texts in many ways make Strzok look like a comical figure -- as a radio host put it at the time, "Imagine being in junior high school with a name like Strzok." Among the most controversial of the texts was Strzok's response to Page's query asking if Trump could be elected. To which Strzok replied, "No, we'll stop it." . . . During the texts with Strzok, Page also said, Hillary Clinton "just has to win now," and "This man cannot be president." The texts were made public in December 2017, and resulted in both Strzok and Page being removed from their posts as part of then-special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Strzok was eventually fired by the FBI, while Page left her position...

Flynn to Comey: "Jim, If you get this message, Get ready. You’re going jail -- Unless you give up someone bigger and deeper in this than even you. Jim, you know exactly who I'm talking about..." Holy crap! Nice job, @bennyjohnson pic.twitter.com/1OkGZl5Mgm — L A R R Y (@LarryOConnor) February 27, 2025 General Mike Flynn, an early casualty of the Get Trump campaign, has briefly popped back up in the news lately. Most recently, it was in the dark warning to former FBI Directior James Comey that surfaced yesterday on X. He was also the subject of intriguing remarks by President Trump last week : On Tuesday night [February 18], Trump made an appearance at his private Florida beach club, Mar-a-Lago, which played host to a gala for America’s Future, a right wing organization chaired by retired Gen. Michael Flynn. TPM reviewed portions of Trump’s remarks, during which the President declared he was eager to see Flynn, who had a short and scandalous stint as White Hous...