Trump Approval Jumps 5%

According to Just the News,

President Donald Trump's approval rating is on the upswing, with his net approval rising 5 points over the past month in a recent survey.

Trump's approval rating stood at 47% in the December Harvard/Harris survey, up 3 points from the November figures. His disapproval, meanwhile, dropped 2 points, from 51% to 49%.

Though still underwater, Trump appears to have rebounded from the November low of 44% approval and 51% disapproval in that survey.

On one hand, I've been pointing out that all the polls in recent months have been wildly outside the margin of error, although also counterintuitive, so it's reckless to see any sort of trend here. But let's look at what's intuitive about this result.

The big story in the weeks before this poll was taken was the drug boat "double tap" war crime, the big Nuremberg option. This never quite got traction, and it's out of the headlines. As of yesterday, the Real Clear Politics polling average had Trump's approval at 43.5% vs Obama's 41.3% and Dubya's 41.6% at the same point in their second terms. So Trump is actually doing surprisingly well.

And if in fact his approval has increased over the past month, why would this be? I think it's the same factor we saw on 2023-24, when each new indictment and each new trial simply put Trump's name in the news and drove his popularity upward, irrespective of the allegations against him.

Let's also consider some of Trump's most highly controversial remarks, given apparently just before the Harvard-Harris poll.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday [December 2] ripped Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., as “garbage” and said Somalis should “go back to where they came from,” in disparaging remarks that have been strongly criticized by local leaders in Minnesota.

“I don’t want them in our country. I’ll be honest with you, OK. Somebody will say, ‘Oh, that’s not politically correct.’ I don’t care. I don’t want them in our country. Their country is no good for a reason," said Trump, who has a history of disparaging African people and migrant communities.

This sort of thing simply isn't hurting him, and it may even be helping him, although nobody is going to acknowledge this to a pollster. Let's also note that before she announced her resignation, Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene was being pitched, at least by NPR, as the real leader of the Republican Party:

Since Trump returned to office in January, there have been several moments in the background — and sometimes foreground — where some on the right say the president hasn't delivered on domestic priorities that "Make America Great Again" like he promised on the campaign trail.

For almost every instance, Greene has been there to articulate the disconnect.

When the U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear sites in June, Greene was among those who questioned how that fit with Trump's promise to end wars.

. . . As some Republicans expressed concern over humanitarian conditions caused by Israel's war in Gaza, Greene called Israel's actions "genocide" on social media.

. . . Then there's Republican unease with things like mass deportations and tariffs, restricting tech visas and redistricting, as different pockets of the party's big tent object to key pieces of Trump's second-term agenda.

But somehow, the upshot was that Greene announced her resignation from Congress, while Trump's approval has gone up. Still, the conventional wisdom is that the Republicans are going to lose the House next year. I've never bought into this, and it looks like his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, also has other plans:

During an interview on The Mom View, Wiles spoke about the 2026 celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States, the 2026 Winter Olympics, and the FIFA World Cup. Wiles also referenced how, instead of focusing on localizing the midterm elections, the Trump administration would turn that approach “on its head.”

. . . Wiles went on to explain that “in the midterms, it’s not about who’s sitting at the White House,” but about localizing the election and keeping “the federal officials out of it.”

“We’re actually going to turn that on its head,” Wiles shared. “And, put him on the ballot because so many of those low propensity voters are Trump voters. And, we saw, a week ago Tuesday, what happens when he’s not on the ballot and not active. So, I haven’t quite broken it to him yet, but he’s going to campaign like it’s 2024 again.”

The fact is that Trump and his cabinet are delivering on their campaign promises, and that includes deporting illegal migrants. It isn't going to hurt him if he keeps reminding voters of that.

California Revokes Migrant Truck Drivers' Licenses

Deadly crash in California renews federal criticism of immigrant truck drivers:

A 21-year-old semitruck driver accused of being under the influence of drugs and causing a fiery crash that killed three people on a southern California freeway is in the country illegally, U.S. Homeland Security officials said Thursday.

Jashanpreet Singh was arrested and jailed after Tuesday’s eight-vehicle crash in Ontario, California, that also left four people injured.

. . . Singh, of Yuba City, California, is from India and entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 across the southern border, Homeland Security said Thursday in a post on X.

After several well-publicized fatal accidents involving illegal migrants, Trasportation Secretary Duffy began criticizing California's lax standards for issuing commercial drivers' licenses. According to Newsweek,

Thousands of California driver’s licenses face “decertification” unless the state meets certain federal requirements, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has warned.

. . . California’s DMV notified around 17,000 commercial drivers earlier in November that their CDLs would be canceled within 60 days.

It follows a high-profile accident and increased scrutiny from President Donald Trump’s administration concerning compliance with federal and state licensing regulations for noncitizen drivers.

The action came after a federal audit led by U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy identified discrepancies in California's issuance practices, specifically that CDL expiration dates sometimes extended beyond drivers’ lawful presence in the United States, contrary to state law.

The clip from CBS afiliated KBAK in Bakersfield provides a highly selective account of the impact the revocations will have on migrants -- in particular, it never asks any of them if they're here legally; it doesn't raise the question at all. I asked Chrome AI mode, "What can holders of California CDLs who are having them revoked do to get them reinstated?" It answered,

In California, a revoked commercial driver's license (CDL) cannot be simply "reinstated." Instead, once the revocation period is over, the holder must apply for a brand-new license. The specific process and requirements depend heavily on the original reason for the revocation.

In the case of the 17,000 revoked CDLs in question, it appears that there is no theoretical obstacle to the drivers immediately reapplying for new licenses. I asked Chrome AI mode, "Are the 17,000 California truck drivers whose CDLs are being revoked for not meeting federal standards eligible to reapply for new licenses immediately?" It answered,

The eligibility for the affected California truck drivers to reapply immediately for a new commercial driver's license (CDL) depends on their current legal presence and work authorization status.

The revocations stem from a federal audit that found the California DMV issued non-domiciled CDLs with expiration dates extending beyond the drivers' authorized period of stay in the U.S., a violation of federal and state law. The licenses are being expired with 60-day notices, not permanently revoked in the traditional sense of a punitive action for a serious driving offense.

So OK, it's a bureaucratic snafu that will require a trip to the DMV within the next 60 days, something we all hate, but it's life, stuff happens, right? Except that since May, all US drivers license applications have required proof of legal residence, including here in California. To get a new CDL, applicants must:

• Submit a completed 10 Year History Record Check (DL 939), Medical Examination Report (MER) Form (MCSA 5875), and Medical Examiner's Certificate (MEC) (MCSA 5876).
• Verify identity and residency with acceptable documents.
• Pay the nonrefundable application fee.
• Pass all required knowledge (written) tests, vision tests, and the CDL skills/drive test in the appropriate commercial vehicle.

I had to submit identity and residency documents a couple months ago to renew my own ordinary driver's license. It meant I had to renew my passport, because I'd already found trying to get my birth certificate an impossible tangle, but hey, it's life, stuff happens, and I was able to get this all done.

Clearly the problem for the migrant truck drivers interviewed by KBAK, many speaking in barely understandable English, is not that they have to visit the DMV; the problem is that they won't be able to supply acceptable identity and residency documents. I asked Chrome AI mode,"Hw many of the 17,000 truck drivers who are having their Clifornia CDL revoked will be unable to obtain new licenses due to not having documentation?" It replied in part,

New federal regulations estimate that 97% of current non-domiciled drivers (around 194,000 nationally) will "exit the freight market" in the next few years because they won't qualify for licenses under the stricter criteria, which only allow for specific, rare work visas (H-2a, H-2b, or E-2).

Many of the affected drivers are immigrant workers, including a significant number from the Sikh and Punjabi community in California, who are now afraid to drive due to the uncertainty surrounding their status.

Well, on one hand, the migrant drivers may be afraid to drive, but it seems to me that the rest of us are quite reasonably also afraid to have them drive. If the drivers can't meet ordinary qualfications for CDLs, that's a big problem.

Another Charlotte Train Stabbing

Yesterday I talked about the peculiar pattern that's connected quasi-political violence over the past 18 months. But also yesterday, we saw the latest in an entirely different class of crime, seemingly random but horrific attacks on otherwise anonymouis citizens by repeat offenders on public transit.

A man is in custody after a reported stabbing on the Charlotte Area Transit System Blue Line light rail early Friday evening, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police said.

Medic confirmed it responded around 5 p.m. near the stop along North Brevard Street and East 25th Street. One person was being treated for serious injuries, according to the agency. On Saturday morning, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department confirmed detectives identified 33-year-old Oscar Solarzano as a suspect.

. . . Court records indicate Solarzano was intoxicated on the light rail train and challenged the victim to a fight, and was shouting at others prior to the stabbing. His address was listed as an address matching the Roof Above shelter. Court documents noted that no bond was set for him, saying he is in the country illegally and "has been deported previously."

The link, from the Charlotte NBC affiliate, typically has little else to say about Solarzano. The Department of Homeland Security fills in the blanks:

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security today announced U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lodged an arrest detainer for Oscar Gerardo Solorzano-Garcia, a criminal illegal alien from Honduras, who is charged with first degree murder after he stabbed a male victim with a large knife on a light rail train in Charlotte, NC.

Solorzano-Garcia’s criminal history includes prior arrests for aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, destroying evidence, resisting arrest, using a false ID, and convictions for robbery and illegally re-entry.

. . . This criminal illegal alien was issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge in 2018 and removed by the Trump Administration on March 9, 2018. He was apprehended illegally crossing the border again in 2021 and was again removed. He entered the country illegally for a third time at an unknown date and location.

This incident comes disturbingly soon after the August stabbing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on another Charlotte light rail train by another career criminal. About the only difference is that Solorzano is also an illegal migrant, while Zarutska's assailanbt, Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr, is native-born.

But there are other similarities. Both Solorzano and Brown are full-fledged members of Marx's Lumpenproletariat, career street criminals, with the notable issue that illegal migrants, a problem that was less visible in Marx's time, now make up a significant portion of the underclass. But let's look at the victims: we can say almost by definition that people who ride public transit are from the traditional working class, commuting to work or school. If they could afford to drive, they probably would.

Let's look at the circumstances, too. Public transit is a place where the working class and the Lumpenproletariat routinely come together. The working class are riding to and from work; the Lumpenproletariat don't have jobs; they're riding to have a place to sleep or nod off, they're staying warm and staying out of the rain, or they're looking for working-class victims. They're also riding without tickets.

The working class on public transit is also a captive audience. On one hand, they've got to go to work; they've got to ride in the first place, and if there's a problem, they probably don't have time to get off the train and wait for another -- and between stations, they're stuck no matter what. It looks like neither of the Charlotte victims had any chance just to get off the train.

Another peculiarity is that the attackers seem to be angry, and they're acting out. These cases of horrific attacks on public transit, in places like Chicago and New York as well as Charlotte, involve what homicide detectives call "overkill", which is normally a sign of intense anger and resentment. A hit man does just enough to get the job done; repeated stabbings are a sign of something much more personal, something you'd expect from angry spouses, family members, or intimate partners, not strangers.

So what we're seeing in public transit attacks is a repeated pattern of class conflict, members of the Lumpenproletariat acting out in homicidal, vengeful rage against total strangers from the working class. About all we can conclude at this point is that Marx was correct in observing that the Lumpenproletariat can never be an ally of the working class -- in fact, their hatred of the working class seems to be an essential factor.

But the next puzzle that falls out of this whole set of circumstances is that the urban elites, certainly in the biggest cities, but also in Charlotte (population 943,000) enable this situation. They do this by lenient treatment of repeat offenders and by not enforcing fares on public transit, especially subways and light rail. A bus driver collects the fare and can refuse to move the bus if the rider refuses to pay. On a light rail or subway train, the motorman doesn't collect the fare, and riders can simply get on with impunity.

By declaring sanctuary cities, urban elites open just another front in a war against the working class. Although Charlotte isn't a "sanctuary city", it's a "certified welcoming city", which means about the same thing. North Carolina law requires cities to cooperate with ICE detainers, but the Department of Homeland Security notes in the link above that North Carolina cities have failed to honor 1400 detainers.

The urban elites are simply refusing to protect their hardest-working citizens, and in fact, via publc transit, they're actively setting up circumstances that make it easy for them to be attacked by the mentally disturbed and the career criminal class.

Assassins, Arsonists, Pipe Bombers: What You See Is What You Get

Over the past 18 months, beginning with Thomas Crooks in Butler and moving through Ryan Routh, the attempted assassin in Palm Beach; Luigi Mangione, who shot the UnitedHealthCare CEO in Manhattan; a whole string of Tesla arsonists; Robin Westman, the Minneapolis school shooter; Tyler Robionson, the Charlie Kirk assassin; and now Brian Cole Jr, the J6 attempted pipe bomber, we've had a remarkable menagerie of weird figures who've burst into the public consciousness through various acts, or attempted acts, of quasi-political violence.

To some extent, we've got the problem that experienced homicide detectives frequently pose: "What does a murderer look like? He looks like any of the people behind you in the checkout line." But actually in these cases, they do have something in common: their lives are obscure; they're reclusive; they have minimal or no social media profiles; they have at best spotty employment histories; their political beliefs are at best inchoate; they don't have girlfriends; they're often in the 18-30 age range where schizophrenia begins to manifest.

This is such a consistent pattern that people darkly hint in comment sections, "Yeah, right. Another reclusive guy with no social media," as though the intelligence agencies are cooking this up as a cover identity to conceal an actual perp. Brian Cole Jr fits this pattern. According to the UK Daily Mail,

‘He’s not politically affiliated with anything,’ the grandmother told the Daily Mail during an interview at her home in Gainesville, Virginia. 'He has no social media contacts. He’s never online going back and forth with politics or anything like that. He says he don’t like either party.

'He’s borderline autistic,’ she added. 'He’s slow. He may be 30, but he’s got the mind of a 16-year-old. That’s why we’re thinking - What the hell? What’s going on?’

. . . 'This young man is very calm and quiet,' she said. 'He just stays to himself. Nobody bothers him because he doesn’t bother anybody.

'He doesn’t have a girlfriend,’ she added. 'That’s how slow he is. He’s just off in a little world on his own. He stays downstairs and he used to be with his dog all the time.'

. . . 'That’s why everything is so messed up with us because he’s a good kid,’ she said. 'If you knew him, you would say that he couldn’t have done it.’

‘And if he did, it was just him trying to prove a point or whatever,’ she continued. 'He probably doesn’t even know the magnitude of what he’s done, if he did it.’

At this point, Cole is reported to have confessed to making and planting the bombs and is cooperating with investigators. He was represented by counsel at his arraignment, but as far as anyone can tell, his counsel is allowing him to speak with investigators. This may well be a good strategy, as it may provide insight into his mental condition and introduce mitigating factors in any sentence he receives. Acccording to CNN,

During interviews with the FBI, the suspect arrested in the pipe bomb probe told investigators that he believed the 2020 election was stolen, providing perhaps the first indication of a possible motive for the bombs placed near the DNC and RNC headquarters, people briefed on the matter told CNN.

Brian Cole Jr. spent hours with FBI investigators and made multiple statements, the sources said. Dan Bongino, deputy FBI director, told Fox News on Thursday that the FBI had interviewed the suspect at length, but didn’t elaborate.

. . . Appearing on ABC News, DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Friday that Cole was disappointed in “both sides of the system.”

“He was disappointed in various aspects of the election, but this guy was an equal opportunity bomber,” she said. “He put a bomb outside the Republican National Committee and the Democrat National Committee. He was disappointed to a great deal in the system – both sides of the system.”

He has this in common, for insance, with Thomas Crooks, as well as Tyler Robinson, Charlie Kirk's assassin:

Prosecutors in Utah released charging documents that don’t ascribe a specific motive but do feature a number of clues and shed light on Robinson’s politics.

Such acts of violence often feature suspects and perpetrators with sometimes conflicting sets of beliefs and characteristics that don’t necessarily fit neatly on the right-left political continuum, despite politicians’ and partisans’ attempts to blame the other side.

It’s still early, and the picture we’ve gotten so far comes from law enforcement. Much remains to play out in court.

. . . The charging documents say Robinson’s family also asked why he did it, and he “explained there is too much evil and the guy [Charlie Kirk] spreads too much hate.”

That evidence would seem to undercut theories that Robinson might have been motivated by far-right views. While some on the far-right have strongly opposed Kirk – you might have heard in recent days about “groypers” – they generally disliked him because they didn’t think he was far-right enough.

But the evidence so far doesn’t directly point to what specific form of alleged “hate” Robinson objected to.

But oddly, Sundance at Conservative Treehkouse is worried not about Cole's motive, but about the FBI's motive in fingering Cole!

I personally am not ascribing operational motive (or outcome) to the intents of either Kash Patel or Dan Bongino because as I have said from the outset of their selection, neither of these two men have the intellectual or discernment skillset needed to confront the corrupt institutional intent of the FBI as an organization.

Both Dan and Kash have easily identifiable ‘attack vectors’ which can be exploited by those skilled in the dark arts of manipulation. Kash’s open weakness is his ego and lust for lifestyle, Bongino’s open emotional weakness is his need to be cherished and appreciated. Both mindsets are easily influenced by those who know how to do such things.

. . . For five years the FBI couldn’t exploit the cell phone use for identification, then suddenly they were able to exploit the cell phone use for identification. Something doesn’t add up here and is really hinky, despite Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino claiming the FBI’s investigative efforts were excellent.

Why not take Patel's and Bongino's assertions at face value? Before they arrived, the FBI, for whatever reason, failed to identify the suspect with the evidence they had. The new leadership put a new team in place, and they worked to corroborate -- manually -- existing license plate, cell phone, and credit card information to identify Cole. But Sundance and many others seem deeply suspicious of this and are imputing motives to Bondi, Patel, and Bongino that they're covering something else up -- indeed, that they're actually pawns of unnamed deep state actors.

Well, I'm not a mental health professional, I haven't examined in person any of the whole managerie of bombers, arsonists, and assassins we've seen over 18 months, and I'm not qualified to make a diagnosis. But I feel fully confident that that every one of them fits the non-technical category of nut case. I'll return to what I've said before: Lee Harvey Oswald offered his services to the Soviet Union, and they wouldn't touch him, for the same reason that no serious set of conspirators would touch any of the current managerie: like Oswald, they're nut cases.

Disorganized, out of it, unreliable. You can't build a conspiracy with people like that. I don't believe they're going to find a conspiracy in any of these cases, still less a deep state conspiracy to cover this up with the unwitting connivance of Bondi, Patel, and Bongino.

"White Man From The DC Suburbs” Arrested For J6 Pipe Bombs

The basic details of this story continue to be sketchy; they can be found here and many other places. But I keep listening for dogs that aren't barking.

The most obvious is Jake Tapper's need to gaslight the world and claim the suspect, Brian J Cole, Jr, is a "white man". It's no great step to recognize this contradicts the January 6 narrative that it was a Republcan insurrection, and it goes quite a way to explain why then-FBI Director Wray didn't want to touch the case.

A more interesting question is what it reveals about the current inner workings of the FBI and Justice Department. Attorney General Bondi, FBI Director Patel, and Deputy Director Bongino so far appear to be justified in congratulating themselves for the catch, as they did in yesterday's press conference:

“Today’s arrest was the result of good, diligent police work and collaboration on a case that languished for four years under the prior administration,” said Attorney General Bondi. “The American people are safer thanks to this morning’s successful operation.”

“The investigation into the pipe bombs in Washington, D.C. has been a high priority since Deputy Director Bongino and I assumed our roles nine months ago. Since that time, our FBI teams have gone back over every fact and every data point looking for new leads – and today’s arrest is the result of that outstanding work,” said FBI Director Patel. “Although almost five years have passed, this shows the FBI will never rest in bringing justice to those who endanger American lives and our communities."

But just two weeks ago, the story was that Trump was thinking of replacing Patel:

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday [November 23] had pushed back on a report from MS NOW that Trump was weighing moving on from Patel. She posted on social platform X that the story was “completely made up,” adding a photo of the the two men side-by-side giving a thumbs up in the Oval Office.

Then this past Sunday, The New York Post ran with a story that the FBI is a "rudderless ship":

FBI Director Kash Patel is facing withering criticism from an alliance of active-duty and retired agents and analysts, days after the White House denied media reports that the president is about to fire him.

A troubling new report card on the first six months of Patel’s leadership concludes he is “in over his head” and his deputy, Dan Bongino, is “something of a clown,” according to the alliance, which in two previous reports warned about crippling DEI and politicization of the FBI during the Biden administration.

The Patel-led FBI is described in the 115-page report as a “rudderless ship” and “all f–ked up.”

I haven't been able to find news reports that specifically discuss this, but I asked Chrome AI mode (which I often have found at least useful), "Was the J6 pipe bomb case removed from the prior FBI investigative team?" It answered,

Yes, a new team of FBI investigators and experts was brought in to re-examine the evidence in the January 6 pipe bomb case, leading to a recent arrest. The new team did not find new tips or witnesses, but utilized a fresh analysis of the existing evidence and data, including credit card purchases and cellphone data, to identify the suspect.

It referred me to this story:

Law enforcement officials reviewed credit card purchases of pipe bomb components, cellphone tower data and a license plate reader to zero in on Cole, according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case. The FBI and Justice Department declined to elaborate on what led them to the suspect, but characterized his arrest as the result of a reinvigorated investigation during the Trump administration and credited a fresh analysis of already-collected evidence and data.

It's hard to avoid thinking one group at the FBI came out winners in this dispute, while another group came out losers. I've got to think the losers were behind the campaign to depict Patel and Bongino as on their way out. We may or may not one day hear more about what was going on here, or indeed, what's still happening. But it seems fairly plain to me that Bondi, Patel, and Bongino have had a fight on their hands.

This may also suggest a reason for the "two FBIs" I noted in recent weeks, the FBI that was apparently leaking that "Ms C", the former Capitol Police officer, was the figure in mask and hoodie that planted the bombs, and the other FBI that was leaking that this wasn't the case.

The next puzzle is the characterization of the suspect, Brian Cole, Jr, as "simple" or "autistic". For instance,

The suspect’s grandmother, Loretta, told The New York Post: “He’s almost autistic-like because he doesn’t understand a lot of stuff. I hope he is not talking.” She also alleged: “He’s very naive. . . He would not hurt a fly. He’s just not that kind of person. I don’t believe this at all. He’s not a terrorist.”

. . . “He’s very antisocial. Very,” a neighbor told The New York Post of Brian Cole Jr. “He keeps to himself.”

Elsewhere,

The man accused of planting pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic National Committees before the Jan. 6 riot is a Chihuahua-obsessed, Crocs-loving, “autistic-like” 30-year-old who lives with his parents, family and neighbors told The Post.

Brian Cole Jr. was known as a recluse in his Virginia neighborhood about 20 miles outside Washington, DC, where he was regularly seen walking his pocket-sized pup to and from a local 7-Eleven.

“He would wear shorts all winter long, no matter how cold it was, he would be outside in shorts, walking — and he would wear red Crocs,” one longtime neighbor recalled.

(Red Crocs are described as "popular, lightweight, waterproof foam clogs".) Some reports say he worked for his father's bail bond business, but his grandmother said he worked for DoorDash, which would be incompatible with a secure job at a family business.

I've noted here that the figure caught in surveillance video wandering around Capitol Hill the evening of January 5, whoever it may be, appeared disorganized, certainly not focused on a particular task. Also, that neither of the two bombs detonated suggests the individual, whoever it may be, wasn't capable of successfully designing and assembling a fairly crude device. This in turn suggests the motive for planting the bombs may just remain inscrutable, but if the individual had co-conspirators or was receiving some sort of guidance, it wasn't very effective.

On the other hand, an insanity defense seems unlikely to work. The individual as alleged spent months assembling the materials for the bombs, whether or not they actually worked, and whoever it was wore a disguise while planting them, which would reflect a consciousness of guilt. But I think it's a little early to go full conspiracy theory on this case, as Sundance is doing at Conservative Treehouse:

Brian Cole Sr, operated bail bond companies in various states. . . . Brian Cole Sr then hired, wait for it, Benjamin Crump to represent his interests.

Benjamin Crump is well known to this audience as the lawyer who represented the family of Trayvon Martin and the lawyer who fabricated a fake witness against George Zimmerman . . . . Benjamin Crump has a history of manufacturing false witnesses based on racial cases.

In the Florida case, Ben Crump worked with Pam Bondi to advance the false witness claims [Rachel Jeantel, sold as Trayvon Martin’s girlfriend and ear-witness. She was neither.] As Florida AG, Pam Bondi knew Rachel Jeantel was a false witness but supported her friend Benjamin Crump in selling that story.

Put another way, Florida AG Pam Bondi previously helped her friend Ben Crump, a man of notorious racial manipulation, and now as U.S. AG Pam Bondi is prosecuting the son of Ben Crump client, Brian Cole Jr.

But if Bondi has an interest in covering up whatever needs covering up in the J6 pipe bomber case, why couldn't she have just ordered the FBI to keep on keepin' on fecklessly looking for the suspect? Why make any arrest at all? After all, the statute of limitations runs out in a month. And why is this arrest apparently based on highly specific cell phone and credit card evidence? And if Ben Crump is somehow behind this, especially if the evidence against Cole Jr is supposedly so flimsy, why would Crump allow the son of his client even to be prosecuted at all?

Why not just pick another patsy -- say, Ms C, the former Capitol Police officer? I just don't see Bondi somehow deliberately throwing this case. But it's early days, we'll have to see what else falls out.

How Many Somali Fraud Schemes Are Running In Minnesota?

I vaguely knew that there was some sort of fraud involvoing the terrorist organization al-Shabaab in Minnesota, but this story brings up another, completely different one:

Around $250 million was handed out by the Minnesota government to provide meals to schoolchildren during the pandemic from 2020 onward.

Instead, it was pocketed by corrupt business owners, including Salim Ahmed Said. He’s the co-owner of Safari Restaurant, where [Rep Ilhan] Omar held her 2018 congressional victory party.

Said was found guilty in August of stealing over $12 million for serving 3.9 million “phantom” meals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He blew much of the money on a $2 million Minneapolis mansion and a $9,000-a-month shopping habit at Nordstrom, according to prosecutors.

. . . Most of the money in Minneapolis was funneled through the now-defunct nonprofit Feeding Our Future.

It allowed both nonprofits and for-profit businesses to be reimbursed with taxpayer money for feeding kids by dramatically loosening oversight, waiving site inspections, and allowing bulk take-home food, with almost no verification.

This is often identified as the Feeding Our Future scandal. Then there's a housing assistance program that so far doesn't have a comvenient name:

In August, state officials shut down a fairly new program designed to help seniors and people with disabilities find housing after discovering "large-scale fraud."

A month later, federal prosecutors charged eight people with allegedly defrauding the program, which was run through the state's Medicaid service, by enrolling as providers and submitting millions in "fake and inflated bills."

Prosecutors said the housing stabilization program was susceptible to fraud because it intentionally had "low barriers to entry" and few recordkeeping requirements. They also noted that spending on the program had ballooned to more than $100 million last year, despite initial estimates that it would cost around $2.6 million a year.

The link goes to great lengths to avoid associating it with a particular ethnic group, but it finally gives the game away:

And in late September, a person was charged with defrauding a third state program — in this case, one that provides services to children with autism. Her company was accused of hiring unqualified "behavioral technicians" and submitting false claims to the state that indicated the staff had worked with children enrolled in the program.

She also allegedly paid kickbacks to parents who agreed to enroll their children in the program, in some cases sending them as much as $1,500, prosecutors said.

The same person, Asha Farhan Hassan, was also charged in September with running a fraudulent food distribution site as part of the Feeding Our Future scheme.

This link gives more detail on the autism fraud case, but again, it goes to great lengths to avoid using the word "Somali":

A 28-year-old Minneapolis woman is now facing federal wire fraud charges tied to a $14 million autism fraud scheme.

. . . Investigators say the 28-year-old woman, who ran Smart Therapy LLC, billed for EIDBI services only to pocket tax-payer money, but never actually helped those children.

In a troubling twist, parents were paid to keep their children enrolled. On the high end, kickbacks reached more than $1,000 per child.

It appears that Asha Farhan Hassan was involved with all three of these schemes, Feeding Our Future, housing assistance, and autism, and the participants were largely or exclusively Somali. A November 19 story in City Journal brought the Minnesota fraud schemes to national attention:

{T}his “network” of “fraud schemes,” which “form a web” that has stolen “billions of dollars in taxpayer money,” involved many members of Minnesota’s Somali community. The Feeding Our Future, HSS, and autism-services cases are far from the only examples. At least 28 fraud scandals have surfaced since Walz was elected governor in 2019. Most of the large-scale fraud rings, according to two former FBI officials who spoke with City Journal, have been perpetrated by members of the Somali community.

. . . Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the Somalia fraud story is the scale, with total costs running into the billions of taxpayer dollars. That raises the question: What happened to all that money?

The Somali fraud rings have sent huge sums in remittances, or money transfers, from Minnesota to Somalia. According to reports, an estimated 40 percent of households in Somalia get remittances from abroad. In 2023 alone, the Somali diaspora sent back $1.7 billion—more than the Somali government’s budget for that year.

But this brings is to al-Shabaab:

Our investigation reveals, for the first time, that some of this money has been directed to an even more troubling destination: the al-Qaida-linked Islamic terror group Al-Shabaab. According to multiple law-enforcement sources, Minnesota’s Somali community has sent untold millions through a network of “hawalas,” informal clan-based money-traders, that have wound up in the coffers of Al-Shabaab.

The City Journal report got results:

The Trump administration is looking into whether Minnesota tax money found its way to al Shabaab, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization and al Qaeda affiliate based in Somalia, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday. And on Wednesday, House Oversight committee chairman Rep. James Comer announced he is launching an investigation into the widespread fraud allegations.

Bessent wrote on X that the Treasury is "investigating allegations that under the feckless mismanagement of the Biden Administration and Governor Tim Walz, hardworking Minnesotans' tax dollars may have been diverted to the terrorist organization Al-Shabaab."

On one hand, Christopher Rufo, co-author of the original City Journal piece, concludes,

Though this story was particular to Minnesota, disruptive mass immigration is a national phenomenon. During the four years of the Biden administration, America imported millions of foreigners, many illegally. Some of these have brought, or are trying to bring, negative aspects of their home culture to the United States.

Indeed, cultural incompatibility was a campaign theme during the 2024 election. Venezuelan gangs took over apartment buildings in Colorado. Haitian migrants overwhelmed deindustrialized towns in the Rust Belt. The Somali fraud story is another point in this plotline.

On the other, so far, nobody has yet tied money from the Somali fraud to either Ilhan Omar or Tim Walz. But money has simply got to be involved. Minnesota state workers suggest that Walz has systematically enabled the fraud:

Whistleblowers alerted Walz to the fraud in its early stages, hoping for a partnership to stop it. Instead of a partnership, they got retaliation.

Employees from the Minnesota Department of Human Services say the state's massive fraud scandal leads straight back to the governor. They claim “Tim Walz is 100% responsible for massive fraud in Minnesota,” insisting they warned him early but “got the opposite response.” Instead of help, they say Walz “systematically retaliated against whistleblowers using monitoring, threats, repression,” backed by certain DFL allies and “an indifferent mainstream media.”

This could also affect the Democrats' 2028 lineup, of which I'll have more to say.

Yet Another Dog Bites Man Story

I noted last month that media, both alt and legacy, had built up the idea that the governor elections in both New Jersey and Virginia were tossups in the polls and even potential upsets. Instead, we got predictable results in both, blue states electing Democrats. Then, almost immediately, we got both alt and legacy media pushing the idea that the special election in the Tennessee 7th House district was a tossup and could be an upset. For instance, intellectual welterweight Glenn Reynolds in the New York Post, the day before the election:

This week, a special election in Tennessee’s 7th District, pitting GOP military veteran Matt Van Epps against far-left candidate Aftyn Behn, will show them just how far their base can take them.

Going by conventional wisdom, this should be a walkover for Van Epps: The district leans Republican by 10 percentage points, and Van Epps’ policy positions echo those of the previous incumbent, former Rep. Mark Green, who resigned in July to launch a new business.

Spoiler alert: Van Epps won by nine points. I asked Chrome AI mode, "What were the polls showing just before yesterday's election in TN 7?" It answered,

Just before yesterday's special election in Tennessee's 7th Congressional District (held on December 2, 2025), the few publicly released polls showed the Republican candidate, Matt Van Epps, with a slight, single-digit lead over the Democratic candidate, Aftyn Behn.

The most notable and final poll, from Emerson College Polling/The Hill and administered just a week before the election (November 22–24, 2025), found:

- Matt Van Epps (R): 48%

- Aftyn Behn (D): 46%

This 2-percentage-point lead was within the poll's margin of error (± 3.9%), indicating a very tight and competitive race leading into election day.

Real Clear Politics hyped this over the weekend, but if Van Epps won by 9%, this was wildly outside the poll's 3.9% margin of error. This is precisely the same sort of outcome we had in New Jersey and Virginia, which I discussed in this post.

Of course, a 9% margin, even if it made the polls look bad, was low in comparison to Republicsn margins in prior elections, even in non-presidential election years. I asked Chrome AI mode, "What was Mark Green's victory margin in the TN 7 House election in 2022?" It answered, "Mark Green won the election with a victory margin of 21.9 percentage points." This was more than double Matt Van Epps's margin, but the fact that it was a special election right after the Thanksgiving holiday must certainly have been a factor.

But Glenn Reynolds had his knickers in a knot the day before:

But she’s polling better than she has any right to. And she just might win.

. . . Not long ago, it would have been unimaginable for New York City to elect a far-left Muslim mayor with open sympathy for terrorist groups after 2,976 people were killed, and thousands more injured, in Islamic terror attacks on the World Trade Center.

But New Yorkers — at least those who turned out to vote — did just that last month.

Likewise, Tennessee might soon have a congresswoman who will make AOC look like a dignified stateswoman.

. . . [I]f Democrats do pull off a win this week, it will be a grave warning to Republicans about the dangers of complacency.

Roger Simon has an only slightly better take:

What does this mean? Not a lot. I would define it as “Much Ado About Nothing. . . Much.”

. . . The local GOP, with a few exceptions, never got in gear to seriously win this election against the target-rich Behn until the last couple of weeks. The Democrats had been going full tilt for a long while. Don’t blame the GOP voters.

I take "never got in gear" to mean "didn't spend serious money". But the fact is that Van Epps still won by a comfortable margin well outside the polls, when spending for the week prior to election day would have been lost in the Thanksgiving distractions in any case. Commentary prior to the election made the point that Democrats could still say, even if Behn lost, that they'd forced the Republicans to spend money on an otherwise safe race. It sounds as though the Republicans at least didn't spend more than they needed to.

But a much bigger takeaway is this: I think it disproves Joel Kotkin's conclusion over the weekend:

Long a cakewalk for progressives, the culture war is edging towards high noon. For the first time in decades, the left faces competitors who read from different scripts and come from different perspectives.

. . . Mainstream media have become disconnected from at least half their audience. Overall public confidence in the press is near a historic low: barely a third express trust, half the share that did so in 1978. This is not just an American phenomenon – the travails of the once-respected BBC in the UK make that clear.

The gulf between the media and audiences widened after the George Floyd riots, when major media companies – in print, film, radio and online – doubled down on an ever more overt progressivism. They downplayed far-left violence and embraced a mission not of informing or entertaining, but of ideological propagation.

I don't think this is true at all. Mainstream and legacy media, enabled by their usual allies, the pollsters, have been running the same sort of psyop over last month's and yesterday's elections: the line is that Republicans are underperforming, and this is due to Trump. And note that, even after the departure of its most visible editors, with new owner Jeff Bezos steering things toward the putative center, The Washington Post still ran a fake news story on Trump and Hegseth ordering the military to "kill them all", with inevitable visions of Keitel at Nuremberg.

We shouldn't kid ourselves about any of this, the media is the media,and that includes a lot of people who convince themselves that even though they're now media too, they're somehow different. That most definitely includes Glenn Reynolds, Roger Simon, and Joel Kotkin.